To wonder where are all the poor people in the South East supposed to actually live?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I rent privately, self contained space but essentially a lodger - ground floor flat. It looks like the family will need their place back sharpish due to illness, so I've started looking at rentals again.

Fed up. I've seen some horrific shitholes of studios and they're still hugely expensive. I'm in London zone 2, and looked at moving further out but it's still expensive. For a studio, Croydon is not significantly cheaper than London. Nor is Brighton, where I have family links to, hence looking there. Brighton is also close enough to be able to come to London for all my hospital stuff, as I'm an outpatient of Guys and Thomas and Moorfields plus have ongoing appointments trying to figure out fibromyalgia and gynae problems.

Weary of house shares now in my thirties and there are aspects of my health that make sharing quite stressful when it's a bunch of strangers. I don't want to share a bathroom and I don't want to share a fridge where I store my extensive medication. I guess maybe an en suite room, if I bought my own fridge for my room would be fine though.

Obviously I could well end up going somewhere like Manchester or Birmingham or Glasgow, or elsewhere, if I get really stuck - but that's just me as an individual, just one person.

There must be thousands and thousands of people in a similar pickle, including families with small kids in school. Leaving London and the south east of the country can't be the solution for everyone too poor to pay the market rent? Not everyone can up and leave?

What will happen regarding the whole unsustainable rental situation?

Come and live in Dartford/Gravesend. Our council is joyfully erecting houses left and right. Don’t expect a hospital appointment though as that’s not being sized accordingly. Or any kids to be educated (see previous). Or enjoy getting to work/getting off your new estate (where the starting prices are out if your reach anyway) because the roads aren’t being big re-sized accordingly.

There’s always Bluewater though

With those particular medical needs then Luton/Leagrave might be a good option, the L&D is great for diabetes and insulin pumps and has brilliant specialist diabetic pregnancy care and an easy travel to London.

I agree with Oddboots. Good shout on Leagrave.
Get in quick though, as it’s a well kept secret that’s being let out the bag for location.

Living in SE must be hell
Nah, we manage the odd moment of pleasure now and again.

We upped and left. Had been in Zone 3, moved north with DH's job and rented for 1/3 of the rent on the London flat and then bought for a monthly payment of 2/3 of the London rent.

I'd love to move back to London but I can't see it happening. I don't know how you managed to bag your current place in Zone 2 but I think you'll really struggle to rent within accessible reach of your hospitals etc. It sucks.

If enough people leave, because it's unaffordable, and people can't get cleaners and porters and nurses and shop assistants, the effect of the rent increases will start to be noticed, but whilst people are willing to illegally sublet and work 3 jobs to prop themselves up, it just covers up the issue.

Yes, I was really lucky to get here. It's kind of a granny flat within a bigger house. Not illegal at all.

I did a stint in a pretty grim unlicensed HMO, that was trying.

Bristol is only affordable compared with London. My son's rent has nearly doubled from £450 to £750 in a fairly rough area and he's going to move back home because he can't afford it. A lot,and Imran a lot, of jobs here are minimum wage or just over.

New towns like Harlow or stevenage. Not the prettiest but very commutable and you can still get a passable one bed flat for under a grand a month.

'where are all poor people supposed to live' if you have a job surely you are not a poor person ? In the South there are cheaper places to live, but you have to factor in travel costs too. If you look North prices or East prices are much cheaper. I don't think it is sustainable to have everything London/south centric

All this house building is not solving any problems though, I’m in south west and there were some houses built 10miles from me, they came up on the bidding site as affordable rents, how much a month....£800 for a 4 bed!! Ridiculous. Whome is that affordable for?? What is most galling is those who don’t work at all, will prob be able to live there as their housing benefit will cover most of the cost so it’s us working poor again who suffer and are penalised.

In some north towns houses have been offered to local people for £1 plus 30k loans to do the renovations and I believe had to remain for a few years. True !

We desperately need to build more housing
It won't do any good unless it is affordable - which it isn't, and unless 30% of it isn't bought for money-laundering for foreigners, and unless a lot of the rest bought isn;t just bought for more letting out.

And, it is not just so called nimbies stopping houses from being built, but builders sitting on land that has planning permission so they can make more money.

Just how much money did the director of Persimmon homes get?
www.ft.com/content/c9f88bf8-e175-11e7-8f9f-de1c2175f5ce

Cuddly - that was in stoke. There was a follow-up article I saw recently where one couple had turned a former boarded-up shitpit into a really nice home and they were v proud of themselves!

This isn't the same couple I saw but here's another lady who's made the house cosy and is really happy with it:

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4179682/amp/Woman-bought-council-house-1-worth-50-000.html

The solution is absolutely for people to leave. Prices in London and the south East will stay high for as long as people decide they would rather pay more to live there than move elsewhere.

It does make you wonder how all the wealthy people will manage once the cleaners/nurses/retail staff etc all have to leave and go and live elsewhere.

This is what happens when all the economic activity and investment goes to one tiny corner

The other issue is that people don't want new houses built in their area. I've seen this occur in a few places. Secondly, alot of people commute a long distance to work causing more traffic on the roads

makingmiracles £800 for a 4 bed!! Ridiculous. Whome is that affordable for?? I pay more than that for an unfurnished 1 bedroom flat in a small village with one small shop and limited public transport.

I would snap up 4 bed for £800 and so would most renters that I know. We can only dream of such a property..........................

They live in social housing or in
Places like Northolt , Hayes , Greenford (west London) . I am sure the east and north have their own version

They live 3 people to a 1 bed flat (my friend)

London has many deprived areas with less expensive housing

If you have a job surely you are not a poor person ?

/Hollow laugh./ Tell that to people in the SE who make below the National average wage. I'm a disabled single parent who has to work full time AND needs a benefits top up to make things manageable. I have a 2 bed property, just big enough for me and DC. I can't leave the area - like I say I'm disabled and rely on my family who live locally for support. If I was to move away I'd either end up too ill to work, needing more benefits to pay for a private carer or my DC would end up as a young carer. I can't ask my family to uproot themselves for my sake, but when they looked into leaving the area I was well up for it, until we discovered the schooling in the area they wanted to move to was so awful my DS' education would suffer. They're now staying locally.

If I moved out of area and did my same NHS job elsewhere, I'd lose my London weighting, so my salary would drop and I'd possibly still have the same issues anyway.

£800 for a 4 bed!! Ridiculous. Whome is that affordable for?? What is most galling is those who don’t work at all, will prob be able to live there as their housing benefit will cover most of the cost so it’s us working poor again who suffer and are penalised.

I pay £900 for a 2 bed. I get about 1/3 of that in housing benefit. The majority of housing benefit claimants are in work - they are the working poor. In my case, full time work. But where I am it's not possible to afford rent on a single salary unless you earn above the National average wage.

Depending what you do for a job, move West and come round here , we live in Bath, gorgeous yes and you can still get a decent 2 bed house or flat for £800 to £950, if you aren't quite so bothered about gorgeousness then somewhere like Chippenham, a 2 bed new build around £700 or so. Obviously not practical if you need to commute daily etc, as it's an expensive commute, even though not actually that long. How about Reading if you needed to commute, not that pricey and very commutable and good shopping