Housing

[ahinton]

Policy Exchange did, back in 2008. They are said to be 'close' to Cameron, but even at the time he distanced himself from such nonsense.

Cities in northern England such as Liverpool, Sunderland and Bradford are "beyond revival" and residents should move south, a think tank has argued.

Policy Exchange said current regeneration policies were "failing" the people they were supposed to help.

A mass migration to London, Cambridge and Oxford would stop them becoming "trapped" in poorer areas, it said.

The think tank is seen as being close to David Cameron but the Tory leader branded its findings "insane"...

Thanks for this - if indeed "thanks" is the right word for such nonsense. Insanity indeed! I wonder just how much the abandonment of those three cities alone would cost, how and by whom such cost would be met and how almost a million people so displaced would be successfully relocated to "London, Cambridge and Oxford" and find work and all the other things that they apoparently can't get in those allegedly defunct cities. Perhaps if there'd be insufficient room for them all in London and Cambridge, they should all be relocated to Oxford and the surrounding area, doubtless to the great chagrin of the Member for Witney...

[amateur51]

Good, in a way, to see Thatcher's appalling 'Right To Buy' scam unravelling finally. I feel sorry for the many individuals who bought their own homes, hoping to better their lot and that of their family perhaps, but so many people predicted this scenario at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29118827

[Serial_Apologist]

Good, in a way, to see Thatcher's appalling 'Right To Buy' scam unravelling finally. I feel sorry for the many individuals who bought their own homes, hoping to better their lot and that of their family perhaps, but so many people predicted this scenario at the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29118827

I remember large numbers of ex-council flat renters, about 10 years ago, who had bought their leases in Hackney having to fork out beyond their means for repairs and double-glazing installations. I don't even remember hearing the last of that one. While one was never in favour of "Right to Buy", it's outcomes were doubly pernicious for leaseholders living in mixed ownership precincts, unlikely ever to obtain freeholds that could well mean their own care into old age, (and that's another story!), and left liable in both senses for housing department defaults on maintenance over many years, with profits now going to contracted out shareholders.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Perhaps one of the problems of house supply is the large number of people with second homes that remain empty for much of the year. They are rife in many coastal towns and in rural holiday areas. Parts of of the Lake District are virtually dead for more that half of the year, with boarded up holiday homes. The price inflation this causes means people who work in the area have almost no hope of buying a home.

What sort of civilised society allows some people to have two homes, while others have none?