Thread 6 Burnham: Resitting and Resetting

[DuncinToffee]

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https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5572981-thread-5-brunham-be-more-dolly?page=39

Well, if he wins the next election with it in his manifesto, it would be difficult to justify a revolt? It is staying until then.

There's nothing inherently bad about RTB. I support aspirational policies.

What is wrong about RTB is that explicit prohibition on using it to build more social housing.

The devil is of course in the details, or is that God?

I disagree. There’s no point in building more social housing if it ends up in the hands of private landlords which is what’s happened to many RTB properties.

Disagree with this because the right to buy on social housing estates is divisive and sets an us and them community.

The narrative being "I've got more money than you, but I will always be grateful for my working class roots."

Move on and buy a house elsewhere. Free up the council house for others who need them.

I think the problem here is people have a weird idea that houses - like diamonds - are in anyway scare and so expensive.

Both situations are artificial not intrinsic.

However as long as we are all happy to live in a society where everything (including death) is a commodity, who am I to kick against the pricks

Agree. Maybe councils could offer incentives for those who become able to buy privately to move out.

Why should they? Better by half make it that if you want to buy a house you do it on the open market on the same footing as everyone else. And social housing is scarce @SerendipityJane.

Agree.

Fair enough!

It's an artificial scarcity though. It has been deliberately created and lovingly maintained so that landowners can continue to (literally in some cases) Lord it over us.

I listened to a few bits of Burnham's speech in the car and nobody can say he isn't passionate.

Well, after years of bitching about conference season being tedious AF and nothing more than extended period of navel gazing, I'm quite pleased with what I heard.

Acknowledge the damage done to the economy by Brexit and consider what our options are - BRING IT.
No doubt the Tories will be wailing on the ECHR later this week = a No Deal Brexit by any other name, and just as fucking disastrous an idea as it was when it was first wheeled out. Twats.
Good to see Labour willing to challenge the idea that Brexit just has to be suffered (or made worse!).

Obviously triple lock changes will get the hares running - it seems to mean than pensions will continue to rise (good) but at a more sustainable rate. Won't save much in the immediate, as he acknowledged, but will over the longer term.

No, it won't pay for the social care changes - but, damn, I'm very much on board for a discussion about what social care we want and how best we pay for it. More please.

Electoral reform - yes.

Repeal of the ban on public ownership of water companies - good.

Didnt hear the whole speech but what I did I liked. He spoke well and with sincerity.
Carry on and my vote might be up for grabs at the next GE.

And apologies - have been dealing with some family stuff so largely absent of late and haven't kept up at all. Hope everyone is doing okay.

Councils used to give a cash incentive to people who wanted to move out of their rented property.
This happened where I used to live and at that time you could buy after only living in your property for 2 years.
The problem was that they did not build to replace the lost housing stock.

They were not allowed to replace their lost stock. Thatcher and her cronies rigged the market to effectively start the house price inflation that we have enjoyed ever since.

That and the shark selling of interest only mortgages to the intellectually challenged.

As I said, the problem was they did not build to replace the housing stock.

Speech

It doesn’t matter what caused it the scarcity is real and needs to be remedied.

At the risk of agreeing furiously, I wanted to highlight the why.

Because those of a less inquiring nature might get the impression that it was in somehow an unexpected side effect of the policy and that the Tories have been unfairly demonised for "trying to help the less well off". Whereas the reality was it was not only entirely foreseen but quite arguably the raison d'etre of the scheme. And that it's also one of the most effective transfers of taxpayers money into private hands since highway robbery became unfashionable.

I can’t disagree with that @SerendipityJane. Your last sentence pretty much sums up the whole of Thatcher’s term in power.

The tragedy is, there was a certain amount of good intentions there. My formative years (i.e when I started to notice stuff) were the 1970s. Which were most assuredly not the utopia some people think it was. I mean waiting 2 years for a phone line ?

I mean waiting 2 years for a phone line ?

Now it only takes up to two months. Progress 😀

Council homes have actually been sold to tenants since the 1920's.
Small scale then and in the 1950's accelerated to nearly 6,000 homes being sold in 1956 alone.

https://www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/36877/calls-for-criminal-checks-for-councillors-defeated-in-vote

But 1956 - just 11 years after the ding dong of WW2 is different to 2026.