Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Cold comfort for NIMBYs
Why pensioners are hit hardest by rural poverty
From the comments: "We should encourage people to move to smaller, warmer, properties in the cities, rather than pleading for more subsidies for those who (in the main) choose to live in remote places ("we like the countryside") but then complain about lack of facilities. If you want better facilities (more shops) in remote villages, you need to build more properties so that more people live and work in those villages, creating a market for retail businesses (we call them 'towns'). You also need to build bigger, faster roads so that delivery lorries can get to these places quicker. You can't have it both ways - either you have rustic beauty (with poor roads, no buses and vacant pubs) or urban efficiency (with plenty of parks and gardens and all the shops in walking distance).
9 thoughts on “Cold comfort for NIMBYs”
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doomwatch says:
Here in the greedy Cotswolds the baby boomers+ are trying
to cash in with asking prices 25% above the real world, hoping
for a greater fool from London.
Only Father Xmas is buying this nonsense.
mark wadsworth says:
Seconded!
doomwatch says:
Here in the greedy Cotswolds the baby boomers+ are trying
to cash in with asking prices 25% above the real world, hoping
for a greater fool from London.
Only Father Xmas is buying this nonsense.
drewster says:
“We should encourage people to move to smaller, warmer, properties in the cities…”
Err, no. Even a small town will have buses, shops, gas heating, and a health centre – the things that pensioners need. There’s no need to pack off all the old folk to Peckham or Toxteth, when they could live just as cheaply in Basingstoke or Boston.
Was there ever a golden era of country living? When food and fuel were cheap, every village had a health centre, and there were well-paid jobs on the farm?
the number cruncher says:
Poverty is poverty wherever it is found – why does rural poverty get such media attention from the right wing press – is it perhaps as it suits the very powerful and wealthy to subside those fortunate enough to live in the country and push up their own property prices?
I live in the country and am happy to pay for this privilege.
Mayalabeille says:
Well what about selling your overpriced 500000€ 2 bedroom cottage in the Wiltshire/Sommerset countryside and buy a house closer to the towns.
I don’t know why but I cannot find any sympathy in me for these people sitting on (or rather living in) a pill of cash that nobody else can afford.
51ck-6-51x says:
If a community want their local bank branch kept open (or equivalent for any other business*) I’m sure they can offer to create a contract to pay an extra fee for the service to make it up to an acceptably profitable one.
* …and possibly state service – probably harder though.
51ck-6-51x says:
The picture isn’t particularly rural or, indeed, rife with poverty.
It’s The Welwyn Viaduct Hertfordshire, about 25 miles north of London.
The photo is taken from just outside Harmer Green, which has a Z-Index (Zoopla) of £980,486.
need-a-crash says:
@7.
Good spot. It’s probably about as far out of London as most journos ever go!