General Election - 4th July 2024

[Worsleyweb]

You honestly think taxes aren’t going up if the Tories get in?

That wasn't the question or discussion? We will never know will we.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

That wasn't the question or discussion? We will never know will we.

It’s perfectly relevant to the point you raised.

You could try answering the question.

 

[bluenova]

Another radical suggestion from the Tory-lites ;)

Interesting that the election/polling expert Rob Ford suggests that it's fairly neutral for Labour in terms of votes, as the areas with low voter registration tend to be Labour strongholds. I'm sure the Telegraph will be quick to explain that seat boundaries are decided based on the electoral register, and not how many people live in an area - so we could get a much fairer balance of MPs in future.

Labour to bring in automatic voter registration under plans to boost franchise

Exclusive: Party’s voting reform proposals could add millions more people to electoral roll for future polls

www.theguardian.com

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Yes course i did. How can i argue against that.

Well at least you are honest. Would you support legislation that made it more difficult/less financially rewarding to be a landlord if it gave people the opportunity of owning their own home, secure tenancies or have a council house?

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I just checked your first line - unless i am mistaken - UK population has grown 5.2 million last 14 years. Number of homes built 2.1 million. Factor in the increased number of single person households in that period and you can see why we have a problem. We started the baseline we are discussing with a housing shortfall and we are exacerbating it. I am seeing 1 bed apartments for rent in Town at £1700 - yes £1700! That tells you the issue.

I think the figures I read (and it was a couple of months ago, so sorry if I can't remember exactly) must have been referring to housing in terms of how many people it could house rather than the actual number of houses then. Because of course you don't need a house per person. I did write about it at a bit more length in another thread (because I remember London in particular had built more than enough in theory), but I'm fucked if I can find it now.

ETA: Ah yeah, I remember now. If you do it as a percentage, then the number of houses has increased faster than the population. The houses have increased by 8% and the population was 6.9%.

I don't deny, of course, that there are other factors like single person occupancy, but all of these things are fairly moderate and should in no way result in the absolutely insane increases in property prices we've seen in the same period. That's down to speculation and asset accumulation, particularly by the extremely wealthy.

 

[bluenova]

I just checked your first line - unless i am mistaken - UK population has grown 5.2 million last 14 years. Number of homes built 2.1 million. Factor in the increased number of single person households in that period and you can see why we have a problem. We started the baseline we are discussing with a housing shortfall and we are exacerbating it. I am seeing 1 bed apartments for rent in Town at £1700 - yes £1700! That tells you the issue.

I suppose you'd need to know the breakdown of those 2.1m houses, but average occupancy is approx 2.36 people so if the figures for houses built/population are correct, then it's pretty much even. Enough houses for approx 5m people.

The average size of households hasn't increased during that time either - it's been pretty static for the last twenty years.

 

[Bluesince1979]

I never claimed it was.

I never said you did.

 

[The blue phantom]

A week before the last Election Corbyn/Labour were around 28/1. This Time round just look at the price the Tory filth currently are

 

[Fred_Quimby]

We could start by having a mass build of prefabricated houses, similar to what happened after WW2. Prefabs nowadays are of much higher standard than previously. These would give an easy supply of cheap rented accommodation, quickly built giving a cheap accommodation and income to local authorities. This is a win, win with cheap rents leaving people with more money in their pockets.

 

[Worsleyweb]

Well at least you are honest. Would you support legislation that made it more difficult/less financially rewarding to be a landlord if it gave people the opportunity of owning their own home, secure tenancies or have a council house?

In part yes - rent controls have however practically turned off investment in property in Scotland making the supply and demand imbalance even worse and to the severe detriment of the economy. Raynor will no doubt want to introduce that down here I don't have all the answers on this - but planning law needs a good look at. Had to be made easier to develop new homes. I think part of the answer must be to consider abolishment of stamp duty for young people, government backed deposits, an improved large scale PRS sector.

A stable housing minister will be much welcomed.