House Shortage

[woolleysheep]

how many houses are up for sale standing empty or unoccupied for several months of the year, could these not be purchased by the state and used by families requiring homes

[tenrec]

Houses that are for sale may have people living in them.

[Buenchico]

>>>could these not be purchased by the state

What with? The amount of money the UK owes is currently rising by over £5000 every second. If we're to avoid the sort of problems which Greece has had to deal with (and will continue to have to deal with for decades to come) we desperately need to slash Government expenditure, not increase it!

[woolleysheep]

i saw on the television boarded homes were being sold for one pound each but if you bought one and modernised it with grants but you had to live in it for five years before you could sell it again - i don't think that would break the bank

[boxtops]

who's paying for the grants, then, woolley? - that'll be us, the taxpayer, then. There are hundreds of empty premises in this town (many needing attention, some brand new) - and yet they still keep building.

[Buenchico]

With those houses you refer to, Woolleysheep, Government money has already been spent!

You don't really think that a private individual (or, say, a housing association) would sell a house for just £1, do you? Those house were bought (at market value) from their previous owners by the local council, using money provided under the Government's Housing Market Renewal scheme, specifically so that they could be brought back into use by offering them to new residents for just £1 each.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184334/Empty-houses-sale-1-Britains-cheapest-street.html

So, in those cases, what you're proposing (i.e. using Government money to get unoccupied homes brought back into use) has already happened!

Chris

[woolleysheep]

has the government not stopped the housing scheme so leaving the properties to deteriorate with local councils left with unusable properties on their hands or what would you do with them,the properties as you say were to be demolished for new build but now they stand derelict .i think you will find they were purchased under a compulsory purchase order and many of the residents did not want to move,never mind the politics and give people homes.

[Buenchico]

http://www.debt-clock.org/

[Old_Geezer]

We have more than enough unnecessary government interference in our lives already. (Perhaps they should also purchase cars that aren't used for those folk without one.) If you want a house I don't think the estate agents' windows are particulary empty, and using them means you don't need to pick on some scapegoat and impose your will on them.

Of course the real issue is too many folk not so much too few homes. Housing is just one of many problems caused by that.