Put yourself on checkatrade and do more on Facebook. You can charge a lot more, people pay crazy money now for built in furniture.

There are millions of renters that want to be owners, but can’t afford to (despite paying more in rent than a mortgage would cost). It’s not all about increasing the number of houses, but reducing the number of BTL landlords.

House prices coming down or wages going up are the only things that will solve it. To do this requires a complete change in mindset and policy. It’s not fine because people get on the housing ladder later, they are a huge deficient by that point and probably have taken out a massive, 30, 35 hell soon to be a 50-year mortgage to do so.

I’m going to infer this puts you more “out of touch” with the younger end of the market

Nonsense, I am thinking of my kids and society in general. What do you think is going to happen when generation rent gets to retirement age?

The greed is not from people living in their own homes, it’s from BTL, second homeowners, holiday homeowners, unscrupulous student landlords, foreign investors who don’t even bother renting out their properties and politicians who prop it up all up time and time again because they have their own property portfolios.

As a homeowner, I have no problem with interest rates rising if it means house prices will fall. The commoditization of the home is the problem, all these other factors are just symptoms of this. I agree we need to build more housing, in particular, social, but let’s not pretend greed has nothing to do with high house prices.

You’ve said this twice now, but with the exception of people who really shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a credit card, who doesn’t have a good enough credit rating to get a mortgage?

Absolutely oblivious to the situation. Plenty of people pay fair higher rent than they could borrow as a mortgage.

Are you really trying to say house prices are high because more women are working and so people now have more money to spend? Apart from the ridiculousness of this logic – have you seen the price of childcare? People with high rent do not have savings.

I’ve not noticed this,

Erm.. you go on to make an argument that affordability has not gotten worse.

The truth is, the home has been turned into a financial product used to enrich people that are deemed “credit worthy”

So the reality is that household incomes have doubled, and as almost all that extra wasn’t needed for non-housing costs we’ve ended up in a situation where the new normal is to spend 75% of two incomes on a house, not 50% of one, which roughly corelates to house prices trebling relative to average earnings.

You are completely missing the greed of BTL and the rigged credit rating system.

2022 and some people here are still claiming housing is affordable. Just look at wage stagnation vs average deposit size, multiplies of income required and average mortgage length.

The assault on the young continues, a few generations ago you could reasonably expect to own a home in your 20s, that you could afford to heat, get a university degree without 50k of debt at double the market interest rate and support a family with only one of you working.

Riots are coming, make no mistake.

Sound advice and living frugally might have worked in the past, but this is nonsense now – there are no bootstraps to pull up.

If you don’t have inherited wealth and live in the south it does not matter how many avocados you forgo, you are stuck in a cycle of rising house and rent prices.

I totally get all of that, it’s more an observation of how many people are struggling and also how rare stocism now is. I am very aware that I can come across as lacking in empathy, but actually I am also the person that goes out of they way to make things as easy as possible for everyone else, because I hate to see people struggle.

I was talking candidly, I am very patient and understanding in practice.

Over sharing is a good term for it, it often strikes me as quite self indulgent and just very impractical as nearly every conversation turns into variations of ‘so sorry to hear that’. Everyone has challenges, but volunteering is completely optional..

I do worry how fragile so many people seem, out of 30 or so core volunteers there are probably only 3 or 4 uncomplicated people that you can rely on not matter what.

I am naturally stoic, I find it very useful in as much as just being able to get on with things, but it does make me come across as rather cold.

I recently started a charity, working with people I never would encounter before. I find it bizarre how often people tell you their problems e.g try arrange a zoom call and you don’t get ‘sorry I can’t make it’ you get endless insights into cahotic lives. I do think a bit of stocism would go a long way, but maybe I have not suffered the same.

Do you mean good there are less private landlords?

Or good the regulations will mean there is a good supply of safe, energy efficient rented accommodation?

Both.

Sorry to hear this. Being a private landlord is becoming less and less attractive as all the hoops, hurdles and expenses increase.

Good.

Why do people keep saying they have to give up a career to be a MP? have you seen what MPs are doing after office (and in) !?

Is there a shortage of people wanting to be MPs erm.. no.

Clearly the pay is enough to live very comfortably on. let’s not make excuses from the greed please. If increasing pay would increase quality I would be all for it, but we all know it would not.

He had more relevant experience on becoming PM that either Tony Blair or David Cameron.

Yeah, nice examples.

I have found that the brightest are only considered so because they had the opportunities and life momentum to achieve in education, they are not naturally brilliant or special. The most successful are the ones who attach to the right clique once they are through the door.

This is a universal truth. Just look no further than our poor excuse for a PM, absolutely no relevant experience or skills at all. He is a journalist that could not hold down a job, famous for a lack of interest in details and the truth.

Although I agree. You don’t get the best by buying cheap.

Sounds good, except our world does not work like that at all does it? It’s more who you know and what you can get away with. There are plenty of incompetent, unqualified people holding down high salaries.

75k isn’t that number.

Nor is the number that MPs actually make, it’s just the headline.

MPs salaries are such a sideshow, lots of MPs could do quite fine without any salary at all, it’s not the desperation of poverty that is making them take bribes or second ‘jobs’ is it.

but it’s very obvious that he’s not going to still be in the commons on just 75k pa + expenses

Good. Your mistake is thinking money is the only reason to become a mp.

They are allowed 15 weeks, of course most don’t, but many find time for second jobs.

The salary is fine, remember they also get expenses, excellent pensions, money towards second homes, over 50% more if they are a cabinet minister, 15 weeks holiday, subsided food, beer, travel etc.. it should be well paid, but they should also treat it like a full time job.

There are plenty of decent people in this country working for much less or even free for community groups / charities.

Pretty sure that was not the point you were making – but anyway more people voted for parties with actual climate polices, then the current government.

The more you want the govt to do this or that, the more you give them the power and one day they will come back to bite you or your next generation(s).

The more you want the govt to do this or that, the more you give them the power and one day they will come back to bite you or your next generation(s).

What on earth are you on about?

Nothing new, southern water got fined £90 million for breaches between 2010 and 2015. They have just carried on dumping as it’s cheaper to pay the fines.

. Energy taxes disproportionately affect the poor

Only if you design it like this. Government could easily create a progressive carbon tax, but choose not to.

My community group had one like that, they just kicked the doors in, padlock was still attached.

Lots of products are also getting smaller, this is hiding price rises.

Er no, that’s not what’s being said (why are people so hard of comprehension here?). What’s being said is that we can’t RELY on personal responsibility to solve the problems.

It’s what the majority of people think.

I’m interested in actual real change.

Please tell us how. According to most, any form of personal responsibility is a waste of time.

1. if parties are not funded by donations then how? if say from central gov based on past results how does a new party get funding? if no new parties then no threat to the status quo. If only from membership – then are we saying a party that has wealthier members who can afford a higher membership should have more clout?

Good points – but we could start by having a maximum donation limit and not just trusting the parties to do the right thing. There are clear conflicts of interests happening all the time and the electoral commission is toothless.

so if a doctor or lawyer decides to stand for election they must give up their day job and not even keep their skills up? possibly part of the reason they stood or got elected was because they were close to the coal face and new what was going on – how connected will they still be after 10 yrs?

Well yes, it’s a full time job. MP pay is less than most lawyers and doctors and they should be closer to the coal face dealing with their constituents.

so if a politician loses their seat they can’t return to the job they did before?

No reason a doctor could not go back to their day job, but taking a board position at a private company that got awarded a nhs contract during their tenure, no. Every politician should have a blacklist of companies they can not work for.

You are just reinforcing my point. There should be no party donating allowed and MPs should not be able to have second jobs, sit on boards or join companies related to their positions within 5 years of leaving. These measures would have a profound effect on policies.

But it’s not precisely zero effect is it? Clearly he is reducing his CO2 footprint by a measurable amount. We just need more people, particularly those will some decision making ability to do the same.

25% of tory donations are from the construction industry – this explains everything really.

Are houses insulated properly as yet ?

No, most new builds are pathetic.

Of course solar could be made to be way cheaper if it was a requirement. On a large new estate it might even become economic to create a small solar farm nearby or plan a shared thermal heat source. The better insulated the houses are in the first place the cheaper all this becomes. Also do we really think construction costs have gone up in line with house prices!

25% of tory party donations are from the construction industry. The explains how they are still getting away with creating shit boxes that leak energy like a sieve, despite insane house prices.