Oh God spare me the lying Prime Minister

biglouis

There are working people who have been renting for years.
Its about time something was done about compelling mortgage providers to take into account the rent paid by such people in determining their income. In many cases the monthly rent comes to far more than the cost of a mortgage. People in thig group have paid their rent flawlessly and built up an excellent record. Yet they may be unable to get a mortgage because they dont have a bank of mum and dad to sub them out with a deposit.

Imagine how you cheated and angry you would feel if you were in this group and saw mortgages being given to people on benefit. You might well ask why people were being allowed to buy while supported by the taxpayer.

If you don’t have a deposit you will need at least a 100% mortgage, maybe more to cover all the costs of moving. Which means that negative equity is a very real danger for both borrower and lender. Borrowers may be happy to gamble on house prices continuing to increase, especially when they don’t have a financial stake, but you can’t expect lenders to engage in recreating the sub-prime mortgage disaster which triggered the last financial crash.

I’ve been reading about banana imports - as you do!

The UK imports around $600m of bananas each year (2020 numbers) mostly from Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Belize. As of 5 May 2022 the UK has only fully ratified post-Brexit trade agreements with Costa Rica and Ecuador. There is currently a bridging mechanism with Colombia and only a provisional application for the Dominican Republic and Belize both part of the CARIFORUM trade bloc.

So again, as with Turkish olive oil, any tariffs are what the UK government has agreed to or is still negotiating.

On a statistical note, “Prime Minister Boris Johnson's speech on housing” was approx 5300 words long only 2000 of which were about housing. The full fact checkers will have a field day with the claims made.

Since the Tories came to power we have has no less than six Secretaries of State responsible for housing under various rejigged departmental titles and eleven Ministers of State for Housing. No wonder housing policy is a mess.

Why do we have a tariff on bananas? This is a truly amazing and versatile country, but as far as I know we don’t grow many bananas, not even in Blackpool.

he's lost me.

As for tariffs on bananas, they are a relatively cheap food because supermarkets often sell them as a loss leader.

PS. On the claim about sub-standard food from overseas - who is it who had delayed import checks on fresh food for the fourth time? That would be Jacob Rees Mogg, Johnson's Minister for Brexit Opportunities.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/28/jacob-rees-mogg-delay-post-brexit-eu-fresh-food-checks-fourth-time

Here is the Blackpool speech if you can bear to read what, at times, sounds like the rambling word salad of a madman.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-housing-speech-9-june-2022

Here is the bit about Turkish olive oil and bananas:

… this is a Government that is firmly on your side. We are on the side of British farmers. We need to grow and eat more of our own food in this country and it is sensible to protect British agriculture from cut price or substandard food from overseas but we are also on the side of British consumers.

We do not grow many olives in this country that I’m aware of. Why do we have a tariff of 93p per kilo on Turkish olive oil?

Why do we have a tariff on bananas? This is a truly amazing and versatile country, but as far as I know we don’t grow many bananas, not even in Blackpool.

As for bananas, the UK imports the fruit from many different countries so I don’t know what, if any, trade deals have been negotiated.

But there is information about Turkish olive oil. This source titled UK Olive Oil Market in 2020 and Turkish Olive Oil in the UK explains:

foodnomy.com/uk-olive-oil-market-and-turkish-olive-oil-import-report/

Now, with the current EU trade agreement, Turkish olive oil is subjected to import duty that is 93p per kg and import quota is one hundred tonnes per year.

We hope the UK and Turkey agree on a free trade deal by the end of 2020 and this free trade agreement – FTA – enables high quality Turkish olive oil to enter to the British market and such other products and brands as well.

So what is Johnson asking? It sounds like he’s asking why his own government still has the same trade tariff that applied when the UK was part of the EU. If he’s right, whose fault would that be?

There are working people who have been renting for years.
Its about time something was done about compelling mortgage providers to take into account the rent paid by such people in determining their income. In many cases the monthly rent comes to far more than the cost of a mortgage. People in thig group have paid their rent flawlessly and built up an excellent record. Yet they may be unable to get a mortgage because they dont have a bank of mum and dad to sub them out with a deposit.

Imagine how you cheated and angry you would feel if you were in this group and saw mortgages being given to people on benefit. You might well ask why people were being allowed to buy while supported by the taxpayer.

Is this me being stupid?
No, it's not you, it's him

I suspect mortgage lenders will agree with you Elaine. Crackpot idea.

I must be stupid or something but the rising cost of living is affecting everyone especially those on low incomes and benefits. Exactly how is anyone on benefits going to be able to afford a mortgage if people have to choose between heating and food or going without food so their children can eat? Is this me being stupid?

MayBee70

I didn’t hear his speech. What was he saying about olive oil and bananas?

Goodness knows- it all sounded bananas (and he has a history of talking about bananas).

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/boris-johnson-reset-speech_uk_62a21cd0e4b06594c1c5a2fb

I didn’t hear his speech. What was he saying about olive oil and bananas?

And he's off to a good start!!
He just laid a brick ? ?

So far today he's told us building more homes isn't the answer, but that he's going to build 300,000 new homes anyway

At a rate of about 6,000 last year, is he hoping to stay in power for another 50 years?

He'd better get his hod out.

?

Russ Jones
@RussInCheshire
·
2h
On it goes.

So far today he's told us building more homes isn't the answer, but that he's going to build 300,000 new homes anyway.

Now saying he probably won't meet his own manifesto promise for new homes. Which is 300,000 homes.

Luckygirl3

I think God is taking a snooze at the moment Whitewavemark2

I can hear him snoring?

"He may find his red wall voters aren't that impressed. The ones I've seen on Facebook today had the country firmly devided into "Hard working" families and "Scroungers" No grey areas and they don't want the scroungers given anything. "

This is mirrored in the comments under the DM article on this.

Johnson today: "I want to talk about the single biggest chunk of household expenditure and that’s the cost of housing."

Johnson to Tory MPs on Monday: "There is one chunk of household income that is the biggest of all and that is tax."

Terrible idea. I assume this is just to woo votes from people living in affordable housing. I thought we'd had enough experience of it not working, except for the people who can buy and later sell on at a profit. Taking housing benefits into account in mortgage calculations is an appalling idea. More sub-prime mortgages. He'll certainly come up against problems on social housing which is subject to an obligation to maintain it as such in perpetuity. I've set up a good few of those.

He may find his red wall voters aren't that impressed. The ones I've seen on Facebook today had the country firmly devided into "Hard working" families and "Scroungers" No grey areas and they don't want the scroungers given anything. We have gone back to the days of the Deserving and Undeserving Poor and the emphasis now is on the Undeserving.

Obviously the idea is pretty impossible. If people are living on the bread line in social housing, with or without benefits they are not going to be able to afford all the extra expense that goes with owning a house, however cheaply you buy it. I remember living for months with no hot water and having the kitchen window replaced with a sheet of cardboard until we could afford the glass. What we need is cheap social housing to get people out of hotels and bedsits and off people's sofas (yes I do mean my DiL)

I think God is taking a snooze at the moment Whitewavemark2

My area has hundreds of newbuild council houses.Flats ,terraced and semi detached and more being built in Dumbarton now.The right to buy was stopped here a few years ago, as it should have been .Bojo is channelling old PM's he's had his Churchill moment ,now its Thatcher mess.The right to buy was the cause of the whole housing shortage ,so why repeat it?

?

Robert Peston
@Peston
On
@BorisJohnson
's plans to give 2.5m tenants of housing associations a Thatcherite right to buy, George Osborne wanted to do this in 2015, but was told he could only compel the associations to sell if he took all their debt on to the public sector balance sheet. He... took fright, and tried to get a voluntary agreement with the associations, which never materialised. Most housing experts believe Johnson will hit the same fiscal brick wall, that what he has re-announced today is a slogan that will see next-to-zero actual privatisation

What we are forgetting is that the lying prime minister hardly ever follows through on his promises, so I suppose it is best all dismissed really.

As most new social housing is built by Charities, how can he make these non government owned/funded organisations sell off their housing stock? Terrible idea, from a dreadful man.

caravanSerai

Love it.

A Johnson Box.