What the hell is happening to our country?

[thecaretaker]

Just watched the news. 1.2 million people have been issued with eviction orders as they are unable to keep up with payments. It's private renters who cannot afford to pay the rent. They face homelessness. I don't think this country has ever had it so bad. It seems one thing after another.

[Rushfan]

The seeds were planted by Thatcher and her "Property owning democracy". I saw this coming when I was in my late teens .

[Handyman]

Failures by successive governments have led to this situation, e.g. Gordon Brown promised to keep house prices down and yet they went up by an average of over 150% during the 13 years of Labour being in power. The Tories, especially in recent years have been either ridiculously incompetent or even treasonous as it is increasingly hard to believe they aren't running the country into the ground on purpose.

They couldn't care less, the other day a couple who were residential caretakers in a Torquay hotel were given 24 hours to leave because the Home Office decided to use the hotel to house migrants so they were kicked out and offered some B&B about half an hour away (great for their three kids who attend a local school). The reward for hard work and paying your taxes to these imbeciles.

Private renting is getting more and more expensive, net migration to the UK this last year has been a record 500,000, a simple case of supply and demand as houses are not being built anywhere near fast enough to keep pace. When politicians of either main party are asked about their house building or infrastructure improvement plans they ignore the question and change the subject because they don't want to admit that they haven't got a clue and will just allow the situation to worsen forever until it negatively affects them or their mates. [--- (The seasonal word only permitted in December) ---_cry]

[AlboUnderhill]

I like coming here and getting help so I don't particularly want to get into a political rant but...

Immigration isn't the bad guy it's painted to be. Yes it's mishandled by governments past and present but when handled correctly, it's proven numerous times with data that immigration increases GDP and labour in local areas.

The NHS is underfunded and has been for years, they need more staff but currently don't have time nor money to train them and with nurses making what they do, why would they join the nhs? Its a snake eating it's tail. Housing is unavailable to most working class due to private landlords hoarding running mass monopolies on something that shouldn't be a monopoly but a human right. The made up credit score and stagnant wages mean the majority of people able to actually purchase property are people with properties already. There's some 230,000 + long term vacant properties in England but we have 30 + house less individuals sleeping in our town centre. These landlords then rent them out to someone for 80% of that person's income. If house prices have gone up 150% why haven't my wages? Many large companies are making profits in line with inflation, many ceo's and bankers are getting bonuses, shareholders don't seem to be struggling. It's almost as if the whole system is rigged to trickle up. Seems like small business are crumbling around us.

So yeah, the country has been run by greedy baffoons for a long time, immigration isn't gonna save us right now but its not the core of our problems. Its our taxes being mismanaged, our utilities and companies being sold off and sending profits to the few and overseas. It's stagnant wages because people don't understand that rich people don't spend money, local people in local communities do. It's a lot of things but don't blame the cat while the cougar eats your neighbours.

[MrTeatime]

Not politically minded at all, but I do listen to people who talk sense.
Check out the recent piece by Neil Oliver for GB News, he puts it so well and very eloquently.

Sorry can't do the link upload thingy

[twiglets]

I've never understood how you can get a mortgage for a house to rent it out so the renter pays the mortgage, then they do the same multiple times. Surely you should only get a mortgage for the house you live in??
We have a CO who is doing exactly the above, then comes in and complains that the change to the taxes the other week means she isn't making the money if she sells. I told her once I don't agree with all these small people mortgaging to rent as it is this market that is preventing first time buyers getting on the property ladder(these people seem to find it easier to get mortgages and drive the prices up).

[thecaretaker]

I've never understood how you can get a mortgage for a house to rent it out so the renter pays the mortgage, then they do the same multiple times. Surely you should only get a mortgage for the house you live in??

I know a boss (no names) that buys properties to rent out. He is extremely wealthy. He once told me, if you ever get any savings, always invest it in property. He said that property prices always go up, even if there are a few glitches along the way. Ultimately in the long term, you'll make a far better return on your cash than any bank could offer you and it is far safer than betting your money away on stock markets. He now builds new properties to rent out. He has 100's of them. He is the living proof that his system works.

[Vera]

“The rich get richer and the poor get - children.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
This has always had truth to it but it has never been more true than now.
However the meaning behind the saying is more sinister.

"The poor get children" as the rich need the poor to make them more money.
In essence the rich orchestrate people being poor for their own greed.

[Handyman]

This is a big problem, especially in towns/cities around universities, there was a landlord I knew in the southwest who owned at least dozens of properties and renting them out to students and was using their rent to pay the mortgages. Of course there was the usual issue of them turning a 3/4 bedroom property into a 7/8 to rake in the income. When you can charge £250-£300 a month for a room so small you can't close the door because the bed is in the way it is a nice little earner. Then of course there were issues with a lack of housing for families when a street of 50 houses might have 40+ being used by students.

There is the flip side of being a landlord as well sometimes. One of our TAs rents a house from a friend of hers for basically a peppercorn rent because the previous tenant did not pay any rent for ages and when eventually evicted left the property needing over £15,000 of clean-up and damage repair. This is the only rental property she owns and now would rather let someone she trusts rent it cheaply rather than deal with stuff like this and was not the boost to retirement income she was hoping for. Greed causes a lot of problems and nowhere near enough is done about bad landlord. I do understand though about people trying to invest in property to make a bit of money, for their old age especially, when we have rampant inflation and one of the worst state pensions in the developed world. One of the major causes of the housing boom in the first place was tax rises on pensions that caused people to take money out of pension schemes and buy houses to let out instead.

[Dexter]

I've found this aan interesting thread with insightful inputs - sorry, if I duplicate any.

I agree with AlboUnderhill that it is not the problem, painted by the Right. It is pure and deliberate deflection that is seen many times through history.

We now see a clamour for people to work many jobs (eg NHS and agriculture) but as a country we have created barriers for what we need. I remember the riots in Boston, Lincs, many years ago, due to locals being fired up by the Eastern Europeans taking their agricultural jobs. There were plenty of jobs but locals did not want to work for minimum wage. They simply blamed immigrant workers for doing what was needed but what they did not want to do themselves, fuelled by rhetoric from the Right.

The market economy is fuelled by self-interest. At the moment there are poor returns from traditional stocks and shares and property has been far more lucrative. It is natural for people, if left unregulated, to maximise their returns. Unfortunately, this seems to have concentrated on existing housing stock rather than encouraged building. For most potential landlords, the idea of passing a pristine building over to renters would be counter intuitive. This is where the government has needed to step in and once again encourage building. They can do it indirectly with incentives but something needs to be done.

The rights of renters are also poor. The use of no fault evictions is a very unfair tool at landlords disposal. I think that there should be greater security of tenure, in any rental agreement, and disincentives for holding empty property.