The general election betting moves to LAB since the arrival of Truss – politicalbetting.com
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You’ve already got the envelope tax at just over 1%. Not sure how many it captures but as a mechanism that would force people to sell or rent out if you increased itRichard_Tyndall said:
Punitive increases in taxes on non resident foreign ownership and second homes. Get some of the 700,000 second homes and 250,000 homes owned by non residents back on the market. That is close to 1 million homes.Sandpit said:
All solutions involve building a lot more houses!boulay said:
Fair enough - we have a huge problem here where so many local kids are leaving because they haven’t a hope of getting on the housing ladder which is sad as they get educated here then off to university and don’t come back (there are of course other reasons for them not coming back) but you are losing all that human capital that the place has invested in but also a place can lose it’s identity when most people are “outsiders” as they have no in built connection with the quirks and what makes a place unique.IshmaelZ said:
good plan, but Z jr's parents are - how to put this? - not in the most capital starved decile of the population, and could probably score him an Earlsfield flat in exchange for a token rent. The mentality has pervaded himboulay said:
In my moments of fantasy wondering what I would do if I had Elon Musk type money I’ve always thought of setting up a scheme where I would buy loads of tower blocks in cities and allow school/Uni leavers, who have their potential held back by not having access to money themselves, to live there for say three to five years where they pay their rent but the rent is saved for them and given back for purposes of a deposit when they are ready to get a mortgage.IshmaelZ said:OK so Z jr has just scored a distinction in a Masters in economics from a top 5 UK university. Have lunch with him and ask his plans. He says I am going to go and live in Bedford for a year because a mate has got a house there at a really good rent, was going to go to London but my house in Earlsfield fell through. Maybe get a bar job.
Insane that rentability of bedrooms in shit houses determines life decisions even for people like him.
Would be subject to behaviour clauses and time limited to keep giving others a chance etc but I feel that it would take that sort of massive charitable input to break the crazy situation where people like Z jr cannot potentially fulfil his potential by not being able to live nearest the optimal places for his skills and career.
Now I will go back to inventing some internet thing to make that money even though I can barely use and I-phone!
when it doesn't have to.
The gov screwed things over the last few decades by allowing foreign buyers to buy development properties to rent and added to this by removing the ban on those who moved here on special tax agreements to buy properties other than their main home which has supercharged the property market. I look at younger children/young adults here and feel for them as they are terrified of not getting on the housing ladder so spend 500k plus on crap one bedroom flats etc.
But it would be a great thing to be able to find ways to break that and allow them to save for deposits near where there are jobs when they don’t have the world’s largest horse dealer for a father!
Being outside the EU, does now give the opportunity to raise significant taxes on property owned by non-resident foreigners, many of which are unoccupied for most of the year or used as weekly rentals. Even 2-3% per year raises a few billion.
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Would you be will to take Ted Williams's head along for the ride?Jim_Miller said:Dr. Foxy - A year or so ago, a very bright friend and I discussed the possibility of interstellar travel. We agreed that "generation ships" were almost certainly possible -- though so costly, and requiring so much engineering work that it might take a unified world government spending 1% of the world's GDP over 100 years to build a fleet of them.
(You would almost certainly spin them to provide a substitute for gravity,and use nuclear power to run a closed ecology. Such ships could, in principle, travel for hundreds of years. I believe laser-powered solar sails could move such ships at a significant fraction of light speed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship )
If you see an obvious error in our thinking, I'd like to know to know what it is.0 -
Britain runs low on ammo as Ukraine bombards Kremlin forces
Arms industry yet to ramp up production despite Ukraine's need for weapons
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/24/britain-runs-low-ammo-ukraine-bombards-kremlin-forces/ (£££)
Boris gave away arms stocks but never got round to ordering replacements. Likewise LizT but to be fair, she's not been in the job long.0 -
The medical difficulties are principally that our bodies don't deal well without gravity.Foxy said:
I do think that the medical difficulties of life in space are such that travel to other solar systems would be fatal. The same probably is true of aliens.Carnyx said:
I'm sure you will let us know if any grey-skinned little biped takes a suspiciously close interest in your botty.Leon said:
I follow this debate quite closely. As we discover evermore exoplanets, many of them strikingly receptive to life as we know it, the chances of life having evolved elsewhere in the universe have gone up by orders of magnitudeBenpointer said:
You'd be right to be skeptical - except Cox doesn't claim to have conclusively worked out anything.Leon said:
Personally, I’m a tad skeptical that the entire structure and meaning of the universe and all possibilities of life therein, have now been conclusively worked out by the keyboardist from D:ReamBenpointer said:O/T
Went to the Brian Cox 'Horizons' show last night. Very good. Seems like it's an interesting time for astrophysics as our understanding of black holes raises more and more questions about the nature of the universe.
Interestingly for all you alien hunters, Cox sounds decidedly more hesitant about the certainty of other intelligent life than he did when I went to a talk of his about 10 years ago.
'The human brain might be the only only thing in existence capable of giving meaning to the universe'. (I paraphrase)
Recommended if you happen to get chance to go to the show.
I expect us to discover firm evidence of non human life in the universe within my lifetime, and I’m not exactly a teenager
And no, this does not necessarily mean aliens landing in Surrey, tho I do not rule out the possibility we are being visited/observed by *something*
It must be AI robots interested in probing our bottoms.
That isn't a (long term) insurmountable problem.0 -
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66560 -
It shouldn't be possible for anyone to buy all the land that is zoned for development, since there should always be zones available. If all zones have been bought up, then have new zones available. That will make the developers buying land and sitting on it, utterly worthless.Richard_Tyndall said:
Nope. As someone who has been involved in 3 separate self build projects going back over 50 years or more (the first was my dad building his own house in 1970) I can assure you that planning permission is not the issue. The massive issue is building regs which become ever more labyrinthine and unsuited to small scale home building.BartholomewRoberts said:
Not really, since as I said if a zone needs to be kept free due to environmental risks then with a sensible zoning system you zone that plain as not suitable for development.Richard_Tyndall said:
Ignoring the fact that the act of building on flood plains pushes the floods further downstream and floods other houses which were previously safe. Yet again you display remarkable ignorance for the reason for planning regulations. Something that is increasingly becoming a hallmark of your postings.BartholomewRoberts said:
None of which should be linked to an individual home, except maybe that most people building an individual home for themselves would choose to avoid flood plains because it'll be harder to get insurance on a flood plain.IshmaelZ said:
InfrastructureFrankBooth said:
The vast majority of rural England is not built on. Admittedly some land would not be suitable.IshmaelZ said:
Yup. The trouble is, it can't be done sensibly or sustainably or any of that crap. It can only be done by abolishing rural England. That is the lesser of two evils vs condemning the poor to homelessness, but it is a crying shame and one which is not resisted purely to prop up house prices. But you can't do it without a bonfire of regulations.FrankBooth said:
I would agree with that. But it needs to be done sensibly. Not just 'bonfire of regulations.'BartholomewRoberts said:
Building more houses would solve everything.FrankBooth said:
I'm well aware of that. The reality is that we are a densely populated island (south of Leeds) and land is a fixed resource. Neither do we build the number of houses we actually need. Having a hands off approach to foreign property ownership is just asking for trouble.Sandpit said:
Very few countries bar foreigners from buying property, but many reserve areas for local housing with planning laws, and tax foreign-owned property, especially by non-residents.FrankBooth said:Ought we to allow non-residents to buy property in the UK? Can we generally buy property as we wish in their countries?
Or is this what funds our current account deficit?
Yes, it’s a big source of foreign capital into the UK which helps enormously with the current account deficit.
Despite what most of us on here may think of the UK and its government, to 90% of the rest of the world, it’s considered a safe haven from their own government, and property rights are well respected.
And devalue those houses people have bought as an investment. Win/win.
What is the footprint for a good size home and garden. Let's say 400 sq metres.
A million homes would be 400 million sq metres or 400 sq km.
England is 130,000 sq km.
So 0.3% of England's land mass. About the size of Rutland.
Have I missed something?
Roads
Flood plains
Highlands
If they build on a flood plain and an insurer is prepared to insure them, then that's their responsibility.
I never said build anywhere, I said build on zones where development is acceptable. If development is unacceptable there, it should be zoned that way, then its not a problem that its not developed.
The problem with our system, as we discussed the other day, is that unlike nations like Belgium and Netherlands with zonal development systems whereby its easy to build a new home in approved zones so most people self-build, in this country the planning system is so messed up that only developers navigate it.
As I said the other day, the default position of planning decisions is to permit. Indeed we already zone for development in this country - it is called the local plan. The problem is that as soon as that land is zoned for development the big companies buy it up and sit on it.
One change we could make (and should) is to return to the practice of 30 years ago or more whereby the developer had to pay the specific costs of developing the infrastructure - schools, doctors etc. This no longer happens as the law now allows them to make a smaller up front payment to the local council who then spend that money and don't build the infrastructure.
There are many things wrong with our housebuilding system but planning is not the big one. Stop the developers sitting on vast tracts of land with planning permission for years and that will make a big difference.0 -
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.2 -
Off topic, but important: Fiona, having damaged Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas, is now attacking eastern Canada: "One of the strongest storms ever to hit Canada slammed into Nova Scotia’s coastline early Saturday, leaving most of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island without power.
Former hurricane Fiona made landfall early Saturday over Guysborough county on the northeast corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of almost 81 mph, while peak gusts of over 100 mph were detected, it added."
source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/24/hurricane-fiona-nova-scotia-canada/
There are similar problems in Newfoundland.
When I wrote about it here, earlier this week, I mentioned this possibility, but said I expected it to weaken significantly before it hit Canada. That's what usually happens as hurricanes go north, but I was wrong this time.
So far there are no deaths reported, and I hope that continues ot be true, for our good neighbors to the north.2 -
Isn't running cooler temperatures discriminatory against women? For instance, from seven years ago:Carnyx said:
Hmm, take your dog to work and keep your feet warm.carnforth said:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2015/aug/04/new-cold-war-why-women-chilly-at-work-air-conditioning0 -
Protection against cosmic radiation may be a problem.Jim_Miller said:Dr. Foxy - A year or so ago, a very bright friend and I discussed the possibility of interstellar travel. We agreed that "generation ships" were almost certainly possible -- though so costly, and requiring so much engineering work that it might take a unified world government spending 1% of the world's GDP over 100 years to build a fleet of them.
(You would almost certainly spin them to provide a substitute for gravity,and use nuclear power to run a closed ecology. Such ships could, in principle, travel for hundreds of years. I believe laser-powered solar sails could move such ships at a significant fraction of light speed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship )
If you see an obvious error in our thinking, I'd like to know to know what it is.0 -
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?1 -
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66561 -
IANAE but recall reading this ...boulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
https://www.thenational.scot/news/14859658.how-floating-dutch-homes-simply-rise-with-the-floodwater/1 -
To follow on from this posting on the issue of self build.Richard_Tyndall said:
Nope. As someone who has been involved in 3 separate self build projects going back over 50 years or more (the first was my dad building his own house in 1970) I can assure you that planning permission is not the issue. The massive issue is building regs which become ever more labyrinthine and unsuited to small scale home building.BartholomewRoberts said:
Not really, since as I said if a zone needs to be kept free due to environmental risks then with a sensible zoning system you zone that plain as not suitable for development.Richard_Tyndall said:
Ignoring the fact that the act of building on flood plains pushes the floods further downstream and floods other houses which were previously safe. Yet again you display remarkable ignorance for the reason for planning regulations. Something that is increasingly becoming a hallmark of your postings.BartholomewRoberts said:
None of which should be linked to an individual home, except maybe that most people building an individual home for themselves would choose to avoid flood plains because it'll be harder to get insurance on a flood plain.IshmaelZ said:
InfrastructureFrankBooth said:
The vast majority of rural England is not built on. Admittedly some land would not be suitable.IshmaelZ said:
Yup. The trouble is, it can't be done sensibly or sustainably or any of that crap. It can only be done by abolishing rural England. That is the lesser of two evils vs condemning the poor to homelessness, but it is a crying shame and one which is not resisted purely to prop up house prices. But you can't do it without a bonfire of regulations.FrankBooth said:
I would agree with that. But it needs to be done sensibly. Not just 'bonfire of regulations.'BartholomewRoberts said:
Building more houses would solve everything.FrankBooth said:
I'm well aware of that. The reality is that we are a densely populated island (south of Leeds) and land is a fixed resource. Neither do we build the number of houses we actually need. Having a hands off approach to foreign property ownership is just asking for trouble.Sandpit said:
Very few countries bar foreigners from buying property, but many reserve areas for local housing with planning laws, and tax foreign-owned property, especially by non-residents.FrankBooth said:Ought we to allow non-residents to buy property in the UK? Can we generally buy property as we wish in their countries?
Or is this what funds our current account deficit?
Yes, it’s a big source of foreign capital into the UK which helps enormously with the current account deficit.
Despite what most of us on here may think of the UK and its government, to 90% of the rest of the world, it’s considered a safe haven from their own government, and property rights are well respected.
And devalue those houses people have bought as an investment. Win/win.
What is the footprint for a good size home and garden. Let's say 400 sq metres.
A million homes would be 400 million sq metres or 400 sq km.
England is 130,000 sq km.
So 0.3% of England's land mass. About the size of Rutland.
Have I missed something?
Roads
Flood plains
Highlands
If they build on a flood plain and an insurer is prepared to insure them, then that's their responsibility.
I never said build anywhere, I said build on zones where development is acceptable. If development is unacceptable there, it should be zoned that way, then its not a problem that its not developed.
The problem with our system, as we discussed the other day, is that unlike nations like Belgium and Netherlands with zonal development systems whereby its easy to build a new home in approved zones so most people self-build, in this country the planning system is so messed up that only developers navigate it.
As I said the other day, the default position of planning decisions is to permit. Indeed we already zone for development in this country - it is called the local plan. The problem is that as soon as that land is zoned for development the big companies buy it up and sit on it.
One change we could make (and should) is to return to the practice of 30 years ago or more whereby the developer had to pay the specific costs of developing the infrastructure - schools, doctors etc. This no longer happens as the law now allows them to make a smaller up front payment to the local council who then spend that money and don't build the infrastructure.
There are many things wrong with our housebuilding system but planning is not the big one. Stop the developers sitting on vast tracts of land with planning permission for years and that will make a big difference.
The three biggest factors preventing the growth of self build in the UK (apart from the fact there is not much of a tradition of it at the moment)
1. Lack of land being made available exclusively for self building rather than developers. In Holland the local authority pays for all the infrastructure to be put in place (roads, sewerage, etc) prior to selling the plots and the costs are recouped through the cost of buying the plot. These estates are exclusively for the self builder. No developers allowed.
2. Most institutions won't lend to self builders. All three projects I have been involved with needed a complex arrangement of bridging loans and raising private funds or remortgaging an existing property to be able to pay for the self build.
3. Building regs which become more complex by the year. The only way the most recent project I was involved with was able to proceed was because the local building inspector was a decent bloke who put in many extra hours outside of his normal workload helping the owner understand and navigate the regulations.3 -
Cosmic rays seem to be much more of an issue. You can sort out gravity with spin, pending inventing AG. No such fix for cosmic rays.rcs1000 said:
The medical difficulties are principally that our bodies don't deal well without gravity.Foxy said:
I do think that the medical difficulties of life in space are such that travel to other solar systems would be fatal. The same probably is true of aliens.Carnyx said:
I'm sure you will let us know if any grey-skinned little biped takes a suspiciously close interest in your botty.Leon said:
I follow this debate quite closely. As we discover evermore exoplanets, many of them strikingly receptive to life as we know it, the chances of life having evolved elsewhere in the universe have gone up by orders of magnitudeBenpointer said:
You'd be right to be skeptical - except Cox doesn't claim to have conclusively worked out anything.Leon said:
Personally, I’m a tad skeptical that the entire structure and meaning of the universe and all possibilities of life therein, have now been conclusively worked out by the keyboardist from D:ReamBenpointer said:O/T
Went to the Brian Cox 'Horizons' show last night. Very good. Seems like it's an interesting time for astrophysics as our understanding of black holes raises more and more questions about the nature of the universe.
Interestingly for all you alien hunters, Cox sounds decidedly more hesitant about the certainty of other intelligent life than he did when I went to a talk of his about 10 years ago.
'The human brain might be the only only thing in existence capable of giving meaning to the universe'. (I paraphrase)
Recommended if you happen to get chance to go to the show.
I expect us to discover firm evidence of non human life in the universe within my lifetime, and I’m not exactly a teenager
And no, this does not necessarily mean aliens landing in Surrey, tho I do not rule out the possibility we are being visited/observed by *something*
It must be AI robots interested in probing our bottoms.
That isn't a (long term) insurmountable problem.0 -
Technical term (at least in US) for such loses in market small or super is "shrinkage".boulay said:
Still, tonnes of crime committed at lesser supermarkets.OnlyLivingBoy said:
No cheese was stolen.boulay said:
Wouldn’t happen at Waitrose. THIS. IS. A. DISGRACE.dixiedean said:
Seen that a couple of times in ASDA. They've gone from one security guard to three.OnlyLivingBoy said:I was in the Sainsbury's garage today waiting to pay, and a bloke ran out with his arms full of stuff he'd swiped off the shelves. This isn't a normal occurence, even in SE14. Society is fraying around the edges.
(i didn't chase after him, I am a loyal Sainsbury's shopper but not that loyal).0 -
I've got round to this very late but, after reviewing all 600+ of The Queen's charities, I've decided to donate to the following - one's that speak to both me and her, and I am pleased to support:
- GOSH hospital
- Girl Guides
- National Churches Trust
- Royal Historical Society
- Royal Forestry Society
9 - GOSH hospital
-
SeaShantyIrish2 said:
Technical term (at least in US) for such loses in market small or super is "shrinkage".boulay said:
Still, tonnes of crime committed at lesser supermarkets.OnlyLivingBoy said:
No cheese was stolen.boulay said:
Wouldn’t happen at Waitrose. THIS. IS. A. DISGRACE.dixiedean said:
Seen that a couple of times in ASDA. They've gone from one security guard to three.OnlyLivingBoy said:I was in the Sainsbury's garage today waiting to pay, and a bloke ran out with his arms full of stuff he'd swiped off the shelves. This isn't a normal occurence, even in SE14. Society is fraying around the edges.
(i didn't chase after him, I am a loyal Sainsbury's shopper but not that loyal).
Sorry, wasn’t making a judgement but making a pun with first pair of words.
0 -
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and let the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted kitchens.boulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?3 -
This is actually a very popular idea in certain circles, it has already been done near me, Godley reservoir near Hyde, Manchester you can see them on satellite view on Google maps. I know in places like California they use black floating balls to reduce evaporation, so why not make the area extra productive with solar panels.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.1 -
Thats brilliant.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.
0 -
rcs1000 said: "The medical difficulties are principally that our bodies don't deal well without gravity.
That isn't a (long term) insurmountable problem."
Discussions that I have seen assume the generation ships will spin, so that centrifugal force supplies a substitute fo gravity.
(In the "Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition", Ed Regis describes (among many other things) an experiment with putting chickens in a centrifuge that gave them 2.5 times their ordinary weight. The chickens came out healthy and very strong. As I recall, they used chickens because they are bipeds with short life spans.)1 -
Also nowadays I imagine you have all sorts of toxic crap floating in and on the water which you didn't before - oil and petrol and nasties of all kinds, to add to the good old-fashioned 100% organic dead doggies and pussies and sheep and sewage.Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and let the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted kitchens.boulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
Edit: wondered if you could seal the stonework, but you know what it's like doing that to something that needs to breathe.1 -
Same in the UK. Shrinkage is the difference at the end of the stock take, between what is actually there and what should be there.SeaShantyIrish2 said:
Technical term (at least in US) for such loses in market small or super is "shrinkage".boulay said:
Still, tonnes of crime committed at lesser supermarkets.OnlyLivingBoy said:
No cheese was stolen.boulay said:
Wouldn’t happen at Waitrose. THIS. IS. A. DISGRACE.dixiedean said:
Seen that a couple of times in ASDA. They've gone from one security guard to three.OnlyLivingBoy said:I was in the Sainsbury's garage today waiting to pay, and a bloke ran out with his arms full of stuff he'd swiped off the shelves. This isn't a normal occurence, even in SE14. Society is fraying around the edges.
(i didn't chase after him, I am a loyal Sainsbury's shopper but not that loyal).1 -
Found them thanks. They look flat rather than angled to South. Is that right?theenglishborn said:
This is actually a very popular idea in certain circles, it has already been done near me, Godley reservoir near Hyde, Manchester you can see them on satellite view on Google maps. I know in places like California they use black floating balls to reduce evaporation, so why not make the area extra productive with solar panels.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.0 -
Intderesting, to stop them straining the anchorages and sailing off like a By-the-wind-sailor [kind of small Portuguoese man o'war]?paulyork64 said:
Found them thanks. They look flat rather than angled to South. Is that right?theenglishborn said:
This is actually a very popular idea in certain circles, it has already been done near me, Godley reservoir near Hyde, Manchester you can see them on satellite view on Google maps. I know in places like California they use black floating balls to reduce evaporation, so why not make the area extra productive with solar panels.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.0 -
Dan Hodges impressed with the audacity, but overall, rather unimpressed by the uncoservativeness of kamikwazinomics;
https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/225246/kwasinomics-are-easily-explained-hes-bet-the-whole-of-britain-on-red-at-the-roulette-table
(Paywall can be rather trivially sidestepped by loading “reader” mode)
I might just forward to my (tory) MP. He spent 2015-20 furiously retweeting Dan Hodges. Might just have an effect.0 -
"The radiation environment of deep space is very different from that on the Earth's surface, or in low earth orbit, due to the much larger influx of high-energy galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Like other ionizing radiation, high-energy cosmic rays can damage DNA and increase the risk of cancer, cataracts, and neurological disorders.[15] One known practical solution to this problem is surrounding the crewed parts of the ship with a thick enough shielding such as a thick layer of maintained ice as proposed in The Songs of Distant Earth, a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke (note: in this book the ship's mammoth ice shield is only in the forward part of the ship, preventing micrometeors from damaging the ship during its interstellar journey)."
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship
It seems likely to me that the "farming" part of such ships would also be used for shielding.
0 -
You can screen to some extent, but it takes mass or magnetic fields. Which btw plays a role in a SF novel I have just read about visiting the Jupiter planetary complex.IshmaelZ said:
Cosmic rays seem to be much more of an issue. You can sort out gravity with spin, pending inventing AG. No such fix for cosmic rays.rcs1000 said:
The medical difficulties are principally that our bodies don't deal well without gravity.Foxy said:
I do think that the medical difficulties of life in space are such that travel to other solar systems would be fatal. The same probably is true of aliens.Carnyx said:
I'm sure you will let us know if any grey-skinned little biped takes a suspiciously close interest in your botty.Leon said:
I follow this debate quite closely. As we discover evermore exoplanets, many of them strikingly receptive to life as we know it, the chances of life having evolved elsewhere in the universe have gone up by orders of magnitudeBenpointer said:
You'd be right to be skeptical - except Cox doesn't claim to have conclusively worked out anything.Leon said:
Personally, I’m a tad skeptical that the entire structure and meaning of the universe and all possibilities of life therein, have now been conclusively worked out by the keyboardist from D:ReamBenpointer said:O/T
Went to the Brian Cox 'Horizons' show last night. Very good. Seems like it's an interesting time for astrophysics as our understanding of black holes raises more and more questions about the nature of the universe.
Interestingly for all you alien hunters, Cox sounds decidedly more hesitant about the certainty of other intelligent life than he did when I went to a talk of his about 10 years ago.
'The human brain might be the only only thing in existence capable of giving meaning to the universe'. (I paraphrase)
Recommended if you happen to get chance to go to the show.
I expect us to discover firm evidence of non human life in the universe within my lifetime, and I’m not exactly a teenager
And no, this does not necessarily mean aliens landing in Surrey, tho I do not rule out the possibility we are being visited/observed by *something*
It must be AI robots interested in probing our bottoms.
That isn't a (long term) insurmountable problem.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flight-Aphrodite-S-J-Morden/dp/14732285811 -
Our 3 litre dehumidifier is from the below company, though looks like they don't make that size anymore. It's big enough to help dry laundry in a small room, so you would need a larger one for a larger room.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
https://probreeze.com/product-category/dehumidifiers/
The NYT reviews are normally worth looking at.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-dehumidifier/
As are Which.
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/dehumidifiers/article/how-to-buy-the-best-dehumidifier-ay5gu4q77WQN0 -
Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and letboulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by
people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted
kitchens.
This sort of goes back to the whole pre-fab situation (the answer IMHO to a lot of probs) that if there was a set of solutions with equipment made for it and houses, sewage pipes, waterproofed utilities, standardised designs etc etc then you could open up huge areas of land for housing.
I imagine the first oil rig in the North Sea effectively cost a fortune but every one afterwards cost less because you standardise the structure and materials and plant them.
A company that, and maybe an offshoot from the oil rig making industry. Could pre-pack the utilities and the structures married with a Huff-house type company would be able to build huge amounts of housing on otherwise tricky land. Also would create, I hope, lots of jobs in the pre-packed housing industry in the UK. Maybe that’s ridiculous…
5 -
400 sq metre plot (Even including road space) is humungous by Persimmon/Avant/Barratt's standards. So you'd probably need less area.FrankBooth said:
The vast majority of rural England is not built on. Admittedly some land would not be suitable.IshmaelZ said:
Yup. The trouble is, it can't be done sensibly or sustainably or any of that crap. It can only be done by abolishing rural England. That is the lesser of two evils vs condemning the poor to homelessness, but it is a crying shame and one which is not resisted purely to prop up house prices. But you can't do it without a bonfire of regulations.FrankBooth said:
I would agree with that. But it needs to be done sensibly. Not just 'bonfire of regulations.'BartholomewRoberts said:
Building more houses would solve everything.FrankBooth said:
I'm well aware of that. The reality is that we are a densely populated island (south of Leeds) and land is a fixed resource. Neither do we build the number of houses we actually need. Having a hands off approach to foreign property ownership is just asking for trouble.Sandpit said:
Very few countries bar foreigners from buying property, but many reserve areas for local housing with planning laws, and tax foreign-owned property, especially by non-residents.FrankBooth said:Ought we to allow non-residents to buy property in the UK? Can we generally buy property as we wish in their countries?
Or is this what funds our current account deficit?
Yes, it’s a big source of foreign capital into the UK which helps enormously with the current account deficit.
Despite what most of us on here may think of the UK and its government, to 90% of the rest of the world, it’s considered a safe haven from their own government, and property rights are well respected.
And devalue those houses people have bought as an investment. Win/win.
What is the footprint for a good size home and garden. Let's say 400 sq metres.
A million homes would be 400 million sq metres or 400 sq km.
England is 130,000 sq km.
So 0.3% of England's land mass. About the size of Rutland.
Have I missed something?
I've got about 5 new estates within a few miles of my house even though property values are comparitively cheap here. So houses are being built. In Bassetlaw.0 -
I am musing on building a self build for my retirement, but finding plots here is difficult. Easiest is to buy a derelict house or other building and demolish it, I think.
I have a rather idiosyncratic place in mind. Eco design bungalow with African/Australian style large veranda, internal courtyard, outdoor shower, cellar etc
Like this, but on a smaller scale.
https://www.houzz.com.au/photos/south-african-farmhouse-country-verandah-amsterdam-phvw-vp~11776721 -
I agree this would be a good way to go (although the oil rig example is a bad comparison because each one is built to unique specifications and become more expensive to deal with more and more extreme environments. Also the early ones had a nasty habit of falling over.) But that doesn't detract from your point.boulay said:Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and letboulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by
people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted
kitchens.
This sort of goes back to the whole pre-fab situation (the answer IMHO to a lot of probs) that if there was a set of solutions with equipment made for it and houses, sewage pipes, waterproofed utilities, standardised designs etc etc then you could open up huge areas of land for housing.
I imagine the first oil rig in the North Sea effectively cost a fortune but every one afterwards cost less because you standardise the structure and materials and plant them.
A company that, and maybe an offshoot from the oil rig making industry. Could pre-pack the utilities and the structures married with a Huff-house type company would be able to build huge amounts of housing on otherwise tricky land. Also would create, I hope, lots of jobs in the pre-packed housing industry in the UK. Maybe that’s ridiculous…
Pre packed wood framed building is massive in Europe. But again it has had little impact in the UK not least because of building regs.0 -
Happened to catch a story on NHK World a few weeks ago about a Japanese experiment in putting solar panels over parking lots. Done right, you could provide protection from the weather for the cars and drivers, and get some power as a bonus.
If there is a flaw in the idea, I don't see it.4 -
So they are slightly angled not flat, but not as much as ideally you would want to increase efficiency. However this is done for a reason and that's to reduce then acting like sails, is a balancing act. I read somewhere a while ago United utilities have installed another floating array, smaller installation 1MW compared to Godley's 3.5MW, but have the ability to change the angle depending on conditions.paulyork64 said:
Found them thanks. They look flat rather than angled to South. Is that right?theenglishborn said:
This is actually a very popular idea in certain circles, it has already been done near me, Godley reservoir near Hyde, Manchester you can see them on satellite view on Google maps. I know in places like California they use black floating balls to reduce evaporation, so why not make the area extra productive with solar panels.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.1 -
That's very popular in Arizona: pretty much all new parking lots have solar shades.Jim_Miller said:Happened to catch a story on NHK World a few weeks ago about a Japanese experiment in putting solar panels over parking lots. Done right, you could provide protection from the weather for the cars and drivers, and get some power as a bonus.
If there is a flaw in the idea, I don't see it.2 -
I did worry this would happen. Wartime production levels need to be much higher than peacetime levels. It needs government commitment to pay for new production lines.DecrepiterJohnL said:Britain runs low on ammo as Ukraine bombards Kremlin forces
Arms industry yet to ramp up production despite Ukraine's need for weapons
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/24/britain-runs-low-ammo-ukraine-bombards-kremlin-forces/ (£££)
Boris gave away arms stocks but never got round to ordering replacements. Likewise LizT but to be fair, she's not been in the job long.2 -
Upfront costs is all I can really think of. As EV become more popular I can see supermarkets looking into it for their parking charge pointsJim_Miller said:Happened to catch a story on NHK World a few weeks ago about a Japanese experiment in putting solar panels over parking lots. Done right, you could provide protection from the weather for the cars and drivers, and get some power as a bonus.
If there is a flaw in the idea, I don't see it.0 -
It looks amazing, Foxy. I know a few people who've done self-build, and it's pretty crucial to enjoy the process, as the ones who don't get unbearably frustrated, as there's always one more hold-up and the two-year project turns into four. But if you don't mind that and can afford it, it really does give them a sense of belonging and identity that you don't get if you just move to a random bungalow off Rightmove.Foxy said:I am musing on building a self build for my retirement, but finding plots here is difficult. Easiest is to buy a derelict house or other building and demolish it, I think.
I have a rather idiosyncratic place in mind. Eco design bungalow with African/Australian style large veranda, internal courtyard, outdoor shower, cellar etc
Like this, but on a smaller scale.
https://www.houzz.com.au/photos/south-african-farmhouse-country-verandah-amsterdam-phvw-vp~11776720 -
Sorry - I know absolutely fuck all about oil rigs or building frankly!Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree this would be a good way to go (although the oil rig example is a bad comparison because each one is built to unique specifications and become more expensive to deal with more and more extreme environments. Also the early ones had a nasty habit of falling over.) But that doesn't detract from your point.boulay said:Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and letboulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by
people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted
kitchens.
This sort of goes back to the whole pre-fab situation (the answer IMHO to a lot of probs) that if there was a set of solutions with equipment made for it and houses, sewage pipes, waterproofed utilities, standardised designs etc etc then you could open up huge areas of land for housing.
I imagine the first oil rig in the North Sea effectively cost a fortune but every one afterwards cost less because you standardise the structure and materials and plant them.
A company that, and maybe an offshoot from the oil rig making industry. Could pre-pack the utilities and the structures married with a Huff-house type company would be able to build huge amounts of housing on otherwise tricky land. Also would create, I hope, lots of jobs in the pre-packed housing industry in the UK. Maybe that’s ridiculous…
Pre packed wood framed building is massive in Europe. But again it has had little impact in the UK not least because of building regs.
The point is there are so many intelligent people working in the Uk who - if for example - the govt said “create a solution for this” in the way they did for munitions or inventions firming WW2 then I think great things could happen.
If they stopped controlling and basically let crazy chaps like bBarnes Wallis have a bit of space and a relatively small amount of
money try and fail and create them for the price they could create some great things.
Instead of sticking with the things that exist they need to try everything - if it’s good enough with taxes to take a “throw shot at the wall and see what works” approach then really open it up to inventors, mavericks, loons.
(The first b in bBarnes Wallis above is a silent “B”; his father dropped it as he felt it was pretentious).
3 -
Sounds like South London to me.OnlyLivingBoy said:I was in the Sainsbury's garage today waiting to pay, and a bloke ran out with his arms full of stuff he'd swiped off the shelves. This isn't a normal occurence, even in SE14. Society is fraying around the edges.
(i didn't chase after him, I am a loyal Sainsbury's shopper but not that loyal).0 -
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66560 -
Floatovoltaic I think it’s called. Would be a no brainer for the highly evaporative lake Nasser.theenglishborn said:
So they are slightly angled not flat, but not as much as ideally you would want to increase efficiency. However this is done for a reason and that's to reduce then acting like sails, is a balancing act. I read somewhere a while ago United utilities have installed another floating array, smaller installation 1MW compared to Godley's 3.5MW, but have the ability to change the angle depending on conditions.paulyork64 said:
Found them thanks. They look flat rather than angled to South. Is that right?theenglishborn said:
This is actually a very popular idea in certain circles, it has already been done near me, Godley reservoir near Hyde, Manchester you can see them on satellite view on Google maps. I know in places like California they use black floating balls to reduce evaporation, so why not make the area extra productive with solar panels.paulyork64 said:
Why can't they put the solar panels on the reservoir on floats? Geese wouldn't like it but evaporation would be lower.Richard_Tyndall said:
Yep that seems sensible to me. Certainly, the plan we have followed for the last century of simply increasing the size of existing towns and villages has been environmentally and socially disastrous. It has destroyed much precious and endangered habitat and has failed to provide the necessary infrastructure to support the increased numbers. New towns seems a far more sensible idea.TimS said:Here’s a supply side idea.
Find a part of the country that’s economically backward, fairly sparsely populated but geographically accessible. Somewhere in Lincolnshire or Norfolk perhaps. And go full on UAE: build one absolutely massive, brand new city.
- excellent multimodal transport links
- Housing capacity for a population of at least 1m people
- all buildings passive house levels of energy efficiency
- 100% renewables for electricity and heating
- Large designated industrial zones with generous tax incentives
- Vast new tourist facilities: theme parks, artificial beaches, skiing, casinos
- fully services for education, health and social care with the opportunity to innovate
- Might as well make it all weather and cover in a huge poly dome
Instead of faffing around with dozens of investment zones and hundreds of NIMBY challenges everywhere, just go big in one place.
As I mentioned last week they plan on putting new solar farms on 10,000 acres of farmland in North Lincolnshire. At the same time plans were announced earlier this week for a new reservoir in Lincolnshire covering 4,500 acres to provide water to Cambridge. That is 14,500 acres of land. (which for reference is an area larger than Swindon or Ipswich or Peterborough) The main reason being quoted for putting these facilities in Lincolnshire is that the land is cheaper than elsewhere further south.
So I would suggest some of that land towards the Lincolnshire coast would be well suited to a big new development like you describe.0 -
I rather took to this style of living when in Africa, and Australia and Mrs Foxy loves the style too.NickPalmer said:
It looks amazing, Foxy. I know a few people who've done self-build, and it's pretty crucial to enjoy the process, as the ones who don't get unbearably frustrated, as there's always one more hold-up and the two-year project turns into four. But if you don't mind that and can afford it, it really does give them a sense of belonging and identity that you don't get if you just move to a random bungalow off Rightmove.Foxy said:I am musing on building a self build for my retirement, but finding plots here is difficult. Easiest is to buy a derelict house or other building and demolish it, I think.
I have a rather idiosyncratic place in mind. Eco design bungalow with African/Australian style large veranda, internal courtyard, outdoor shower, cellar etc
Like this, but on a smaller scale.
https://www.houzz.com.au/photos/south-african-farmhouse-country-verandah-amsterdam-phvw-vp~1177672
I would plan some weatherproofing for the verandah. Can't completely rely on global warming!0 -
Did you enjoy the Sabaton gig ?rcs1000 said:
That's very popular in Arizona: pretty much all new parking lots have solar shades.Jim_Miller said:Happened to catch a story on NHK World a few weeks ago about a Japanese experiment in putting solar panels over parking lots. Done right, you could provide protection from the weather for the cars and drivers, and get some power as a bonus.
If there is a flaw in the idea, I don't see it.0 -
...
Open a window?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
2 -
Not much help if it's raining outside or you don't want to lose all your expensive heating to the neighborhood.Mexicanpete said:...
Open a window?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
1 -
I just assumed the sun always shines at Chez Horse.LostPassword said:
Not much help if it's raining outside or you don't want to lose all your expensive heating to the neighborhood.Mexicanpete said:...
Open a window?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
0 -
It’s not, of course.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1573365018808451072
Trump endorsed congressional candidate JR Majewski today says that the reason why there is no record of him serving in combat in Afghanistan in his service record is because it is “classified.”
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1573422579502702607
Thing about this guy: he served.
It was nothing spectacular. But he served. He spent a couple months loading planes in Qatar. They don't make movies about Air Force logistics guys, but he served. That's more than a lot of people did.
He could have ran on that record…0 -
Nobody would bet against Peston winning by a mile.boulay said:
“Strictly useless idiot” is going to be the next BBC Saturday night extravaganza where they get journalists together, like a cross between the apprentice and mastermind, and ask them to solve basic maths questions and send them outside of London to test their understanding of the general population.Luckyguy1983 said:Benpointer said:
Nah, not @Luckyguy1983. He may beCorrectHorseBattery3 said:
How much do the Kremlin pay you?Luckyguy1983 said:
The Americans are pursuing 'beggar thy neighbour' economical policies as they always have. We can't keep following them, so we should stay the course. If a dollar ends up worth 6 pounds, so be it.Sandpit said:
Indeed. Many people discussing the fall in the pound and of the London stock market, as a stick with which to beat the UK government, are missing the international picture. The issue is the strong dollar, against pretty much every other currency at the moment, caused mostly by the over-eagerness of the Fed to raise rates.BartholomewRoberts said:
The biggest problem is the Fed being too aggressive in raising rates causing the dollar to rise against every other currency.pigeon said:A tumbling pound is adding £5 to a tank of petrol by cancelling out the benefits of falling oil prices, according to the AA.
Another reminder that the government’s fiscal policy risks fuelling inflation.
https://twitter.com/PaulBrandITV/status/1573624635966558208
Of course, those riding around in Government limos don't have to worry about the cost of filling their tanks up.
The US has a considerably bigger deficit than the UK, but the Fed is jacking up rates by 0.75% a go while the BoE aren't.
an idiot but he's not a 'useful idiot' ;-)
Thanks. Strictly useless idiot here.2 -
That's very elegant, I would be lost there. My house is a workshop---electronic, mechanical and research---with the rigid proviso that no fuel powered engines can cross the threshold. Small wonder that my partner lives elsewhere.Foxy said:I am musing on building a self build for my retirement, but finding plots here is difficult. Easiest is to buy a derelict house or other building and demolish it, I think.
I have a rather idiosyncratic place in mind. Eco design bungalow with African/Australian style large veranda, internal courtyard, outdoor shower, cellar etc
Like this, but on a smaller scale.
https://www.houzz.com.au/photos/south-african-farmhouse-country-verandah-amsterdam-phvw-vp~11776720 -
Back from a lovely long holiday - has anything of note happened in the last few weeks?1
-
It must have made the Nova Scotians of Scots ancestry feel quite homesick.Jim_Miller said:Off topic, but important: Fiona, having damaged Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas, is now attacking eastern Canada: "One of the strongest storms ever to hit Canada slammed into Nova Scotia’s coastline early Saturday, leaving most of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island without power.
Former hurricane Fiona made landfall early Saturday over Guysborough county on the northeast corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of almost 81 mph, while peak gusts of over 100 mph were detected, it added."
source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/24/hurricane-fiona-nova-scotia-canada/
There are similar problems in Newfoundland.
When I wrote about it here, earlier this week, I mentioned this possibility, but said I expected it to weaken significantly before it hit Canada. That's what usually happens as hurricanes go north, but I was wrong this time.
So far there are no deaths reported, and I hope that continues ot be true, for our good neighbors to the north.0 -
Are you simply digging a deeper hole for yourself or are you digging a comprehensive drainage system?BartholomewRoberts said:
Not really, since as I said if a zone needs to be kept free due to environmental risks then with a sensible zoning system you zone that plain as not suitable for development.Richard_Tyndall said:
Ignoring the fact that the act of building on flood plains pushes the floods further downstream and floods other houses which were previously safe. Yet again you display remarkable ignorance for the reason for planning regulations. Something that is increasingly becoming a hallmark of your postings.BartholomewRoberts said:
None of which should be linked to an individual home, except maybe that most people building an individual home for themselves would choose to avoid flood plains because it'll be harder to get insurance on a flood plain.IshmaelZ said:
InfrastructureFrankBooth said:
The vast majority of rural England is not built on. Admittedly some land would not be suitable.IshmaelZ said:
Yup. The trouble is, it can't be done sensibly or sustainably or any of that crap. It can only be done by abolishing rural England. That is the lesser of two evils vs condemning the poor to homelessness, but it is a crying shame and one which is not resisted purely to prop up house prices. But you can't do it without a bonfire of regulations.FrankBooth said:
I would agree with that. But it needs to be done sensibly. Not just 'bonfire of regulations.'BartholomewRoberts said:
Building more houses would solve everything.FrankBooth said:
I'm well aware of that. The reality is that we are a densely populated island (south of Leeds) and land is a fixed resource. Neither do we build the number of houses we actually need. Having a hands off approach to foreign property ownership is just asking for trouble.Sandpit said:
Very few countries bar foreigners from buying property, but many reserve areas for local housing with planning laws, and tax foreign-owned property, especially by non-residents.FrankBooth said:Ought we to allow non-residents to buy property in the UK? Can we generally buy property as we wish in their countries?
Or is this what funds our current account deficit?
Yes, it’s a big source of foreign capital into the UK which helps enormously with the current account deficit.
Despite what most of us on here may think of the UK and its government, to 90% of the rest of the world, it’s considered a safe haven from their own government, and property rights are well respected.
And devalue those houses people have bought as an investment. Win/win.
What is the footprint for a good size home and garden. Let's say 400 sq metres.
A million homes would be 400 million sq metres or 400 sq km.
England is 130,000 sq km.
So 0.3% of England's land mass. About the size of Rutland.
Have I missed something?
Roads
Flood plains
Highlands
If they build on a flood plain and an insurer is prepared to insure them, then that's their responsibility.
I never said build anywhere, I said build on zones where development is acceptable. If development is unacceptable there, it should be zoned that way, then its not a problem that its not developed.
The problem with our system, as we discussed the other day, is that unlike nations like Belgium and Netherlands with zonal development systems whereby its easy to build a new home in approved zones so most people self-build, in this country the planning system is so messed up that only developers navigate it.0 -
His dad was a very self effacing man. Someone with less bounce, is not something you would eder see.boulay said:
Sorry - I know absolutely fuck all about oil rigs or building frankly!Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree this would be a good way to go (although the oil rig example is a bad comparison because each one is built to unique specifications and become more expensive to deal with more and more extreme environments. Also the early ones had a nasty habit of falling over.) But that doesn't detract from your point.boulay said:Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and letboulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by
people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted
kitchens.
This sort of goes back to the whole pre-fab situation (the answer IMHO to a lot of probs) that if there was a set of solutions with equipment made for it and houses, sewage pipes, waterproofed utilities, standardised designs etc etc then you could open up huge areas of land for housing.
I imagine the first oil rig in the North Sea effectively cost a fortune but every one afterwards cost less because you standardise the structure and materials and plant them.
A company that, and maybe an offshoot from the oil rig making industry. Could pre-pack the utilities and the structures married with a Huff-house type company would be able to build huge amounts of housing on otherwise tricky land. Also would create, I hope, lots of jobs in the pre-packed housing industry in the UK. Maybe that’s ridiculous…
Pre packed wood framed building is massive in Europe. But again it has had little impact in the UK not least because of building regs.
The point is there are so many intelligent people working in the Uk who - if for example - the govt said “create a solution for this” in the way they did for munitions or inventions firming WW2 then I think great things could happen.
If they stopped controlling and basically let crazy chaps like bBarnes Wallis have a bit of space and a relatively small amount of
money try and fail and create them for the price they could create some great things.
Instead of sticking with the things that exist they need to try everything - if it’s good enough with taxes to take a “throw shot at the wall and see what works” approach then really open it up to inventors, mavericks, loons.
(The first b in bBarnes Wallis above is a silent “B”; his father dropped it as he felt it was pretentious).
2 -
Along the lines of Leon’s Brexit/pregnancy metaphor.
A live look at the economy…
https://twitter.com/caroljsroth/status/15472460365230489621 -
Has Truss actually been very clever in appointing a Chancellor whose name lends itself to puns and witticisms - Kwasinomics, Kamikwasi etc - so that people won't be linking these economic policies to her personally?0
-
I think that may be wrong.LostPassword said:
Not much help if it's raining outside or you don't want to lose all your expensive heating to the neighborhood.Mexicanpete said:...
Open a window?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
One council, may have been Bournemouth, recommended opening windows for a short period to keep your house warm, in addition to the more usual removing condensation.
Idea was that a change of air in winter pretty much always brought in dryer air than indoor air full of all that breathing, showering, gas hob use etc. and the easier job of bringing dry air up to temperature would more than compensate 20 minutes of heat loss.
That would include in a rainstorm - water saturated air at 5 degrees would still carry less water than somewhat humid indoor air at 18 degrees.2 -
If offices are going to reduce the temperature to 18C to save energy costs, they will need to allow women workers to wear onesies at work.DecrepiterJohnL said:
Isn't running cooler temperatures discriminatory against women? For instance, from seven years ago:Carnyx said:
Hmm, take your dog to work and keep your feet warm.carnforth said:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/shortcuts/2015/aug/04/new-cold-war-why-women-chilly-at-work-air-conditioning1 -
Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA1 -
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66560 -
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA1 -
Let's have a shout out for the Sandringham Estate Cottage Horticultural Society, just as worthy of support.Casino_Royale said:I've got round to this very late but, after reviewing all 600+ of The Queen's charities, I've decided to donate to the following - one's that speak to both me and her, and I am pleased to support:
- GOSH hospital
- Girl Guides
- National Churches Trust
- Royal Historical Society
- Royal Forestry Society
2 - GOSH hospital
-
The party of high taxation!HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.
1 -
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66560 -
Fairliered jnr. is in the early stages of a self build. Planners, contractors, etc. have all been helpful. Lenders, considerably less so. BTW he is in @RochdalePioneers territory.Richard_Tyndall said:
To follow on from this posting on the issue of self build.Richard_Tyndall said:
Nope. As someone who has been involved in 3 separate self build projects going back over 50 years or more (the first was my dad building his own house in 1970) I can assure you that planning permission is not the issue. The massive issue is building regs which become ever more labyrinthine and unsuited to small scale home building.BartholomewRoberts said:
Not really, since as I said if a zone needs to be kept free due to environmental risks then with a sensible zoning system you zone that plain as not suitable for development.Richard_Tyndall said:
Ignoring the fact that the act of building on flood plains pushes the floods further downstream and floods other houses which were previously safe. Yet again you display remarkable ignorance for the reason for planning regulations. Something that is increasingly becoming a hallmark of your postings.BartholomewRoberts said:
None of which should be linked to an individual home, except maybe that most people building an individual home for themselves would choose to avoid flood plains because it'll be harder to get insurance on a flood plain.IshmaelZ said:
InfrastructureFrankBooth said:
The vast majority of rural England is not built on. Admittedly some land would not be suitable.IshmaelZ said:
Yup. The trouble is, it can't be done sensibly or sustainably or any of that crap. It can only be done by abolishing rural England. That is the lesser of two evils vs condemning the poor to homelessness, but it is a crying shame and one which is not resisted purely to prop up house prices. But you can't do it without a bonfire of regulations.FrankBooth said:
I would agree with that. But it needs to be done sensibly. Not just 'bonfire of regulations.'BartholomewRoberts said:
Building more houses would solve everything.FrankBooth said:
I'm well aware of that. The reality is that we are a densely populated island (south of Leeds) and land is a fixed resource. Neither do we build the number of houses we actually need. Having a hands off approach to foreign property ownership is just asking for trouble.Sandpit said:
Very few countries bar foreigners from buying property, but many reserve areas for local housing with planning laws, and tax foreign-owned property, especially by non-residents.FrankBooth said:Ought we to allow non-residents to buy property in the UK? Can we generally buy property as we wish in their countries?
Or is this what funds our current account deficit?
Yes, it’s a big source of foreign capital into the UK which helps enormously with the current account deficit.
Despite what most of us on here may think of the UK and its government, to 90% of the rest of the world, it’s considered a safe haven from their own government, and property rights are well respected.
And devalue those houses people have bought as an investment. Win/win.
What is the footprint for a good size home and garden. Let's say 400 sq metres.
A million homes would be 400 million sq metres or 400 sq km.
England is 130,000 sq km.
So 0.3% of England's land mass. About the size of Rutland.
Have I missed something?
Roads
Flood plains
Highlands
If they build on a flood plain and an insurer is prepared to insure them, then that's their responsibility.
I never said build anywhere, I said build on zones where development is acceptable. If development is unacceptable there, it should be zoned that way, then its not a problem that its not developed.
The problem with our system, as we discussed the other day, is that unlike nations like Belgium and Netherlands with zonal development systems whereby its easy to build a new home in approved zones so most people self-build, in this country the planning system is so messed up that only developers navigate it.
As I said the other day, the default position of planning decisions is to permit. Indeed we already zone for development in this country - it is called the local plan. The problem is that as soon as that land is zoned for development the big companies buy it up and sit on it.
One change we could make (and should) is to return to the practice of 30 years ago or more whereby the developer had to pay the specific costs of developing the infrastructure - schools, doctors etc. This no longer happens as the law now allows them to make a smaller up front payment to the local council who then spend that money and don't build the infrastructure.
There are many things wrong with our housebuilding system but planning is not the big one. Stop the developers sitting on vast tracts of land with planning permission for years and that will make a big difference.
The three biggest factors preventing the growth of self build in the UK (apart from the fact there is not much of a tradition of it at the moment)
1. Lack of land being made available exclusively for self building rather than developers. In Holland the local authority pays for all the infrastructure to be put in place (roads, sewerage, etc) prior to selling the plots and the costs are recouped through the cost of buying the plot. These estates are exclusively for the self builder. No developers allowed.
2. Most institutions won't lend to self builders. All three projects I have been involved with needed a complex arrangement of bridging loans and raising private funds or remortgaging an existing property to be able to pay for the self build.
3. Building regs which become more complex by the year. The only way the most recent project I was involved with was able to proceed was because the local building inspector was a decent bloke who put in many extra hours outside of his normal workload helping the owner understand and navigate the regulations.1 -
Say a flood is 5 x river capacity. you can't really hope to dredge a river to 2 x what it was undredged. therefore you are stressing the river infrastructure (embankments, banks, bridges, everything) by doubling the load on it (probably a square or cube thing actually so x 4 or x 8) and only slightly ameliorating the flood problem.ydoethur said:
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66561 -
Leon went to Portugal and Spain and posted some pictures. He also got banned for posting AI images, but he's back on both counts now, so quite eventful really.Tres said:Back from a lovely long holiday - has anything of note happened in the last few weeks?
0 -
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
And the gas oven shouldDynamo said:
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.
a) run off bottled gas, not mains gas, and
b) not require electricity to be lit, with the same applying to the rings and to the grill if it's got one - in other words you should be able to light it with a match.
It's possible to trust that the oligarchs and the Tory government will prioritise keeping the national grid functioning properly and maintaining the supply of mains gas, but only a fool would be so credulous.
0 -
Don’t be daft! Dead ducks are more important than dead humans.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
1 -
I rather suspect a lot of +£150K earners are actually wondering why the hell they have been handed a few grand they don't need at this particualr time.HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
You can stress the load on infrastructure by having floods where they are, as well. A load of five times capacity in one place is worse than a doubled stress everywhere, if maintenance is done properly (appreciate that's quite an 'if'). It's all about trade offs.IshmaelZ said:
Say a flood is 5 x river capacity. you can't really hope to dredge a river to 2 x what it was undredged. therefore you are stressing the river infrastructure (embankments, banks, bridges, everything) by doubling the load on it (probably a square or cube thing actually so x 4 or x 8) and only slightly ameliorating the flood problem.ydoethur said:
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
However, from what you're saying it wouldn't help much. Flood plains are part of the infrastructure in itself, designed to swallow excess water, and building on them is an exceptionally stupid idea. Have people forgotten Lynmouth?0 -
Lose the RedWall regain Mayfair?HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
Well, I can see why Truss would think that after the last two days...personal interest and all that.Fairliered said:
Don’t be daft! Dead ducks are more important than dead humans.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i66561 -
Easy to do in Bournemouth. Most of the residents predate central heating and double glazing.Pro_Rata said:
I think that may be wrong.LostPassword said:
Not much help if it's raining outside or you don't want to lose all your expensive heating to the neighborhood.Mexicanpete said:...
Open a window?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:Anyone got a dehumidifier recommendation?
One council, may have been Bournemouth, recommended opening windows for a short period to keep your house warm, in addition to the more usual removing condensation.
Idea was that a change of air in winter pretty much always brought in dryer air than indoor air full of all that breathing, showering, gas hob use etc. and the easier job of bringing dry air up to temperature would more than compensate 20 minutes of heat loss.
That would include in a rainstorm - water saturated air at 5 degrees would still carry less water than somewhat humid indoor air at 18 degrees.0 -
Ah Dynamo. Good to see you back. I had a revelation today that you were either Seamus Milne or Alan Quartley. - don’t care either way but think I get it now.Dynamo said:
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes
horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.
0 -
Lose the Redwall but regain Mayfair and Chesham and Amersham and hold Surrey seems to be the Truss and Kwarteng strategyMexicanpete said:
Lose the RedWall regain Mayfair?HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA1 -
Yes, I know a few (one is in fact a very highly-paid banker), and without exception they think it embarrassing and quite ridiculous.rottenborough said:
I rather suspect a lot of +£150K earners are actually wondering why the hell they have been handed a few grand they don't need at this particualr time.HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
You have answered your own question. A flood plain just gets wet and then drains, a bridge washes away. Therefore better to stress the flood plain because there's nothing to break there, unless an arse has built a house on it, which is purely his problem.ydoethur said:
You can stress the load on infrastructure by having floods where they are, as well. A load of five times capacity in one place is worse than a doubled stress everywhere, if maintenance is done properly (appreciate that's quite an 'if'). It's all about trade offs.IshmaelZ said:
Say a flood is 5 x river capacity. you can't really hope to dredge a river to 2 x what it was undredged. therefore you are stressing the river infrastructure (embankments, banks, bridges, everything) by doubling the load on it (probably a square or cube thing actually so x 4 or x 8) and only slightly ameliorating the flood problem.ydoethur said:
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
However, from what you're saying it wouldn't help much. Flood plains are part of the infrastructure in itself, designed to swallow excess water, and building on them is an exceptionally stupid idea. Have people forgotten Lynmouth?
1 -
An entirely rubbish point, where do dead ducks come in to it?Fairliered said:
Don’t be daft! Dead ducks are more important than dead humans.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
0 -
Wasn't she against 'stalinist' housing targets? Doesn't sound like someone trying to make planning in general easier.IshmaelZ said:
Lizzie "no sun farms on sheep farms and let's pump house prices by fucking with stamp duty" Truss?BartholomewRoberts said:
Reading that thread it absolutely sounds like NIMBYism to me.TimS said:
No, now they’re “the woke National Trust” for their exhibits about slavery like “the woke RNLI” who pick up migrants in boats.El_Capitano said:
Hahaha. Full marks.Leon said:
#1,005,315?El_Capitano said:
It's PB commentary like this - in which a boomer who wrote a sub-Loaded novel about meeting women online (currently at #1,005,315 in the Kindle Store) tries to impress us all by claiming he reads the FT - that makes me glad I don't spend too much time in the more credulous corners of the internet.Leon said:
It’s PB commentary like this - in which a semi-retired GP from suburban Leicester rules out the possibility of interstellar travel - which makes me read the FTFoxy said:
I do think that the medical difficulties of life in space are such that travel to other solar systems would be fatal. The same probably is true of aliens.Carnyx said:
I'm sure you will let us know if any grey-skinned little biped takes a suspiciously close interest in your botty.Leon said:
I follow this debate quite closely. As we discover evermore exoplanets, many of them strikingly receptive to life as we know it, the chances of life having evolved elsewhere in the universe have gone up by orders of magnitudeBenpointer said:
You'd be right to be skeptical - except Cox doesn't claim to have conclusively worked out anything.Leon said:
Personally, I’m a tad skeptical that the entire structure and meaning of the universe and all possibilities of life therein, have now been conclusively worked out by the keyboardist from D:ReamBenpointer said:O/T
Went to the Brian Cox 'Horizons' show last night. Very good. Seems like it's an interesting time for astrophysics as our understanding of black holes raises more and more questions about the nature of the universe.
Interestingly for all you alien hunters, Cox sounds decidedly more hesitant about the certainty of other intelligent life than he did when I went to a talk of his about 10 years ago.
'The human brain might be the only only thing in existence capable of giving meaning to the universe'. (I paraphrase)
Recommended if you happen to get chance to go to the show.
I expect us to discover firm evidence of non human life in the universe within my lifetime, and I’m not exactly a teenager
And no, this does not necessarily mean aliens landing in Surrey, tho I do not rule out the possibility we are being visited/observed by *something*
It must be AI robots interested in probing our bottoms.
On which note, I spent the afternoon at a village beer festival one mile from David Cameron's house. Fair to say that the Tory-curious demographic of 2010 has dissipated. The Blue Wall is the Lib Dems' for the taking, if only they have the dedication to do so. I suspect they don't.
I must have sold a copy!
Earlier today I mentioned the RSPB having come out against Truss's latest bonfire of regulation, and said there were only two organisations that you'd want to keep more on side for the traditional Tory vote: the National Trust and the RNLI.
Guess what? The National Trust has just endorsed the RSPB's statement. They have a membership of 5.3 million. Most of them, I guess, were Tory voters.
https://twitter.com/nationaltrust/status/1573604451847380994
RSPB just the latest national treasure to find itself on the opposite side of the Tory culture war, though the woke label is harder to stick on them. NIMBY is more likely (and to be fair birdwatchers have not historically been averse to a bit of nimbyism).
If Truss tells the NIMBYs to go to hell then she'll be a legend in my eyes. 👍
If you looked for two seconds at her utterances and actions your hard on for her would detumesce like a birthday balloon attacked with a chainsaw.0 -
On the current showing, perhaps the Tories are right not to take their heartlands for granted.HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA1 -
Yes, but you do actually want it to drain, and dredging can help with that. Otherwise you get blockages which can cause worse problems (as indeed happened in Lynmouth).IshmaelZ said:
You have answered your own question. A flood plain just gets wet and then drains, a bridge washes away. Therefore better to stress the flood plain because there's nothing to break there, unless an arse has built a house on it, which is purely his problem.ydoethur said:
You can stress the load on infrastructure by having floods where they are, as well. A load of five times capacity in one place is worse than a doubled stress everywhere, if maintenance is done properly (appreciate that's quite an 'if'). It's all about trade offs.IshmaelZ said:
Say a flood is 5 x river capacity. you can't really hope to dredge a river to 2 x what it was undredged. therefore you are stressing the river infrastructure (embankments, banks, bridges, everything) by doubling the load on it (probably a square or cube thing actually so x 4 or x 8) and only slightly ameliorating the flood problem.ydoethur said:
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
However, from what you're saying it wouldn't help much. Flood plains are part of the infrastructure in itself, designed to swallow excess water, and building on them is an exceptionally stupid idea. Have people forgotten Lynmouth?0 -
Got back from Manchester late last night. Trains were actually OK.
Took some night shots of Media City on Wednesday. Not sure if this image will come out OK on PB, but FWIW:
6 -
Other way round, actually. Anything with horse in it is posh.Dynamo said:
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.
0 -
A lot of land that does flood semi regularly can actually be very well mitigated such that housing there is not a particular concern.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
But developers do still push their luck on that aspect, and some still gets through which shouldn't in that regard.0 -
Have you seen what hapless birdies do to to support interloper cukoos? Naive libtard suckers, the RSPB must condemn!TimS said:
No, now they’re “the woke National Trust” for their exhibits about slavery like “the woke RNLI” who pick up migrants in boats.El_Capitano said:
Hahaha. Full marks.Leon said:
#1,005,315?El_Capitano said:
It's PB commentary like this - in which a boomer who wrote a sub-Loaded novel about meeting women online (currently at #1,005,315 in the Kindle Store) tries to impress us all by claiming he reads the FT - that makes me glad I don't spend too much time in the more credulous corners of the internet.Leon said:
It’s PB commentary like this - in which a semi-retired GP from suburban Leicester rules out the possibility of interstellar travel - which makes me read the FTFoxy said:
I do think that the medical difficulties of life in space are such that travel to other solar systems would be fatal. The same probably is true of aliens.Carnyx said:
I'm sure you will let us know if any grey-skinned little biped takes a suspiciously close interest in your botty.Leon said:
I follow this debate quite closely. As we discover evermore exoplanets, many of them strikingly receptive to life as we know it, the chances of life having evolved elsewhere in the universe have gone up by orders of magnitudeBenpointer said:
You'd be right to be skeptical - except Cox doesn't claim to have conclusively worked out anything.Leon said:
Personally, I’m a tad skeptical that the entire structure and meaning of the universe and all possibilities of life therein, have now been conclusively worked out by the keyboardist from D:ReamBenpointer said:O/T
Went to the Brian Cox 'Horizons' show last night. Very good. Seems like it's an interesting time for astrophysics as our understanding of black holes raises more and more questions about the nature of the universe.
Interestingly for all you alien hunters, Cox sounds decidedly more hesitant about the certainty of other intelligent life than he did when I went to a talk of his about 10 years ago.
'The human brain might be the only only thing in existence capable of giving meaning to the universe'. (I paraphrase)
Recommended if you happen to get chance to go to the show.
I expect us to discover firm evidence of non human life in the universe within my lifetime, and I’m not exactly a teenager
And no, this does not necessarily mean aliens landing in Surrey, tho I do not rule out the possibility we are being visited/observed by *something*
It must be AI robots interested in probing our bottoms.
On which note, I spent the afternoon at a village beer festival one mile from David Cameron's house. Fair to say that the Tory-curious demographic of 2010 has dissipated. The Blue Wall is the Lib Dems' for the taking, if only they have the dedication to do so. I suspect they don't.
I must have sold a copy!
Earlier today I mentioned the RSPB having come out against Truss's latest bonfire of regulation, and said there were only two organisations that you'd want to keep more on side for the traditional Tory vote: the National Trust and the RNLI.
Guess what? The National Trust has just endorsed the RSPB's statement. They have a membership of 5.3 million. Most of them, I guess, were Tory voters.
https://twitter.com/nationaltrust/status/1573604451847380994
RSPB just the latest national treasure to find itself on the opposite side of the Tory culture war, though the woke label is harder to stick on them. NIMBY is more likely (and to be fair birdwatchers have not historically been averse to a bit of nimbyism).0 -
NeighIshmaelZ said:
Other way round, actually. Anything with horse in it is posh.Dynamo said:
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.0 -
Let’s see their planning ‘reforms’ first. Johnson was forced to withdraw his under the weight of protests from Tory councillors in Surrey and other areas. If Truss and Simon Clarke are seen as the developers’ friends with local democracy by-passed, expect a further wipe out in May’s local elections and beyond.HYUFD said:
Lose the Redwall but regain Mayfair and Chesham and Amersham and hold Surrey seems to be the Truss and Kwarteng strategyMexicanpete said:
Lose the RedWall regain Mayfair?HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA1 -
The Lynmouth blockages seem to have been trees and boulders dislodged by the flood itself. Drdging would not have helped with that.ydoethur said:
Yes, but you do actually want it to drain, and dredging can help with that. Otherwise you get blockages which can cause worse problems (as indeed happened in Lynmouth).IshmaelZ said:
You have answered your own question. A flood plain just gets wet and then drains, a bridge washes away. Therefore better to stress the flood plain because there's nothing to break there, unless an arse has built a house on it, which is purely his problem.ydoethur said:
You can stress the load on infrastructure by having floods where they are, as well. A load of five times capacity in one place is worse than a doubled stress everywhere, if maintenance is done properly (appreciate that's quite an 'if'). It's all about trade offs.IshmaelZ said:
Say a flood is 5 x river capacity. you can't really hope to dredge a river to 2 x what it was undredged. therefore you are stressing the river infrastructure (embankments, banks, bridges, everything) by doubling the load on it (probably a square or cube thing actually so x 4 or x 8) and only slightly ameliorating the flood problem.ydoethur said:
Why, out of interest?IshmaelZ said:
Terrible advice.Luckyguy1983 said:
Dredge the river.IshmaelZ said:
There's a new development outside Launceston called Kensey Valley Meadow, the Kensey being a river. Floods like fuck, and there is a sewage works in the floodplain.Carnyx said:
Brave name for a development (next to the River Culm in Devon, as it happens), calling it Water Meadow: no idea of the actual flood risk.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8514795,-3.3902935,3a,27.1y,133.17h,86.62t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szmuyT0XvA3J54SC9yxMJRA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
However, from what you're saying it wouldn't help much. Flood plains are part of the infrastructure in itself, designed to swallow excess water, and building on them is an exceptionally stupid idea. Have people forgotten Lynmouth?
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Certainly if those development plans encroach too much on the greenbelt yesJohnO said:
Let’s see their planning ‘reforms’ first. Johnson was forced to withdraw his under the weight of protests from Tory councillors in Surrey and other areas. If Truss and Simon Clarke are seen as the developers’ friends with local democracy by-passed, expect a further wipe out in May’s local elections and beyond.HYUFD said:
Lose the Redwall but regain Mayfair and Chesham and Amersham and hold Surrey seems to be the Truss and Kwarteng strategyMexicanpete said:
Lose the RedWall regain Mayfair?HYUFD said:
Though a few seats with ultra high earners like Cities of London and Westminster and Kensington are Labour target seats at the next general electionChris said:
They've fallen into the cunning trap designed to decimate their support among the ultra-high earners,HYUFD said:Labour confirms it would reverse Kwarteng's top rate of tax cuts if elected at the next general election
https://twitter.com/KarlTurnerMP/status/1573593107366559747?s=20&t=0ELUvCsWnnPprW8iqRaavA0 -
This wont happen simple reason being everyone likes to moan and vote down everything.boulay said:
Sorry - I know absolutely fuck all about oil rigs or building frankly!Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree this would be a good way to go (although the oil rig example is a bad comparison because each one is built to unique specifications and become more expensive to deal with more and more extreme environments. Also the early ones had a nasty habit of falling over.) But that doesn't detract from your point.boulay said:Richard_Tyndall said:
I agree. It is possible. But it is expensive. Actually, in flood areas it is easier to follow the old traditions. Stone flagged floors, no plaster or paper on walls and all furniture removable to upper storeys. You see this in some towns in the lake district. When the floods arrive you open all the doors and letboulay said:
Ok - but there are enough bright people surely to design housing areas where the sewerage is buried and the houses are raised - if you live in an area that gets massively flooded I’m assuming the worst thing is that all your possessions, the electrics etc get buggered by the flooding.Richard_Tyndall said:
Most of those places don't worry about things like sewerage systems. Not sure it is a model we should be following.boulay said:Forgive me for being an absolute idiot but in floodplains why don’t they build houses on stilts and give everyone a fan-boat?
Apparently there are parts of the world people live in that are quite waterlogged and they cope.
If you have a house on stilts then the horrors are at least massively reduced to your possessions.
With all the technology and experience in the world surely it’s not above engineers and architects to design buildings and infrastructure that mitigates against the worst of flooding and frees up land rather than just saying “it’s a bit difficult so let’s not bother”?
Just to Edit, Richard I believe you work in the oil industry - people didn’t just say “shot the oil is under the sea bed” they worked out how to make pipes and tubes and drills and platforms to get to it - you of all people could work out how to build such areas?
the water flow through. The trouble is that these houses have now been bought by
people who want to put carpets and laminate flooring down and have fitted
kitchens.
This sort of goes back to the whole pre-fab situation (the answer IMHO to a lot of probs) that if there was a set of solutions with equipment made for it and houses, sewage pipes, waterproofed utilities, standardised designs etc etc then you could open up huge areas of land for housing.
I imagine the first oil rig in the North Sea effectively cost a fortune but every one afterwards cost less because you standardise the structure and materials and plant them.
A company that, and maybe an offshoot from the oil rig making industry. Could pre-pack the utilities and the structures married with a Huff-house type company would be able to build huge amounts of housing on otherwise tricky land. Also would create, I hope, lots of jobs in the pre-packed housing industry in the UK. Maybe that’s ridiculous…
Pre packed wood framed building is massive in Europe. But again it has had little impact in the UK not least because of building regs.
The point is there are so many intelligent people working in the Uk who - if for example - the govt said “create a solution for this” in the way they did for munitions or inventions firming WW2 then I think great things could happen.
If they stopped controlling and basically let crazy chaps like bBarnes Wallis have a bit of space and a relatively small amount of
money try and fail and create them for the price they could create some great things.
Instead of sticking with the things that exist they need to try everything - if it’s good enough with taxes to take a “throw shot at the wall and see what works” approach then really open it up to inventors, mavericks, loons.
(The first b in bBarnes Wallis above is a silent “B”; his father dropped it as he felt it was pretentious).
Like earlier I proposed clawback for pensioners and was castigated because pensioners are poor even though it would only really hit the well off pensioners. Chided by the same sort of people who are here day after day going bloody pensioners hoarding all the money and robbing the young1 -
If there wasn't enough going on #chinacoup is trending on twitter.0
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Oh dear, Liz Truss’s new Chief of Staff seems to have quite an irregular contractual arrangement.
https://twitter.com/gabriel_pogrund/status/1573720354555678720?s=46&t=wZTjBKjF_ZcDF3fTIQ7L6A
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https://twitter.com/OpiniumResearch/status/1573749108543627269?t=tjb0tSUEWiM7f84EeTodNg&s=19
Opinium very cleverly leaving out 'reduce taxes and retain current levels of public spending'0 -
Best thing is a Dutch dryer. We use it all the timeIshmaelZ said:
Other way round, actually. Anything with horse in it is posh.Dynamo said:
Is "drying rack" what posh people call a clothes horse?BartholomewRoberts said:
Kids.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
What is the point in a tumble dryer? Can't you just stick your clothes up around the house or buy a heated drying rack like I've got. Never seen the point in owning one.Sandpit said:
Tumble dryers should be high on the list for the public information campaign - they use an inordinate amount of electricity, more than any other single appliance. After turning down the room temperature, avoiding the tumble dryer is the single best thing you can do to reduce the winter bills.paulyork64 said:
we've had heating on for about 1 hour this month. just got my last bill and we used £14.32 in gas last month. with the £400 rebate our bill will be about £5.60 per month october to march. crazy. Stepdaughter and her 3 children live in a colder house and seem addicted to doing laundry and using the tumble drier so they can have our £400.CorrectHorseBattery3 said:
My heating isn't yet on at all.wooliedyed said:
Its already cold enough that heating set to minimum levels will start kicking in at times. Proper cold any time from November?CorrectHorseBattery3 said:When do we think it's going to start getting properly cold? I see a few 15 degree high days coming up but they're few and far between.
As a young adult I was very happy to use drying racks or radiators etc for mine and then my wife's clothes.
But with a family, doing a family's load of laundry, tumble dryers are a blessing.
Especially since cleaning a house with a couple of young kids is in itself much more of a chore, without even thinking about laundry it's like running on a treadmill just to stand still so anything that helps like dryers are very useful, especially in winter.
The best place to hang wet clothes if you cannot afford to run radiators is on a clothes horse in front of a coal fire or an open oven door. You will be using the gas oven for heating anyway if you haven't got a coal fire or if you can only afford to heat one room, in which case it should be the kitchen for obvious reasons.0
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