Vote Labour rather than UKIP!

[BrilloPad]

Thus the Tories' intention to make a 'northern powerhouse' out of Manchester.

We all know from GOT what happens to 'kings' of the North.

I bet the inhabitants of Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield love that.

[Zero Liability]

You would have to swap the inhabitants of manchester with the inhabitants of warsaw

Or swap it for Edinburgh.

I bet the inhabitants of Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield love that.

Off with their treacherous heads!

It does highlight the issue with artificially creating a second London, though.

[Flashman]

Kid Tells Tristram Hunt he's Voting UKIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_26NfgQOZA

Kids gonna go far.

[d000hg]

I bet the inhabitants of Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield love that.

Birmingham's not the North, and surely already covered by HS2.

[lilelvis2000]

The young don't need to live in London. They certainly don't need to own property there.

The young should get the hell out to places far better than this rock.

[unixman]

Surely the theory is that all markets are self correcting - unless idiots try to meddle?

House prices go up therefore wages have to rise to compensate, when that becomes uneconomic the employers will relocate.

If the employer passes these increases onto consumers, then competing suppliers who have lower employment costs will force them out of the market.

When the workers can't afford to live/commute to an area, then they will relocate.

Seemples

Agreed. Stop absurd London "weigtings" and watch the market correct itself. Your rich, you want a big pad in Hyde park ? Fine, no firemen within 10 miles as they can't afford to live there, now how much is that house worth again?

[DodgyAgent]

Birmingham's not the North, and surely already covered by HS2.

Birmingham is not far north enough

[jamesbrown]

I have to agree with you, though what the unintended consequences will be I do not know. As it is the young who work in London cannot afford to buy paying rent is dead money. Some form of legislation against buy to let must be investigated.

As much as I hate market intervention, this is one market that's clearly fundamentally broken. It's partly a cultural issue; I've lived in a few countries, and the obsession with housing and house prices is a uniquely British one. When you combine that with successive governments, a financial system, and a building/planning system that has strongly incentivised profits from home ownership (CGT exemption) and BTL (tax breaks and mortgage availability) versus other sources of income, it was, and has been, a recipe for disaster. The Tories have exploited this sentiment-driven market through HTB with both superb cunning and cynicism and the resulting credit-led housing boom has undoubtedly both propelled forward the UK economy and pushed it back, structurally. There are plenty of tailwinds left to exhaust before any serious crash is likely (immigration, QE to infinity etc.), but once cheap mortgages exit stage right, there's scope for a monumental calamity.

[BrilloPad]

Birmingham's not the North, and surely already covered by HS2.

They believe they are England's second city though. And will not want to be upstaged by Manchester.

[MicrosoftBob]

They believe they are England's second city though. And will not want to be upstaged by Manchester.

Part of the problem is that transport links, I could to Edinburgh or London by train in the same time I could get to Birmingham