Politics and Housebuilding

Everyone knows that almost nowhere in the UK can first time buyers afford any kind of property without selling a kidney. Property prices keep on rising, show no signs of weakening and are unlikely to be controllable by normal inflation / monetary policy. Or at least not without severe interest rate rises which would wreck the rest of the economy.

So the answer is politics and proper land utilisation strategies.

Some ideas for an "agenda for change"

Empower the individual

Make land available to the individual first, encourage either individual or collective house building. Create an organisation like "business link" for house buyers. they can hold central databases of land plots and link finance and builders with the consumers. The costs would be lower as you wouldnt have to line expensive agents pockets. Plus it would make it easier for individual plots to be used rather than the large estates currently built.

Empower local government

Allow local government to compulsory purchase land for residential development. This stops fat cat land owners holding onto land to maximise profit.

Encourage expansions of villages into new towns alongside existing transport infrastructure.

This would revitalise villages because new residential development could make village shops, pubs and post offices viable again. It also makes sense as many existing towns have become urban sprawls. If you pick villages close to existing main road and rail links you minimise the impact on the environment.

Move as many government departments away from the south east as possible.

See the met office move from Bracknell to Exeter as an example. This relieves the upward pressure on housing prices in the South East.

Empower local government to take over empty / derelict housing.
Again developers and landlords like to hold onto empty housing. Local government should be given powers and instructions to seize and reuse such housing. Consideration would also be given to re-using industrial, commercial premises. i.e some warehouses could be converted to flats etc.

Ambushed at noon; Why do birds fall in love

I had a meeting at work on Thurs which had been advertised as a strictly operational meeting dealing with nuts and bolts issues with the idea that we could go for best practice with a meeting of minds.

Then the ambush happened, the manager’s came out of no where bringing politics and management interviews. They all thought they knew better than the operational staff and made comments that led me to believe they had no great opinion of the operations staff. I stuck my neck out and got ambushed at twenty to one odds. Needless to say I spent most of Friday fuming about management who had ruined what could have been a great meeting.

Although every cloud has a silver lining. At the meeting I met a charming, intelligent woman. Obviously I was too busy verbally sparring with the evil empire to notice that I fancied her rotten. Having thought about it I now get the butterflies when thinking about her and have been daydreaming about her ever since. Why do I always fall for people at the drop of the hat? Plus why am I so useless at knowing if I should make further moves and what those might be.

So for a meeting of a few hours quite a lot happened which could have an impact on my future, I just have to take this weekend to work out what I should do.