Conservative Manifesto

Much of Milton Keynes has been built on the basis that social and private housing are mixed in each local estate. This works well and ensures that schools have a mixed intake.
Jings if your daughter managed to buy a house in the SE on a teacher's salary that is great - but if she has paid off her mortgage she presumably started a while ago. Property is relatively much more expensive now, compared to most wages. Someone pointed out that if bread had gone up in relative price, since the 70s, as much as average uk housing, bread would now cost £50 a loaf.

Why should she be criticised

Why should Emily Thornberry be criticised?
Because she has done what many people would love to be able to do - purchase a Housing Association property but she has then criticised a proposed policy which would allow other people to do the same.

The only difference is that she purchased hers at auction (with or possibly without a mortgage) to add to her property portfolio, whilst most people who would love to buy one will want the property for a home which they will cherish.

'Do as I say and not as I do' is that old chestnut which people applied to the Labour Party [sigh] and unfortunately she is reinforcing that view.

(I bet Ed Miliband is not defending her as robustly as some Gransnetters )

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

I think this is a great idea if administered properly - established and abandoned properties being bought for a nominal sum and being renovated and refurbished:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28641045

Sadly, many decent houses were demolished under the last Labour government under the Pathfinder Scheme - John Prescott's 'wonderful idea' carried out by Yvette Cooper.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Market_Renewal_Initiative

Oh POGs for goodness sake - NS's parents bought their HA house and you castigate her for that? Are we to be responsible for our parents ' actions. It's well known that DC's father was involved in some dodgy tax business - off shore trust or something but I would only criticise DC if he himself were doing that. You are really scraping the bottom of the barrel - I would have thought that you could have found something more intelligent to criticise NS for. And cheap innuendo with ET as well

And why the 'cash' in inverted commas.?

I think legally you've sailed close to the wind with ET- cheap, cheap, cheap

Did anyone else watch the programme last night about million pound houses?

A man in Islington bought a 4 bedroomed council house three years ago for £157,000. He had lived in it since it was built. He wanted to sell it becuase there were 8 in his family and his three sons, all teenagers, were sleeping in the same room.
He was very pleased when he was told it was worth over a million. It went to auction, and was sold for £1,020,000. He said he might even be able to retire.
The man who looked at it was a property developer who could sell it to people who wanted to put 6 bedrooms in it, and charge £700 per month per room. I can't remember if he was the one who bought it.
It makes me feel sick to think that this should be happening to ordinary council or housing association houses.
I do not blame the man who lived in it. I blame property developers who want to make money out of everyone.

Just watched this programme. Appalling study of bad taste, romantic stupidity and greed. London Estate Agents and Property Developers are a nightmare breed.
On the question of selling off HA property. My husband is on the Board of a HA, and is so appalled at this suggestion, he has complained bitterly in an email to our local Tory MP. But we both feel this will not come about within a future coalition Government; merely electioneering.

I understand some housing associations are thinking of taking them to court if they get in again and try this on, jo1book.
I wasn't sure whether to feel sorry or not for the couple in the Scottish castle. Can't understand why they bought it in the first place; neither could she, but only because they both appear to have lost their jobs.
I agree about the appalling taste. How on earth do they think someone else will buy that house? Their views are obviously so wrong, because they thought the couple viewing it actually liked the basement.

I have come to the conclusion that people are delusional and drunk with the power of money - getting it or spending it.
I think the Scottish castle couple let their heart rule their head. I found the oil tycoon and his beauty queen wife ridiculous. You wish the bloke selling the council flat good luck on his retirement. God knows where it will all end. I am getting so tired of the flash and greedy.

£8 billion extra funding for the NHS.
This wasn't mentioned, though.

www.google.com/url?q=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/16/nhs-privatisation-biggest-history-staffordshire-cancer&sa=U&ei=uJgxVfDsFImpsgGFzoCYCQ&ved=0CAsQFjAD&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNEHJiK2xQ50x19TT8Ys7_FUA4TeXA

I used to enjoy the property programmes on the tv such as 'Homes under the Hammer'.

However, so much emphasis is placed on the words 'investment property' and not, as in the title 'Homes' that I don't watch them any more.

However - to be fair, many ordinary people were encouraged years ago to invest in property because pensions were uncertain.

rosequartz. Here lies the problem. Many people see their property as their pension. It is a way for the poor to get money. I have just read that only about 11,000 people will decide the colour of the next Government. They are the marginals, mainly in London. The Tories are hoping for their vote because the high price of property and the chance to buy into this market, is irresistible.

Good comment rose- and certsinly today but to let investments are proving hugely profitable - and often at the tax payers expense ( ie the rest of s as we all pay tax). They get tax relief on their mortgage interest, the expenses incurred in running and maintaining the property and then in some cases get housing benefit from their tenants to cover all or part of the rent. And then some people wonder why there is a housing problem when these gold plated landlords compete against ordinary buyers

Buy not but <sigh>

The poor will not be able to get a mortgage to buy their HA property in London despite the discount. But anyway, this policy will never happen - it will be traded off in coalition deals or if not that will be legally challenged and that could take ages

I agree, unlikely to happen. But if it does, on the subject of not being able to find the deposit, I think financing companies will spring up to finance such people. eg. They lend you the deposit; you buy the house; they then buy it from you leaving both of you to make a profit. Always money to be made on the London housing market.

durhamjen , this is what happens. The properties are sold for next to nothing, the tenant sells it on after the time is up to buy to let investors, and the property is then rented privately for several times the original rent etc etc. And anyway, is it legal for the government to force housing associations to sell their assets? It will never happen, and hopefully people willnot be taken in.

Sorry, farmor, why was that comment directed at me?

Read in the i yesterday about an American CEO who had heard about a study which found that increases in salary over £47,000 per year didn't have a significant impact on a person's happiness.
He reduced his million pound salary to £100,000 and used the difference to raise the pay of his employees.
Then today, I saw this.

fullfact.org/factcheck/economy/minimum_wage_prosecutions_rare-41406

Shame that employers in this country do not think like the American CEO.

I do wish Labour would find out which companies are paying dividends and bonuses but not paying the living wage.

I think that £47, 000 a year would make me happier.

Do you mean to their executives and directors, Gracesgran or to their shareholders who may be like us with our few free shares and investors like pension funds?

(I got a total of around £10 in dividends last year from my 'free' bank shares!)

Me too rosequartz much, much happier