Time to tackle the rentier economy.

newnanny

@annepl, other similar houses are put up for £50 more a month but I charge enough to cover repayment mortgage, gas cert, electric very, maintenance and repairs. None of my tenants ever wait more than 24 hours for a faulty or broken appliance to be repaired or replaced. I use the same gas, electrician, plasterer and plumbers for all houses so they will come for me quickly. I never have to advertise as have a waiting list and tenants reccomend me to their friends and family because I keep houses well decorated. This year one house had 10 new internal doors and a new kitchen. Another one had new laminate floors in hall, Lani g and 3 bedrooms as tenants asthmatic and struggle with carpets. Another property had new skirting boards and repainted. I know not all LL keep the property in good repair.

Plus, until the rules changed a few years ago, you were able to claim all the interest on your mortgage against the rental income. Many landlords used buy to let mortgages with no repayment of capital and could sit back and wait for the property price to appreciate before selling. Capital Gains aided by the other tax payers.

Tell me about it! My former husband became a property developer after we divorced. By setting up a business and going into partnership with his mother, he somehow managed to make it look as though he had no income, so was never liable to pay me any child maintenance. Meanwhile, he owns ten properties (last I knew) and is set to inherit millions. The lazy bum has hardly ever worked in his life (I was the main earner during our marriage), which is why it's a sore point when smug people go on about meritocracy and working hard. Unfortunately, life's a sh*t.

Life's not fair growstuff, but I wonder, if he inherits millions and doesn't squander his fortune, will you children eventually inherit?

varian

Life's not fair growstuff, but I wonder, if he inherits millions and doesn't squander his fortune, will you children eventually inherit?

Yes, they will - and that's another story! Guess why they're keen on sucking up to Grandma and Dad and listening to the poisonous stories about their penniless Mum.

When we divorced, Grandma paid for her solicitor and accountant to make sure that I wouldn't ever be able to touch a penny of any money. That didn't bother me, but it did mean that I never received any child maintenance and I brought the children up on my earnings until they were 18 for 15 years.

She's hardly ever worked either. Her first husband died before they divorced, leaving her with a pension, insurance policies and a house paid off by an endowment policy, then she went off with her best friend's husband within a few months.

And she has the nerve to be one of those people who moan about scroungers. She's not somebody I feel very positive about (to say the least)!

It's not funny at all Callistemon. How is anyone meant to save a deposit while paying a high rent.
My eldest son did the same thing by the way.

Trisher good post. The government knows good social housing would make such a difference. Why do they not act on it?

Because NIMBYs don't want social housing on their doorsteps and some of them are doing very nicely from rental income or "land banking".

The government knows good social housing would make such a difference. Why do they not act on it?

Look, I'm not trying to be snarky or score points or belittle anyone here, but surely people must realise that the government won't act on it because they are tories?

Since Thatcher sold off all those council houses all those years ago the tories have never made any effort to ensure that there is adequate social housing. It goes against their 'small state' ideology.

This is just a fact of life. Voting tory will never get you adequate social housing.

Newnanny: do you honestly believe that a communist state gives equality to all? There‘s no such system possible , unless everyone has nothing . I guess that the only way is to nurture a model which tries to ensure that all have an opportunity to better themselves and all must contribute fairly. Difficult!

annep1

It's not funny at all Callistemon. How is anyone meant to save a deposit while paying a high rent.
My eldest son did the same thing by the way.

Trisher good post. The government knows good social housing would make such a difference. Why do they not act on it?

No, I do know. Especially for a single person.

(It was a comment on a post way up the thread about people with tattoos!)

Research has constantly shown that the more inequality there is in a country the less well its economy does.

Conversely the more equal the economy thrives and grows.

I have wondered about social housing and I understand that Thatcher used its privatisation as a way to get votes, but I also wonder if it has become a way of limiting local authority power. Councils must have had a considerable income from council house rents, it surely couldn't have all been used in costs, so it is possible that the housing has been eroded in order token more power in central government.

that should be "to keep"

Annana

Newnanny: do you honestly believe that a communist state gives equality to all? There‘s no such system possible , unless everyone has nothing . I guess that the only way is to nurture a model which tries to ensure that all have an opportunity to better themselves and all must contribute fairly. Difficult!

newnannny always says this in the face of anything that might conceivably be left wing. I don't know why, because Labour has always supported a mixed economy; the state runs the 'natural monopolies', like water, energy and health, but everything that they purchase by way of goods and services is always purchased from private enterprises. This is not even distantly approaching a communist 'command' economy.

Nor does the LP have any problem with people 'bettering themselves'; why should they?

I find it rather odd, though, that 'bettering yourself' seems to be a desirable thing to achieve. What if you don't want to 'better yourself'? What if you're perfectly happy as you are?
Is that a moral failing?

This country is too small for our growing population.
The land in the SE is so expensive, rents are higher because demand exceeds supply. Most of the work is there.
This fact underlies most of the inequalities. But if building of homes expands into rural areas agricuture will be affected and we will be eventually short of food.
So it's a catch22 situation.

trisher at 17.56 today - yes I agree that preventing council's from building social housing is another way of reducing the local authorities ability to serve their communities. Or taking away their powers.

Early on in this discussion I referred to the need to invest in social housing. The right to buy should be dispensed with. Our area is like so many we have several council estates built post war. These are excellent family homes with 3 bedrooms and decent garden space.

The right to buy led to many being snapped up at ridiculously low prices by private landlords. Some of those houses are being rented to tenants who were evicted from council properties for anti social behaviour, usually drug dealing. Thatcher claimed the right to buy was an entirely good thing in enabling families who had "bought" their home in rental payments. That worked well for some people but for society as a whole, not so well.

Fennel I totally agree. I do hope that manufacturing can return to the North along with other industries to help the economy and people.

I agree with you Iam64 . Those right to buy tenants who sold on to landlords are probably the people who complain that their children can’t buy or afford high rents.

I did get that Callistemon. I'm not very good nowadays at putting my thoughts into words. I blame M.E. brain fog.?.

Same regarding why the Tories won't act. I do know that they don't support social housing.
It's infuriating to know what needs to be done regarding housing education health etc and watch the government doing very little that is meaningful.

Fennel

This country is too small for our growing population.
The land in the SE is so expensive, rents are higher because demand exceeds supply. Most of the work is there.
This fact underlies most of the inequalities. But if building of homes expands into rural areas agricuture will be affected and we will be eventually short of food.
So it's a catch22 situation.

That's not actually quite true. There are hundreds of acres of land even in London, which could be used for housing - even more in the surrounding home counties - which are essentially scrubland. It's useless for farming, but is owned as an investment and is "land banked".

There's a really good book by Liam Halligan about this. (I'll see if I can find the title.) Halligan is a "local" and I've heard him talk, but he's also been on TV. Strangely, he's a Tory, but he doesn't belong in the typical mould.

I think that McDonnell's extreme ideas were too much even for those who usually vote Labour.
Boris was the lesser of two evils apparently. Marginally.

I wasn't sure annep1, sometimes I re-read what I've posted afterwards and wonder if it's clear.

Our council (usually Tory, but currently run by independents) has actually bought some private rented property, bought it up to scratch and now rents it at fair, controlled rents.

It has been true for many years that houses in the SE of England, in commuting distance of well paid jobs in London have been far more expensive than similar houses elsewhere in the UK.

I think that this pandemic may lead to a big change.

People who have found it quite possible, and quite congenial to work from home during lock-down. may well start to ask "why should I commute into central London every day, exposing myself to risk, when I can do my job just as well from home?"

Perhaps they may need to go to the London office once a week, once a fortnight, once a month or once a year.

OK , I'll do that, but in the meantime if I'm going to work from home, I will find a home which is much more affordable and much more pleasant to live in than my London commuter belt home.

If enough people think this way, the price of London houses will fall and the price of homes elsewhere will rise.

Surely a good thing??

bought = brought* (Ggggrrr! I'm sure that's what I wrote in the first place.)

I for one hope that people will return to work in London because at the moment the city looks like a ghost town.

Many small businesses rely on commuters, whether they are cafes, dry cleaners, independent book stores and stationary shops along with the coffee shops on the Stations.