Best Of

Tice has tweeted the full list of Conservative politician backers of the new Tory centrists pressure group, ProsperUK.

Includes James Arbuthnot, Greg Barker, Gavin Barwell, Virginia Bottomley, Nick Bourne, Robert Buckland, Elizabeth Campbell, Alex Chalk, Ken Clarke, Ruth Davidson, Jackie Doyle-Price, Alan Duncan, Philip Dunne, Tobias Ellwood, Edward Garnier, David Gauke, John Gummer, Damian Green, Justine Greening, John Gummer, Philip Hammond, Matt Hancock, Greg Hands, Michael Heseltine, Nick Hurd, Margot James, Oliver Letwin, David Lidington, Johnny Mercer, Bob Neil, Malcolm Rifkind, Amber Rudd, Nicholas Soames, Caroline Spelman, Andy Street, Edward Timpson and Ed Vaizey and David Willetts
https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/2016027595767189928?s=20

And they'll none of them be missed, they'll none of them be missed.

Didn't realise the Conservatives had that many decent MPs still left in the Commons. You could easily make a decent Cabinet out of that lot.

Good job for Labour they're kept under wraps.

None of them are now Tory MPs even if most once were

Must admit I was surprised Huyfd, but I didn't check. Thank you for correcting me.

Pretty decent bunch though, you must admit.

On the changes to the leasehold system, I've rarely seen such unanimous support for ending it completely. The government needs to put two fingers up at the "investors" and move to completely eliminate ground rents. The leeches can put their money into equities rather than these nonsense asset classes that carry no risk.

Surprised to see you advocating asset theft.

It's an asset class that should never have existed in the first place, similar to water companies. Ending a gravy train isn't asset theft.

A friend got in touch about this and was positively excited. She asked if it was retrospective as she has just paid a large ground rent. Apparently they are massiverly unpopular in her block where they even have another charge when you move.

'Starmer gets rid of Rachmanism!' has got a nice vote winning ring to it.

Is this a McCarthy and Stone type of old people residents block ?

I don't know McCarthy and Stone or what they are but she's not old and the block she lives in is quite new and very nice

To over-simplify slightly, they develop blocks for the over 55s.

Fun to have Max and Roger on the same page on an issue (and me, FWIW). (Which almost certainly means it's got almost no chance of the government picking this one up.)

Put me down for disagreeing. The M&S approach does cost the client but those costs are clearly set out beforehand and the company are well enough established for DYOR. Suggesting the state should somehow interfere in yet another property issue is an invite to them and subsequent governments to move to more interference in a contract between parties. There is no imbalance only a lot of post cognitive dissonance about the contract they read but want to interpret in a different way. You might describe this as Trumpian.

The perceived issue with ‘retirement properties’ isn’t generally to do with ground rent, it’s related to very high service charges.

My grandmother lived out her days in a McCarthy and Stone flat in a little village outside Manchester. She absolutely loved it.

I understand most of the problems don't apply to the resident themselves but to their inheritors, in that there is no residual value.

Did you manage to sell it?

+1 - the issue is they have high on-going costs which continue until sold so it's eating £1500 a month off the final inheritance.

It's why my parents bought one managed by ExtraCare Charitable Trust - on death they buy the flat back at the price you paid for it.

Tice has tweeted the full list of Conservative politician backers of the new Tory centrists pressure group, ProsperUK.

Includes James Arbuthnot, Greg Barker, Gavin Barwell, Virginia Bottomley, Nick Bourne, Robert Buckland, Elizabeth Campbell, Alex Chalk, Ken Clarke, Ruth Davidson, Jackie Doyle-Price, Alan Duncan, Philip Dunne, Tobias Ellwood, Edward Garnier, David Gauke, John Gummer, Damian Green, Justine Greening, John Gummer, Philip Hammond, Matt Hancock, Greg Hands, Michael Heseltine, Nick Hurd, Margot James, Oliver Letwin, David Lidington, Johnny Mercer, Bob Neil, Malcolm Rifkind, Amber Rudd, Nicholas Soames, Caroline Spelman, Andy Street, Edward Timpson and Ed Vaizey and David Willetts
https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/2016027595767189928?s=20

And they'll none of them be missed, they'll none of them be missed.

Didn't realise the Conservatives had that many decent MPs still left in the Commons. You could easily make a decent Cabinet out of that lot.

Good job for Labour they're kept under wraps.

All relative I suppose.

Has anybody else been following the steady decline of the US$ against the £ and Euro?

I assume this is just the markets giving their opinion of the way the Trump bunch are managing their economy and not a tribute to the prowess of our economic stewards this side of the pond. We are getting close to an exchange rate of 1.40. How long before we see a Mail headline to the effect of 'Starmer/Reeves Dash UK Export Hopes'?

Coupled with tariffs, that will do US inflation no favours, but presumably will help on this side by reducing fuel prices.

Trump would like a weaker dollar but also wants to raise money through tariffs but also wants to continue to run a massive deficit which is only tolerated by markets while the dollar has hegemony but also wants to impose taxes on non-US holders of US debt but also keeps being unpredictable and offensive and making the US feel like it's not a safe place to park assets...

Lord knows how it's all going to pan out but - assuming I'm not teaching my grandmother to suck eggs - worth reading some commentary on:
- unwind of the Yen carry trade;
- Trumpian policy as discussed in this paper re "The Mar-a-Lago Accord": https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf

On the changes to the leasehold system, I've rarely seen such unanimous support for ending it completely. The government needs to put two fingers up at the "investors" and move to completely eliminate ground rents. The leeches can put their money into equities rather than these nonsense asset classes that carry no risk.

Surprised to see you advocating asset theft.

It's an asset class that should never have existed in the first place, similar to water companies. Ending a gravy train isn't asset theft.

A friend got in touch about this and was positively excited. She asked if it was retrospective as she has just paid a large ground rent. Apparently they are massiverly unpopular in her block where they even have another charge when you move.

'Starmer gets rid of Rachmanism!' has got a nice vote winning ring to it.

Is this a McCarthy and Stone type of old people residents block ?

I don't know McCarthy and Stone or what they are but she's not old and the block she lives in is quite new and very nice

To over-simplify slightly, they develop blocks for the over 55s.

Fun to have Max and Roger on the same page on an issue (and me, FWIW). (Which almost certainly means it's got almost no chance of the government picking this one up.)

And if you sell they charge a percentage of the sale price. Or certainly did

Something reasonable like 15%

If you had to choose a single company to exemplify everything that is wrong with private enterprise in Britain it would be McCarthy & Stone.

They're the sort of company that a Conservative government would traditionally have in their crosshairs for giving the rest of capitalism a bad name.