Forum Topic

Sajid Javid; Who is out of touch?

If the quotes from Mr Javid MP in todays papers are correct then here's another minister who ought to resign.It simply underlines how completely out of touch all Politicians are with the Housing issue.Giving Housing Associations blank cheques and writing off debts as they metamorphosise from charities into big money property developers and landlordsGreen lighting over densification without factoring in infrastructure and means for quality of life.Ignoring concerns from people with the experience to know when something is not right.and blaming the older generation for the housing crisis simply because they have paid off mortgages?Er this will be the same generation that had mortgage interest at up to 15% and barely ever below 6% over their 25 years.  Parents who went without food every few days to pay the mortgage.It has never been cheap or easy. For more than a few generations.The only real benefits were those council house tenants who bought at bargain prices. There would not be a housing crisis if this insane grip by developers and twisted up planning laws did not allow a glut of luxury developments and massaging of land values to dominate in a country of limited space.If theres one area that state control should have serious teeth it should be land.Does he not realise that this 'Nimby generation' have children now grown up who cannot even live nearby?  That's because the wrong kind of housing is being thrown up left right and centre and most is wholly unsuitable for family life and the amenities to support that quality of life are being eroded.His Nimby attack is unfounded and exposes the complete lack of understanding causing through all of government from the top to the bottom.It is a population crisis. I hate to agree with the bit in the Sun today but it is a cold hard fact.Way too many people, no means to accommodate. And yet there are thousands of empty and  part occupied properties completely unaffordable being permitted.Affordable should mean affordable. Overseas investment and Buy to Let of new properties should be banned entirely and yes. New Towns built with affordable commuter links. Proper homes with proper space for people. Places desirable enough to want to live there.We seem completely incapable as a nation of managing that.Has nothing been learned in 150 years of overdensely populated districts?   The divisions, The squalor, the dirt, the crime, the mental and health issues.Clearly the 'Nimbie' understand that.  Many of them will have been part of that.A shame Mr Javid and his young Latte sipping advisors do not.

Raymond Havelock ● 2829d18 Comments

Thats not fully correct.Private rented homes with sitting tenants with full statutory rights were indeed supposed to be offered to the tenants at discounted prices reflecting the full rights of the sitting tenant.That was in the late 1960s and early seventies long before selling of Council stock was mooted.This turned out to be a rather warped initiative and a great many sitting tenants who where able to purchase their homes were denied by the shifting of stock from one multiple owner to another. Mainly 'Family Trusts' who to this day own thousands of houses all over West London.Worse still was the hijacking of grant funding that was intended to enable sitting tenants purchase.I think you will find that several big names from Margaret Thatchers Government and a few in James Callaghans party made their fortunes from this by using privilege, legal connections and loopholes and ended up with portfolios of London Properties.50 years on and not a lot has changed has it?

Raymond Havelock ● 2826d

Strangely enough selling off council houses was originally a Labour idea. Ho hum.The discounts given under "right to buy" simply reflects the fact that the properties had a sitting tenant with many statutory rights and privileges. Privately owned properties let under so called "regulated tenancies" also sell at a significant discount to the market rate for similar properties with vacant possession.The biggest mistake (of many) was that the Blair/Brown Government 1997 - 2010 built fewer social housing units in that entire period than were built is most single years under Margaret Thatcher. Painful facts for life long Labour voters but true none the lessBlair of course allowed unrestricted access to the UK for nationals from of the newly accessioned EU countries - but without building anymore homes for the new arrivals to live in.The selling off of council houses did not of course reduce the total supply of housing. All that happened was that a tenant became a freeholder or a long leaseholder. When properies acquired under the right to buy scheme have subsequently been sold many have been returned to the rented sector. Again this has not actually reduced the total housing stock available for rent.

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 2826d

I thought I had heard of some sort of scheme. Did not know it was that.Learn something new every day.

Raymond Havelock ● 2827d

That was what was done with many housing assoc. tenants in the 80's and 90's Raymond. It was called the Tenant Incentive Scheme.

Keith Iddon ● 2827d

Selling off council housing was a big mistake.Not in the principle for people to own their own home and reduce dependency of state subsidy.What was wrong is how do you replace the sold homes?  Where do you build new ones?The homes were sold way too cheap. That was big mistake No1.What should have happened is that if a tenant is in a position to but their own home, their record as a tenant should have counted for a discounted mortgage in the private market. Lower cost family housing should be built and that sold to council tenants on a special mortgage.Effectively giving them a leg up into home ownership but not removing the housing stock for those whose the possibility may never materialise.Trouble is now, there is no space, and only flats are being built and nothing is sensibly affordable, even on high salaries.It has to be New Towns of good quality and properly affordable.  Not overdensification which will create terrible social problems in due course.

Raymond Havelock ● 2827d

Selling council housing would have worked had the old bat - Thatcher - allowed councils to spend the capital receipts to build more. Have to agree though that the last two governments have done bog all about housing. I still think that councils - for all their faults - are far and away the best people to build and maintain public housing, they were far better landlords.

Vanessa Smith ● 2828d

Indeed. But they are very good at ticking boxes.

Alex Shpinkov ● 2828d

Couldn't agree more, particularly about the ridiculously low prices.

Anne England ● 2828d

Hounslow Council has no respect for the environment.

Steve Taylor ● 2828d

You are so right. I notice in the rest of the EU they did not sell their public housing or come to that destroy their industry.

Nicholas Beard ● 2828d

This says it all:"Labour run Hounslow Council sees no alternative to further erosion of the Green Belt and more high rise development. "

Alex Shpinkov ● 2828d

I still blame Thatcher for selling off Council housing at ridiculously low prices. Big mistake. She caused the problem and the high prices.

Steve Taylor ● 2828d

You can always say it was easy years ago. The fact is people in this country are very low on the list of owning a 2nd home to go to at weekends. We have very few public holidays to get out of the city for breaks. I know people on the continent who have little houses or flats to go to at weekends. It was fairly easy for them to get a second residence and they did not have exceptional jobs. The fact is Conservative or Labour did not want people to own a house. We are not a property owning country. Things have changed and people have accepted that.

Nicholas Beard ● 2828d

Older people who say that it was never easy to get on the housing ladder are living in a fantasy world. When I got married in 1980, we bought a two-bedroomed flat in Stamford Brook for about 3 times our joint income. Those flats now sell for about 10 times the joint income of a young couple. There's no comparison.

Susan Kelly ● 2829d

It's not just Hounslow is it Sam?  And much as though I think the way Hounslow approaches planning and development has been despicable, where have the opposition been on this ?It is true that Labour boroughs have been more conducive towards developers and for the wrong kinds of homes, and that is really baffling as I would have thought Labour would take a much tougher stance but appear to be either easily led or corruptable.But when are Tories going to stand up and make some sense and noise on what's happening in Hounslow Borough?And where is the sensibility and gumption to face up to the overheating and overpopulation of one part of this country to the detriment of the rest of it?

Raymond Havelock ● 2829d

Slightly off subject but talking of government brainwaves. Report in the paper today about the amount of car tax revenue that has been lost since someone had the bright idea that doing away with the tax disc would save £7m a year. Guess what? Lost revenue for 2013 - 14 was £32m and will be as much as £97m for 2017 - 18. Well, that worked well didn't it? Figures show that potential annual lost revenue is £107m. I can only say that next time the bird-brain that dreamed this one up has another bright idea - just don't, what a bunch of incompetent morons. It was obvious that this would happen and all for the sake of a small piece of paper.

Vanessa Smith ● 2829d

He could start by limiting the number of dwellings( often left empty and bought purely as an investment) sold to foreign conglomerates etc. to say..nil and also the number of properties bought by UK buy to let landlords. The councils won't complain about the first issue btw as the council tax collected for an empty property does not have to go to provide extra services for that non existent tenant.You are correct Raymond, it has never been easy and I remember mortgage rates in the very high teens and did two, or three at one stage, jobs for 20 odd years so that I have my own place and will not be reliant on the state for housing later in life.The Tories are all about encouraging people to be thrifty and to be property owners but when we actually do that, it seems the whole housing mess is our fault and not their 'market forces' mantra that they trip out whenever it suits them..Well, they can't have it both ways.

Keith Iddon ● 2829d

Hi Raymond - Sajid is the son of a Rochdale bus driver who was originally from Pakistan.He was described by former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as "one of the best new MPs for 30 years". In January 2015, Javid was voted Politician of the Year at the British Muslim Award ceremony. If you want to object to "densification" of housing in the Borough you should perhaps respond to the Council'sWest of Borough Consultation and Great West Corridor Consultation. Labour run Hounslow Council sees no alternative to further erosion of the Green Belt and more high rise development.  www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20034/planning_policy/1158/west_of_borough_plan_reviewwww.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20034/planning_policy/1104/great_west_corridor_review – 53k

Cllr Sam Hearn ● 2829d