Petrol Prices :angst:

[TheAnimus]

They've been the least bad of a bad bunch. They started crap but have been trying to address the situation for some time, but others would do an even worse job.

Its all speculation, but i can't see why any others would do worse.

I don't believe immigration has had any affect on house prices - if anything I think it's lowered them.

I'm pretty much on the pro immigration, not just because i'm the demographic who it helps (graduate professional in specalisied industry).

Now how can immigration, or even just a rise in population, ahead of the increase in housing not be directly responsible for a rise in house prices? They have to be linked, i've yet to hear of a study that found they weren't. A young polish family just bought one of the appartments in my building (7 in total) and of course thats great news for us, as its helping keep the price up.

Maintaining your wealth at the expense of others.. yes very Tory. There's plenty of suitable land, but people want to keep their own house prices high so pressure councils into refusing permission. We've only built on 15% of the land in this country.

Or preventing the loss of an important park, i'll pm you my postcode so you can see how much this greenspace means, its where i can unwind on a nice summers evening, play some tennis, lounge on the grass, or lean against a tree. We don't have a garden, so this loverly, well maintined space means a lot to me personally.

But seriously, what would falling house prices do for you personally? Would it really change your quality of life in a major way?

There's plenty of suitable land where I live and where I work, but the Tories prevent people from building on it, and as a result they're supported by the people who already live there.

If it restricted my mortgage options (raised my rate) then it would have a direct impact on my quality of life.

Weren't people just saying we should live nearer where we work (or was that just me?) But now you're saying we should provide better transport so that less wealthy people who are forced out into the sticks can still get to work, burning more fossil fuel and increasing petrol prices?

Be realistic, i earn an above average wage for my age, and my sector, but there is NO way i'd be able to live in salone square, instead i have to go out to zone 4 to get the kind of space i want, for hte money i have. This is normal, i work in a space that would be about 4 square meters. I live in a place thats 80. So its a case of the wealthest can afford to live closest. Its just a numbers thing, and money is the fairest system for deciding this we have.

I don't think we should needlessly encorche onto greenfeild space when we've got so much brownfeild, i think that regeneration should be a key stratergy, not new towns. (when you look at things like water tables, there are already more than enough humans in the south east of england).

[kalniel]

Its all speculation, but i can't see why any others would do worse.

Because they've all come out and stated they are against building more houses. If Labour can't build enough houses when they state they want to, how would other parties do better when they've stated they don't want to?

Now how can immigration, or even just a rise in population, ahead of the increase in housing not be directly responsible for a rise in house prices?

Immigration != rise in population necessarily, and in fact immigrants are far more likely have a higher number of occupants per house. Add in a better labour pool for construction and I think it's pretty clear immigration can lower house price.

Or preventing the loss of an important park, i'll pm you my postcode so you can see how much this greenspace means, its where i can unwind on a nice summers evening, play some tennis, lounge on the grass, or lean against a tree. We don't have a garden, so this loverly, well maintined space means a lot to me personally.

I'm not suggesting concreting parks - where I am is so rural there are hardly any managed parks anyway - we've got vast acres of land all around but the Tories have blocked building on any of it. And it's doubly frustrating because the place I'm currently living was clearly built in a Thatcherite era. For all her sins, she was more aligned with my opinion on housing at least.

If it restricted my mortgage options (raised my rate) then it would have a direct impact on my quality of life.

Why would lowering house prices restrict your mortgage options? Sure, the value of your house is less, but so is the value of everyone else's house. The only time it's a problem is if you want to borrow obscene amounts of money against a high value asset, and I think the credit crunch has proven what a bad idea that is. Lower house prices would (IMO) reduce the scope for people to borrow outside of their means.

I don't think we should needlessly encorche onto greenfeild space when we've got so much brownfeild, i think that regeneration should be a key stratergy, not new towns. (when you look at things like water tables, there are already more than enough humans in the south east of england).

I don't agree about the south east thing - with careful planning you can avoid creating unmanagable problems with the water table. If you build houses with gardens, proper soak away systems, water management systems and so on. I do agree that regeneration is important, but it's simply nowhere near enough by itself - regeneration is in fact the only thing that has managed to get done in my area and we've ended up with tons of one bedroom 'luxury apartments' that no-one wants to buy because some of us would actually like somewhere to have a family! It's not commercially viable to build traditional housing in central areas.

[Sinizter]

Well why not? Let's all move to London. Then we'll see how good the transport system really is

You move to London. Thankfully I am moving out in a couple of months.

[TheAnimus]

Because they've all come out and stated they are against building more houses. If Labour can't build enough houses when they state they want to, how would other parties do better when they've stated they don't want to?

but the question is, why aren't they getting them built in their labour constinutentices whilst they still have them? If these are so wanted, why don't they just build them there? In the same way i personally think cornwall not having 1 mm of motorway, and not even a backbone dual carrageway is directly responsible for them voting Lib Dem who've never been in power to actually build one. No ones going to waste money tarting up a stronghold of the opposition are they?

Not in my back yard isn't always wrong, sometimes its symptomatic of the idea been sound, but the delivery not so.

Immigration != rise in population necessarily, and in fact immigrants are far more likely have a higher number of occupants per house. Add in a better labour pool for construction and I think it's pretty clear immigration can lower house price.

So your saying that 20 polish plumbers and families, are going to be building more houses than they will use? No, no there not, because we're not even letting them build houses if they wanted too. The reason the area of london i live in has shot up in value the last 18 months is due largerly to the polish people settling.

I'm not suggesting concreting parks - where I am is so rural there are hardly any managed parks anyway - we've got vast acres of land all around but the Tories have blocked building on any of it. And it's doubly frustrating because the place I'm currently living was clearly built in a Thatcherite era. For all her sins, she was more aligned with my opinion on housing at least.

Take my parents, one side of the road houses, one side big open feild, full of cows, rolling feilds for about 6 miles, before been intersected by a main road.

Any building on the other side would ruin the view, and that is enough for hte locals to feircely oppose any developement, they will block it.

Why would lowering house prices restrict your mortgage options? Sure, the value of your house is less, but so is the value of everyone else's house. The only time it's a problem is if you want to borrow obscene amounts of money against a high value asset, and I think the credit crunch has proven what a bad idea that is. Lower house prices would (IMO) reduce the scope for people to borrow outside of their means.

for a good mortgage rate, you need to own 75%, 50% will get you some really good deals. If value of home slips, mortgage is more risky (ie money left after a default is going to be less) so your rate goes up. More houses in your area = bad.

I don't agree about the south east thing - with careful planning you can avoid creating unmanagable problems with the water table. If you build houses with gardens, proper soak away systems, water management systems and so on. I do agree that regeneration is important, but it's simply nowhere near enough by itself - regeneration is in fact the only thing that has managed to get done in my area and we've ended up with tons of one bedroom 'luxury apartments' that no-one wants to buy because some of us would actually like somewhere to have a family! It's not commercially viable to build traditional housing in central areas.

Indeed, plenty of the regeneration schemes are crap, just look at manchester piccadilly area, the fact its so cheap, and many are un-sold with horrific standards of building (i considered doing a buy to let there a while back). Thats bad developement, and bad planning, not bad soil. As for water table, i ment that thames and three vally water claim there are too many people, using too much, for their area (and want help building descalinastation plants etc from gov!). Too many people in too smaller area, other cities need to do more to attack people to live there.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

an answer to our prayers? http://gas2.org/2008/07/15/an-air-ca...ed-air-hybrid/

[staffsMike]

an answer to our prayers? http://gas2.org/2008/07/15/an-air-ca...ed-air-hybrid/

Gonna charge for Air now are they?

It's interesting though, have to see if it takes off

I can imagine there will be lots of people driving round at 34mph That noise better not be in the real one sounds worse than an oil burner.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

yup. nomore speeding LOL

[pauldarkside]

no, you'd hyperventilate