Giving unemployed Britons “new hope and responsibility” by Cameron

[MicrosoftBob]

Housing benefit has certainly distorted the rental market. Perhaps they should be taking a harder look at that. The trouble is of course that reducing it considerably will have a knock on effect on house prices and no government wants to cause that.

It would probably be cheaper to start building council houses again

[Jog On]

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ZG for President!

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WHS

[doodab]

It would probably be cheaper to start building council houses again

You would be surprised how much housing benefit is paid out to people living in what used to be council houses.

Still, selling them off along with the state owned utilities paid for St Margaret to bribe us all with tax cuts so it can't be all bad.

[vetran]

It would probably be cheaper to start building council houses again

do you know how much a council house costs to run? The TCO is probably ruinous which is why all the council housing moved to housing associations.

We could free up Council houses by raising the rents and increasing the means tested housing benefit meaning that as renters get richer they are encouraged out of council houses (see Bob Crowe) currently a council house tenancy can be as profitable as a lottery win.

[SpontaneousOrder]

I wonder if what we need is a dose of rent control.

Why? Rent control makes it worse. Availability falls as does quality. If you happen to have a home when rent control is introduced it's not so bad, but it makes it worse for every other person who isn't already in a rent controlled house.


If you want to fix house prices then let banks fail. Simples.

[VectraMan]

Why? Rent control makes it worse. Availability falls as does quality. If you happen to have a home when rent control is introduced it's not so bad, but it makes it worse for every other person who isn't already in a rent controlled house.

If availability falls because all the BTL'ers are now selling up, then property prices fall and a lot of those tenants can now afford to buy. High availability is a bit pointless if the people that need it can't afford it.

The point was to stop large amounts of tax payers' money pouring into the hands of private landlords in the form of housing benefit, which certainly doesn't help the people it purports to.

If you want to fix house prices then let banks fail. Simples.

Fair point. But then we'd have no banking system and personally I think bartering for everything would get tedious.

[AtW]

I see this rather frequently with my esteemed customers.

It's never their problem, it's always mine.

Until I give them a swift reality check.

You work in a prison, right?

[original PM]

FTFY.

In fact, we could make a film of it all entitled "A New Hope".

Who wants to be Darth Vader?

whichever poster has the worst asthma!??

[Zero Liability]

If availability falls because all the BTL'ers are now selling up, then property prices fall and a lot of those tenants can now afford to buy. High availability is a bit pointless if the people that need it can't afford it.

The point was to stop large amounts of tax payers' money pouring into the hands of private landlords in the form of housing benefit, which certainly doesn't help the people it purports to.



Fair point. But then we'd have no banking system and personally I think bartering for everything would get tedious.

I don't think that necessarily follows. This is what the bankers are inclined to claim, but what's the evidence for it? Who is to say more competent institutions would not take control of their assets? The problem is a lot of the debt they issued and hold is junk. The system does require a 'reset', which will entail a recognition that said junk is junk. Either way, the supply of property is the issue, as is trying to 'resuscitate' it through schemes like H2B etc.

If the central banks lose control of the current monetary situation, they may have to force the banks to take huge losses (by increasing their reserve ratios), or risk uncomfortable levels of inflation, amidst a number of possible scenarios.

That's the problem with tinkering with a somewhat free market, it doesn't always do what you'd like it to, especially when global forces come into play.

FTFY