A politicain talking sense????!!!!

[peter macdonald]

From the letters page of our local newspaper

Positive discrimination on Highland housing
Published: 21 February, 2007
SIR – I am delighted that there are a number of initiatives in the wind aimed at providing quality and economical homes in the Highlands.

Yet, I wonder if they go far enough. It has been one of those issues that polite people talk about with their hands covering their mouths.

The indigenous Highlander has been struggling to compete in house purchase with the wealthier incomer (and I do not mean only English incomers) for some years now as the inexorable laws of supply and demand take effect.

I believe that, along with the creation of good job opportunities, there has to be positive discrimination in favour of the native of this land to ensure the Highlander does not become another endangered species.

There is a precedent for this – or, rather, two precedents: there are the allowances being given to sitting tenants of council houses to purchase their homes at greatly discounted prices, and there is the situation in Northern Ireland where, admittedly to buy the peace, grants of up to 60 per cent are being given to move people to brand-new private homes. Something of this system can be adopted for the circumstances pertaining in the North.

This is an issue I will be pursuing.

(b)Gordon Campbell, prospective parliamentary candidate (independent), Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, 9 Poles Road, Dornoch.(/b)

its one of the more sensible Ive heard recently!!!

[j4bberw0ck]

Well, for a moment there I was hopeful..... but this is just Stalinism in another guise.

One problem with positive discrimination is that it's almost certainly illegal in practice; how long before someone shows that directly or indirectly, it's "racism"? The issue with giving people money to buy houses is that it's just another example of transferring money from one section of the population who can't afford it, to another.

The main problem is this; say you have a house to sell and you're wanting offers over £100,000 (for the sake of a figure). Someone "from south" (however far south it may be) offers you £150,000, cash. Someone from the local area, citing the "positive discrimination" rules, offers you £110,000 subject to being able to get a mortgage. (And if that isn't what this idiot means, what use is what he proposes?)

You're obliged to take £110,000, meaning you can't then move to a new area to your new job because you can't afford the housing.

Why should some cockroach politician be able to rule that you, a private individual in this so-called free country of ours, should accept a lower offer in response to positive discrimination?

I do wish all these interfering, stupid, wannabe control-freaks would go and boil their heads in a vat of excrement :roll: . They'll say anything to get elected, and do nothing when they are.

_edit_ oh I do like a nice dose of spleen first thing on a Friday morning _/edit_

[peter macdonald]

"There is a precedent for this – or, rather, two precedents: there are the allowances being given to sitting tenants of council houses to purchase their homes at greatly discounted prices"....Stalinism?? I must E Mail Margaret Hilda Thatcher and let her know what you thought of her policies
Its also great to hear Northern ireland has turned in to a centrally planned state within the UK " and there is the situation in Northern Ireland where, admittedly to buy the peace, grants of up to 60 per cent are being given to move people to brand-new private homes."
Now J Wok have you any better ideas to help young folk get on the property ladder ?? especially now when a lot of the council housing stock has deminished?? Your answer will be greatly appreciated by the young folk reading this board
All best PM

[squidge]

The answer to the housing problem is to provide low cost affordable housing to buy and attractive social housing to rent.

My friend has just bought a low cost house. It was available to her for £80,000 but is valued at £137,000. she was able to secure a mortgage and buy it at the fixed lower price because

a - she was on the housing waiting list
b - she was in unsecure private rented accommodation and
c - she is a single parent
d - she could not have afforded a mortgage for a house on the open market.

she does not have to pay rent on the differnece in value but if she sells the house in the next ten years she has to repay £137,000 not £80,000. these houses were only available to those people living and working in Inverness regardless of whether they are " a native of this land". what on earth does that mean.

This is a great scheme but there were something like 16 houses and 350 applicants. There are some great projects for buying houses but not enough for renting. There are few houses for rent being built but this is where the greatest need is. Whilst i beleive that the right to buy is a good one, The refusal of government to use the income generated by council house sales to build more social housing was short sighted and to my mind criminal.

Gordon Campbells ideas will not solve the housing issue in the highlands its a bit like him really strange and slightly dotty...

There is a presentation next week where Susan Torrance, Chief Executive of the Highland Housing Alliance will present a public lecture entitled "The Affordable Housing Crisis in the Highlands". It will take place at the UHI Executive Office, Ness Walk, Inverness from 4.30 to 6.30pm and might be worth a look.

[peter macdonald]

"This is a great scheme but there were something like 16 houses and 350 applicants. There are some great projects for buying houses but not enough for renting. There are few houses for rent being built but this is where the greatest need is. Whilst i beleive that the right to buy is a good one, The refusal of government to use the income generated by council house sales to build more social housing was short sighted and to my mind criminal."
I totally agree with you Squidge .I hope the presention by Susan Torrance gets the coverage in our local paper it would merit as this is subject that will define the future demography of the Highlands...
As for Gordon Campbell ...give the guy his due ....He did at least raise the subject
I look for forward with baited breath to next weeks letters page in the Groat !!!

[j4bberw0ck]

"Stalinism?? I must E Mail Margaret Hilda Thatcher

You can tell her what I think of what she started with the pensions industry and the NHS too, if you like. She may be the nearest thing this country's had to a leader worthy of the name in the past 50 years, but it doesn't mean she walked on water, by any stretch of the imagination.


Now J Wok have you any better ideas to help young folk get on the property ladder ?? especially now when a lot of the council housing stock has deminished?? Your answer will be greatly appreciated by the young folk reading this board Part of the solution is already there in the form of Rural Home Ownership grants and the like (there! That should start a debate!). There is no simple on / off solution for it and believe me when I say I understand it from the young first time buyers viewpoint. (Really, I do. I'm not just pretending I think I do).

Short term, the solution has to be with Housing Associations schemes; as you say, much local authority stock's been sold off. But they don't at the moment build enough property to solve the problem; if they did, then there'd be people whinging about the loss of countryside / habitat etc - see the debate about windmills!

I'd also like to see the Treasury set a zero (or exempt, whichever) VAT rate on property renovation as they do with new builds, making it more attractive for people to renovate old cottages and unused buildings.

Do away with sealed bids and closing dates, and put all houses on the market a fixed price. If you're greedy and think someone will pay lots for it, put on a high fixed price and wait.... that strategy would put the market back in control and drive prices down instead of always seeing them bid up.

Thirty years ago, people in this country believed a number of things we don't believe now. They thought a comedy programme based on the premise that a black family had moved in next door to a working class white family was funny - even funnier when the white character referred to the black character as "Sambo" now and again. They believed that being forced to wear seat belts was terrible, and pointless. They believed that it was fair game to drink and drive. All those views have changed, proving that in time, society can shift perspective.

The housing disease in this country is caused by people believing that property = investment and it only ever goes up in value. The Scottish "offers over" system encourages higher and higher bids when the market's booming, or there's a shortage of property - so people see lots of money being made and want "their share". In Europe (until we exported the disease by trying to buy holiday homes there) property prices were largely stable, year after year because houses were seen as something that keep the weather on the outside, rather than as a pension.

So there's a 30 year program for you - convince people that housing is ludicrously overpriced and should be seen as housing, not pensions.

What we really need is a nice big property crash like we got in the seventies, the eighties and the nineties. It won't come for a while, though, (imho) because we're all so much wealthier than we were then. Yes, I do mean that statement. But it would see that lovely phrase "Offers around" reappear and drive the "I own 4 houses for buy-to-let because it's my pension" brigade to sell quick before they were in negative equity. Young first time buyers would clean up....

[badger]

This problem is not confined to Highland, it applies almost everywhere in the UK but more, obviously, in "desirable" areas. I believe there are three main reasons for this:

People, mainly in London, who earn obscenely high salaries so properties have soared sky high and any first time buyer there would be lucky to get a cupboard. I have no problem with high earners who really do earn their salaries but the gap between rich and poor has grown far too wide and city bonuses are just silly money now.

Removal of mortage limits. Can't remember exactly what they were when I started out but you could only borrow maybe 75% of the house value with repayments tied strictly to income. Now it seems you can borrow more than 100% and no proper checks are made on income and other commitments. The more people can borrow, the higher the prices.

Second homes - these are a real bugbear of mine. Unless people are forced to live many miles from their workplace (like MPs), it's high time second (third and fourth) homes were restricted and penalised. Weekender homes do little for village life and simply push up prices. They should be charged 200% Council Tax. We hear this over and over again, young people being forced away from their families and place of birth because weekenders have made local houses unaffordable.

This is a nationwide problem.