To ask what one or two policies you think could make the biggest difference to the U.K.?

[whatkatydid2013]

To me the big one is social housing. I feel like if we could build up a large supply of social housing at reasonable rates all over the country the benefits would be massive. It would make life affordable for many more people and lead to them being less likely to need in work benefits. The affordable rents would cover maintenance and could keep large numbers of people in stable employment doing said maintenance (as well as creating administrative roles). It would make it less challenging to staff key worker roles in more expensive areas. In the short term I appreciate it would be a massive expense but it seems like in the long term it would cost less than our current system on a going basis and it would make many people a lot more financially secure. I find it disappointing that all main parties seem so focused on home ownership in their policy statements. I know there are many important policy areas but this just always feels like one that’s very central and totally glossed over by all parties. Maybe because there isn’t a quick, easy fix?

Housing as above but I’d add get tough on the private/public ratio on new builds to keep neighbourhoods mixed.

whacking great tax on unoccupied buildings, both commercial and residential.

No more Tory governments.

Totally revise the state education system. Pay teachers more. Expulsions more freely permitted.

And...

Knife carriers under the age of 18 are detained. Two years. I am sick of hearing that it's for protection. It isn't and it's ruining the lives of children that live in these communities.

Definitely social housing alongside tighter regulation of the private rental sector, particularly in relation to rent levels and properties being fit for habitation. Landlords should have to show they understand and fulfil their legal duties via accreditation from the LA.

Education needs a huge investment with a real school rebuilding programme and a recruitment and retention drive. We have unprecedented numbers of children with SEN who don't necessarily need to be in a specialist placement but also need over and above what mainstream can offer, build more ARP units within schools. Pay staff enough that they can actually live on the wage and so that they want to go into to profession and want to stay.

Proper funding of social care from central government, rather than local councils having to pay for it out of council tax.

Surely more social housing would just be detrimental to the income of private landlords, it makes you wonder if one of the reasons governments don’t increase the stock is because they’re invested heavily into the property market themselves. For that reason I can’t see the situation changing too drastically.

Doubling our investment into education and overhauling the academic journey would bring immense benefits long term.

Public sector Nurseries- paid via NI like schools, healthcare.

Public sector run like private sector- the amount of waste is huge

Housing in general should be more affordable.
You need about 8x salary now to afford anywhere. Either that or increase salaries.
People shouldn't be struggling to have the most basic need of clean safe shelter met.
And working people shouldn't need UC.

The point is that private rented student accommodation means that people aren’t forced to go to their local Uni even if it is not the highest ranked they are capable of getting into or doesn’t offer the subjects someone wants.

Not all Unis offer Medicine, Aeronautical Engineering, Marine Biology etc etc. Young people need access to private rented accommodation if the University doesn’t have enough.

Similarly after I finished Uni I moved to London and liked in house shares whilst I established my career. I work in the City and London was my only option. I needed to be able to rent accommodation.

I don’t think they were talking about buying a second home for their children to go to Uni! I think they were saying there wouldn’t be any digs to rent.

All essential utilities to be owned and run by the state.

Investing in anything that increases manufacturing in this country. We import just about everything these days. At one time we made boats, cars, steel, locomotives, shoes, clothing, motorbikes, cycles, and much more. I grew up in Leicester and the local factory made clothes for M & S. nowadays if you buy anything from M & S it’s made in some far flung place. Food as well should be home produced. An increase in home productivity would create jobs and reduce our carbon footprint.

Government run care homes to the standard of private ones.

I came on to say social housing too! Completely agree!

The expansion of social housing would also lead to a reduction in demand for and costs of private rent.

I would try to reduce the endless churn through the justice system that starts in the teens and carries on throughout these people's lives. It's a massive drain on society and is usually passed on to their next generations as well. I don't know what the answer is, but probably needs to be addressed in childhood.

Stop all illegal migration. Patrol our waters better. Process the massive asylum backlog and allow those genuinely fleeing persecution to feel settled and contribute to society/rebuild their life.

Create a welfare system based on needing to pay in before being eligible to use, for able members of society ( disabilities excluded). Make our welfare system less desirable and harder to exploit

Have much tougher policies about Job seekers forcing more into employment or their JS allowance is stopped. This creates swathes of jobs and fills lots of job vacancies.

Create jobs to tidy up this filthy country after years of fund cutting on roads, grass verges, woods maintenance, street cleaning

Cap legal aid limit per person to stop the legal profession milking the system and change the existing policies which penalise some of society unfairly

Remove the artificial "cheapness" that isnt cheap, just soul destroying. Shared ownership should not have to be a thing. Buy half a house and rent the rest... how have we let things get to this. Private pcp agreements to effectively rent a car you can't afford to buy.

Allows prices to just roll on up and keep escalating... in the name of "affordability "

Abolition of private/public school education would go a long way to improving our state system and reducing privileged access to the best jobs. A renewed focus on making public services including the NHS and Council housing deliver for ordinary people. A better thought through climate change policy which doesn't dump all the cost on working people.

Are you all willing to pay massive taxes for all of these things?

Ban wood burners and actually punish cannabis use. I don’t want to smell either.

I'll add vapes (and barbecues)

I’m tempted to say National Service for 18-20 year olds not in education or work. ( obviously who are not disabled) More for teaching them life skills and discipline and hopefully motivating them rather than have them playing video games in their parents house for years on end.

Housing needs to be tackled. The whole wealth of the nation is tied up in property, or being spent living in a property. Its crippling us.

Secure, green energy supply

Secure food supply

Clean water

Sorry its more than one or two.

Fair child benefit calculated per household not per person. For a long time DH earned 60k and I earned 0 (because I was off work with health issues but not eligible for any benefits). If one person is over the threshold you get no child benefit. Meanwhile other couples were earning 2x 49k so had more income than us, and received full child benefit. It’s unfair.

Better education on the reality of having children you cant afford.

State ownership of utilities; I was surprised to find that our water companies are under foreign ownership. ( no need for sarky comments on ‘educating myself)