To think the cost of living crisis isn't really a "crisis" for most people?

[buzzheath]

Not meant to be inflammatory at all. I'm well aware of the hardships that some people and families will face. But for the majority of people in the UK, will it really be a "crisis"? Isn't around half of the population middle class?

KettrickenSmiled
mid course it affects me, but I’m cutting down on all unnecessary spending, not relying on the government to help me out, I wonder how many of them children in poverty ( what ever the exact definition is ) parents will have the latest phone etc

And as the OP title suggests at the moment the cost of living crisis is not a crisis for most PEOPLE, as seen with recent things on going on in the public and seen with my own eyes,
And no I don’t live in a wealthy area

I do hate this idea which is popular amongst people who tend to have right wing views that if people are poor, it must be their fault. It must be because they are lazy or poor parents or haemorrhaging money on expensive iPhones. Mostly it's that salaries are just very low in relation to the cost of essential expenses, property being a major one and now others are catching up.

Oh stop sneering it's getting tedious.

How ignorant can one person be in one comment.

Exactly.

If people aren’t struggling it’s mainly due to a combination of luck, good support networks allowing them to work more / pay less childcare etc and good health allowing more choices. Poverty isn’t some sort of exclusive club for people who are lazy or didn’t try hard enough. That kind of thinking just gives people excuses to continue not giving a shit.

There are certain activities that seem immune, holidays is one and football at a premier level seems to be another.

There are many reasons that are masking what is a real issue

There are a lot of people who have been drawing down cash off their houses- equity release/remortgaging / retiring at 58 and taking lump sums off pensions etc -

It affects people with large mortgages and very high rent in relation to income a lot more than modest earners but much lower outgoings

Out of interest I had a quick Google on Rightmove on my midlands home town- i had to keep adjusting my parameters as I was looking far too high- sales prices were around half where we live and rents of some not too bad places were around 1/3. So I had a look on salary's- less but maybe 3/4 of what they were around Thames valley . It's easy to say well just move there then, I don't actually want to and it's not convenient for our business but it's easy to understand why in Majorca recently there was a dearth of people from the southern half of the UK but lots of middle aged people from the northern half of the UK- It's affecting certain demographics far more than others- younger people, retired people without significant assets, households with single incomes and yes households with big mortgages/rent and those at the level of receiving benefits.

Thoses saying ‘stadiums and holidays’ are still busy and full of people
most of those concert tickets are either ones bought several years ago for concerts that were postponed due to covid, football season tickets that were purchased when more spare money, again holidays booked before and Ben postponed by covid.

we won’t see the effect of those things until next year as it’s the next few months when people would normally book for next year but decide not to, and not to renew football season tickets and not fork out for concerts and hotels.

it’s a trickle effect. Thoses already in poverty will immediately be affected but the indicators of spending will go down greatly over the winter I feel and then have a knock on effect - less people having nails done means in a few months some of thoses nail salons will be forced to close pushing more people into poverty

House prices up 11%, crisis what crisis, the OP is spot on

That rise was for the year to April. Long before inflation went to its current levels.

Eh?

So a 'modest' £200k starter home is now £222k, meaning all the folk who have painstakingly saved a 10% deposit to qualify for a mortgage are now disqualified ... meaning home ownership is beyond them.

Although your focus on house purchase rather than rental reveals your mindset. Not everyone can afford to buy. Higher house prices filter through to become higher rent costs, squeezing people who cannot manage to get a mortgage even harder.

In what way is 11% NOT a crisis?

Blossomtoes

June -June 10.9%, with July increase of 0.1%

KettrickenSmiled
you don’t seem to get it because you might be in a crisis, the majority seem not to be, ie house prices rising at 11%, if people couldn’t afford them there would be no rise, just because it’s raining where you are, it doesn’t mean it’s raining everywhere

KettrickenSmiled
Yes rentals are rising, which yet again means people can afford it or Landlords wouldn’t put up their rents for fear of not having the house/flat rented out.

In other words, the same as April. What part of those figures being based on a period prior to the current rise in inflation do you disagree with?

Your figure shoes house price growth has stalled, hugely.

House sales that completed in July would have been agreed months ago, prior to the recent interest rate rises and cost of living figures biting.

@Unphased what a peculiar way of looking at it ref rentals. People can't necessarily afford it comfortably-however they kind of 'have to afford it' or else they are homeless or couchsurfing etc. what happens when 2 incomes become one , stuck in contracts on unaffordable rentals and then can't easily move to anything else as they need upfront deposits and 5 weeks rent before getting deposits back on previous property - you appear to be an exceptionally 'im ok' person- not everyone living in rented homes is some kind of a scumbag you know- people split up, people die, businesses fail, people become ill - there are many reasons people have to rent . We are lucky and rent at quite a high level , have great references and no kids at home and even though we earn well enough now and have a decent business , we can't buy due to not being able to get mortgages because of age and size of deposits needed I take great exception to people speaking as if we are the shit on their shoe.

And you don’t think that if everybody was shitting themselves as is suggested on so many of these Mumsnet threads that they wouldn’t of pulled out of the sale or actually had the mortgage withdrawn because they can do that right up till the day of exchange if the banks no longer have confidence in the deal.

@Nothappyatwork

You don't think a 0.1% growth figure in July is evidence that house price growth has slowed? To me, that looks like house price growth had slowed by April and we are only just seeing the evidence now, due to the time taken between offer and completion.

Precisely. Watch the housing market over the next six months. You can’t see where you’re going in the rear view mirror.

And if we are basing an economy purely on house prices no wonder the country is screwed and why Germany surged ahead when so many rented!!

Why would anyone post this? I'm lucky that my income has recently gone up by more than inflation, but WHY would you then doubt anyone else's experiences?

if you can't heat your house and eat then that's an issue.

get some perspective/empathy asap

That’s not strictly true. If you look at available rentals the supply has considerably dried up. In my area you would get 4-5 houses coming on Rightmove to rent per day, now you are lucky if its 1 a week! However there are still the same amount of people looking to rent. People are always desperately posting on Facebook looking for somewhere. Landlords are selling up - in fact our neighbours are being turfed out so the landlord can sell. They can’t find anywhere so are having to stay out and hope the council can house them and thier 2 little kids.
Landlords however know they can put the rent up as someone out of the 100’s of people looking to rent will pay it. There are still lots of renters who can’t find anywhere to rent or afford the new rents.
so just because landlords are putting up rents doesn’t mean there is no crisis and remember the crisis is still in the making. I’d like everyone denying a crisis is coming to revisit this thread in 6 months and tell us if they are still of the same opinion or not!

I have noticed it. It’s weird things. For instance the local takeaways use to take an age. No Uber eats or deliveroo here. They arrive within 20 minutes (rural) which is unheard of. People aren’t ordering as much. The “local” IKEA was dead when were getting uni stuff. It’s never dead. That said the price if their stuff is pretty horrific now. It’s definitely hitting local business here.

It is all first world stuff at the moment and people are still off on their pre booked holidays and events. Doesn’t mean there isn’t one coming. Look at the income statistics for the UK.

Great saying!