Elederly To Blame For Housing Shortage?

[FredPuli43]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article3903989.ece

(Hope you get enough before the paywall limit. Couldn't find it free)

Apparently immigrants and the elderly are to blame for the housing shortage. And, adds the housing minister, the elderly are more to blame than the immigrants. That means me and AOG, for a start, and goodness knows how many other ABers.

What are we doing wrong? Is it like bed-blocking; die or be put in a secure home for us? I have four bedrooms but use only one; is that it? Do we buy second homes and leave one home empty?

What do you think?

[boxtops]

Anyone seen "Cocoon"...........?

[jno]

But even though these trends regarding longevity and immigration has been apparent for some time and successive governments- Tory, Labour, Coalition- have failed to do enough about it

You're kidding... it was probably "but Labour failed to do enough about it".

[factor-fiction]

I thought you were going to pick me up on my typo of 'has' instead of 'have'.

Yes, ministers, like some of us on here, do try to score political points and I'm sure he would have blamed Labour. My point was that in order to represent the truth he should have acknowledged the blame lay with governments over many years.

[emmie]

how can being elderly be the problem, surely they are in their own homes, if in social housing may well have moved into a small property as the larger one might be hard to heat, stop councils handing over social housing to recently arrived immigrants, and anyone who has not paid a sou into the system, it's wrong and unfair to those on the waiting lists. if you have paid into the pot for a long while, own your property, why should it be necessary unless you wish it or you are ill and have to go into a care home, be made to move.

[jno]

well, that was why I pointed the finger at Maggie: she had them sold off but didn't replace them, and as far as I know we've never had as many again, even though the demand seems to be there.

[factor-fiction]

Anyway, I think by using the word 'blame' in the newspaper headline is deliberately provocative- unless there is a quote somewhere later where the minister says " I blame the pensioners"- but I doubt he used the word 'blame',

[emmie]

as to those with second homes, actually it isn't just city types, whatever that means, but anyone with spare capital, it's called investing in property and plenty of people do it. Neighbours have a small portfolio of properties, their daughter is in one property and they rent out the others.

[jno]

yes, he doesn't seem (in the bit you can see) to have used the word "blame" and nor does The Times. But "Old people and immigrants are causing the housing bubble" seems accurate, and still raises the same question.

[jno]

buying to rent isn't the problem, that still means people are in houses, even if they don't own them. It's holiday homes etc that are the problem: owned but not lived in year-round.

[emmie]

councils were disposing of social housing long before Mrs T had the idea of home ownership. Councils like ours are still doing it, they are Labour run, and they are selling off many so called run down homes, houses on the open market which would fetch millions, for a relative song, just so they do not have to maintain them. Don't just blame the tories, blame them all, the housing nightmare is down to poor thinking, poor management on councils - and a desire to have many, mostly private properties certainly here in the capital. A local development has 52 or more homes, not one social housing or affordable homes.

[jno]

nobody sold off council houses the way Maggie did; it was a major election plank (/bribe).

[emmie]

how do you stop people from buying holiday lets? some obviously do buy to stay there two weeks of the year, the rest of the time left empty, that seems crazy in the light of how much money one can rent a holiday flat, house out in the summer months in places like Cornwall, Devon, Norfolk.
If i owned a second home, outside the capital, and chance would be a fine thing it would be to live in 6 months of the year, and then rent out the London home for those six months - many properties in our borough are being rented to overseas students.

[factor-fiction]

I agree with some of that emmie. A lot of older people still live in council properties though- my two grandmothers both lived in council flats until they died recently in their late 90s/early 100s. A generation ago they'd have died maybe 100 years earlier and freed the house up. But even old people living longer in private housing will mean their grown up children may need to wait longer to inherit the property so will have to get a social or private house to live in, again meaning more social housing is needed.

Anyway, it's wrong to say old people are the problem (and I'm not sure the minister is saying they area problem). It's the government's role to have a housing policy that takes account of these social trends, so it's the government's problem to sort it out (just as the previous governments, including Maggie/Major, Blair/Brown) should have done

[emmie]

am aware its the spectator, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Mrs T was not the only one to sell off social housing

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/09/labours-claim-of-being-the-party-of-council-housing-is-in-tatters/

[factor-fiction]

Oops- a generation ago my grandparents (who lived to 97 and 102) would probably have died 10 years younger not 100 years younger!

[emmie]

many of the elderly home owners may well have to sell those homes to pay for their care, so the children won't inherit, besides won't many already have or want a place of their own, not to mention that as a more mobile society, may not live, work any where near the parents. So if the elderly parent goes into a care home that property will likely be sold, or if they die whilst in the property the children may get a share of the inheritance, that is if the parent actually leaves them anything.
once families lived close by, in neighbourhoods, that is not so much the case now. My parent doesn't live anywhere near me, nor most of the family.

[mikey4444]

Stupid comments, from a stupid person. Build more council houses...thats the answer.

[boxtops]

I don't understand this passion for keeping on building new properties, when we already have so many houses and flats (particularly in our town centre) lying empty.

[emmie]

a one the top estate agents has said, many holiday lets are year round investments.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/7948047/Number-of-second-homes-reaches-record-high.html

[youngmafbog]

I have a large 6 bedroom home (circa 500K) with two of us (and occasionally youngest daughter) plus the dog. We would love to move to a smaller home but the cost of moving would be in excess of 20K. Which is just lost.

Stamp duty needs to be removed. It is a nonsense tax and causes issues like this.