Poor people being priced out

[veggifriedbreakfast]

I live in East London and need to move, I currently rent a 2 bedroom flat. But, looking around now, for a 2 bedroom the minimal is £1400 a month up to £2000 for a 2 bed!!!

It seems to me that what is happening is that actually poor people are being priced out of London. I lived in Stratford and had to move out of there due to the market going up and now where I am again it's happening. How can people on lesser incomes afford this? I am now looking to having to uproot ds again and move even further out because of this. Aibu in thinking that this is a part of forcing the poorer people out of London?

I don’t get why anyone feels the government should be responsible for enabling them to be able to live and work in the place of their choosing

Governments are responsible for poverty.
You think choices are only for the wealthy?

I don’t get why anyone feels the government should be responsible for enabling them to be able to live and work in the place of their choosing.

Because it's conditions made by successive governments that created this situation. Your area of the midlands is not deprived by accident, it's partly because of decisions that politicians made, in government.

The rents are not high just because of market forces. They are high because of government decisions to sell of council housing stock and not replace it and not to do anything to tackle the brewing housing crisis that everyone knew was coming.

One of the first things the Tories did when they am into power was get rid of the requirements for all new builds to have some affordable housing.

Also, community it important - does no one give a fuck about community any more? Even if you don't care on a social level, it saves the government (and your tax money) £billions to have people looking after each other in communities instead of having to rely on social services and the NHS - particularly A&E by the time people without proper support seek help.

The most vulnerable, of course, should be prioritised for social housing in areas they have links to, but that is already the case

No that is not the case. Because of the benefits cap, the most vulnerable are being moved out of London and other expensive cities. And not to areas with employment, but exactly to the kind of areas you moved to escape from because they're cheap.

I recommend you look in Walthamstow OP. You would get something decent there for your money and, if you can secure a place near Walthamstow Central, the travel links are amazing. 25 minutes to Victoria on the Tube, Tube never closes in the snow as it is all underground. You also have over ground directly into Liverpool Street and a huge bus terminal. Driving is good as it is close to the North Circular and the M11 for access to the M25.

London is an expensive place to live. The only 2 reasons to live in London are 1) you are rich; 2) your job justifies the price. If you can get a job with similar wage somewhere else outside of London, it just does not make sense to live in London. What's the point of renting a miserable flat in some dump area with poor schools in London and pay a fortune when you can have a much comfortable life somewhere else?
In fact, in many other capitals or very large cities the property prices are high. Look at Manhatten in New York. London is not an exception.

If you research the alternatives, you will be suprised if not shocked how much you can get for your money outside of London.

I don’t get why anyone feels the government should be responsible for enabling them to be able to live and work in the place of their choosing

Not necessarily of their choosing but the government should not have policies that force house prices so high that families have to uproot their lives over and over again just to be able to keep affording a roof over their heads.

It should be a basic right in a wealthy country that if you both work and pay taxes you should be able to afford a reasonably decent home within a reasonable radius of where you grew up, got jobs, have family and friends. It’s not the ordinary people’s fault.

Governments are responsible for poverty.
You think choices are only for the wealthy?

You can't unpick money from choices, where would you even start?

Everyone's choices are driven by money, first and foremostly where you live.

This isn't anything new though, and I don't undertand why people are obsessed about living in London.
We looked to move there in the 80's and couldn't afford it, we still couldn't afford it.
You need to be rich to live in London, we aren't, so we live up north.

"I don’t get why anyone feels the government should be responsible for enabling them to be able to live and work in the place of their choosing"

Because its for a government to intervene where there is a failing market. The housing market in the UK is massively failing due to under supply and consumers being exploited by the limits on available housing that this causes.

Three steps:

A) Berlin style rent control per sq ft
B) Limit planning permission for residential homes to two years to stop land banking.
C) More effective taxation of Landlords. Newham found that half of Landlords in the borough were failing to declare taxes. I would wager its far higher.

I'm not particularly poor, but as a single parent, and not properly on the property ladder I was absolutely priced out of London. I earn a fairly good wage, but 1 adult, 2 DC is a lot of financial pressure on one income and I could not afford to privately rent.

Luckily I got enough equity from the sale of the shared ownership flat I had in London for a deposit on a house outside on London. We moved to coastal Kent and it is glorious here. I would not move back to London even if I won the EuroMillions.

So for us being run out of town priced out of London has been a blessing in disguise. Many of my friends have also left London for similar reasons and they are living happily in the provinces.

The commodification of basic requirements of life - such as housing - its a fucking travesty. Yet our economy is based on it
Gotta thank the Tories for that.

There is no reason except greed that London landlords keep putting prices up and up.
And let's not forget the extra commission for the Estate Agents.

There's a two bed flat in Cheshunt for less than £900pm, not london, but just outside.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-58660505.html

I honestly know very little about the London market other than to be aware of property being eye wateringly expensive.

However - and I speak as an Irish person raised primarily in the North of England and living out my days in the North Midlands home owner/ mortgage free - I do feel enraged on behalf of people constantly being told to move North when they have lived in London either all of their lives or for the vast majority of same.

Why should they have to? Move away from everything and everyone they know and love. Yes I do think there should be some sort of allowance for people either born and stayed in London or where they have lived there 20 years or more. They should certainly take priority in the social housing lists for starters. Maybe not a popular view but I certainly feel something proactive should be done.

Walthamstow is nearer, and still under a grand.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-65135467.html

Problem is Elize ytou'd need about £200 a month for the season ticket in from Cheshunt.

You've just noticed? There has been lots on this. Loads of families pushed out for the 2012 Olympics and for Westfield.

I'm a shop worker. We earn peanuts, really, peanuts. NMW but often on restricted hours contracts, so can be as little as £500 a month. I live up North, where I can (just about) get by on my earnings, but couldn't live anywhere near London, nor afford the costs to travel in from outside.

How the hell do people on low wages (and no, we can't all 'get a better paid job', nor would we want to, and besides, people in London need to buy groceries, get their houses cleaned etc) manage? Particularly if they are the only earner in the household, or, like me, single with no dependants and, therefore, no entitlement to benefits of any kind.

it should be a basic right in a wealthy country that if you both work and pay taxes you should be able to afford a reasonably decent home within a reasonable radius of where you grew up, got jobs, have family and friends
why should it be a basic right. ?
Lots of young people from the provinces would love to work/live in London but cannot afford it young talent is being lost because people who maybe do not need to live in London or are not working can trot out I grew up here, I am not moving, I have friends here. Classic case of 'I'm all right Jack'.
It is not the cuts/austerity of whatever political party , nor is it social cleansing - it is a London phenomenon where most newcomers believe the streets are paved with gold, not to mention all the overseas landlords hiding their money.

This is why house prices need to fall in London - it is doing nothing for the economy and rich Londoners are distorting the market in the rest of the country (where most of us live).

"Lots of young people from the provinces would love to work/live in London but cannot afford it "

That goes against the point that it wouldn't be a reasonable radius of where they grew up.

" not to mention all the overseas landlords hiding their money. "

11% according to the research, down from 25%.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40608995

The fact is that most couples CAN afford to live in a two bed flat in London, its far harder to do so on your own, but then it has always been this way.

I live in London. Born here and was fortunate that my parents helped me buy my first flat in 2001 - had I not done I would not have been able to buy the house we are in today. We could do with more space (3 kids) but that would only be possible if we moved out of London, which we don't want to do.

Most of my friends of a similar age who are still here either bought ages ago, have been helped massively by their parents/grandparents or are in social housing. Those who had no option but to private rent are long gone.

Berlin style rent control per sq ft

It's a nice sound bite, but 9 out of 10 economists (including many who are favoured by Labour) oppose the idea, as in almost every case it hasn't worked.

www.nmhc.org/News/The-High-Cost-of-Rent-Control/

www.nytimes.com/2000/06/07/opinion/reckonings-a-rent-affair.html?mcubz=0

blog.shelter.org.uk/2017/09/old-fashioned-rent-control-what-is-it-good-for/

The housing market is a shit show that Labour and Conservatives are responsible for

I am not on here to score political points. all parties by both actions and inactions have bought London to where it is today. no one party can take the blame.

but this idea that somehow thousands of landlords who have invested in property are going to somehow give them up to be run by the LA or a HA is absolutely bonkers and shows complete fiscal incompetency.

You cannot nationalise the rented sector. and you couldn't just target London for this nationalisation.

it needs a rethink. more infrastructure away from London.
positive discrimination to set businesses up outside of the capital
new runways elsewhere across the country so freight comes in at different points.
Stop topping up people in full time employment with benefits so that employers have to pay a proper wage.

we are in a spiral. rents go up so benefits to the working poor go up to cover the increase, so employers get lazy and don't pay a proper wage and so on and so on.

Funny that they seem to work in other places and that the "fears" over rent control are not often observable in places where it is implemented properly

psmag.com/economics/in-defense-of-rent-control

Like Berlin

"positive discrimination to set businesses up outside of the capital"

Already occurs

"new runways elsewhere across the country so freight comes in at different points."

Why do you need to build new runways when most regional airports have significant spare capacity?

"we are in a spiral. rents go up so benefits to the working poor go up to cover the increase,"

This doesn't happen since the benefits cap.