Phrases/words that set your teeth on edge.

[cloughie]

It's not affordable housing anyway. from https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk...ings/cbp-7747/
I suspect the problem is that developers don't want to get involved in any form of rented housing which many AH builds seem to be, and also they don't want anything to even fractionally lower their high profit margins. They are also very well aware that they can agree a percentage of AH provision in order to get planning knowing that when they come to build they can plead poverty part way through the development, reduce or eliminate AHP, and the planning authority can do nothing about it, and a tory government isn't going to bite the hand that feeds the party coffers by insisting on sticking to the rules. the It's a disgusting state of affairs but very much the way this country runs now.

There are no affordable houses for the average wage earned in Cornwall. Renting is mostly not affordable or even possible in many cases. Covid has made it worse in the large numbers from ‘up country’ wanting to relocate here.

[Andrew]

There are no affordable houses for the average wage earned in Cornwall. Renting is mostly not affordable or even possible in many cases. Covid has made it worse in the large numbers from ‘up country’ wanting to relocate here.

Yes, the relocation argument is always a popular one (NOT!) with which I have a problem.... Born & brought up on the Cornwall/Devon border, I moved to south east England when I was 21. Lived, worked, married, raised a family (all grown up now) and we're now contemplating retirement to a small town on Dartmoor.... Would I be described as an "incomer"?

In short, people move around the country as and when they want and can afford. The only way to prevent this would be for all property to be centrally owned and allocated on some other criteria other than want. I can't see that catching on... Oh no, wait a minute, that's been tried, over vast swathes of central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War; it didn't seem to work to well, though......

[oddoneout]

Yes, the relocation argument is always a popular one (NOT!) with which I have a problem.... Born & brought up on the Cornwall/Devon border, I moved to south east England when I was 21. Lived, worked, married, raised a family (all grown up now) and we're now contemplating retirement to a small town on Dartmoor.... Would I be described as an "incomer"?

In short, people move around the country as and when they want and can afford. The only way to prevent this would be for all property to be centrally owned and allocated on some other criteria other than want. I can't see that catching on... Oh no, wait a minute, that's been tried, over vast swathes of central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War; it didn't seem to work to well, though......

You might be an "incomer" to those of your future neighbours who are also incomers , but otherwise perhaps you'll be viewed by the natives as just making the sensible decision to return to where you belong? In this neck of the wood many folk still don't move around that much and also have a different approach to time passing so returning after decades away doesn't make you an incomer - although settling in a different part of the county might attract comment.

[Richard Barrett]

The only way to prevent this would be for all property to be centrally owned and allocated on some other criteria other than want. I can't see that catching on... Oh no, wait a minute, that's been tried, over vast swathes of central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War; it didn't seem to work to well, though......

It depends on what the criteria are of course; here the principal criterion was the extent of one's contacts in the Communist Party or the military, initially as rewards to the partisans who fought the Nazis. That seems quite arbitrary of course, but the wealth qualification in the West is surely no less arbitrary if looked at closely enough. Who has decided what the average wage in Cornwall is?

[oddoneout]

It depends on what the criteria are of course; here the principal criterion was the extent of one's contacts in the Communist Party or the military, initially as rewards to the partisans who fought the Nazis. That seems quite arbitrary of course, but the wealth qualification in the West is surely no less arbitrary if looked at closely enough. Who has decided what the average wage in Cornwall is?

Isn't the concept of " average" wage a bit of a non-starter in a place like Cornwall where the few very wealthy disguise the reality of the very many with low level incomes? The number of people on "average" wage bears no relation to reality and although that won't make any difference to the quantity and type of housing delivered, since planning decisions aren't made by facts and reality, but what suits the government and its (financial) supporters, it will be used to justify what is put forward for approval.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The only way to prevent this would be for all property to be centrally owned and allocated on some other criteria other than want. I can't see that catching on... Oh no, wait a minute, that's been tried, over vast swathes of central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War; it didn't seem to work to well, though......

I would start from a different place: no-one should own more that one residential property. If you were to inherit a home, you would be required to sell it.

[cloughie]

Isn't the concept of " average" wage a bit of a non-starter in a place like Cornwall where the few very wealthy disguise the reality of the very many with low level incomes? The number of people on "average" wage bears no relation to reality and although that won't make any difference to the quantity and type of housing delivered, since planning decisions aren't made by facts and reality, but what suits the government and its (financial) supporters, it will be used to justify what is put forward for approval.

I don’t really need to spell it out but OK those on a low wage! People who were in many cases born here, work here and wish to stay here. Can neither get on to the housing ladder and cannot afford the rents now. Cannot find anywhere to rent, let alone buy when their landlord has decided, as is their right, to give them notice because they’ve decided to sell their property in what is currently very much a seller’s market. It is seemingly an impossible problem that inflation in house prices is rocketing way ahead of earnings! In addition to this there are staff shortages in the hospitality industry as potential workers cannot take up jobs as they have nowhere to live!

[Richard Barrett]

Isn't the concept of " average" wage a bit of a non-starter in a place like Cornwall

Yes I'm sure that's right, I was using that formulation only to relate to what Cloughie was saying, with the assumption that he was actually talking about what in statistics is more properly called the modal value.

I do find it very worrying, even though I don't live in the UK any more, that house price inflation is so often taken as an index of the economy "doing well" when actually it should always be borne in mind that this actually means that rich people are "doing well", perhaps with the spurious assumption that this means everyone else benefits from such a situation, which if it ever has been true is becoming less and less so as we see wealth inequality rising.

[Richard Barrett]

I would start from a different place: no-one should own more that one residential property. If you were to inherit a home, you would be required to sell it.

No doubt some people would still find a way to "game" such a system to their advantage, but clearly the inheritance of wealth in some form or another is a central driving force behind the inequality that produces the situation Cloughie is talking about. It would require a major shift in consciousness on the part of many people to get away from that concept.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I would start from a different place: no-one should own more that one residential property.

Ah good, so this would still let me and my wife own two houses surely. She lives in hers some of the year and I live in mine ditto. If your rule goes on to say that persistent cohabitation in one or the other is illegal, then the thought-police are going to need a lot of surveillance teams and unmarked vans! (Bit like social security at present I suppose)

OK-ish in theory maybe, but a complete non-starter in practice I suggest.

[LMcD]

I don’t really need to spell it out but OK those on a low wage! People who were in many cases born here, work here and wish to stay here. Can neither get on to the housing ladder and cannot afford the rents now. Cannot find anywhere to rent, let alone buy when their landlord has decided, as is their right, to give them notice because they’ve decided to sell their property in what is currently very much a seller’s market. It is seemingly an impossible problem that inflation in house prices is rocketing way ahead of earnings! In addition to this there are staff shortages in the hospitality industry as potential workers cannot take up jobs as they have nowhere to live!

I've been told that properties here that appear online at the start of business are sold for the full asking price by the end of the day. A beach hut was also sold within hours for £65000. The local secondary school and surgeries have trouble filling vacancies because prospective staff can't find a property in their price range here or in the nearby villages.

[Serial_Apologist]

I've been told that properties here that appear online at the start of business are sold for the full asking price by the end of the day. A beach hut was also sold within hours for £65000. The local secondary school and surgeries have trouble filling vacancies because prospective staff can't find a property in their price range here or in the nearby villages.

And yet we keep being told key workers are having to move out of London because they can't afford either to own or rent!

[oddoneout]

And yet we keep being told key workers are having to move out of London because they can't afford either to own or rent!

You're not allowed to live in beach huts...

[LMcD]

You're not allowed to live in beach huts...

Sadly, successive cutbacks to the County Police's budget led to the cancellation of the local Night-Time Beach Huts Patrol, and volunteers who felt strongly enough about the issue to volunteer have now also withdrawn after being pelted with copies of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' purchased in local charity shops, so it's difficult to tell what goes on after dark. (The one that went for £65000 has electricity and is almost opposite a pub).

[cloughie]

Sadly, successive cutbacks to the County Police's budget led to the cancellation of the local Night-Time Beach Huts Patrol, and volunteers who felt strongly enough about the issue to volunteer have now also withdrawn after being pelted with copies of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' purchased in local charity shops, so it's difficult to tell what goes on after dark. (The one that went for £65000 has electricity and is almost opposite a pub).

65000 Shed of (Whatever colour).