Labour wants to build huge amounts of new houses

[RudsyFarmer]

I’ve just been listening to it being discussed in the radio. The conservatives are not building enough to support the growing population.

i completely understand the need for millions of new homes but man I feel so sad for the loss of green space. Is it just me being ridiculous? Make me feel better about it as in my local area there is just continuous new housing every here. I can’t imagine that quadrupling year on. 900 houses in the next village alone. 5,000 homes have created a new town a few miles away. I want my kids to be able to live in a house but also want them to see the odd field.

Many of those with Settled Status are children.
Many of those with Settled Status applied for that status to cover their options and then left the UK.
Settled Status does not mean that they are living and/or working in the UK now.

You're typing the words, but you haven't a clue what they mean.

The real issue is that we, collectively, are enjoying a standard of living that we don't really "deserve" basically because of an accident of nature we were mostly born here rather than in a poverty stricken third world country. We're no more "worthy" of a nice house, 2.2 healthy children, a dog, good education/healthcare etc, it's just a fluke of history/nature. Time we accepted that most of us aren't more intelligent or hard working than, say, Africans carrying buckets of water for miles to drink and wash! The World's "wealth" is shifting, as it's done for thousands of years and the "West's" wealth and dominance is slowly dying. We need, collectively, to wake up and smell the coffee and accept that most of us are going to have to accept a lower standard of living in the future, not just financially, but also in regards to living standards, public service standards, etc. The "good times" are over and we're now in a state of managed (or mismanaged) decline.

I don't expect life under Labour to mean everything will get better.

But I know another four years of Conservative government will see things get much worse. They can't manage to govern their own party, let alone the country. Since the last General Election we've had three Prime Ministers and they're now talking of deposing the current one before the next GE.

I don't like either Labour or the Conservatives, but we've got such a broken electoral system so far removed from the concept of democracy that it's all the choice we realistically have until someone gets around to fixing the system.

The old white people who voted Tory & pro Brexit should reflect on how the situation came to be. The generation who benefited from NHS, free education, great pensions, high public sector pay, high quality Council stock (which many bought & profited from), free travel & work through EU, well staffed services. They have sold our DC down the river. It's criminal.

I do think the housing issue needs to be addressed and that building more houses is probably the answer, but it is greenbelt sites being developed round my neck of the woods which is awful given the amount brownfield sites that are being left undeveloped.

What I find very annoying is all these new estates that have tripled the village in size over the last few years. So what has happened to accommodate them? Well, obviously the council saw fit to reduce public transport provision and to close the village GP. Because that makes complete sense.

It's also hugely exacerbated the total lack of NHS dental availability in the area, not to mention primary school places.

And fixing the potholes from the massive increase in traffic? Forget it!

I agree with this too

This is spot on, there are plenty of homes for sale, people can't afford them nor the rent BTL landlords charge.

As far as i can see, both parties use house building to keep the economy going.

Meanwhile, the UK has the worst natural environment/diversification in Europe.

@heckmuffin , exactly this

Local authorities do not generally have the talent, knowledge or experience to manage planning permissions satisfactorily. Many of them cannot even manage the obligatory Five Year Plan. So centralise the planning system, identify areas where planners will be more amenable to development and time limit permissions granted

The Housing Act needs to be reformed substantially. Key workers and the disabled should have priority. Extend the spare room subsidy to pensioners, far too many old people sitting alone in three bed social properties. Incentivise downgrading both in the social and private housing sectors. Immediately ban Right To Buy and enforce tenancy standards so social housing is a pleasant place to live. Do not allow second homes to be deemed businesses

Personally I would bring back Market or Fair Rents Officers, that would strip out some of the enormous levels of fraud in the benefits system and enable people to rent according to their means. Local Housing Allowances are inherently flawed like any other cap. Finally audit every single social housing tenancy as many were obtained fraudulently or are sublet. We spent 23 billion pounds last year and fast rising to subsidise housing costs, surely this enormous amount of money can be better spent to a degree?

We recently looked at a lovely house, 3 bed semi, 170k in a decent area of Plymouth, for us can't get a mortgage (too old) been on the market for 3 months, one offer, BTL selling up in droves, local workers don't earn enough even for sub 200k properties.

HA near me are selling or trying too, affordable 4 beds for 300k :( or rent for 1250 per month.

The council aren't responsible for the GP surgery or dental provision. It will not be the council that closed your surgery.

@DogInATent oh - shows what I know. The council have been the ones sending out communication to residents about the situation and the local county councillor seems to be getting a lot of flack about it, so I just assumed they had something to do with it!

It used to be that local authorities were able to offer mortgages to established residents. Why let the banks profit enormously from interest paid when it could directly benefit the local community instead? This is something I would like to see reintroduced

I agree. Generation inequality is a huge problem. And since we can't just create ever "more", people with the most will have to start giving some of it up. More realistic discussion is needed around pensions, health and social care and housing in old age. Unfortunately won't happen until that voter base starts to die off, by which time it will be too late.

But the next generation gets older too, thus perpetuating the problem of the "grey vote". Studies show that people move politics from left to right as they grow older. So just waiting a few years until the current oldies die won't actually solve the problem, there's another generation of oldies who'll vote the same way, i.e. to their benefit, so for more benefits such as state pension, more healthcare, less tax, etc. It's never ending.

The divorce rate in the UK is 42%. Couples who are not married are even more likely to separate. Therefore increasingly many families need two houses to provide homes for them and their children when they divorce. I read somewhere that breakdown of family groups is the biggest need in terms of housing. Far more than immigration. Compare this to the 2.5% divorce rate of the 1950s.

We haven’t got a population crisis, so much as an aged population crisis.

we have plenty of doctors, nurses, teachers,dentists but they are all retired Andover 60+

The problem is our birth rate is so ow ad people are all drawn their pension

Agree. And this means that people should adjust their expectations- especially when it comes to their children’s right to house ownership (as well as other things). Time to accept that we’re not so special and don’t “deserve” things more than others.

“your country’s turning to shit, you deserve it, put up and shut up!”
Can’t see any problems with that. That’ll definitely work.

Local councillors are very quick to point the blame at someone else. They're not always educated enough to know who is to blame. It's particularly the case when the local councillor wears a different colour rosette to the county councillor.

They can get away with it because most of the population doesn't know or care about the reality of politics. Ironically, it's only migrants that have to prove they know how government and democracy works in this country. The lcoals can can be born here and maintain a proud ignorance of things their entire life.

Although interestingly the 'tipping point' from left to right seems to have moved older quite quickly; the strongest correlation is home ownership rates, though there will be many factors also involved.

I meant it as mildly patronising rather than familiar; happy to apologise and withdraw in favour of a term of your choice that will have the right impact?

(Gosh this being an anglophone immigrant is tricky. Strangers call you sweetheart or love in a shop, but it's 'very inappropriate' on social media. Every day a school day.)

You don't really seem to understand settled status or the concepts of 'then', 'now' and 'the future'. Or that settled status isn't 'the wish to live and work here' but rather the right to live and work here.

Have you any evidence that EU migration patterns have changed since Brexit, or that settled status has inherently changed behaviours or intention from FoM days?

You are of course aware that the census shows that around a million EU citizens in England and Wales who had applied for settlement had left by the time of the census?

In fact, on Census day, only 3.9 million EU passport holders were present in England and Wales.

Now, we don't know how many may have returned in the meantime but still, that's quite a drop in the 2.5 years between the scheme opening and the Census day.

@LoisPrice

we have plenty of doctors, nurses, teachers,dentists but they are all retired Andover 60+

And a lot of them have retired far earlier than 60+ too because of their gold plated pension schemes which the younger generation of doctors, nurses, teachers and dentists could only dream of. Another example of the older generation pulling up the draw bridge after them!

Also a decent state pension so owning a home come retirement isn't necessary. Many European countries where renting is more prevalent have a state pension that gives you a good standard of living.

Ooh ageism and racism in one sentence - nice.

Pretty much