I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
Are we debating these today? It's roughly a typical national Green Party policy: part sensible, part ideologico-loopy and part undermining to the people they say they want to benefit.
Of the 6 items suggested, practically about half are in place or are coming into place, and a couple of the others will delete incentives for good quality rental housing by removing any incentive for investment in high quality housing.
The Green Policy will have the effect of removing any incentive to create high quality rental housing; they are believing their own myths.
It will return the business balance to the 1970s or early 1980s, which was awful for tenants. And we will have stuck-tenants blockading entry to their houses to stop the LL installing an improved kitchen or new windows, but there will also potentially be no incentive for the LL to improve anything.
It's vastly too dominated by ideology not practicality, and Ts will be one of the losers.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
It's not even a question mark any longer as to whether she was a Russian asset. Clear now that she's been on their side since the beginning.
Her predecessor had the distinction, I believe, of being the first German Chancellor since Hitler to have then lose the freedom of the city of Hanover (Schroeder refused to resign his position with a Russian firm when the 2022 invasion occurred),
Schroder was neck deep in a bribery scandal for Nord Stream around that time too with lots of questionable Russian money and magically appearing meetings between senior German politicians and Gazprom.
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
There's too many people and not enough housing.
What have landlords to do with it?
You could change the proportions of housing tenure without building any additional housing. There is a need for a rental market for students and highly mobile workers, but the vast majority of the 9.3 million households renting do not want to be.
Over the last 10 years we've built about 2 million houses, but the number of households renting has increased by 1.3 million. Just building houses isn't enough - you need to do something about tenure too.
You may not have noticed a small population increase. But reading the papers, some other people have.
Why does that matter for changing proportions of housing tenure? You could build millions more houses but if they are all bought up by private landlords it doesn't help people get onto the housing ladder.
Because if lots of places for rent are available, rents fall to below the cost of buying a property, with a full mortgage.
That is, you can't make a profit from renting a place with large amounts of debt against it.
This has been observed everywhere there is a functional property market (8%+ of properties empty due to lack of demand). This is because prices get set by those who have significant capital in the properties, allowing them to make a return at a lower price.
I agree. But the same people who own all the property also oppose development, which I guess is rational because why would they want to reduce the yield of their assets? It doesn’t matter if it negatively affects the economy because fuck those entitled lazy youngsters.
I feel that this is an inherent weakness of capitalism. Its benefits are, by human nature, stifled by rent seeking and monopolisation. Ironic really.
Nope - read Adam Smith. This is why you regulation to prevent monopolistic capture of markets etc.
We have constructed a system where you can't build properties at the rate of demand/population growth. In law. Which is enforced.
I go back to my farmer friend, who couldn't get the police out to deal with serious theft, damage to buildings etc. He started putting the roof back on an abandoned outbuilding - to create a secure store (massive stone walls).
The fuzz and the planners were round, before he'd got the building materials off the pallets.
The problem with the housing market, as @BartholomewRoberts will agree, is far too much regulation. The planning system and building regulations work together to restrict the amount of housing, which will of course for any given level of demand result in a higher cost of housing.
I'm not so sure about that. The fundamental issue preventing housebuilding is that developments are always vociferously resisted by the existing residents because there is nothing in it for them. If developers were obliged to provide amenities that would improve the quality of the area, then there would be less resistance to development.
Indeed, worse than nothing. On the one hand, open countryside and peace around your town. On the other, your childrens' schools overcrowded, your water supply pressure low, your sewerage and mains drainage saturated, your roads that much busier and junctions much more dangerous at rush hour. Even the promise of money later on is to some extent a delusion, given how often developers manage to wriggle out of commitments before and after the fact, and [edit] the way in which amenities and even basic services often only catch up aftyer a considerable delay, if at all. Good - and enforced - planning does help, and has, [edit] as I have seen locally, but the way councils are at the moment ...
In short, and objectively examined, nimbyism can be highly rational. It is in part a protest against enshittification principle as applied to one's very own home.
Notably, what has nearly completely stopped is organic growth of villages, towns etc. It seems to be either "planned" or not at all.
Hmm, the word 'organic' can however also include things like cancerous growth - like the bungaloid tumours of the 1920s and 1930s. Or the Glasgow outer housing estates of the 1950s and 1960s.
I've seen planned growth done well, in my lifetime, though.
Tory policy announcements are about as credible as Lib Dem ones. This conference is a charade and it makes them look ridiculous. Instead the next four years should be spent apologising to voters and putting forwards plans to bring back fiscal responsibility and cut spending before making any tax pledges.
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
I hope renters and their lobby groups get what they want and live with the consequences of it. It won’t be good for them 😂
I don't, because it could destroy a big chunk of my fucking pension arrangements.
And many of the renters lobby groups are - like Reform UK - good at self-deception when it comes to explaining why their proposals failed, and they will just demand more of the same.
The Greens are now under Polanski a socialist, probably Trans, anti Brexit, pro immigration, anti Israel and anti Trump party far more than an action on climate change party. Indeed in wishing to ban landlords they are even left of Corbyn who they want to deal with via his Your Party.
I disagree with the final point from TSE though. Polanski has made clear he sees Farage as his enemy and 99% of Green voters rule out a Coalition with Reform and disapprove of Farage. Over half of Green voters back a coalition with Labour though so on a forced choice in a Labour seat many would cast tactical votes for Labour to beat Reform
Many (most?) Greens would argue that anti-capitalist policies are an essential pre-requisite for action on climate change because it is our capitalist system that has proved so ineffectual at addressing the problem until past the point of no return.
I want to believe they are wrong (because I think their point of view is economically illiterate), but it must be said that our current model of capitalism is rather making their argument for them.
They're completely wrong and ignorant if they do.
Technological change and adaptation is required for action on climate change and history shows that our capitalist system is the best at both implementing and developing key technological changes.
The Industrial Revolution, and the capitalism that drove it, was an incredible blessing for all mankind. I would willingly trade a less good environment, in return for a world where we no longer see 45 - 50% of children dying before 14, 10% of women dying in childbirth, and 85% living on less than $3 dollars a day.
It is reported that Ukraine has been building large battery parks to improve the resilience of the electricity grid in the face of Russian attack.
I imagine the fire if/when Russia manages to hit one of those is going to be quite something.
There are various reports of how the Ukrainians have been hardening their grid; much of which is mired in understandable secrecy. The question is whether it will be enough,
It is also, IMO, something that we should be looking at doing as well. And not just because of any potential future war. We run some things really darned close.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
There's too many people and not enough housing.
What have landlords to do with it?
Because they do the absolute bare minimum and expect and feel they are entitled to massive rents and think they’re doing a civic duty in the process. (Yes, I know, not all landlords, but the experience is pretty universal in my age group and below).
Have you compared the "absolute bare minimum" in the UK with other countries?
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It is reported that Ukraine has been building large battery parks to improve the resilience of the electricity grid in the face of Russian attack.
I imagine the fire if/when Russia manages to hit one of those is going to be quite something.
There are various reports of how the Ukrainians have been hardening their grid; much of which is mired in understandable secrecy. The question is whether it will be enough,
It is also, IMO, something that we should be looking at doing as well. And not just because of any potential future war. We run some things really darned close.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
When your children reach employable age you will learn the truth of today's employment reality. When I was in my late twenties and early thirties (35 years ago) I was earning somewhere in the region of 35 grand a year, which was acceptable but modest for my age and position. For a youngster now that would be good money ( in 2025 not in 1990 and I am not talking an index linked £35K, I am talking £35K).
My eldest son with a 2:1 in programming is on minimum wage plus a couple of quid at a multi national electronics giant (working zero hours for an agency on six month rolling contracts with a break, because that is how employment works now) in an IT role. My other son with an MA from a prestigious journalism school is working six monthly rolling contracts with the BBC on minimum wage plus a couple of quid). And if @Leon is to be believed this is set to get worse not better as AI steals young people's jobs.
The Government you supported from 2010 to 2024 encouraged zero hours and squeezing employees until the pips squeak. You reap what you sow.
Aside from growing up in East Germany, where the USSR was a Friend of The State, Merkel is in the long, long line of German politicians devoted to East Politics.
This goes back to Bismark and before - a key plank of such world view is that Russia and Germany must be friends. Anything that interrupts this is bad. So dropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty is seen a pivotal and bad thing.
To people with this world view, the relationship with Russia is vital for trade and reducing the possibility of conflict. It is notable that modern adherents of this point of view see Poland and the Baltics as irritants to the relationship with Russia, rather than as truly full allies.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
If the population is going up by 750,000 a year it's never going to be possible for most people.
It is reported that Ukraine has been building large battery parks to improve the resilience of the electricity grid in the face of Russian attack.
I imagine the fire if/when Russia manages to hit one of those is going to be quite something.
There are various reports of how the Ukrainians have been hardening their grid; much of which is mired in understandable secrecy. The question is whether it will be enough,
It is also, IMO, something that we should be looking at doing as well. And not just because of any potential future war. We run some things really darned close.
Distributed battery parks would, indeed, make the grid far more resilient.
Edit - it is also fairly easy to berm/cover the containers to the point that it would require a substantial bomb to destroy each one. Much easier than protecting power stations.
It is reported that Ukraine has been building large battery parks to improve the resilience of the electricity grid in the face of Russian attack.
I imagine the fire if/when Russia manages to hit one of those is going to be quite something.
There are various reports of how the Ukrainians have been hardening their grid; much of which is mired in understandable secrecy. The question is whether it will be enough,
It is also, IMO, something that we should be looking at doing as well. And not just because of any potential future war. We run some things really darned close.
As Heathrow demonstrated.
It’s almost impossible to conceive of such a large piece of national infrastructure able to be taken down by a single failure of a power substation. I’d have thought there would be three inputs to the airport, each sufficient to supply it almost completely.
The question is how many more places have the same problem? It’s going to be lots, and there likely needs to be significant work going on behind the scenes with a fair degree of secrecy.
Aside from growing up in East Germany, where the USSR was a Friend of The State, Merkel is in the long, long line of German politicians devoted to East Politics.
This goes back to Bismark and before - a key plank of such world view is that Russia and Germany must be friends. Anything that interrupts this is bad. So dropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty is seen a pivotal and bad thing.
To people with this world view, the relationship with Russia is vital for trade and reducing the possibility of conflict. It is notable that modern adherents of this point of view see Poland and the Baltics as irritants to the relationship with Russia, rather than as truly full allies.
Add to that, the notion that Poland, the Baltic States, Ukraine are not “real” countries.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
Life is tough for lots of people right now and for young graduates the jobs market is rubbish and owning a home may seem a distant dream.
I met with my dad a couple of times over the weekend. In many ways the has had a gilded life - born in 1939 so remembers the way but only snippets. No issue with employment - grenadier guards then the police for 30 years, now retired for another 30 years. A long happy marriage (now sadly widowed this last year, but making a new life again).
But - they struggled a lot financially when they were just married and dad relates only having one night in the pub in six months as they had no money. It came good in the end with promotion etc but there is a tendency to imagine that our parents and grandparents had it easy. It wasn't always.
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
Two of my properties are for student accommodation, not sure how the Greens proposals will help.
It won't make much difference, because students reliably leave after 12 months for structural reasons.
Student accommodation would be one sector which will survive.
The crazy parts of the Green measures are return to Secure Tenancies, and the various things which undermine incentive to invest.
And obviously probably (depending on how it is done) rent control, which always benefits the current generation of tenants, and fucks everyone who comes afterwards. See New York since the war. In that sense it is quite Thatcherite, as it will benefit a few, now, at the cost of more in the future.
They are also not clear what they mean by "landlord" (corporates and companies? charities? social landlords? houses owned by institutions? grace and favour?). What about long term community landlords - local trusts etc? Not is it clear what they will do with the complexities - serviced accommodation, short term licensed occupation?
Nor what people are supposed to do who *need* short term (say 1 month to 12 month) accommodation, when there is none left because the Greens have made provision impossible.
But the policy is just a performative knee jerk by an idiot in short trousers.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
Life is tough for lots of people right now and for young graduates the jobs market is rubbish and owning a home may seem a distant dream.
I met with my dad a couple of times over the weekend. In many ways the has had a gilded life - born in 1939 so remembers the way but only snippets. No issue with employment - grenadier guards then the police for 30 years, now retired for another 30 years. A long happy marriage (now sadly widowed this last year, but making a new life again).
But - they struggled a lot financially when they were just married and dad relates only having one night in the pub in six months as they had no money. It came good in the end with promotion etc but there is a tendency to imagine that our parents and grandparents had it easy. It wasn't always.
Of course they didn't. The "intergenerational theft by selfish boomers" thing is about 80% myth.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
There's too many people and not enough housing.
What have landlords to do with it?
Because they do the absolute bare minimum and expect and feel they are entitled to massive rents and think they’re doing a civic duty in the process. (Yes, I know, not all landlords, but the experience is pretty universal in my age group and below).
Have you compared the "absolute bare minimum" in the UK with other countries?
(Regulation here is comparatively tight.)
I recognise that you are a responsible and high quality landlord but it’s naive to think that all landlords comply with the required regulations.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
When your children reach employable age you will learn the truth of today's employment reality. When I was in my late twenties and early thirties (35 years ago) I was earning somewhere in the region of 35 grand a year, which was acceptable but modest for my age and position. For a youngster now that would be good money ( in 2025 not in 1990 and I am not talking an index linked £35K, I am talking £35K).
My eldest son with a 2:1 in programming is on minimum wage plus a couple of quid at a multi national electronics giant (working zero hours for an agency on six month rolling contracts with a break, because that is how employment works now) in an IT role. My other son with an MA from a prestigious journalism school is working six monthly rolling contracts with the BBC on minimum wage plus a couple of quid). And if @Leon is to be believed this is set to get worse not better as AI steals young people's jobs.
The Government you supported from 2010 to 2024 encouraged zero hours and squeezing employees until the pips squeak. You reap what you sow.
I could tell similar stories about my grandchildren. Eldest grandson, now a deputy head, (admittedly of quite a small school) with a secondary school teacher wife is on an eye-wateringly high mortgage for a former council house, plus of course both are paying back student loans. They have one child but don't think they can 'afford' another. Younger grandson, who graduated last year, has gone to Australia to 'see if things are better there'.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
Life is tough for lots of people right now and for young graduates the jobs market is rubbish and owning a home may seem a distant dream.
I met with my dad a couple of times over the weekend. In many ways the has had a gilded life - born in 1939 so remembers the way but only snippets. No issue with employment - grenadier guards then the police for 30 years, now retired for another 30 years. A long happy marriage (now sadly widowed this last year, but making a new life again).
But - they struggled a lot financially when they were just married and dad relates only having one night in the pub in six months as they had no money. It came good in the end with promotion etc but there is a tendency to imagine that our parents and grandparents had it easy. It wasn't always.
Of course they didn't. The "intergenerational theft by selfish boomers" thing is about 80% myth.
Sadly its not.
House price to earnings ratios were a fraction of what they are today.
Pensions weren't saved for, they were instead passed on to future generations despite demographic changes coming which were known about.
Consistent deficits were ran which has led to massive payments on interest alone being due.
Sadly all those bills from passing the buck to the future come due at some point.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
When your children reach employable age you will learn the truth of today's employment reality. When I was in my late twenties and early thirties (35 years ago) I was earning somewhere in the region of 35 grand a year, which was acceptable but modest for my age and position. For a youngster now that would be good money ( in 2025 not in 1990 and I am not talking an index linked £35K, I am talking £35K).
My eldest son with a 2:1 in programming is on minimum wage plus a couple of quid at a multi national electronics giant (working zero hours for an agency on six month rolling contracts with a break, because that is how employment works now) in an IT role. My other son with an MA from a prestigious journalism school is working six monthly rolling contracts with the BBC on minimum wage plus a couple of quid). And if @Leon is to be believed this is set to get worse not better as AI steals young people's jobs.
The Government you supported from 2010 to 2024 encouraged zero hours and squeezing employees until the pips squeak. You reap what you sow.
Fair comment, though as you would expect I do not agree with your last paragraph not least because low cost immigration, covid and the war in Ukraine had a huge impact
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
The problem is actually a shortage of places for people to live. Unlike certain posters here, the majority of adults do not want to live in an HMO (often an impromptu one, illegally divided up, without the required safety features).
The problem for the Greens is that they can't advocate building more. So they need a squirrel to point to on housing.
One of the problems you hint at is that the concept of "shared house" (see "Friends") has been rolled up into "HMO". Younger singles (22-30s), and increasing numbers of older singles, often choose that, but it gets tied up in everything from over-heavy regulation to NIMBY propaganda.
A small shared house (3-4) is the same load on services and an area as a nuclear family.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
I was outlining the inequity of being in a position to leave a fortune to my successors not celebrating it. Give your head a wobble.
Never mind. There's far less oil to export now, so they don't need the capacity .
There’s been a fair amount of bombing on both sides of the conflict in the last 48 hours.
The difference being that one side appears to be pretty accurate with their ordnance, heading downrange towards militarily significant targets - whereas the other side appears not to care too much about where their bombs and drones end up, an attitude which thankfully isn’t ever going to win them a war.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
When your children reach employable age you will learn the truth of today's employment reality. When I was in my late twenties and early thirties (35 years ago) I was earning somewhere in the region of 35 grand a year, which was acceptable but modest for my age and position. For a youngster now that would be good money ( in 2025 not in 1990 and I am not talking an index linked £35K, I am talking £35K).
My eldest son with a 2:1 in programming is on minimum wage plus a couple of quid at a multi national electronics giant (working zero hours for an agency on six month rolling contracts with a break, because that is how employment works now) in an IT role. My other son with an MA from a prestigious journalism school is working six monthly rolling contracts with the BBC on minimum wage plus a couple of quid). And if @Leon is to be believed this is set to get worse not better as AI steals young people's jobs.
The Government you supported from 2010 to 2024 encouraged zero hours and squeezing employees until the pips squeak. You reap what you sow.
Fair comment, though as you would expect I do not agree with your last paragraph not least because low cost immigration, covid and the war in Ukraine had a huge impact
Low cost immigration (most recently the Boriswave) COVID and the Ukraine War have not set the precedent for indirect ( via agency) permanent and potentially zero hours employment. That is a choice by the employer organisation encouraged by your Government.
Macron is just going to have to appoint a Socialist PM who will raise taxes and not cut spending given Melenchon's Socialist block has most seats. Another election would be pointless with polls giving another hung Assembly with no majority still for Macron's party and their centre right Les Republicains allies
Good morning
Maybe the news from France is part of the reason for todays rising bond rates, but nobody, and I mean nobody, has a clue what to do about the economic train wreck careering towards us
Any suggestion of cutting welfare, or the pension triple lock, or any other reduction in spending is shouted down and we even have the absurd proposition that labour are about to remove the 2 child cap
The country simply cannot continue dishing out welfare and benefits and I fear this is not going to end well for the country, or the government in office, when it really goes pear shape
None of this will matter when the war starts
Which war are you referring to ?
The war with Russia of course.
We're already at war with Russia..... but for some reason people don't like to say. Assymetric warfare, cyber warfare, they push we ignore etc etc.
But yes, it'd be good to just acknowledge it; but we won't.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
No, its not.
The two innocent Brits were murdered in cold blood.
Any dead Palestinians are sadly conflicts of a war started by Hamas and a direct result of Hamas refusing to surrender and lay down their arms and release the hostages.
Hopefully soon Hamas will surrender and lay down their arms and release the hostages. If they do, the fighting will end and I for one will be delighted to see the end of the conflict. It can't end until that happens though.
Fighting a war, and cold-blooded murder, are not the same thing.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
The killing stops in Gaza when Hamas surrenders and gives up the hostages. Its really simple.
If they do that and Israel carries on killing then everything changes. But right now there is a plan available that Israel have agreed to to end this. And Hamas seem to still be fighting.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
I love reading landlord forums and seeing how they think they’re doing everyone a favour. Delulu levels off the charts.
You'll miss us when rent controls destroy the market.
We need to destroy this market - it is broken. Part of the reason why our economy is broken is because people pay crazy amounts of their wages in mortgages pr worse still rent. That is money not circulating through the economy which costs more jobs and removes growth.
The problem is actually a shortage of places for people to live. Unlike certain posters here, the majority of adults do not want to live in an HMO (often an impromptu one, illegally divided up, without the required safety features).
The problem for the Greens is that they can't advocate building more. So they need a squirrel to point to on housing.
One of the problems you hint at is that the concept of "shared house" (see "Friends") has been rolled up into "HMO". Younger singles (22-30s), and increasing numbers of older singles, often choose that, but it gets tied up in everything from over-heavy regulation to NIMBY propaganda.
A small shared house (3-4) is the same load on services and an area as a nuclear family.
People may share a house post student life. But by the late twenties, they want their own place. Now why would women (for example) want their own home, with spare space at that age?
Everyone I know in a HMO wants out - they want their own space. But they can't afford it.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In the v. early 60's I told my prospective father in law I would 'soon' be earning £1k pa. Which was good salary in those days. And on marriage we found a flat for £2 per week. We had to spend some doing doing it up, but it did us fine for a couple of years.
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
The killing stops in Gaza when Hamas surrenders and gives up the hostages. Its really simple.
If they do that and Israel carries on killing then everything changes. But right now there is a plan available that Israel have agreed to to end this. And Hamas seem to still be fighting.
Indeed.
Noteworthy too that the plan explicitly calls for Hamas to disarm and hand over control of Gaza to others.
Which is exactly what I said, from the beginning of this conflict, should be the end result and many people here have consistently said was impossible. If it happens, then I'll be delighted and relieved to see the end of the fighting.
Much bloodshed could have been saved by Hamas surrendering sooner. The fact they haven't, is not Israel's fault.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Are they going to actually discuss with lenders and conveyancers this time, or are they going straight to HIPs 2.0?
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
More importantly, professionals on both sides are risking their professional insurance/reputation, when they sign off on stuff.
So the level of due diligence they want to do reflects that.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In our early years of marriage we struggled and in 1966 when we moved to Llandudno we bought a new build 2 bed semi detached bungalow for £3,250 but couldn't afford the extra £250 for central heating though we did a few years later
I remember rationing and the days post war when it was a struggle for everyone but to be fair most peole were content as they did not live in today's consumer and social media period
And it is head and shoulders worse now for young people especially
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
The killing stops in Gaza when Hamas surrenders and gives up the hostages. Its really simple.
If they do that and Israel carries on killing then everything changes. But right now there is a plan available that Israel have agreed to to end this. And Hamas seem to still be fighting.
I don't want to conflate Netanyahu's wicked Government with British Judaism, although I am assuming that Roger ( who is Jewish) is suggesting Sharren Haskel attending the mourning events as a representative of the Netanyahu regime is doing exactly that.
And Hamas (long financed by Netanyahu) giving up the hostages I suspect will not stop the wholesale killing of Palestinians by the Netanyahu regime. It is anything but simple.
It also looks like Blair's 20 point plan has landed in a sand trap.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Are they going to actually discuss with lenders and conveyancers this time, or are they going straight to HIPs 2.0?
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man— There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:— That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
I'm really sorry to hear that. It's a horrible disease.
There isn't a formally established causative link between CTE and MND, but there is certainly evidence to show an association, both in occurrence in athletes who have played contact sports involving repeated head trauma, and in protein biomarkers associated with both Alzheimer's and MND (eg t-tau and tau-p181) found in testing of groups of those athletes.
And of course it's likely only contributory, rather than a single cause.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
We also need to build upwards. A lot of the opposition to new homes relates to land grab, yet vast numbers of properties are single-family homes, unlike most developed countries, and some local planning guidance prevents anything else. Sure, most people prefer it, but if a property is 25-30% cheaper if it's in a block of spacious flats, a proportion will say yes please.
Have you been to Manchester/Salford or Leeds recently? Plenty of upwards going on!
Same down the A-road from me, new flats are going up and/or were built within the last year, same looking the other way up the A-road, same over there past the fish and chip shop. In towns and suburbs, flats are being built already.
Funny thing is that it is not that long since flats were blamed for rising crime and juvenile delinquency through the loss of communities. The importance of ‘defensible space’ was a fashionable nostrum.
Never mind. There's far less oil to export now, so they don't need the capacity .
There’s been a fair amount of bombing on both sides of the conflict in the last 48 hours.
The difference being that one side appears to be pretty accurate with their ordnance, heading downrange towards militarily significant targets - whereas the other side appears not to care too much about where their bombs and drones end up, an attitude which thankfully isn’t ever going to win them a war.
That's not true. Russia regularly, and demonstrably targets civilians.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In the 1980s 90% never went to university.
100 years ago most rented their entire lives often had only outside toilets had no TV and internet and still had families and two, three or even four children it is all relative
"On the Isle of Portland, there is a well-known taboo against saying the word "rabbit" due to a long-standing superstition that their burrowing can cause dangerous landslips and collapses in the local stone quarries. To avoid the word, islanders often use euphemisms such as "bunnies," "underground mutton," or "long-eared furry things". This custom is deeply ingrained in the island's culture and dates back to the time when quarry work was done by hand, with sightings of rabbits causing men to stop work until the area could be re-inspected."
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In our early years of marriage we struggled and in 1966 when we moved to Llandudno we bought a new build 2 bed semi detached bungalow for £3,250 but couldn't afford the extra £250 for central heating though we did a few years later
I remember rationing and the days post war when it was a struggle for everyone but to be fair most peole were content as they did not live in today's consumer and social media period
And it is head and shoulders worse now for young people especially
Wages were lower of course, but one didn't have the iniquity of Zero hours contracts. If one had a job, one could expect it to be permanent, unless specifically stated otherwise. In 1968 we wanted to move house and found a very nice four bedroomed detached one, in a very nice area for £14k. Went for a loan to help buy it and was told that 'in these inflationary times such a price may, I suppose, be paid!' The last time it was sold, not by me, was a year or so ago for £700k.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
If the population is going up by 750,000 a year it's never going to be possible for most people.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
Which would only happen with a housing crash of such astronomic proportions property would be near worthless anyway.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In our early years of marriage we struggled and in 1966 when we moved to Llandudno we bought a new build 2 bed semi detached bungalow for £3,250 but couldn't afford the extra £250 for central heating though we did a few years later
I remember rationing and the days post war when it was a struggle for everyone but to be fair most peole were content as they did not live in today's consumer and social media period
And it is head and shoulders worse now for young people especially
To an extent I see your point about consumerism but I suppose the flip side is if you feel you can never afford a deposit on a house why not lease a new Mercedes Benz on very cheap terms as a consolation prize. It creates employment in Bremen after all.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
We also need to build upwards. A lot of the opposition to new homes relates to land grab, yet vast numbers of properties are single-family homes, unlike most developed countries, and some local planning guidance prevents anything else. Sure, most people prefer it, but if a property is 25-30% cheaper if it's in a block of spacious flats, a proportion will say yes please.
Have you been to Manchester/Salford or Leeds recently? Plenty of upwards going on!
Same down the A-road from me, new flats are going up and/or were built within the last year, same looking the other way up the A-road, same over there past the fish and chip shop. In towns and suburbs, flats are being built already.
Funny thing is that it is not that long since flats were blamed for rising crime and juvenile delinquency through the loss of communities. The importance of ‘defensible space’ was a fashionable nostrum.
The "planned communities" of the 60s often involved "common spaces" that were (and are) pretty ghastly.
Some of them, you have to wonder what the architects were thinking. There's a place, not far from me, on the river, where a largish semi-enclosed space was left in the heart of the development. With no function. It seemed designed, with no lighting and full of corners and shadows to be expressly for crime.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
One problem is the rise of dual-income middle class professional families has bid up the price of housing beyond what single 22-year-olds can afford. Added to that is the vicious circle of housing seen as an investment. No-one buys a car priced at the maximum they can borrow but that is absolutely SOP for house purchase.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Are they going to actually discuss with lenders and conveyancers this time, or are they going straight to HIPs 2.0?
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man— There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:— That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
It is a sickness of government to see a problem and make a change but not the change that is needed. It would tranform outfits like the HMRC and banks/financial services/utilities if they simply answered the phone within a sensible time - like two minutes.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In the 1980s 90% never went to university.
100 years ago most rented their entire lives, it is all relative
And kindergarten aged children worked up chimneys.
Life should be getting better for the majority rather than worse. This is where snake oil salesman politicians can find their niche.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
We also need to build upwards. A lot of the opposition to new homes relates to land grab, yet vast numbers of properties are single-family homes, unlike most developed countries, and some local planning guidance prevents anything else. Sure, most people prefer it, but if a property is 25-30% cheaper if it's in a block of spacious flats, a proportion will say yes please.
Have you been to Manchester/Salford or Leeds recently? Plenty of upwards going on!
Same down the A-road from me, new flats are going up and/or were built within the last year, same looking the other way up the A-road, same over there past the fish and chip shop. In towns and suburbs, flats are being built already.
Funny thing is that it is not that long since flats were blamed for rising crime and juvenile delinquency through the loss of communities. The importance of ‘defensible space’ was a fashionable nostrum.
The flats constructed in the last 20 years in Manchester house very few children - so juvenile delinquency is barely an issue. They aren't the sink estates of the 60s housing people with no choice. They typically house the childless and (at least moderately) affluent. They do what they do very well - but they are certainly not the whole answer. But nor are they the only answer 21st century is offering: we are also building housing which is both dense and family-friendly, which does have defensible space (though not enough yet, for complicated reasons). Neighbourhoods such as these (https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/timekeepers-square-by-buttress-reinstates-salfords-historic-street-pattern) have a much greater role than the rather more visible skyscrapers in the city centre.
But that's not to say the skyscrapers in the city centre are not welcome and a great way of housing a certain demographic as well as bringing more life to our city centres.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
The average property in London and the South and even parts of the North and Midlands and Scotland and Wales is now liable for inheritance tax. Hence inheritance tax is one of the most unpopular taxes there is.
Even after the Osborne inheritance tax exemption for the first £1 million value of the family home many homes in Tory seats and target seats in West London and the Home Counties are still hit by inheritance tax
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
Macron is just going to have to appoint a Socialist PM who will raise taxes and not cut spending given Melenchon's Socialist block has most seats. Another election would be pointless with polls giving another hung Assembly with no majority still for Macron's party and their centre right Les Republicains allies
Good morning
Maybe the news from France is part of the reason for todays rising bond rates, but nobody, and I mean nobody, has a clue what to do about the economic train wreck careering towards us
Any suggestion of cutting welfare, or the pension triple lock, or any other reduction in spending is shouted down and we even have the absurd proposition that labour are about to remove the 2 child cap
The country simply cannot continue dishing out welfare and benefits and I fear this is not going to end well for the country, or the government in office, when it really goes pear shape
None of this will matter when the war starts
Which war are you referring to ?
The war with Russia of course.
We're already at war with Russia..... but for some reason people don't like to say. Assymetric warfare, cyber warfare, they push we ignore etc etc.
But yes, it'd be good to just acknowledge it; but we won't.
Some of us do. Occasionally when I say "We are at war" on here, I get pushback from people saying we are not. But others agree...
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
Which would only happen with a housing crash of such astronomic proportions property would be near worthless anyway.
If a house was simply a place to live comfortably rather than an investment opportunity, life would be a lot happier and there would be no need for Nigel Farage.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
I wouldn’t want to rely upon a report/survey undertaken by a dodgy surveyor in a sales pack. I would want to commission my own in addition.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
The theory is those with genes susceptible to MND are more likely to be damaged by a lot of contact sport and it can affect oxygen levels as well hence elite athletes have MND diagnoses several times the average rate. I had a friend who died sadly of MND who played a lot of rugby
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
The average property in London and the South and even parts of the North and Midlands and Scotland and Wales is now liable for inheritance tax. Hence inheritance tax is one of the most unpopular taxes there is.
Even after the Osborne inheritance tax exemption for the first £1 million value of the family home many homes in Tory seats and target seats in West London and the Home Counties are still hit by inheritance tax
Just shy of a tax free million pound Brucie bonus for those people whose parents bought a house in Solihull for £5,000 in 1960 is an utter disgrace when working people, WORKING PEOPLE, are reliant on Universal Credit.
Robert Colvile @rcolvile · 1h Stride speech opens up a pretty huge divide. Both Labour and Tories now agree that we’re spending more than we can afford. Labour wants to solve this pretty much entirely via tax rises, Tories via spending cuts. (I know which side I’m on…)
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
My granddaughter with her brand new degree has applied for numerous jobs and only now looks like she may find employment with the HMRC
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
It's a different World from our day BigG. and I would suggest almost twenty years my senior you had it even easier as a cohort than my cohort did.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
In the 1980s 90% never went to university.
100 years ago most rented their entire lives often had only outside toilets had no TV and internet and still had families and two, three or even four children it is all relative
Less than that, my grandma in North Manchester only had an outside toilet, and went to bed every night with a candle to light her way
She had had four children, and by todays standards was in poverty but she was a content lady who adored her children and grandchildren going to bed each night with my sister and my photos on her bedside table
When we visited her, she would go to her Victorian corner cupboard and give me six pence, to which my father told me that would be the last of her money that week
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
What you wish will happen won't buck the market, especially with two income couples also adding to house prices
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
OT. The gathering in Manchester mourning the killing of the two people last week was presided over by Sharren Haskel Israel's deputy Foreign Minister. Indeed Manchester City centre was full of Israeli flags. On that same day in Gaza Israel killed 53 people by bombing high rise blocks. That was the day Mahmood told people not to demonstrate against the genocide out of respect for the Jewish community. This was the interview carried out by Sky of one of the Board of Deputies explaining how Israel has nothing to do with them. Bizarre doesn't begin to explain it
Have Hamas surrendered and released the hostages yet? I must have missed that.
I'm missing your point? Israel sent over their Foreign Minister to mourn the killing of two innocent British subjects having herself been party to the killing that same day of 53 equally innocent Palestinians. Isn't that weird? I wouldn't want her within 1000 miles if it was my family mourning..........
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
The killing stops in Gaza when Hamas surrenders and gives up the hostages. Its really simple.
If they do that and Israel carries on killing then everything changes. But right now there is a plan available that Israel have agreed to to end this. And Hamas seem to still be fighting.
I don't want to conflate Netanyahu's wicked Government with British Judaism, although I am assuming that Roger ( who is Jewish) is suggesting Sharren Haskel attending the mourning events as a representative of the Netanyahu regime is doing exactly that.
And Hamas (long financed by Netanyahu) giving up the hostages I suspect will not stop the wholesale killing of Palestinians by the Netanyahu regime. It is anything but simple.
It also looks like Blair's 20 point plan has landed in a sand trap.
You certainly know what the right side of the argument is when great thinkers Barty and Tubbs are agreeing with each other.
I’m a bit confused about the not conflating British Jews and Israel thing, I believe the Chief Rabbi was doing exactly that when sermonising yesterday. Does that mean he’s an antisemite?
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
I wouldn’t want to rely upon a report/survey undertaken by a dodgy surveyor in a sales pack. I would want to commission my own in addition.
The packs need to require an RICS member or similar and any other survey would be unnecessary
I've come up with a solution. When legal threat is used like this for stupid trivia, the following action will be taken
1) The officials involved will be arrested by armed police with maximum door smashing, tasering etc. 2) They will be charged with Misconduct in a Public Office. 3) Threatened that if they don't plead guilty then and there, that they will be remanded in custody with no bail, until trial.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
I wouldn’t want to rely upon a report/survey undertaken by a dodgy surveyor in a sales pack. I would want to commission my own in addition.
The packs need to require an RICS member or similar and any other survey would be unnecessary
They would only unnecessary if there is a sufficient remedy for negligence.
How long will a seller have to wait for a RICS member to undertake such a report? How much would it cost?
EPCs are a legal requirement and they are almost worthless.
I see that (on a quick inspection of Nationwide data) in London House Price to Earnings Ratios are in London back roughly to where they were a decade ago, and nationally they are back roughly to where they were 20 years ago.
So that seems to be happening.
Obviously this depends on such trends being maintained - and on a lot of factors.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
I wouldn’t want to rely upon a report/survey undertaken by a dodgy surveyor in a sales pack. I would want to commission my own in addition.
The packs need to require an RICS member or similar and any other survey would be unnecessary
They would only unnecessary if there is a sufficient remedy for negligence.
How long will a seller have to wait for a RICS member to undertake such a report? How much would it cost?
EPCs are a legal requirement and they are almost worthless.
The proposals are for a legally produced pre-sale pack and survey that may even include a valuation though I am not sure on that
I expect the packs to cost the seller £500-£1,000 but then that is much the cost the buyer pays today
The whole process is to make the home owner (or their solicitor) responsible for the information provided
I see that (on a quick inspection of Nationwide data) in London House Price to Earnings Ratios are in London back roughly to where they were a decade ago, and nationally they are back roughly to where they were 20 years ago.
So that seems to be happening.
Even if you started building a million homes a year, it would take a decade to catch up with France, in the number of properties vs population.
And France has a property market that hasn't collapsed. Though it causes some fun - such as when our resident traveller can't believe how cheap hotels outside the big cities are. Or silly British people buy vast properties and discover that they aren't worth much and cost a fortune to keep up.
The Greens are now under Polanski a socialist, probably Trans, anti Brexit, pro immigration, anti Israel and anti Trump party far more than an action on climate change party. Indeed in wishing to ban landlords they are even left of Corbyn who they want to deal with via his Your Party.
I disagree with the final point from TSE though. Polanski has made clear he sees Farage as his enemy and 99% of Green voters rule out a Coalition with Reform and disapprove of Farage. Over half of Green voters back a coalition with Labour though so on a forced choice in a Labour seat many would cast tactical votes for Labour to beat Reform
Many (most?) Greens would argue that anti-capitalist policies are an essential pre-requisite for action on climate change because it is our capitalist system that has proved so ineffectual at addressing the problem until past the point of no return.
I want to believe they are wrong (because I think their point of view is economically illiterate), but it must be said that our current model of capitalism is rather making their argument for them.
They're completely wrong and ignorant if they do.
Technological change and adaptation is required for action on climate change and history shows that our capitalist system is the best at both implementing and developing key technological changes.
The Industrial Revolution, and the capitalism that drove it, was an incredible blessing for all mankind. I would willingly trade a less good environment, in return for a world where we no longer see 45 - 50% of children dying before 14, 10% of women dying in childbirth, and 85% living on less than $3 dollars a day.
I entirely agree Sean.
A different and more interesting question is whether, in 2025, our model of short-termist data capitalism is still serving our needs.
(And, to be clear, I'm arguing for reform not revolution. (But definitely not Reform))
I don't doubt that many greens wish capitalism never happened, and they are ignorant fools. But I think it is more instructive to consider the next 200 years rather than the last.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
The theory is those with genes susceptible to MND are more likely to be damaged by a lot of contact sport and it can affect oxygen levels as well hence elite athletes have MND diagnoses several times the average rate. I had a friend who died sadly of MND who played a lot of rugby
Our colleague Turbotubbs has just sent me a very interesting, and persuasive, article on the subject, which strongly suggests that it isn't the physical contact that is the problem, but the fact of physical activity on infected soil. Needs a bit of careful re-reading though!
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Actually this is a subject I know quite well, not least as I was involved in discussions with Yvette Cooper's department over HIPS and sadly she did not listen to industry advice and it's failure was no surprise
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
We have a Standard Seller Questionnaire that legally has to be completed as part of the process, “ The seller of a property must provide answers to a range of factual questions about the property which they must answer to the best of their ability as the buyer is entitled to place reliance on the truth and accuracy of the responses.”
We do however have a different system generally where the conveyancers have to check the title on the public registry going back 40 years and conclude a physical site visit to inspect the boundaries. The contract for sale is presented by the buyer’s lawyers to the court with all the names of title owners for the last forty years included.
Transactions are registered in the Royal Court on a Friday afternoon to the Bailiff and two Jurats as part of the day’s court business so the buyer’s lawyers have to have the funds in their account by then as legally they are responsible if the transfer of property on the Friday happens and the funds don’t appear. They then pay the seller’s lawyer on the second working day after.
All parties in the transaction have to be present in court (or appoint a lawyer to appear on their behalf) and buyer receives the keys once the court enrolls the transaction.
It’s quite restrictive in one way with the formal procedure and limitation to Fridays but at least you know that every step is nailed down before that point.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
The theory is those with genes susceptible to MND are more likely to be damaged by a lot of contact sport and it can affect oxygen levels as well hence elite athletes have MND diagnoses several times the average rate. I had a friend who died sadly of MND who played a lot of rugby
Our colleague Turbotubbs has just sent me a very interesting, and persuasive, article on the subject, which strongly suggests that it isn't the physical contact that is the problem, but the fact of physical activity on infected soil. Needs a bit of careful re-reading though!
Anyone who wants a copy pm me, but I'll probably need you email address to send it.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
Which would only happen with a housing crash of such astronomic proportions property would be near worthless anyway.
Good.
Back to levels it was at by the end of the Tories term in office in the 90s would be good, which would make home ownership affordable.
Affordable prices is a good thing, not a bad one. When oil prices shot up recently, or petrol prices, or gas prices, then it was a relief to see them come back down again. Commodity costs going down makes them more affordable for those who need to pay.
No reason it should be any different with housing. Everyone is warned before buying that prices can go down as well as up. If it meant those younger than me could afford their own home, then I couldn't care less if I went into negative equity. I'd still have my own home and when I pay off my mortgage I'd be back into positive equity, but it would help those younger than me tremendously.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
The theory is those with genes susceptible to MND are more likely to be damaged by a lot of contact sport and it can affect oxygen levels as well hence elite athletes have MND diagnoses several times the average rate. I had a friend who died sadly of MND who played a lot of rugby
Our colleague Turbotubbs has just sent me a very interesting, and persuasive, article on the subject, which strongly suggests that it isn't the physical contact that is the problem, but the fact of physical activity on infected soil. Needs a bit of careful re-reading though!
I've not seen the article, but if the problem is infected soil, then I'd expect farmers or gardeners to also suffer? Unless it's about *communal* soil; i.e. soil where lots of people do the activity.
(Again, I haven't seen the article, so might be talking out of my backside...)
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
This is the problem. A 22 year old should be able to afford their own home.
They should be able to do so from their own wages, without help from Mum and Dad, or grandparents, or an inheritance from the death of their parents which hopefully would be many decades away.
What you wish will happen won't buck the market, especially with two income couples also adding to house prices
If supply exceeds demand then prices come down.
Second incomes should be able to go on luxuries like holidays, not adding to house prices. If the supply of housing weren't artificially constrained, that'd be the case.
Just going to leave PB with this before I go about my day:
Completely ignoring demographic changes which mean that there are far more people alive today in the family home they brought their kids up in, but sans kids. 🤦♂️
We need massively more houses than we've got.
Like us, who have no intention of leaving our family home of nearly 50 years until it is our time to meet our maker, or need dementia care which at 81 and 85 is thankfully not a problem for us
Indeed and there's nothing wrong with that, good luck to you, but not just your kids but likely your grandkids and before long potentially great grandkids need a home of their own too.
Whereas once you'd have had kids living with you.
This is why we have a huge housing shortage.
Our three children who are now 59, 54 and 51 all own their own homes with a mortgage and have done so for over 20 years
Precisely the point, over 20 years ago the housing market was much, much better than it is today and the demographics were different to today.
The issue isn't your kids, its what about your grandkids?
Presumably many of them will now be adults and should own their own homes too. Do they all? Its a massive failure that too many don't nationwide.
The eldest is 22 and presently living with her Mum
I agree it is a real problem for our grandchildren
Like myself BigG. our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils, particularly if "repeal all inheritance tax laws" HYUFD is in Government.
The majority of potential young home buyers will take years to scrape a 5% deposit let alone have the ability to put down a 50% inherited lump sum when a relative falls off the perch.
That's a ridiculous attitude, when you shuffle off your mortal coils your children and grandchildren could be by then at or approaching pension age themselves. So it would be far too late to be "fine".
I'm in my mid-40s now and still have living grandparents. My parents are pensioners and have living parents. The idea inheritance solves anything is preposterous given that people need houses to live in from their 20s, not from their 60s or 70s when their parents die.
Did you read, or just fail to comprehend what I was writing.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I did read what was read and I objected to it. You said and I quote "our children and grandchildren will be fine when we shuffle off our mortal coils" and that is objectionable, because by the time you shuffle off your mortal coils [hopefully] it will be far too late for them to be fine.
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
Which would only happen with a housing crash of such astronomic proportions property would be near worthless anyway.
Good.
Back to levels it was at by the end of the Tories term in office in the 90s would be good, which would make home ownership affordable.
Affordable prices is a good thing, not a bad one. When oil prices shot up recently, or petrol prices, or gas prices, then it was a relief to see them come back down again. Commodity costs going down makes them more affordable for those who need to pay.
No reason it should be any different with housing. Everyone is warned before buying that prices can go down as well as up. If it meant those younger than me could afford their own home, then I couldn't care less if I went into negative equity. I'd still have my own home and when I pay off my mortgage I'd be back into positive equity, but it would help those younger than me tremendously.
The last housing crash was back under the Evul Tories. I bought my first flat in 1998 for the price it sold for (new) in 1988. In actual pounds - so the owner lost money, due to inflation.
My mother's generation assumed that houses went up and down in value. Her theory was that if you bought a house on the edge of a good area, in poor condition and did it up gradually, you'd probably get your money back when you sold it. With a bit of luck it would beat government bonds. A house was *a safe investment* - not a one way venture capital grade punt.
Hideous news about Lewis Moody. Awful. Sympax in the extreme
This is something that actually unites NFL and rugby - they both have major problems with brain damage to players and haven’t found a way to really fix it
There is undoubtedly an issue with concussions and minor concussions in a fair number of sports. Football I think is trying to address it a bit by restricting headers in kids and in training. Rugby is doing its bit too with the efforts to ensure that tackle heights are lowered.
However, while there have been several significant ex players in rugby and football (and I am sure in NFL) that have ended up with MND we cannot be certain that it is related to the sport. A certain subset of people will get MND. We see an ex rugby player get it and we immediately assume its from the rugby, whereas it may not be. As a species we need 'Just So' stories all about why stuff happens and this is definitely an example. When I ended up with leukemia I was obsessed with the metal loop in my knee from a surgery some years before, thinking this was the cause. It almost certainly wasn't, but my head needed a reason.
Yes; I suggest we are being a few of these desperately sad stories now but has anyone done a proper review of the people who are/have been suffering with MND. Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
The theory is those with genes susceptible to MND are more likely to be damaged by a lot of contact sport and it can affect oxygen levels as well hence elite athletes have MND diagnoses several times the average rate. I had a friend who died sadly of MND who played a lot of rugby
Our colleague Turbotubbs has just sent me a very interesting, and persuasive, article on the subject, which strongly suggests that it isn't the physical contact that is the problem, but the fact of physical activity on infected soil. Needs a bit of careful re-reading though!
I've not seen the article, but if the problem is infected soil, then I'd expect farmers or gardeners to also suffer? Unless it's about *communal* soil; i.e. soil where lots of people do the activity.
(Again, I haven't seen the article, so might be talking out of my backside...)
No, it's a fair question and one which came to my mind, too. As I said, the article needs a careful re-read. Bearing in mind the problems with n=1 I'm trying to recall my daughter's life style. IIRC her husband was the gardener; she was the housekeeper, and ran a small accounts business.
Comments
Of the 6 items suggested, practically about half are in place or are coming into place, and a couple of the others will delete incentives for good quality rental housing by removing any incentive for investment in high quality housing.
The Green Policy will have the effect of removing any incentive to create high quality rental housing; they are believing their own myths.
It will return the business balance to the 1970s or early 1980s, which was awful for tenants. And we will have stuck-tenants blockading entry to their houses to stop the LL installing an improved kitchen or new windows, but there will also potentially be no incentive for the LL to improve anything.
It's vastly too dominated by ideology not practicality, and Ts will be one of the losers.
I was not advocating for an inheritance bonus, quite the opposite. My point was a tiny percentage of our children/ grandchildren will benefit from a bung when granny dies, whilst most people struggle to get going on the housing ladder.
HYUFD has stated today that the way to set the Tories after Reform is to dispense with inheritance tax. I suggest if you do the opposite the redistribution bonus could be used to help the majority rather than the few onto the housing ladder.
I've seen planned growth done well, in my lifetime, though.
https://theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/03/no-evidence-alleged-rape-banbury-oxfordshire-took-place-say-police?CMP=share_btn_url
And many of the renters lobby groups are - like Reform UK - good at self-deception when it comes to explaining why their proposals failed, and they will just demand more of the same.
It is also, IMO, something that we should be looking at doing as well. And not just because of any potential future war. We run some things really darned close.
Our daughter died as a result of MND and I have no recollection of her ever playing any contact sport whatsoever!
(Regulation here is comparatively tight.)
Her parents have supported her in addition to her student loan but as always it depends on her finding employment that will sustain her living costs
It is not easy for young graduates and the jobs market is highly competitive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FtN2K2FmlQ
My eldest son with a 2:1 in programming is on minimum wage plus a couple of quid at a multi national electronics giant (working zero hours for an agency on six month rolling contracts with a break, because that is how employment works now) in an IT role. My other son with an MA from a prestigious journalism school is working six monthly rolling contracts with the BBC on minimum wage plus a couple of quid). And if @Leon is to be believed this is set to get worse not better as AI steals young people's jobs.
The Government you supported from 2010 to 2024 encouraged zero hours and squeezing employees until the pips squeak. You reap what you sow.
This goes back to Bismark and before - a key plank of such world view is that Russia and Germany must be friends. Anything that interrupts this is bad. So dropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty is seen a pivotal and bad thing.
To people with this world view, the relationship with Russia is vital for trade and reducing the possibility of conflict. It is notable that modern adherents of this point of view see Poland and the Baltics as irritants to the relationship with Russia, rather than as truly full allies.
Edit - it is also fairly easy to berm/cover the containers to the point that it would require a substantial bomb to destroy each one. Much easier than protecting power stations.
The question is how many more places have the same problem? It’s going to be lots, and there likely needs to be significant work going on behind the scenes with a fair degree of secrecy.
I met with my dad a couple of times over the weekend. In many ways the has had a gilded life - born in 1939 so remembers the way but only snippets. No issue with employment - grenadier guards then the police for 30 years, now retired for another 30 years. A long happy marriage (now sadly widowed this last year, but making a new life again).
But - they struggled a lot financially when they were just married and dad relates only having one night in the pub in six months as they had no money. It came good in the end with promotion etc but there is a tendency to imagine that our parents and grandparents had it easy. It wasn't always.
Student accommodation would be one sector which will survive.
The crazy parts of the Green measures are return to Secure Tenancies, and the various things which undermine incentive to invest.
And obviously probably (depending on how it is done) rent control, which always benefits the current generation of tenants, and fucks everyone who comes afterwards. See New York since the war. In that sense it is quite Thatcherite, as it will benefit a few, now, at the cost of more in the future.
They are also not clear what they mean by "landlord" (corporates and companies? charities? social landlords? houses owned by institutions? grace and favour?). What about long term community landlords - local trusts etc? Not is it clear what they will do with the complexities - serviced accommodation, short term licensed occupation?
Nor what people are supposed to do who *need* short term (say 1 month to 12 month) accommodation, when there is none left because the Greens have made provision impossible.
But the policy is just a performative knee jerk by an idiot in short trousers.
It is not incomptable to mourn with the Manchester Jewish community and express horror at what is going on in Gaza
The Manchester Jewish Community are no more responsible for the outrages in Gaza than are the worshippers at the Mosque set fire to yesterday
I am sure we agree that Netanyahu and Hamas are both guilty of war crimes and both need to stop now
People need houses of their own in their early 20s, not their 60s or later. Hopefully by the time you shuffle off your mortal coil, not only will your children not actually be children, but your grandchildren won't be children either.
22 year olds should be able to get a home of their own today, not when their parents and grandparents have all died.
It wasn't easy in the early 1980s, although it is head and shoulders worse now.
Younger grandson, who graduated last year, has gone to Australia to 'see if things are better there'.
House price to earnings ratios were a fraction of what they are today.
Pensions weren't saved for, they were instead passed on to future generations despite demographic changes coming which were known about.
Consistent deficits were ran which has led to massive payments on interest alone being due.
Sadly all those bills from passing the buck to the future come due at some point.
A small shared house (3-4) is the same load on services and an area as a nuclear family.
The difference being that one side appears to be pretty accurate with their ordnance, heading downrange towards militarily significant targets - whereas the other side appears not to care too much about where their bombs and drones end up, an attitude which thankfully isn’t ever going to win them a war.
But that wasn't my point. It was Mahmood allowing her to speak and the Jewish community of Prestwich agreeing to her speaking when as it says in the interview they have nothing to do with Israeli politics.
Whether or not you agree with it, it would be disingenuous to deny that.
But yes, it'd be good to just acknowledge it; but we won't.
The two innocent Brits were murdered in cold blood.
Any dead Palestinians are sadly conflicts of a war started by Hamas and a direct result of Hamas refusing to surrender and lay down their arms and release the hostages.
Hopefully soon Hamas will surrender and lay down their arms and release the hostages. If they do, the fighting will end and I for one will be delighted to see the end of the conflict. It can't end until that happens though.
Fighting a war, and cold-blooded murder, are not the same thing.
If they do that and Israel carries on killing then everything changes. But right now there is a plan available that Israel have agreed to to end this. And Hamas seem to still be fighting.
'House buying shake up plan' headline.
Overlooking three things:
It's all been tried before.
Buyers don't trust sellers information.
In English law a binding contract can be made at whatever point in transactions that both parties are willing to be bound by the contract. There is no magic involved. (Human nature says that both parties want the other one bound but not yourself. Gosh. That's not how it works.)
On the whole the changes needed are not systemic but procedural. It is routine for there to be late faffing, last minute crises, urgent last minute stuff about the practicalities of finance, solicitors and others not getting their act together in a timely and ordered manner. This is nothing to do with law, and all to do with pragmatic competence and timely action.
Everyone I know in a HMO wants out - they want their own space. But they can't afford it.
Noteworthy too that the plan explicitly calls for Hamas to disarm and hand over control of Gaza to others.
Which is exactly what I said, from the beginning of this conflict, should be the end result and many people here have consistently said was impossible. If it happens, then I'll be delighted and relieved to see the end of the fighting.
Much bloodshed could have been saved by Hamas surrendering sooner. The fact they haven't, is not Israel's fault.
So the level of due diligence they want to do reflects that.
I remember rationing and the days post war when it was a struggle for everyone but to be fair most peole were content as they did not live in today's consumer and social media period
And it is head and shoulders worse now for young people especially
And Hamas (long financed by Netanyahu) giving up the hostages I suspect will not stop the wholesale killing of Palestinians by the Netanyahu regime. It is anything but simple.
It also looks like Blair's 20 point plan has landed in a sand trap.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:—
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
There isn't a formally established causative link between CTE and MND, but there is certainly evidence to show an association, both in occurrence in athletes who have played contact sports involving repeated head trauma, and in protein biomarkers associated with both Alzheimer's and MND (eg t-tau and tau-p181) found in testing of groups of those athletes.
And of course it's likely only contributory, rather than a single cause.
Funny thing is that it is not that long since flats were blamed for rising crime and juvenile delinquency through the loss of communities. The importance of ‘defensible space’ was a fashionable nostrum.
Russia regularly, and demonstrably targets civilians.
university.
100 years ago most rented
their entire lives often had only outside toilets had no TV and internet and still had families and two, three or even four children it is all relative
"On the Isle of Portland, there is a well-known taboo against saying the word "rabbit" due to a long-standing superstition that their burrowing can cause dangerous landslips and collapses in the local stone quarries. To avoid the word, islanders often use euphemisms such as "bunnies," "underground mutton," or "long-eared furry things". This custom is deeply ingrained in the island's culture and dates back to the time when quarry work was done by hand, with sightings of rabbits causing men to stop work until the area could be re-inspected."
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23576368.cant-say-rabbit-isle-portland
In 1968 we wanted to move house and found a very nice four bedroomed detached one, in a very nice area for £14k. Went for a loan to help buy it and was told that 'in these inflationary times such a price may, I suppose, be paid!'
The last time it was sold, not by me, was a year or so ago for £700k.
Some of them, you have to wonder what the architects were thinking. There's a place, not far from me, on the river, where a largish semi-enclosed space was left in the heart of the development. With no function. It seemed designed, with no lighting and full of corners and shadows to be expressly for crime.
Life should be getting better for the majority rather than worse. This is where snake oil salesman politicians can find their niche.
They do what they do very well - but they are certainly not the whole answer. But nor are they the only answer 21st century is offering: we are also building housing which is both dense and family-friendly, which does have defensible space (though not enough yet, for complicated reasons). Neighbourhoods such as these (https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/timekeepers-square-by-buttress-reinstates-salfords-historic-street-pattern) have a much greater role than the rather more visible skyscrapers in the city centre.
But that's not to say the skyscrapers in the city centre are not welcome and a great way of housing a certain demographic as well as bringing more life to our city centres.
and the South and even parts
of the North and Midlands and
Scotland and Wales is now
liable for inheritance tax. Hence
inheritance tax is one of the
most unpopular taxes there is.
Even after the Osborne inheritance tax exemption for the first £1 million value of the family home many homes in Tory seats and target seats in West London and the Home Counties are still hit by inheritance tax
However, the government are correct on this, and the requirement for written pre contract declarations by a seller, plus a bona fide survey report, all presented in a legally binding sale pack is highly desirable and I would expect supported by the industry
Also reducing the time and modernising the conveyancing process is very desirable
Of course this will change the market fundamentally, finally abolishing 'caveat emptor' though of course it will be a problem for many home owners whose property has structural or location issues
As properties sell, and the faults are recified it will make future sales easier and of couse will save the buyer costs though if they are a seller as well they will face the upfront cost of the pre sale pack
I note they are looking at the Scottish system as well, and that is a far better way of selling than in England and Wales
I hope a pre sale legally binding contract pack becomes law, though I expect it will be a while away
Tories will today pledge to scrap business rates for 250,000 pubs, restaurants and other small firms to help boost the high street
Hospitality, retail or leisure firms that pay £110k a year or less in biz rates will get 100% relief. Costs £4bn
https://x.com/benrileysmith/status/1975124668140175394
Robert Colvile
@rcolvile
·
1h
Stride speech opens up a pretty huge divide. Both Labour and Tories now agree that we’re spending more than we can afford. Labour wants to solve this pretty much entirely via tax rises, Tories via spending cuts. (I know which side I’m on…)
Mark
@Rubble2012
Which core functions would you cut, that's a genuine question.
Reform, in power at a local level, haven't cut anything but instead put taxes up.
Robert Colvile
@rcolvile
·
1h
Working age welfare. Pension-age welfare. Civil Service staff numbers. I could go on.
https://x.com/rcolvile/status/1975122484438708562
She had had four children, and by todays standards was in poverty but she was a content lady who adored her children and grandchildren going to bed each night with my sister and my photos on her bedside table
When we visited her, she would go to her Victorian corner cupboard and give me six pence, to which my father told me that would be the last of her money that week
I’m a bit confused about the not conflating British Jews and Israel thing, I believe the Chief Rabbi was doing exactly that when sermonising yesterday. Does that mean he’s an antisemite?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgzn2AsFULE (34 mins)
I've come up with a solution. When legal threat is used like this for stupid trivia, the following action will be taken
1) The officials involved will be arrested by armed police with maximum door smashing, tasering etc.
2) They will be charged with Misconduct in a Public Office.
3) Threatened that if they don't plead guilty then and there, that they will be remanded in custody with no bail, until trial.
How long will a seller have to wait for a RICS member to undertake such a report? How much would it cost?
EPCs are a legal requirement and they are almost worthless.
I see that (on a quick inspection of Nationwide data) in London House Price to Earnings Ratios are in London back roughly to where they were a decade ago, and nationally they are back roughly to where they were 20 years ago.
So that seems to be happening.
Obviously this depends on such trends being maintained - and on a lot of factors.
I expect the packs to cost the seller £500-£1,000 but then that is much the cost the buyer pays today
The whole process is to make the home owner (or their solicitor) responsible for the information provided
And France has a property market that hasn't collapsed. Though it causes some fun - such as when our resident traveller can't believe how cheap hotels outside the big cities are. Or silly British people buy vast properties and discover that they aren't worth much and cost a fortune to keep up.
A different and more interesting question is whether, in 2025, our model of short-termist data capitalism is still serving our needs.
(And, to be clear, I'm arguing for reform not revolution. (But definitely not Reform))
I don't doubt that many greens wish capitalism never happened, and they are ignorant fools. But I think it is more instructive to consider the next 200 years rather than the last.
Needs a bit of careful re-reading though!
Tortoise/Observer investigation into what actually goes on in the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation's aid distributions.
If the whole thing is too long, listen for a couple of minutes from 27:20. But perhaps not whilst you're eating lunch.
We do however have a different system generally where the conveyancers have to check the title on the public registry going back 40 years and conclude a physical site visit to inspect the boundaries. The contract for sale is presented by the buyer’s lawyers to the court with all the names of title owners for the last forty years included.
Transactions are registered in the Royal Court on a Friday afternoon to the Bailiff and two Jurats as part of the day’s court business so the buyer’s lawyers have to have the funds in their account by then as legally they are responsible if the transfer of property on the Friday happens and the funds don’t appear. They then pay the seller’s lawyer on the second working day after.
All parties in the transaction have to be present in court (or appoint a lawyer to appear on their behalf) and buyer receives the keys once the court enrolls the transaction.
It’s quite restrictive in one way with the formal procedure and limitation to Fridays but at least you know that every step is nailed down before that point.
Back to levels it was at by the end of the Tories term in office in the 90s would be good, which would make home ownership affordable.
Affordable prices is a good thing, not a bad one. When oil prices shot up recently, or petrol prices, or gas prices, then it was a relief to see them come back down again. Commodity costs going down makes them more affordable for those who need to pay.
No reason it should be any different with housing. Everyone is warned before buying that prices can go down as well as up. If it meant those younger than me could afford their own home, then I couldn't care less if I went into negative equity. I'd still have my own home and when I pay off my mortgage I'd be back into positive equity, but it would help those younger than me tremendously.
(Again, I haven't seen the article, so might be talking out of my backside...)
Second incomes should be able to go on luxuries like holidays, not adding to house prices. If the supply of housing weren't artificially constrained, that'd be the case.
My mother's generation assumed that houses went up and down in value. Her theory was that if you bought a house on the edge of a good area, in poor condition and did it up gradually, you'd probably get your money back when you sold it. With a bit of luck it would beat government bonds. A house was *a safe investment* - not a one way venture capital grade punt.