Cost of living crisis.

[kenny]

15 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Using a fundamental human need (housing) in a reasonably inelastic market (unlike food, say) a a vehicle for personal profit in the current climate is IMO wildly unethical and should be discouraged however possible anyway.

The government could purchase and manage these houses themselves. If you take out all BTL properties there would be thousands of homeless people.

 

Certainly I have said before, if you compare the hotel bill for asylum seekers, the government could purchase 10 houses a day for less money. But they won't as there is no vehicle for doing so and the public sector would be incapable of managing them. They could work with the housing associations to move this forward if they wanted to.

[Daggers]

19 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Can I ask...

What size glass of water?

and Brown or White bread?

It's a Brexit breaky - so a pint and white.

[weller54]

30 minutes ago, Daggers said:

It's a Brexit breaky - so a pint and white.

Thanks... perfect.

Available at any Wetherspoons establishment I assume?

[Livid]

2 hours ago, weller54 said:

Can I ask...

What size glass of water?

and Brown or White bread?

Imperial or Metric ? 

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

The government could purchase and manage these houses themselves. If you take out all BTL properties there would be thousands of homeless people.

 

Certainly I have said before, if you compare the hotel bill for asylum seekers, the government could purchase 10 houses a day for less money. But they won't as there is no vehicle for doing so and the public sector would be incapable of managing them. They could work with the housing associations to move this forward if they wanted to.

You'll get no disagreement from me that the government are culpable here too. There is a lot more they could do.

 

Perhaps they don't because they're at least in part in hock to the people who buy up these homes for the sake of their own avarice?

[leicsmac]

On 31/08/2022 at 22:41, leicsmac said:

All that I'm hearing here makes me wonder if coming back to the UK with grad degree in hand next year is actually a good idea... or even a viable one in terms of getting off the ground with decent work and onto the property ladder.

Current events aren't really convincing me here.

[FoyleFox]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

The government could purchase and manage these houses themselves. If you take out all BTL properties there would be thousands of homeless people.

 

Certainly I have said before, if you compare the hotel bill for asylum seekers, the government could purchase 10 houses a day for less money. But they won't as there is no vehicle for doing so and the public sector would be incapable of managing them. They could work with the housing associations to move this forward if they wanted to.

4.4m households are in the PRS sector. That's a lot of people to accommodate without it. The Government certainly won't be providing the homes - as you say, much more they could do but we know they aren't going to.

[grobyfox1990]

9 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Current events aren't really convincing me here.

Christ yeh not heard of anyone willingly wanting to get paid in GBP for a fair while 

[Lako42]

On 24/09/2022 at 13:22, urban.spaceman said:

Oh there was plenty of logic. You’re just expecting too much competence from them.

 

They’re not idiots making mistakes. They’re actively sinister people pilfering as much as they can for themselves and their dodgy mates  while they have the chance. 

I wonder how much money they have made for themselves and the hedge fund managers and traders they met last week before this budget who were shorting the £££

 

 

Corrupt, evil bastards the lot of them. 

 

These current lot are going to make hay whilst the sun shines because the entire cabinet knows they aren't actually qualified to be there.  

 

Scum

[Leicester_Loyal]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Current events aren't really convincing me here.

Take it you rent wherever you are?

 

How long you been away for?

 

Why are you coming back, what reasons?

 

Genuinely just curious for the above questions, feel free to tell me to bugger off if it's personal

[leicsmac]

Just now, Leicester_Loyal said:

Take it you rent wherever you are?

 

How long you been away for?

 

Why are you coming back, what reasons?

 

Genuinely just curious for the above questions, feel free to tell me to bugger off if it's personal

My job pays my rent (though it's a shoebox, no lie), four years away in this stint and almost ten years out of the last twelve in total, and to reconnect with family and friends with possibly better job opportunities for a science communicator in a primarily English speaking country, in that order.

 

But now I'm thinking about if better opportunities lie with my upcoming qualification either where I am or elsewhere.

[Leicester_Loyal]

4 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

My job pays my rent (though it's a shoebox, no lie), four years away in this stint and almost ten years out of the last twelve in total, and to reconnect with family and friends with possibly better job opportunities for a science communicator in a primarily English speaking country, in that order.

 

But now I'm thinking about if better opportunities lie with my upcoming qualification either where I am or elsewhere.

Least living is free for you. I did 3 years working away but was back for weeks at a time sometimes and that was enough for me so don't envy you doing that length of time away from home.

 

At least you're in no rush to make a decision, you can take your time, decide, and weigh up the pros and cons.

[leicsmac]

1 minute ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Least living is free for you. I did 3 years working away but was back for weeks at a time sometimes and that was enough for me so don't envy you doing that length of time away from home.

 

At least you're in no rush to make a decision, you can take your time, decide, and weigh up the pros and cons.

True enough, I do have some time. This time next year, however, I'll be doing something else - I'll need to decide what it is and where.

[dsr-burnley]

12 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Using a fundamental human need (housing) in a reasonably inelastic market (unlike food, say) a a vehicle for personal profit in the current climate is IMO wildly unethical and should be discouraged however possible anyway.

I don't see the logic of letting farmers make a profit but not landlords.  Both are providing an essential service, and the elasticity is a small point, surely?

Edited 26 September 2022 by dsr-burnley

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

I don't see the logic of letting farmers make a profit but not landlords.  Both are providing an essential service, and the elasticity is a small point, surely?

Au contraire, the elasticity is very important. It controls the amount of freedom the consumer has within the market. When it comes to food, the choice between different suppliers is broad, but in terms of buying housing, it's much more narrow.

 

Taking advantage of that fact and knowing the consumer has to meet your market rate for the sake of your own profit or suffer from a lack of an essential human need - as opposed to having other options to buy from - is unethical.

[dsr-burnley]

7 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Au contraire, the elasticity is very important. It controls the amount of freedom the consumer has within the market. When it comes to food, the choice between different suppliers is broad, but in terms of buying housing, it's much more narrow.

 

Taking advantage of that fact and knowing the consumer has to meet your market rate for the sake of your own profit or suffer from a lack of an essential human need - as opposed to having other options to buy from - is unethical.

The consumer doesn't have to meet your market rate.  If your market rate is too high, the tenant can choose to move to someone with a lower market rate.  I suspect there are more distinct people and corporations supplying housing in this country than there are supplying food.

 

But if we accept your argument, then what's the solution?  Removing the option of private letting would make the position far less elastic than it is now.  If the proposal is that people who can't afford a house must take what they can get from council house stocks, can we be sure that the necessarily vast increase in council house stocks would give us a system more wide-ranging and flexible than we have now with private landlords?

 

 

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

The consumer doesn't have to meet your market rate.  If your market rate is too high, the tenant can choose to move to someone with a lower market rate.  I suspect there are more distinct people and corporations supplying housing in this country than there are supplying food.

 

But if we accept your argument, then what's the solution?  Removing the option of private letting would make the position far less elastic than it is now.  If the proposal is that people who can't afford a house must take what they can get from council house stocks, can we be sure that the necessarily vast increase in council house stocks would give us a system more wide-ranging and flexible than we have now with private landlords?

 

 

You know something, you have valid points here. Limiting the market through government intervention would in all likelihood reduce elasticity.

 

However, I look at a housing market in the UK artificially inflated by BTL agents looking to make a quick (or sometimes slower) buck, and "investors" who buy properties and then leave them empty, and then I look at the folks who would want to buy a house but are priced out by the machinations of those agents and their drive for personal profit and the lack of ethical behaviour rather annoys me. Perhaps there is a middle road somewhere that allows for greater freedom of choice in selecting housing while at the same time aiding the poorer. A purely market-based solution clearly does not work.

[Daggers]

It’s been many years since I rented a property, but my experience back then was that every single landlord was a complete and utter thieving cünt.

 

Now my kids are renting, my long held impression has not changed one iota.

[CollinsLCFC]

Our monthly DD to British Gas has gone from £105 to £405. We haven't even put the heating on this year yet. 

 

Cannot afford that, is it wise to cancel the DD and pay for what you use?  I can put say £200 a month to the side, but can't pay £405 a month. 

[grobyfox1990]

4 minutes ago, CollinsLCFC said:

Our monthly DD to British Gas has gone from £105 to £405. We haven't even put the heating on this year yet. 

 

Cannot afford that, is it wise to cancel the DD and pay for what you use?  I can put say £200 a month to the side, but can't pay £405 a month. 

You defo need to contact British Gas and explain your situation 

[Innovindil]

45 minutes ago, CollinsLCFC said:

Our monthly DD to British Gas has gone from £105 to £405. We haven't even put the heating on this year yet. 

 

Cannot afford that, is it wise to cancel the DD and pay for what you use?  I can put say £200 a month to the side, but can't pay £405 a month. 

Surely they're having you on. I had this through yesterday. Either I'm being lied to or you are. 

 

Based on your latest meter readings and the credit in your account, we're lowering your monthly payment amount from £129.44 to £87.30.

We've included any upcoming Energy Bills Support Scheme payments in our calculations. And your prices are protected by the Government Energy Price Guarantee, which limits the amount you can be charged for each unit of gas or electricity for the next 2 years.

[Rain King]

My gas/electric went down yesterday from £143 p/m to £120 p/m.

 

I am £260 in credit and give meter readings every month but I fully expect to get another email next month saying it's gone up to a stupid amount.

[CollinsLCFC]

22 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

Surely they're having you on. I had this through yesterday. Either I'm being lied to or you are. 

 

Based on your latest meter readings and the credit in your account, we're lowering your monthly payment amount from £129.44 to £87.30.

We've included any upcoming Energy Bills Support Scheme payments in our calculations. And your prices are protected by the Government Energy Price Guarantee, which limits the amount you can be charged for each unit of gas or electricity for the next 2 years.

They must be, we are £320 in credit. 

 

Have a 3 bed semi, 2 of us and a 18 month old daughter.  Careful on electric and don't use the heating (yet). 

 

We've had nothing through the post or an email. Will ring today. 

[Innovindil]

4 minutes ago, CollinsLCFC said:

They must be, we are £320 in credit. 

 

Have a 3 bed semi, 2 of us and a 18 month old daughter.  Careful on electric and don't use the heating (yet). 

 

We've had nothing through the post or an email. Will ring today. 

That's crazy. We're in pretty much the same boat. 3 bed semi and 2 of us but a newborn daughter. Think we're only about £190 in credit too. Even under the "usage" tab it's saying we use £160~ a month. 

[CollinsLCFC]

7 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

That's crazy. We're in pretty much the same boat. 3 bed semi and 2 of us but a newborn daughter. Think we're only about £190 in credit too. Even under the "usage" tab it's saying we use £160~ a month. 

The difference is crazy, hopefully ours is wrong. 

 

It says on their website, we're still not paying enough, they want £427 to balance. Yet they changed the DD?! 

 

We gave a reading just over a month ago.

 

Crazy times.