We read the government is thinking of fifty year cross generational mortgages to help people buy a home. They also need to look at supply/demand balances.
Most of the debate centres around the need to build more. It is time the government looked at demand. All the time we invite in an additional 250,000 people a year we need to build a large number of homes for people who do not yet live here. We of course want people coming to our country to live and work to have decent housing. This then helps drive prices too high for young people growing up here.
We should be less generous with permits for more economic migrants. We should make more determined efforts to help people living here off benefits and into jobs. We should do more to encourage and support investment in machinery and AI to replace lower paid jobs. Many people want to buy their own home but there is a shortage of available affordable homes for sale. Time to reduce economic migration into the U.K..
July 3, 2022
Good morning.
Make it illegal for anyone from overseas to by a UK property ‘less than’ 1 million pounds. It will not affect those at the bottom of the housing ladder and will not discourage high net worth foreign investors.
I believe the government have come up with this scheme because houses are rising way beyond most peoples means. This is dangerous as the market need more people coming in to keep things going.
So we have people on benefits coming into the market. People who can pass on their debt to their descendants. And of course, the main driver of it all – MASS IMMIGRATION.
What next is the government going to come up with to keep those plates spinning ?
July 3, 2022
Im going to be harsh here.
This has been going on for years. The Government knows what the problem is, they just don’t want to do anything about it. They have totally lost control of migrants coming over the Channel, and on top of that, they invite others (ie: From Hong Kong) to come and join them. It has been known for years, that no matter how many houses we build, we will never catch up, while the rate of immigration continues, and all the while, our precious countryside, is being concreted over.
If the hard pressed taxpayer dares to protest, we are told we are racist, and selfish. Boris is absolutely hopeless, he promises more money daily, to others, with no thought as to who is going to pay the bill.
My Son, who lives and works in London, is never going to be able to buy, even a modest house there, even if I help him with a deposit. I am disgusted with this Government. I feel my vote to them is wasted. I suspect many others agree with me.
July 3, 2022
The UK cannot stop migrants coming over the Channel – once in our waters (helped by the French navy?) they have to be brought to our shores.
The can only be stopped from setting sail in France and Belgium, which the French seem reluctant to do. They do not want them either!
July 3, 2022
They can , they can change the laws under which these migrants have a right to invade our country. The trouble we have is that our establishment would prefer to go down fighting for these globalist laws than fight for us.
July 3, 2022
+1 that is reality they could easily deter them from crossing but the government choose to encourage them with RNLI taxi boats, benefits and hotels. Just more worthless hot air from Ms Patel.
July 3, 2022
+1 I agree. What are we going to do about it?
July 3, 2022
Before the last general election every Tory MP was saying they’d support the repealling of the Council for Europe ECHR and adopt a UK Bill of Rights….heypesto, after the election the same Tory MPs are now saying the complete reverse
July 4, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
As the dinghies leave the shores of France the French navy sets sail to escort them to the English side of the Channel thus living up to their motto “à l’eau, c’est l’heure”.
July 3, 2022
Incorrect – the law of the sea states that you must take ‘them’ to ‘a’ safe harbour…it doesn’t say a harbour of their choose.
July 3, 2022
So Reece, your solution is exactly what ?
I would suggest we just send them back in a safe manner, immediately and as soon as they arrive, we have a proper legal process in place for claiming asylum whilst still abroad, those who do not use that system should be refused entry.
I see we are looking at modernising yet another Army/Airforce camp to house 400 illegals in Oxfordshire whilst we try and trace who they are and where they are from, that is not even one day’s capacity, it’s a bloody expensive farce.
July 4, 2022
We need an Ellis Island.
July 3, 2022
+1 C G.
July 3, 2022
Totally and for a very senior influential MP to be saying this is proof Boris and his acolytes couldn’t give a damn and how impotent he and the other MPs are.
In a related matter, we read housing transaction times have doubled through excessive bureaucracy and working from home meaning sales and mortgage offers lost. Despite HMGs requirements their civil service working from home dictats are being ignored.
The brain drain is coming back as we knew it would. The rich who we rely on for most of our tax have had enough, guess who will have to make up for what is lost. Civil Servants refusing to carry out government wishes re Brexit, Treasury deciding to give more to the EU.
We see gas likely to be rationed, even before Ukraine it had been pointed out how vulnerable we are yet as an example Gove would prefer industrial problems rather than agree fracking.
And this government has no growth/recovery plan at all. High interest rates and a falling pound ‘trebling’ the cost of our debt. Next step junk?
This government through a dilettante spendthrift dissembling Prime Minister who cannot say no, makes empty promises and runs away, is taking this country down the toilet.
It beggars belief. Every one I know detests this government and nearly all were its natural supporters.
July 3, 2022
As Neil Oliver pointed out on his show last night on GB News…. What we are seeing as we look around the world, governments all doing the same, all the wokeness, critical race theory, immigration, lack of digging for energy etc etc – in his opinion this is deliberate! I’m inclined to agree! All the harms are not necessary… high taxes etc! Green agenda! Governments in lock step…
July 3, 2022
It’s all part of the build back better after destroying the present.
WEF wants us all except the great and good to own nothing and be beholden to the government. Communism at its purest.
We now have the government transport advised Lord never heard of, saying we must be forced off the road to meet net zero targets. It’s all coming into the open. Refusal to extract our own energy so keeping prices high suit nut nuts agenda.
July 3, 2022
Sharon: “What we are seeing as we look around the world, governments all doing the same, all the wokeness, critical race theory, immigration, lack of digging for energy etc etc – in his opinion this is deliberate! ”
Agreed on the last.
When during the last election the Tories said; “We will continue to exceed the NATO target of spending 2% GDP on defence and increase the budget by 0.5% above inflation in each year of the new Parliament.”
It seems this is the latest Tory broken manefesto pledge. Who’d have thought Boris Johnson would neglect British defence, while finding plenty of money to fund Ukraines defence, instead?
How many manefesto policies does a government have to break before it is recognised as an utter fraud ?
July 3, 2022
Well far from all governments not China, Russia… but many western government see to have a mad group think agenda and what a bonkers one it is.
July 3, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
Johnson announces military spending per GDP is up then gives Ukraine another billion!!! Hardly helps our security pissing our taxes away by the multiple billions. Meanwhile giving the EU more billions is on the increase as well, I thought Johnson said tell them to go whistle!!
This is certainly not remotely a conservative govt or party. Socialist greenies through and through with a tiny few old Tories left to create the sham.
July 4, 2022
+ many.
July 3, 2022
Nigl, glad you pointed out the economic aspect. This is the next BIG problem and our government seems incapable of doing what is necessary. The years of lazy government policy making us so reliant on importing what we consume, has made currency depreciation, hence inflation a certainty. We are now in the position:
Recession brought on by interest rate rises to defend the £ and reduce consumption OR
Runaway inflation as the £ drops against world currencies because we keep trying to buy foreign products with ‘created money’.
It’s going to get rough, and we have Bunter Boris in charge….
July 3, 2022
I definitely agree with you. Think of how the government introduced the Rwanda scheme – ‘oh we expect a load of legal cases…’ so announce a scheme to deal with illegal immigration and then await the outcome of the legal cases (potentially years) thereby immediately increasing demand from the illegals, the numbers arriving and the profits for the people traffickers. The only argument contributors to Mr Redwood’s site give for voting Conservative at the next election is that the alternatives would be worse. It’s difficult to see how they could be, on this and every major policy issue.
July 3, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
CG
Your first para Not harsh at all, just common sense and logic
Second para agree with you !
July 3, 2022
Cheshire Girl. I wholeheartedly agree with you as do all the people I speak to. We are crying out for a government that supports us.
Is Starmer going to resign?
July 4, 2022
+1
July 4, 2022
Indeed CG; immigration has seemingly been weaponised to harm our country and its native people. Time for Boris & Co to stop submitting us to the will of his globalist mates at the WEF.
July 4, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
Law of supply and demand. Restricted supply and increased demand results in higher prices. This applies to housing.
July 3, 2022
Supply ever bigger mortgages and prices go up. Contrast 1930s, when increases in lending meant more mortgages were granted.
July 3, 2022
The government do not care about affordable homes for voters.
High cost homes suit the globalist rentier class. New developments reflect this. Expensive Thameside apartments marketed overseas, with a small ‘social housing’ element for window dressing. Sometimes these fail, as with the huge expanse that has sprung up around Battersea power station, but this model has been followed with many flats remaining unoccupied and simply used as an overseas cash deposit box by wealthy foreigners.
When existing British homeowners die the government then robs their estate with punitive inheritance tax.
July 3, 2022
Well you can largely avoid the appallingly high UK IHT (40% over just £325k) with suitable planning unless you die unexpectedly prematurely). Rather tricky if your only valuable asset is your main home though – without selling up and down trading or renting. Sensible countries have no inheritance taxes or CGT. The USA has it only over about £7 million and then at a low rate. The UK is appallingly over taxes and with dire public services too.
July 3, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
we have to be over-taxed to pay for the dire services, instead of sorting out the non-performing ones.
July 4, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
A correction, as happened in Ireland is what is needed.
July 3, 2022
It becomes increasingly likely as the cost of living and new mortgages rises, simply because new buyers can’t afford the bills. We will start to see repossessions rising too for those who haven’t managed to lock in fixed rates for a good period ahead. The other way of squaring the circle is continued high inflation with house prices lagging substantially. That will destroy the value of savings, and make imports very expensive, and lead to sharply lower living standards.
July 3, 2022
The Channel Islands have screwed down who can rent or buy property. All Island tax havens have the same problem; the rights of the indigenous population against profiting from attracting the world’s global bandit’s money. https://www.locatejersey.com/living-working-in-jersey/finding-a-home/
July 3, 2022
You talk as if it is a new thing in the Channel Islands acorn
It isn’t.
July 3, 2022
More houses or fewer people everything else is just a childish distraction.
Liam Fox today – “Protectionism is one of this Government’s worst decisions
Steel tariffs will backfire on Britain – and the Conservative Party”
Other dire decisions from this government:- The fracking ban, net zero, the absurdly high tax levels, test and trace, the extended lockdowns, importing wood (young coal) to burn at Drax, the blatant manifesto ratting, the new proposed attacks on landlords (and thus tenants), the rigged energy market and insane energy policy, eat out to help out, the vast money printing for inflation, test and trace, the roll out of largely ineffective and often it seems rather dangerous vaccines (especially to the young), the open border/channel tunnel policy, the failure to cut red tape, the NI mess, the failure to leave the ECHR, the bloated and generally inept and misdirected government, the failure to deal with the dire NHS, the anti-car road blocking…
July 3, 2022
Channel (not channel tunnel).
Simon Heffer is surely right:- This isn’t Britain’s 1937 moment. It’s far worse than that
We must spend more on warfare – not welfare – if the British Army is to combat Putin’s threats of violence.
Perhaps we can try to spend it wisely on defence they have an appalling record.
Also Daniel Hannan is surely right – “Nationalist leaders have always enjoyed feigning victimhood
The Scottish parliament’s attempt to try and portray separatism as ‘anti imperialism’ is inaccurate – as well as shameless.”
Surely time for the Scots to ditch the appalling Sturgeon.
July 3, 2022
Why not keep out of wars which have nothing to do with Britain?
After all, how did it go in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Very badly with the US and UK losing. So don’t get involved in the first place.
Never forget the lesson of Vietnam.
July 3, 2022
This war does not look very promising either so how is it going to end? Even if there is some agreement Putin or any replacement will quite likely try to take another bite a bit later.
Three cheers for Harold Wilson for all his many faults he did at least keep us out of Vietnam. Also unlike the appalling Heath did give a Common Market referendum (of sorts).
July 9, 2022
Lifelogic: “Putin or any replacement will quite likely try to take another bite a bit later.”
Russia can’t leave Ukraine to the tender mercies of the CIA. The US/CIA will turn it into Beruit West ( in the worst sense ).
My understanding is that Russia has just decimated ( actually decimated ) the Ukrainian army in the East of the country. That was by some accounts, a hundred and twenty thousand men, trained and equipped by NATO over the last eight years.
The Ukraine military was the best army NATO had, and Russia has squashed it like a fly in just four months.
Britain by contrast, has as far as I can make out, two (2) battle ready divisions. Approximately thirty thousand men. Personally, I don’t fancy our ‘woke’, ‘vaccinated’ chances against the Russians.
Boris Johnson ( and his successor ) should shut the **** up with his bellicosity. Britain is a shadow of it’s former self, the first way to recognise that is to accept our diminished role in the world. First step? Abolish the FCO and make everyone there redundant.
Actually, Russia, is an example to be followed. In 1990 it was a ruined basket case, it was a drunk country with a drunk leader ( Yeltsin ). If Vladimir Putin can transform a multiethnic Russia into a World power in twenty two years. With the right leader, the UK could too.
Admittedly, Russia has far more natural resources, so has the advantage from that perspective. But a national Nuclear electricity program – we did it once in the ’50s it could be done again. Could make us energy sufficient in that period.
Sadly, our politicians are too busy posturing on the World Stage, instead of looking after the interests of Britain and the British.
Reply Russia is a thug state incapable of grabbing most of Ukraine despite massive violence. This is no model for us.
July 10, 2022
JR: “Russia is a thug state incapable of grabbing most of Ukraine despite massive violence. This is no model for us.”
What about Iraq, ( we never found weapons of mass destruction, there) that was a war fought on the basis of a lie.
Resulting in ISIS, which there is a good chance was funded by the CIA. That also brought down a holocaust on the heads of the Yazidi people.
What about Libya, THE most civilised country in the Maghreb, destroyed at the whim of that poisonous old hag Hillary Clinton, and her despicable accomplice David Cameron.
The result of that campaign, slave markets in Tripoli.
In actual fact John Redwood, in so far as you support the second Iraq campaign, and supported the unprovoked attack on Libya, and supported the fomenting a civil war in Syria you represent, and support a THUG government.
Take the beam out of your own eye before you attempt to take the mote out of the eye of another. –Matthew 7:3
JR: “This is no model for us.”
If you took that meaning from my post, you are a fool.
Our optimum model is energy self sufficiency. And I proposed a plan for the next twenty years that would go some way to achieving that.
I further proposed, that the Tory government because of its spinelessness thirty years ago in refusing to stand up to the Green lobby then, directly contributed to the hapless position this country is in now.
You were a minister in that government. You are culpable for our degenerate condition with respect to energy supply, now.
July 3, 2022
Well said, Emily.
July 4, 2022
Emily: “Why not keep out of wars which have nothing to do with Britain?”
Exactly!
It’s worth pointing out that the US has not won a war since 1945. But it isn’t the winning so much for the USA as feeding the industrial war machine, that counts. The US military industrial complex will sacrifice any country on its alter.
And by the way, the war we ( US & Allies ) claim to have won in 1945, was actually won in Russia, by the Soviet Union. Russia practically ruined the Wehrmacht, with out Russia we’d all be dead or speaking German.
We didn’t have to be Russia’s enemy, we could have had a very lucrative ( for both sides ) commercial relationship with Russia, and cordial relations with the Russian people.
But for the insane Neo-Cons, who have hijacked British foreign policy.
July 4, 2022
It’s extraordinary how Parliament supported Blair’s war.
To me at the time, it was crystal clear the war was terrible idea (I strongly support war for right reason – I am no pacifist).
We need more politicians who actually THINK OBJECTIVELY about problems instead of being swayed by ideology and / or the crowd.
The best entrepreneurs / scientists / artists / adventurers ALL think objectively about what they are trying to achieve – same applies to or should apply to politics too.
July 3, 2022
It is clear that Putin (barely halfway into Ukraine) has reached the limit of his expeditionary capabilities. His conventional means are no threat to wider Europe and certainly not to us.
This would not have happened at all without the US led putsch in Maidan Sq in 2014.
We are in no way in a 1939 situation.
I do believe, however, that we are now on a Whoops Apocalypse precipice and that devastating cyber/germ attacks on the UK are now a certainty thanks to Boris’s self aggrandisement and sixth former posturing.
Thanks to boomerang sanctions combined with greenism this is going to be an economic wreck of a country by the next general election and the Tories will lose most of their seats.
July 4, 2022
Sorry, but Pootin is a clever (in some ways) deranged psychopath / lunatic itching to do this sort of thing for years. Please don’t over-rationalise him.
July 3, 2022
You seem contradictory LL complaining about tariffs on steel yet saying we need more armaments which are almost exclusively made of……steel.
July 3, 2022
So now manifesto ratters with their vast tax increases is promising large tax cuts. Well when start by reversing your vast tax increases but you also have to stop wasting money on net zero, HS2, renewables, pointless degrees, the sick joke NHS, open door immigration…
July 3, 2022
Your usual cliche about the NHS. Friday morning BP suddenly spiked, within half an hour, my name was on a surgery triage list, two and a half hours after that, assessed, prescription sent to chemist electronically and with 6 hours of whole episode, I was in medication.
Fact based constructive criticism, always and also credit when credits due. Wall to wall negativity neither justified nir helpful.
July 3, 2022
Wow. Where do you live? Your experience is NOT typical. Not in our area anyway. I truly wish that everyone could receive such good care. I hope your recovery is swift.
July 3, 2022
Glad it was good for you but then that is their job after all. So they did it efficiently for once. A bit like saying the car tyre place I went to was brilliant I went in and they changed the tyre fine in 20 mins.
My experience and that of many people I know has been fairly appalling. One young person I know now has intermittent rapid heart beat issues caused almost certainly by the booster vaccine but has months to wait to get tests and see a cardiologist/electrophysiologist. This for a problem the NHS most probably caused in a young person who never had any need of the vaccine or booster anyway.
July 4, 2022
Lifelogic: “My experience and that of many people I know has been fairly appalling. ”
You can’t even get an appointment with my GP, they hide behind the practice nurse, if there is a consultation, it’s more often conducted with the practice receptionist.
July 4, 2022
Children and young people being given the vaccine. Appalling. Utterly wicked.
July 3, 2022
Scrap the EPR plans — they are almost unbuildable and over-costly.
JF
July 3, 2022
Boris is also now (sort of) “promising” a new Grammar Schools law change. I think we had that worthless promise from the truly appalling Theresa May many years ago. We also had the £1 million each IHT threshold promise from Osborne also still not delivered. The problem Boris/Sunak is these are all blatant lies or worthless hot air – nothing is ever delivered. We are sick to death of all the lies, hot air, non delivery, manifesto ratting – indeed not only non deliver but usually movement in totally the wrong directions. No real border controls (indeed a free taxi service), vast tax increases, declining schools standards, vast increases in regulation, the net zero expensive energy lunacy, endless government waste, roads blocked, no sensible energy policy… In short a tax borrow and piss down the drain agenda.
July 3, 2022
+1 LL. And who, I wonder, is leading such useless government in such bad decision making? Yes, and often dangerous poorly tested vaccines.
July 3, 2022
Zzzzzzz re vaccines.
July 3, 2022
+1. Except what is this antivaxx nonsense?! The best estimate to date is the vaccines have saved over 20 million lives.
July 3, 2022
I am pro vaccines that work and are save but against vaccine that do not work, are dangerous and do more harm than good. Isn’t everyone?
The 20 million lives saved claim does not look remotely credible if you compare different regimes with heavy or light vaccination levels.
The evidence seems to suggest the vaccines have done more harm than good on balance & certainly in the younger age groups. The government should be urgently investigating the current excess overall deaths mainly deaths at home and non Covid and the fall in birth rates that seem to time well with vaccination roll out to the fertile age group. See the excellent Dr Clare Craig and the HART Group reports and links.
.
July 3, 2022
Well said lifelogic
July 3, 2022
Lockdown and it’s aftermath and many knock-on effects, including the collapse of normal health services are the best explanation. I agree there seems to be no imperative at leat for children to get the covid vaccine. The benefits for adults, especially in older age groups seem beyond dispute.
July 3, 2022
When you look around, many of the crises we face are ones created by the Government . They have been attacking the systems on which we rely , if it isn’t their plan to collapse our country and society then they are being pretty incompetent, for that is the outcome they seem to be working towards. It is hard not to refute the claim they are pursuing the reset policy. For example , they say we are going to re-wild 30% of our land , and excuse me what are we going to do for food? Probably tell us that we have to eat insects.
Unfortunately it is not just a problem with our Government, at the moment there are some pretty big demonstrations going on in Holland as farmers rise up in rebellion as the Government there seeks to halve their livestock .
July 3, 2022
But Johnson and wifey seem happy enough.
July 4, 2022
All indications that Boris and his mates are the enemy within.
July 3, 2022
The problems stated have widespread agreement across the nation, and that has been the case for many years. Large numbers of people have raised the issues, making the situation clear to all; even to those who did not experience the problems themselves. However, the Govt ignores the calls for action, and fiddles around with words of intent bumbling into inertia. We need a solution fast.
What ACTION is likely under this shower, and by WHEN?
July 3, 2022
We don’t need help to buy a home. We don’t need a party in government seeking to ‘buy’ peoples electoral loyalty. Do what’s right not what your leaders believe will get it re-elected
We need your party to become normal, decent and moral again rather than being a facilitator of the revolutionary agenda of radical progressives who weaponise and politicise every conceivable area of human life with the specious and bogus objective of EQUALITY. I believe Pol Pot after spending time with Sartre in Paris believed in similar ‘ideals’.
You want economic opportunity then slash the size of the sinister woke State, slash taxes and give us our freedoms back from those who seek to impose their barbaric ideas upon us
I wake up each morning praying for the rise of a Neo-Thatcherite with balls the size of melons
‘and what about the vegetables’ the waitress asked MT and she replied :
‘they’ll have the same as me’…..
That’s we need , a woman with balls
July 3, 2022
>You want economic opportunity then slash the size of the sinister woke State, slash taxes and give us our freedoms back from those who seek to impose their barbaric ideas upon us
That’s it, really. If someone could put that in a manifesto I would have someone worth voting for.
July 3, 2022
The census is out now. Mass migration is the unquestionable cause of unaffordable housing. But the Government happy to keep shoe horning hundreds of thousands more people into the UK every year.
In other news the Daily Telegraph is reporting on the same crazy left wing ideology shutting down factories this winter because of their demand for carbon fuel reductions. Just like the strikes of the 1970s this will not be forgotten. China happy to sell us candles.
July 3, 2022
Not just factories, the National Grid is also seeking to ‘incentivise’ people with Smart Meters to stop using electricity at peak demand.
July 3, 2022
+1
40 new hospitals by 2030. Oh really, Boris ??? And the doctors and nurses ?
Jam tomorrow, bullshit today.
20 thousand new homes in my Tory constituency. Council tax up, services down – no extra provision in local hospitals, in fact one closure.
My Ward Sister friend tells me “Don’t dare get ill and don’t dare get injured.”
Crime through the roof and hitherto unheard of assaults on police. The newcomers aren’t locals. The houses weren’t built for locals as promised. The Tories have utterly wrecked this vicinity.
They will do the same to yours.
July 4, 2022
They already have. What happened to that ‘government initiative’ to ensure the use of inner city (or town) vacant accommodation, usually above business premises? This would enhance the town centres, we were told, as well as providing much needed extra housing. Instead of encouraging this use, building further out on nice, clean level farmland is allowed, as brownfield sites stand empty. Where’s the will to improve our country and to provide for ourselves?
July 3, 2022
“Cross generational mortgages”, whether combined with foreign immigration or not, is starting to sound like “indentured labour” to me.
Surely the mess that is the Student Loan Scheme is enough to show this idea is fraught with difficulty? Great for universities (housebuilders) but lousy for taxpayers and costly for debtors.
July 3, 2022
Bang on Wanderer.
Sir John used to tell us that the idea of a mortgage was free living after 25 years.
July 3, 2022
are you forgetting Council Tax, replacing heating every 10 years, replacing consumer units, appliances, increasing loft insulation, water / sewage charges, more house sales costs every year. And thats without tradesman’s bills skyrocketing.
July 4, 2022
MT – and all that isn’t priced into rent too ???
July 3, 2022
You won’t achieve a lot especially with illegal migration whilst the ECHR and the mob is running the country.
July 3, 2022
Buy a house on benefits, with a mortgage so long you never have to pay it back, tax payers rejoice!
Johnson has no more grip on policy, finance, or even his own standards than he has over MP’s behaviour.
A million visas granted last year tells us that the housing shortage will never be solved, and that there is no intention of ever doing so.
Stop the dinghis, stop economic migration and CUT benefits if you want to get British people back to work.
July 3, 2022
Why are foreign ‘students’ allowed to access of housing benefits, and other state benefits…foreign students should have sufficient funds to not burden the state…like every other country in the world
July 3, 2022
+1
July 3, 2022
No sign of Boris Johnson’s govt doing any of this unfortunately. Time for a change it seems.
July 3, 2022
‘Boris the Importer’
Importer of energy, materials, wind-turbines, EVs, Russian money….and illegal people
July 3, 2022
+ maximum Glen – why do his MP’s support him? Party (in more ways than one) before country?
July 3, 2022
strike out ‘it seems’.
July 3, 2022
It needs to be repeated that this is the worst government and House of Commons in my lifetime. There is a lack of integrity, honesty, ethics and principles. This rotten government and MPs are representing their puppet masters and not the people they were elected to represent.
July 3, 2022
But this has been going on for decades. Remember George Osborne saying that the Governments he was part of never had any intention of meeting their commitment to reduce immigration, or the quote attributed to Roy Hattersley: “My job is to listen to the concerns of my constituents about immigration and then ignore them”? Not to mention Blair declaring that he wanted to rub the noses of the British people in diversity,
July 3, 2022
Even with a 25 year mortgage, the first few years payments are almost entirely interest. Extend that to 50 years and the difference to mortgage payments will be very small, with the first 25 years interest with just about no capital paid off.
July 3, 2022
That’s true. But is does have the advantage of getting people into houses they cannot be kicked out of or hiked up rents at the whim of a rapacious landlord. And of course privately owned dwellings and areas are much more likely to be looked after than when people have no interest in them and just waste their money in rent with absolutely no prospect of ever owning a brick. It’s just a way of trying to make payments affordable, but if people can afford to rent long term they can afford to buy. The deposit seems to be the biggest problem, so this should be the area to be looked at. The other problem with renting long term is that when you come to retire, you cannot, or you will have to fall back on the State which seems to me to be short sighted and a dear way of saving money. Why not scrap the deposit or make it minimal, backed by government guarantee which would in effect cost the government nothing. Property values are not at risk as we have seen. Even the negative equity of the 80’s has long been wiped out.
July 3, 2022
A hospital + social services regularly insist an elderly home-owning patient is not fit to return to their home, thus forcing Care and the resultant sale of house. Depends how you see ‘kicked out of’?
July 4, 2022
I disagree with your remark about rent being ”wasted” and your speaking of ”not owning a brick” as if to everyone this is the be-all and end-all. I personally no longer wish to ”own a brick” (having done so profitably in the past) and would rather the maintenance of the accommodation in which I live to be the responsibility of the person who owns it. As a result I have money that I am able to use to provide myself with a support plan for my eventual retirement and have no intention of ”falling back on the State”.
I also resent the implication that ALL of us who have chosen to rent are likely to, if not trash, then make substandard in some way that place which is our home – it may be temporary, but is still valuable to us even though we may not ”own a brick” of it. Tenants are not all irresponsible layabouts, and neither are many landlords ”rapacious”.
July 4, 2022
If you can pay rent and still save, then well done. This is because you have owned in the past. If you rented all your life, things would be different. You are a minority. Owner occupied houses and areas are better maintained – a fact, especially where the landlord does next to no repairs. If you have a ‘good’ landlord, again good for you. If you can afford to retire and pay the rent, again you are a minority. ‘Owning a brick’ means security. Renters can be turfed out at any time.
July 5, 2022
LJ, +1.
Different people in different situations get to different conclusions. Very rarely one size fits all.
After 35 years of house ownership, with children out of the house in different parts of the country, and now a widower, the idea of keeping the family house was a non-starter. I am now renting, got the profits from the sale of the house, and feel more secure and freer than being a house owner, given that I would have had to pay more for a nothing-special (smallish) bungalow in Reading than we had paid for a reasonably large four bedroom house in the early 80s. It allowed me passing some money (officially, with HMRC knowing, and the 7-year rule running) to the children at a time they could use it for their own house purchases, and making sure that what’s left in my name is below the IHT threshold.
And yes the idea of a 50-year mortgage is rather insane, particularly considering that children rarely stay at the same location as their parents. As had been said before ‘A happy new home is one where you can’t see the smoke from your parents’ chimney’.
July 3, 2022
+1
Alas the idea isn’t to make us better off but to keep house prices inflated.
July 3, 2022
NLA
Indeed governments simply need to get out of the way, what is the point of them promoting house purchase with grants and financial help with one hand, and then Taxing that purchase with Stamp duty with the other.
I was in favour of the simple MIRAS scheme of many years ago which gave a little help and encouragement, but in their wisdom the Government of the day scrapped that help.
July 3, 2022
JR – You are quire right to point out how inadequate the idea of “fifty year cross generational mortgages” is.
The only thing it will do is to increase the level of household debt, given as you say that we don’t build enough new homes for our own indigenous population, never mind the uninvited.
It really is time we stopped packing people into cities by using every last inch of space – A vast rethink is required before we resemble the streets of India.
Cost is always a huge factor in everything we do, simply because HMG makes life so expensive. It doesn’t have to be this way, over-taxed, over-regulated and bureaucratic beyond reason.
A real plan for the future of the UK would see modern self contained cities created away from current over-flowing populations, but I fear such a concept is beyond our ability to envision.
It’s not as though we have a shortage of land!
The Victorians would have found a solution, as did those people that built monasteries on mountain tops. Are we now so feeble of mind and intent, that despite our science we are yet unable and unwilling to solve such
problems?
It would appear so.
July 3, 2022
So someone, an over-exhuberant teenage scribbler type likely, dreams up a daft idea to disguise rather than address a problem and next we learn “the government is thinking of fifty year cross generational mortgages “ !
Will there be an inheritance tax credit for those of the next generation borrowers to whom the debt novates?
July 3, 2022
A 50 year cross generation mortgage is an appalling idea. It doesn’t deal with the affordability of housing it will inflate the price of housing . As for inheriting debt , that breaches a fundamental principle in our law.
July 5, 2022
50 year cross generation mortgage – what sort of a contract is that. How does anyone individual take on financial obligations for his children. It’s a disgusting idea and one step away from indentured servitude or slavery.
It’s a horrible idea.
JR: “It is time the government looked at demand. All the time we invite in an additional 250,000 people a year we need to build a large number of homes for people who do not yet live here. ”
Who’s this ‘WE’, I’ve not invited 250,000 a year to live in this country. What right do politicians have to do the same?
JR: “We of course want people coming to our country to live and work to have decent housing. ”
No, Not before the people who have lived here for generations have decent education and living standards and medical care.
July 3, 2022
F57 – Yes. Generations stacked in the same households which they can ill afford.
What a plan.
50 year mortgages will only drive prices up. Alas that seems to be the whole idea. Keep the housing market stoked.
July 3, 2022
You say “Time to reduce economic migration into the U.K..”. Awww bless. Not ever with this government!
July 3, 2022
reduce from what to what?
July 3, 2022
The UK has an ever-increasing population of retirement age. Quite reasonably, that population has certain expectations around things like pension provision and health care, after all, they paid taxes their entire working lives. As this part of the population grows, the amount of tax revenue required to provide all those things grows as well.
So, the question for all politicians, including John Redwood, is where that additional tax revenue will come from? Either the working age population needs to grow (and pay taxes) at a similar rate to the rate at which the retired population is growing, or each working age person has to pay more and more taxes. There are two ways of growing the working age population, either you “grow your own” or you import them. The birth rate in the UK is way below what is needed to keep the working age population growing at a similar rate to the retirement age population, so economic migration is needed to plug the shortfall.
If politicians feel the need to cut the level of economic migration, they also need to be honest about the consequences for working age people (pay more tax) and retirement age people (reduced benefits).
July 3, 2022
Norway and Hungary have improved the economic situation of parents and as a result the indigenous people are now having more children. There are a lot of women who want another child but can’t afford it. Another disincentive to have children is the problem of woke indoctrination in schools. Like mass immigration the politicians profess opposition but are unwilling to act, so we can only infer tacit approval.
July 3, 2022
Indeed: why should those presently at work restrain their demands for salaries compensating the cost-of-living inflation while the retirees are compensated thanks to the triple-lock?
July 3, 2022
Perhaps you don’t know or even care, but our pensions are the worst in the modern world. Tried living on sub 9,000 pounds a year have you? And of course the triple lock is not sacrosanct as the government proved this year and is at the whim of politicians and will probably go after the next election.
July 5, 2022
Hefner the younger generation have also received significant compensation from a free longer education (2 years), 50% going on to further education (free in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland), The personal allowance on NI has been increased. Payments for maternity and paternity leave are more generous. Help to Buy savings schemes generous 25% government top-ups, How much debt is being written off in the younger under 40 age groups IVAs and other vehicles?
Current worker’s pensions have been in the case of women put back 7 years, 2 years for men. Do you call that compensation and a government that rewards retirees?
July 3, 2022
Peter Parsons: you are quite correct, but this issue has been known about for at least 30 years if not more, and how many politicians at a senior level – of any Party – have ever had the guts to bring it out into the open? The whole notion of State pensions for all (as with the financing of the NHS) was based on the notion that the elderly would die in their late 60’s for men/early 70s for women – now we live into our 80’s and 90’s.
And before anyone suggests (yet again) that that is why the UK needs to import more young workers by the bucket load, may I ask (yet again) if these young workers never grow old or sick themselves?
July 3, 2022
Fine. But selective immigration – no point in importing welfare dependants. And this disastrous demographic retirement bulge isn’t going to last forever either… unless you keep importing people !!!
July 3, 2022
Ever more people, either ‘grow your own’ as you put it or immigration is not the answer, but merely a stop gap that builds a ponzi scheme. The real answer is growth of the economy so people get well paid jobs, well able to pay the taxes and for proper pension schemes which the politicians in the main killed off. Unfortunately, growth is not something this country achieves as it’s politicians have no idea how to bring it about. A clue – stop interfering in every thing, let businesses get on with business and keep out of it. Reduce the HoC by half so that MP’s have some actual work to do and stop dreaming up schemes for their own self advancement. Do what needs to be done, no more.
July 3, 2022
You are describing a sort of Ponzi scheme Peter.
Ever more immigration you think is needed to pay for us old folk.
Firstly many of us are self sufficient for income from savings and pensions we paid for.
Secondly you fail to realise all these new arrivals will also get old.
Keep those plates spinning.
July 3, 2022
When the current retirees started working, the proportion of retired they supported was perhaps only 2/3 what it is, for the youngster just starting work today. It’s a bit unfair to ask the present workforce to support the retired to the extent they didn’t have to when they were in work.
July 3, 2022
Peter, you make it sound as if nothing has been done! Blair told women they would be retiring later – seven years later for those born in the 1960’s, and the majority of us were working from the age of 16 not 18 like now, no consideration of a long working career, career average earnings or anything, the state pension is a pittance compared to what the people on average earnings have paid in. So the working age population did increase, significantly. An extra seven years of paying in unless they’re in the public sector of course. Men an extra two years. Whilst the younger generation have had an extra two compulsory years out of work and in education, and 50% on to university for at least another 3 years. Instead of figuring out how we spend money in the UK more consideration should be given to how we collectively make money and create wealth. To many politicians on the left just focus on one half of this equation – the spending.
Whilst France is marching and fighting against a rise from the age of 62 for both sexes. So how can they afford it but we can’t.
July 3, 2022
Soon there will be nowhere for the poor to live as the Government’s interference in the private rental market bites. The insane net-zero regulations whereby all private rental properties have to meet EPC level ‘C’ or above means that landlords are selling up in droves. When this regulation expands to private house sales, people will be left with homes they can neither rent out nor sell. The majority of old housing stock in cities like London is unviable to retrofit with the environmental upgrades necessary to get to EPC level C. Even if you could afford the upgrade there won’t be enough tradesmen to carry out the work required. Of course, the super-rich can buy an exemption certificate for their stately homes and castles. This is all part of the WEF’s Great Reset where you will own nothing and be happy. Empty homes will be taken into Government ownership and either demolished or upgraded at taxpayers’ expense. Most people are completely unaware that these new regulations are coming in soon. After the landlords and homeowners, the Government is coming for commercial properties which will have to reach an EPC level ‘A’. This will put many companies out of business. The only winners are the builders. This Government is truly insane and if people like Sir John can’t stop them then we have no hope.
July 3, 2022
Back to what I said earlier.. Neil Oliver… this is deliberate! There’s too many insane decisions being made and implemented for it not to be deliberate! Christine’s comments being a good example!
July 3, 2022
I was aware of the EPC mandates coming for rental properties (I’ve recently decided not to invest in a property because of this) but “private house sales”! Are you sure? Can you point me to some information please, because that would be devastating news.
July 3, 2022
There’s a very good article about this in The Financial Times.
July 3, 2022
indeed. The policy will create a huge housing crisis. It is completely unrealistic, and unaffordable. It will have to be abandoned. Decreeing the impossible in law doesn’t make it happen.
July 3, 2022
There will never be enough tradespeople to get homes and commercial properties to the prescribed standards, even if it were technically possible – and in many cases it is not. And yet, the homes may be warm, comfortable and maintained to a high standard. Many of the proposed schemes are wasteful and inefficient, with considerable environmental impact, as well as disruptive for the tenants (who will rehoused where, while work is going on??) and unaffordable.
July 3, 2022
“ All the time we invite in an additional 250,000 people a year we need to build a large number of homes for people who do not yet live here”
That’s the crux of matter! Throughout this nation’s history we’ve had immigration… but now instead of a constant trickle, it’s a flood! A daily trickle! Of mostly single working age males… who undoubtedly will send for their families!
At this rate we’ll NEVER have enough homes! Or any NHS or schools services either!
As some person with a dry sense of humour commented yesterday in a newspaper,”once upon a time you could inherit a property, now you’ll inherit a mortgage!”
July 3, 2022
Stop interfering in the housing market and start protecting our borders….do your job as a government, and return illegal’s from whence they’ve came FRANCE
The French wouldn’t and don’t hesitate returning illegal’s to neighbouring countries…they drop them off by coach at their border and walk them across
July 3, 2022
“Time to reduce economic migration into the U.K..” I’m sure this is correct, and the government seems to be working hard at it. They don’t seem to get support from politicians in other parties, for some reason.
July 3, 2022
Over the years there have been a number of publicly funded help-to-buy schemes.
https://www.gov.uk/affordable-home-ownership-schemes
These schemes, as well as easy/cheap credit, have been major contributors to house price inflation.
I can understand why this Government wishes to continue its interference in the private housing market. Its tax revenue (stamp duty land tax and maybe other taxes where appropriate) may be protected. Also, banks and other lenders are shielded from the potential negative equity risks of a falling housing market. Taxpayer bailouts can be expensive. There is also the matter of the profitability of the (major) housebuilders (and the amount of executive remuneration). More expensive credit and a cladding levy in future are likely to hit profits. The availability of 50 year mortgages might help the industry to maintain turnover and may help prop up house prices.
I’m not sure how much all of this “helps” house buyers.
July 3, 2022
A large part of the incentive is that it privatised government borrowing by sticking it on your mortgage via QE. Government buys back gilts with printed QE, with the cash going to banks who then lend it out on mortgages.
July 3, 2022
50 year mortgages
Surely we’ll all have been burnt to a crisp long before that?
July 3, 2022
@Cynic +99
They will get us either way!
July 3, 2022
are you suggesting using bodies to fuel domestic heating, ‘climate crisis’ becoming almost instant, or will we be blasted by nuclear war? Spell it out Cynic.
July 3, 2022
MT
Presumably you are aware of the Climate Change scam?
July 3, 2022
All very nice but this is just another pointless article. Our views have been expressed many many times with passion and justification but we are ignored, insulted, betrayed, and laughed at. This is just a steam release valve to provide fun for our leaders while they do the opposite.
July 3, 2022
For goodness sakes ! Do I really have to tell you, Sir John ?
Government ‘helping’ people to buy houses only drives prices up.
Help old ladies – living on their own in family homes for thirty years with the central heating turned up – to move.
Help to Move, not Help to Buy. But then that’s all the Tory party is. A one-trick pony of perpetual house price rises and the taxes that come from it, while fooling their voter base into thinking they’re rich when they aren’t.
PS, The latest wheeze to enable people to use welfare towards mortgages is utterly spiteful. It means indebted graduates will be competing with those who haven’t tried. By the time a STEM graduate reaches a mortgageable wage he will be on high tax and four years behind a welfare dependant.
At least you mentioned the ‘I’ word.
July 3, 2022
what was the ‘I’ word? Insane?
July 3, 2022
A few suggestions some of which are already proven to work.
Mortgages.
Consider lifetime fixed mortgages at 1% above bank savings interest rate. I believe that on average people swop houses every 8 years. When they do adjust the rate to the current at that time. home buyers then have stability for the time they own a specific property.
Builders.
Introduce a law that stipulates that building must start within 6 months of the granting of building permission and be completed and on the market within 18 months of permission. Make it clear that contributions to political parties will not allow practices that are against the interests of buyers, the current practice as understood.
Factory Building.
This is already the norm in Sweden and solved a problem with Pre-Fabs after the bombing of WW2. The latter lasted way beyond their design life. This way you control quality, the incorporation of all cheaper to run facilities like insulation, solar electricity, solar hot water, and any other feature considered desirable. Henry Ford and William Morris did this with the car. Any colour, design variation, engine size etc , all at affordable prices from the same production line
Hot Spots.
I have in mind Cornwall Devon, and Whitby. Adopt two tier pricing as in Guernsey where the locals can afford to buy and incomers pay much higher prices for a limited selection of properties. It would end the grotesque situation where local fishermen and hospital workers are priced out of the areas they were born in so that incomers can have a months summer holiday and then rent to further incomers, leaving properties vacant for most of the year.
Immigration.
You cannot annually allow into the UK a population the size of Nottingham without social consequences. So limit the intake to the professions we really need because we have failed to generate sufficient of our own. Illegals are a no no and should be on planes to Rwanda, within a week until the business model is seen as a total failure.
July 3, 2022
We would be able to train all the people we need if universities ceased operating as businesses and returned to operating as a public service to train British people for the world of work, which means STEM. We do not need Arts graduates except for the need to pass on our culture and heritage; most of these people make a nuisance of themselves by inventing administrative roles for themselves in areas where they have no expertise whilst justifying their positions by claiming to be ‘generalists’, a category that does not exist in well run countries. We certainly do not need degree courses that have been invented so that a large number of people without intellectual accomplishment can start their working lives with a debt burden.
July 3, 2022
Sometimes the reason builders don’t build after ‘getting planning permission’ is that local authorities attach conditions or restrictions upon the ‘grant’ of planning permission that make it uneconomic to actually build homes there – so in reality some of the planning permissions are really phoney and much of the failure to build is the fault of Councils that live in cloud cuckoo land rather than builders.
July 3, 2022
Sir John,
Your last sentence should have read: time to reduce uneconomic migration into the U.K..
The only effective way to stop cross-channel illegal arrivals is to render their boats unusable before they depart from France. It can’t be that difficult to have regular land and sea patrols for just such a purpose. Especially if the the French government were given tens of millions of pounds of British taxpayer cash as an incentive. They could also investigate who is supplying these boats, where are they coming from, and how are they transported to the coast of north-west France. If the French aren’t interested in suppressing illegal channel crossings, then perhaps we should ask the Germans. They have some past experience.
July 3, 2022
Chris Boardman’s project to demonise car drivers awarded £2bn by Johnson to signal his commitment (using private sector taxes of course) to Davos, UN and Washington progressives.
There’s no flies on Johnson and ‘er indoors. That should grease the wheels of his future career when he leaves politics and seeks employment in the private sector.
Talk about abuse of the SME private sector and the car industry to promote one’s own career and party interest
July 3, 2022
Poor England, injected, invaded and to be silenced soon by the Online Harms Bill and the Police Public Order Bill.
July 3, 2022
The problem is restricting permits for migrants also involves difficult political decisions. The government gets under pressure from industry when there are skills shortages.
Instead, make permits for occupations conditional on a credible industry plan. This would include more automation, plus recruiting and training British people. This should cover all occupations, including ones requiring long training periods like surgeons.
The government can help the process by removing blockers to it happening. For example streamlining recruitment red tape. Also by making it easier to move house to take advantage of career opportunities. Get rid of the factory tax.
There are plenty of universities and skills providers. But prioritise funding for vocational training over academic subjects.
On housing there is scope to do more. Why not have different planning rules for London and the South-East from the rest of the country? This would take the pressure off MPs like yourself. But would encourage investment elsewhere supporting leveling up?
July 3, 2022
Firstly, there is not a shortage of housing. I’ll leave Andrew Lilico to explain why using the recent census data in his Telegraph article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/30/no-housing-shortage-britain/
There is a shortage of affordable housing. There are two causes. The first is money is too cheap, deliberately so in order to prop up Government borrowing and allow voters who have assets to feel rich. And those who continue to buy assets with new money do become better off thanks to the Cantillon Effect which widens the wealth gap.
The second is the transaction cost of buying a house, i.e. the stamp-duty taxation, is far too high which limits trading. It’s instead cheaper to stay put and spend what would have been tax on adding a two-storey extension, worsening the appearance of already-boxy housing estates. Building more houses does not mean more supply of houses because most houses sold are second-hand and it’s a lack of houses for sale which helps keep their unaffordable price. Dissuading people from moving due to high stamp-duty taxation also hampers productivity as better jobs are turned down due to relocation costs.
Axe stamp duty, raise interest rates, and a house will be less of a monetised asset in lieu of sound money. The Government can’t do this, of course, it’s sunk too far in its need for cheap debt.
July 3, 2022
Surely futile to be ‘less generous’ with permits if we are unable to turn away those who arrive permitless
July 3, 2022
Thank you. In fact, the time to reduce economic migration into the UK was several decades ago, but better late than never.
Illegal migration needs to go into reverse. The brain-drain also needs to be addressed – when we talk about ‘net’ migration we need to acknowledge that the immigration and emigration exchange is not happening on a like-for-like basis in terms of (the UK’s) need, or quality.
July 3, 2022
“The UK’s net worth was estimated at £11.4 trillion in 2021; an average of around £170,000 per person.
The UK’s net worth grew by 6.1%, or £0.7 trillion in 2021; the second consecutive year in which growth exceeded the average annual growth between 2010 and 2021.
Land remained the largest asset, worth £7.0 trillion in 2021 and showed a strong growth of 10.8% compared with the previous year; it accounted for a record high of just over 60% of net worth, with households owning two-thirds.” https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/bulletins/thenationalbalancesheetandcapitalstockspreliminaryestimatesuk/2022#main-points
The UK economy is based on perpetual residential property price inflation. It sits amid the Bitcoin, Ponzi and Pyramid scams universe. The UK poor productivity per employed person, is reflected in the billions borrowed to purchase owner occupied property than earns no income. ONS statistics have to pretend it does with a fictional rental income.
No UK government is going to risk economic Armageddon, by failing to keep feeding this monster with tax and help-to-buy funding giveaways. But; it could throttle it back by sacrificing the Buy-to-Let corporate and private Landlords. Reducing local council, politically influenced, planning, in favour of a much larger involvement by the Planning Inspectorate. Plus, making hoarding of land very expensive, particularly that with planning permission granted. Reducing the planning consent expiry time to a few months, would really shake-up the Land Barons.
July 4, 2022
Net worth £11.4 trillion based entirely on the tiny minority of houses that are up for sale.
Entirely notional.
July 5, 2022
Buying up the cheapest layer of properties to privately rent out isn’t something I have ever done, even though everyone, all investment advisors and other business owners, self-employed successful business people all press what a successful pension plan option this was.
You see people without taxpayer-guaranteed civil service pensions can’t rely on pension savings vehicles in the UK, they get whacked by Chancellors of all stripes but Brown was an expert. £100,000 pot at 65 with spousal transfer buys you around £4500 pa. So owning other people’s homes is a way to guarantee a monthly income to top up piss-poor pensions in this country. could there be a collective house-building investment vehicle instead with a fixed income return that grows in line with the housing market that people that need the home can buy out in 50 years and new properties being built to replace purchased stock so that the investors are the mortgagors, not the landlords.
July 3, 2022
These extended mortgages are a bad thing. It is yet another prop to house prices to please the Tory pensioner voter base. Those house prices must never drop, they can ONLY go up.
There is now immense anger amongst the under-50’s who see the generation above them pulling up the drawbridge on home ownership. This won’t end well, in future they will vote to cut pensions and free healthcare for pensioners.
House price inflation has been caused largely by QE and low interest rates. There are actually empty homes in the UK.
July 5, 2022
KB perhaps this depends on where you live, I know lots of under 50’s and don’t see any immense anger against the generation above them. Most people I know have used Help to Buy to get on the housing ladder (without parents’ help) often in less desirable areas and properties that need work, but the North isn’t as hyper-inflated as the South and homes bought for £150,000 in 1990 are still only double that price £300,000 in 2020, 30 years later. You can get a four-bedroom detached garage and two bathrooms + downstairs toilet for £260,000.
July 3, 2022
An observation concerning this site:
I have been reading JR’s daily blogs since almost from its beginning and enjoyed both these and the comments. Now however, I find it a little more difficult because of the presentation – the “sans” font and the bold format together make it less than easy to scan the text. I had been taught that “sans” should be restricted to headings, posters and the like whilst a “serif” font is better for the text body, allowing the reader’s eye to flow over the text more quickly. As for “bold”, that’s best left for the occasional emphasis and headings.
Perhaps I’m wrong and I wish not be seen as ungracious.
July 3, 2022
Agree. I don’t find it as eash to read, and speed-read. I once won a prize for that! But I couldn’t with this.
July 3, 2022
Multi-generational mortgages is an obvious step and should have been done a long time ago. Other countries have 80 year mortgages. Is the barrier finance companies being set in tgheir ways, or does the law need to change?
Immigration is obviously a major issue. With so much lobbying going on and party funding by businesses, it’s clear what’s going on. However, if businesses want workers then all the govt need to do is offer work visas. Why do foreign workers always get given residency/citizenship and then allowed to bring in extended family?
If there are real concerns over the various humn rights laws and their (rather silly IMO) “right to fa,ily life” then offering work visas is an obvious solution to all these problems.
I’m sure there will be claims that they won’t come on a visa, only if offered residency for themselves and family, but that then becomes an argument for closing it down – if the UK need was for work, then we should not be blackmailed into selling out our culture so that some darned business can make a few quid.
But the other question on this is: when was it last tried? (offering work visas). I don’t believe it was ever tried. So let’s run a pilot scheme and see how many needs are filled.
of course, to ensure that peopel return at the end of their visa, we may need some for of ID system.
July 3, 2022
In days of old with little or no modern central heating families were much larger. Population increased without the need for mass immigration. Immigrants, some of an alien culture, seem to have much larger families soon to outnumber the indigenous. Boris is said to be in favour of an immigrant amnesty. So no chance of controlling immigration ECHR and all that. And I thought we were supposed to have Brexit. Need not have bothered. No border down the Irish sea etc. The EU holding on to N.I. ad infinitum. Fishing still to be satisfactorily sorted out if ever.
Around here factories demolished in favour of supermarkets and houses. So where do all those additional people work? In the supermarkets and the building and service trades all needing a growing percentage of imported consumption rather than production. Not doing the balance of trade any good is it? We should be making things people want to buy as some European countries where their products are found far and wide across the globe our industry being hollowed out over the decades in particular the recent technology companies in the frame with connections to China. Just what is our Government thinking or not?
Rewilding, solar panels, tree planting and housing etc will soon take up much of food productive land to feed even more people needing more importation of everything requiring more transportation co2.
Where are all the doctors, dentists, fruit pickers and staff of just about every section of life as we used to know it?
As regards the pension triple lock changes I guess there will be many on the basic state pension going cold over the winter and in more ways than one.
Rather than reduce our armed forces to the bone why not conscript the immigrants instead?
July 5, 2022
Old Salt, supermarkets are shedding staff, self-tilling has a big impact and there are supermarkets in London where you register your card on the way in, fill your carrier bag and just walk out with the products the computerised shelving systems clocking your every purchase and billing your card which is usually on your smartphone, you just have to remember if you change your mind on a product not to just leave it on another shelf you have to put it right back where it came from, double success for the supermarket. When they can figure out robot shelf loaders the numbers of workers required by that industry will be cut dramatically.
I believe that houses will be more pre-fabricated rooms clipped together Scandi-style modules.
July 3, 2022
We are being far too soft on protesters.
Allowing them to invade a formula one racing track, pre announced by them days ago, is simply not good enough.
We are a soft touch to every lefty cause going, but the police seem to behave completely differently for anyone protesting the levels of immigration etc.
This is not without fear or favour, this is lazy ineffectual political policing.
July 3, 2022
Whomsoever actual pushes the illegal immigrants back gets my vote. The europhile dead hand of the Home Orifice has caused Priti to look wholly emasculated. Rwanda and Nigeria flights are just vacuous noise. Delivery is everything…
Boris and his government doesn’t seem to care, only you and the people Sir J. 🙄
July 3, 2022
+1 gets my vote
July 4, 2022
And millions of others.
Trump belatedly introduced EO 13957 allowing non-elected political decision maker,mover shakers in the swamp to be fired by the President. This was reversed by Biden.
July 3, 2022
Rather than 50 year cross-generational mortgages which I foresee numerous problems with (as I also do with mortgages financed entirely by state benefits-homebuyers not on benefits will resent such a scheme) I think private landlords should be incentivised with some Income Tax relief and also exemption from Capital Gains Tax for selling their property to a bona fide tenant as long as that tenant can get a mortgage to buy. That would do something to increase owner-occupation which is the best form of home tenure.
July 3, 2022
The UK, together with the rest of the world, should be aiming at zero population growth (ZPG). Immigration should be for short term periods, such as annually renewable residence permits, and numbers should be extremely small. Economic migrants from countries that export nothing but people are unwanted. The aim of our economic policy should be to maximise income per capita, not GDP.
You may think that my housing policy is extreme but it would work. The State should not own houses, except maybe for the Royal family and the armed forces. We should get rid of ‘social housing’, which means subsidised housing, which is dreadfully unfair and discriminates against those who never get to the top of the waiting list. We should sell off all of the existing social housing stock, offering properties first to sitting tenants, then to the highest bidder. Housing subsidy should be tied to individuals and families; when the youngsters in a poor family grow up any fly the nest, the subsidy should stop.
If we followed these policies, house building would be focused on improving existing housing stock, by insulation, energy saving and roof solar panels.
July 4, 2022
It would be interesting to have some close surveillance on Boris to gather evidence on who is pulling his strings. He is certainly not acting in our interests.
July 5, 2022
DJ, I am afraid that you would likely not be able to prove any external influence, all the recent interesting ideas must essentially come from his blond head given that the Cabinet is clearly not filled with political eagles. But isn’t it what the country voted for in December 2019? 80 MPs majority … slowly coming down …
July 10, 2022
Absolutely right.
25 plus years ago people could afford a property with a mortgage that could be paid off within 20 to 25 years, and people in their 20’s could afford to buy. We need to go back to that situation, by stopping the increase in demand from immigration, so that supply of new builds can catch up in our overcrowded isle.
The price of immigration is high housing costs that adversely affects all younger people particularly, they are paying the price for these open door policies – and it makes aspiration difficult to achieve, reasonable aims are unachievable – a very depressing situation indeed – especially on top of high university debts. This is bad and quite avoidable if British people were put first instead of overlooked.