The Uk’S Housing Crisis

[Jahulaye]

Should we start building up again?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/new-homes/9795268/To-solve-Britains-housing-crisis-we-must-build-up-not-out.html

All around me they’re tearing down 60’s high risers and replacing them with small modern mini housing estates, should we start building up again? Not in the same 60’s style but maybe mega high risers a mile high like a pyramid with built in shopping malls,l Ext? Essentials mini cities?

[Kromovaracun]

I'm not suggesting that anti-immigrant feeling was not a decisive factor in the referendum (it certainly was) but I do find your anecdote a bit strange Eddie... there was a crowd of middle-aged mums who had formed some kind of flashmob outside a muslim newsagents and were applauding, cheering and whooping? That sounds more like an NPC in a computer game than a real person.

[naomi24]

Mikey, okay. And your problem with that is ...?

[horseshoes]

I'm assuming its the same situation in most/all university towns/cities, but where I live there are dozens, nay, hundreds of To-Let signs in almost every street. These are Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), which ALL used to be family homes. The University here has in recent years built new Halls of Residence, but they are too expensive and so some lie empty. (I know at the end of last academic year, two whole blocks lay unoccupied). The Uni here is seen by many of the city residents as being the cause of all the housing ills, and they may have a point. Every time we read a pub, hotel or shop has closed or a plot of land becomes vacant, in goes an application for "student accommodation". The town is at saturation point with HMOs. The council is in the usual "no money" situation, with more refuse/rubbish being generated by HMO dwellers, yet landlords pay no or little council tax. Consequently almost all housing stock is now HMO with nowhere for youngsters to buy or even afford. The town is an absolute mess with rubbish everywhere you look. Basically, the town has become a campus and I'm certain it's not alone.

[Kromovaracun]

I agree with O_G that we do need a change in culture regarding parenthood. Having children should not be seen as a desirable or aspirational thing to do.

Also I am rather skeptical that the UK's housing problem is all down to migration. The largest single group of non-EU migrants (and remember most of our immigration comes from outside the EU) are students. These are classified as "long-term" migrants for some inexplicable reason by the Home Office, but they are overwhelmingly gone within 3 years and the vast majority live in rented or purpose-built student housing. It's hard to imagine these people having much of an impact on the housing market, and that's >40% of our non-EU migration right there.

Even among those EU migrants who come for work, though, there is a very high degree of rotation - the vast majority do not settle here long term. If they do put any extra pressure on the housing market, it's a pretty marginal factor and has little to do with the real structural reason why the housing market is in such a state: generations of electoral policy aimed at homeowners by both governing parties.

[EDDIE51]

Kromovaracun, They were not middle aged they were young 20s.
There were 6 or 7 of them inside the shop and all with young children, it was just after 9am so they had just dropped off the older kids at school. One said ''we are getting out of Europe, so all you Immigrants will have to go home'' . The others responded by clapping and cheering. The one who had spoken then asked the shopkeeper for cigarettes but ''can I pay when I get my benefit?''
The people in the voting queue were mainly of pension age , but were talking loudly about voting out to get rid of the effing immigrants.
I actually apologised to the shopkeeper and told him we did not all think like that.

[mikey4444]

Naomi....because it is now obvious that if and when we eventually leave the EU, we will still need these foreign workers, as I have made clear on numerous occasions.

For many people, the Referendum was just an excuse for xenophobia at best, and racism at the worst.

[ummmm]

I still don't believe that, Eddie.

People clapping in a shop, someone loudly declaring they are on benefits, pensioners swearing in a queue...it's too far fetched.

[mikey4444]

Eddie....you can take a horse to water, etc, etc !

[naomi24]

Mikey, you don’t know what other people’s experiences of immigration is – those who live in the poorer areas of overcrowded cities for example - something you don’t experience on a daily basis, so easy for you to criticise. No one has said that foreigners won’t still live and work here. They always have and they always will.

[naomi24]

If Eddie's story is to be believed I wonder why he chooses to live in such a dreadful area among such appalling people.

[emmie]

what we don;t want but are getting are massive buildings, killing the London i loved for years. All these high rises won't be affordable to your average punter but to oligarchs, and the like.

[mikey4444]

Naomi...please don't tell me that you are about to trot out your well-worn " I'm a Londoner" theme ?

Foreigners are here because of the availability of jobs, some of which are low/no skilled. If our resident long-term unemployed were to take these jobs, there would far less opportunities for foreigners to come here in the first place.

[emmie]

mikey
you know thats not true, they come here because many are economic migrants and that to say they are not is disingenuous.

[-Talbot-]

In conclusion, where EDDIE lives most of the white people are scumbuckets and the Asian shopkeeper is a saint.
Tha won't get tick with our Yorkshire Asian shopkeepers lad.

[EDDIE51]

Ummmm, I can only assure you that is is all 100% true. The fact that you choose to doubt it does not alter the fact that is really happened exactly as I say.
It is also true that when I heard 'Leave' had won I was so astounded that I asked people I knew how they voted. 12 said they had voted 'Leave' and I asked them the reason for their vote. Of the 12, 8 said
'' to get rid of the f******* immigrants''

[Togo]

//^ I was just waiting for someone to blame immigrants, but as we all know, all immigrants will magically disappear as soon as we leave the EU .//

Posted by [email protected] and no one had up until that point! Magically turning the thread into an immigration debate. Haha. The immigration crisis has been turned into a housing crisis by the "managed" democracy agencies. We all know it but some can't bring themselves to swallow the truth. Bless.

[naomi24]

Mikey, I don't live in London. Haven't for years. Why would I? Good to know that all immigrants are in employment though. That's something I've learnt today. ;o)

[horseshoes]

Krom

"The largest single group of non-EU migrants (and remember most of our immigration comes from outside the EU) are students. These are classified as "long-term" migrants for some inexplicable reason by the Home Office, but they are overwhelmingly gone within 3 years and the vast majority live in rented or purpose-built student housing"

That is the point I was making. In my town almost all the housing stock is now HMOs occupied by students. They do NOT all live in Halls of Residence owned by the Uni as they are overpriced. If they DID live in halls, the HMOs would return to housing stock for local families, so cancelling out the housing shortage locally.

[EDDIE51]

naomi, my area is one of the strongest Tory constituencies in the UK and has never returned a Labour MP. It is relatively affluent , with good (but expensive) housing and there are very few 'non white' faces around.
It makes the racism and xenophobia I saw even more inexplicable.
But I enjoy living where I am.

[naomi24]

Eddie, I wonder where the customers in your corner shop come from then? I live in an affluent area and I never come across anyone here like the people you describe. Sounds pretty rough to me.