How Can We Tackle the Housing Crisis in Our Country?

Leannexxx I have read something pretty good which isn't going to solve the problem but Prince William is going to build some homes for homeless people down in Cornwall .

www.localgov.co.uk/Prince-William-announces-24-homes-for-homeless-people/58878 .

stuartsmith544 yeah I read that to but that's not gonna do anything yes there is homeless but there is families waiting on a list that can't afford private so have to use social housing the waiting list on that in my area alone is 16 years

Leannexxx Without getting political, yeah, this about wraps it up.

stuartsmith544 Ha. Only 24 homes for homeless people??????? DBS and reference required???unemployed welcome!!!! In five-10 years' time??? Prince William is not convincing to me.

jam45 to get a dbs you need proof of address for the last 10 years. Proof of identity

Leannexxx Absolutely just what I would have said. Way to many people in our country and as you say we need to look after our own

sallylester1 i know it's harsh but it needs to be done jobs are limited to

JLouM Again totally agree

stuartsmith544 When I moved in 20 years ago it was amongst lovely farm fields and walks. Now there is a huge housing estate and no fields left then to the side there are about 8 blocks of 4 storey flats being built. Up the road there is another huge housing estate being built around what used to be a lovely quiet and quaint picturesque village. Well that image is gone. We have two farm fields left where they still farm and they STILL want that as well. If that makes me a nimby well yes why should everything be spoiled? What happens with no farming? No food!! Also it all contributes to all these flooding incidents because of the demand and redirecting of watercourses.

telmel At some point we are going to have to look at Japan who have a very high population density they have tackled many of these problems and so we can learn from them. Ultimately though we must stop immigration almost completely. Global warming is going to be a nightmare for hotter countries and there will be a huge exodus away from such countries and we have to control our borders now. We have to run a balanced ecological society and produce all our own food. Countries like France have far lower population densities but countries like Canada, Australia and the USA have much lower population densities again. It is completely unrealistic to expect a country like the UK to keep increasing its population we need to reduce to about 40 million which is a sustainable population for this country.

People in Japan have very small homes, often small flats or tiny houses and if we keep increasing our population we will need to live in smaller and smaller accommodation and then perhaps get to the point like Soylent Green where people simply don't own property and just sleep on the streets or anywhere they can find because only the rich minority have homes. I'd certainly recommend a watch of Soylent Green if you want to prepare for what is going to happen in the coming decades with the possible exception of old people being made into biscuits.

Pjran I honestly think it will be a long time before the government can afford to build homes in large numbers. At the moment its very low numbers and I can see that reducing even further. The debts are mounting up and before we get to a full fledged economic crash the government will try reducing their spending.

BonzoBanana it’s not just council houses that are desperately needed, private properties too.

Pjran The thing is there is a growing underclass that will never be able to afford their own home or get a mortgage and we certainly don't want to continue with councils paying rent to private landlords that has to stop. The private properties situation could be sorted by returning to the rates system which would making larger properties more expensive to own and stop people having cheap second homes. It would be a strong incentive to convert larger properties into smaller homes like flats. Many of our housing problems started with the abolishment of the rates system. The only thing abolishing the rates system did which was positive was reduced costs of home ownership for the rich and allowed them more easily to have multiple homes. However going to the council tax system massively added to collection costs, meant people and builders were not motivated to build smaller low cost homes and meant housing costs were a far higher percentage of poorer people's income. Smaller properties now disproportionately subsidise higher value properties.

Watched this video yesterday which admittedly is designed around shock value but shows the real situation in many urban areas now. We need to understand there is an economic crisis which we have caused ourselves not just politicians but the people of this country who export so much of their income. It's pointless acting like we can just build new houses when there is £150k of debt for every single person in this country which has to be dealt with over the long term. We need to accept huge austerity is coming but at least work to a plan that will recover the economy in the future.

BonzoBanana although the rates system changed there are still several bands charging larger properties more.

Pjran There is but they are relatively close in cost to smaller properties. The Rates system was much more closely linked with the value of property so a much larger property would pay a lot more in rates. As it is at the moment, a large property in a very low council tax area pays less council tax than a small property in a very high council tax area.

Mango4 where are these houses? In my area they said affordable housing then the council sold them off the rent is 2k a month now the council is building block of flats but saying no one under the age of 12 can live in them

Leannexxx Everywhere you look in my area there are New estates being built , so the houses are being built and are being occupied by someone, I agree thou the cost to buy or rent is atrocious , yet the houses are being occupied as fast as they are built.

Mango4 that's good for your area but nothing like that is happening here

Mango4 Occupied fast because firstly many are sold before they even lay a brick, and secondly I do believe that at least 30% are offered to a local council. People buying flats should check how many will be offered to a council before committing to buy.

1. SebK84 I agree with you 100%. There are good immigrants with skills or willing to do unpopular jobs that the British people don't want to do. And not forgetting the nuisances who turn up without any documents wanting free money and housing. And don't get me started on the number of takeaways ordered via mobile phone, tattoos, acholic consumption, cigarettes by British people. If these people were not squandering their cash irrationally, they would have a lot of money saved.

jam45 Yep, stick them and their 4 kids in a 1 bedroom flat and put them on bread and water

SebK84 We have to stop immigration simply because over-population leads to poverty they are directly linked. Japan is one of the few countries that has managed to do well and maintain a good standard of living with a high population density although the size of their living accommodation is pretty tiny with most are in very small flats. The population density of the UK is greater than China and many other so called high population density countries. Where there are factories like Nissan in Sunderland their efficiency is world class however sterling is over-valued. It is cheaper for us to holiday abroad than holiday in the UK such is the high value of sterling and we have a minimum wage that also makes producing goods expensive in this country.

Immigration is not the solution it is the problem and we need to focus on running our economy well and return to a trading surplus and living within our means. If we need to import seasonal workings for farms etc then we should do so on favourable terms for our economy i.e. exclude such people from the minimum wage and they are only permitted here for the time of such work rather than offer them long term citizenship and access to services like the NHS. This is common elsewhere in the world.

We lost our factories and do less farming not because people decided to be lazy and live on benefits simply because those factories and farms became less competitive. We joined a free market with countries with much lower costs and therefore couldn't compete and on top of that China came in as a manufacturing super power. We lost our independence and ability to control our own borders. Now that we have it back its ridiculous to see that the Conservative government is pursuing free trade agreements with other countries instead of controlling trade to allow for more homegrown manufacturers. We are a tiny country who cannot compete head on with the world especially with our much higher costs.

BonzoBanana Unfortunately I, personally, cannot see any benefits of Brexit. Prices are through the roof, as you said the UK produces almost nothing. Traveling is more complicated. The government stopped EU workers from coming here but instead made trade deals with countries from outside the Union and now has plans to offer work in hospitality, care, construction and agriculture to Channel migrants. As I said previously the main problem is the laziness of some people who rely on the welfare system too much and that's the real culprit.

SebK84 The reason the UK produces much less than it used to is because we joined the EU and couldn't compete in it and also had to pay for the privilege. Many brands moved factories to mainland Europe as it was cheaper to manufacture there and there was no problem importing those products into the UK with a free market. Lots of British companies went to the wall as it was much more expensive to manufacture here. On average we paid a net £7 billion a year for EU membership that is the net figure when you take out the money coming from the EU to the UK. It's money we never had so we borrowed it and with compound interest that is something like £600 billion of debt we now have to repay. Of course we didn't always borrow the Conservatives sold assets like houses and utilities to prop up the government accounts.

The fact we left doesn't mean all the factories return in a puff of smoke and we don't have to pay the £1.8 Trillion of debt we owe. These are still huge burdens to our economy and then of course Covid hit and we had all those extra debts on top, then a war in Ukraine which further impacted the world economy.

I don't agree with them over their aims but the tax payer's alliance calculated the true debt in this country per citizen and at the time it was £143K for every single person from baby to pensioner but now its close to £150k as that calculation was a few years old. That is government debt, pension liabilities, other liabilities, quantitive easing etc.

We now have 1/3rd of doctors born abroad, many will have financial commitments outside the UK so this is hugely damaging to our finances. This is just one small element of immigration.

It's clear the current economic mentality in this country has failed. We have to return to a trading surplus and live within our means without borrowing.

A IMF bailout is probably coming which will mean far greater levels of austerity and probably trade tariffs to protect our economy.

The idea we can just continue sending money to Europe, running a huge trade deficit and with high immigration is just utter economic madness.

We are not alone though France has similar debts to us and other countries have different financial issues, some higher debts but a higher NIIP rating, some lower debts but a terrible NIIP rating etc. There are lots of problems with the economies of Europe.