Housing and the General Election
Promises, Promises...
Can they deliver?
The two main parties have set out rival plans to tackle the housing shortage
🏠 They’re promising to “help millions of people into home ownership"
✅ 1m new homes at least over the next 5 years to include...
🏠 250,000 affordable homes
✅ ‘First Home’ scheme - 30% discount for FTBs in their local area
🏠 Lifetime fixed rate mortgages/deposit 5% to help renters onto property ladder
✅ Right To Buy A Share allowing those in new housing association homes to buy stakes in their home
🏠 Lifetime Rental Deposits so renters don’t have to save for new deposit whilst money's tied up in the old one
✅ End no-fault evictions
✅ They’re promising a “housing revolution….with council housing at its heart"
🏠 1m new homes at least over the next 10 years to include….
✅ 100,000 new council/social homes per year
🏠 50,000 "genuinely affordable” housing association homes per year, price linked to local incomes
✅ Suspend Right to Buy scheme to stem the loss of existing social housing
🏠 Councils will have ‘a duty’ to build homes
✅ Council and Housing Associations given new borrowing freedom
🏠 Cities get the power to impose rent caps
How realistic are the housebuilding pledges?
New homes target is do-able
We need around We got
250,000 ➡️ 241,000
new homes each year last year
Affordable/social homes target more tricky
We need around We got
145,000 ➡️ 57,485
each year last year
Who’s going to build them?
There’s a severe shortage of bricklayers/carpenters/electricians/plumbers
Happy 25th birthday, National Lottery
What winners spent their millions on
25 winners from each year of the lottery’s life had a big party to celebrate
The line-up included 84
year old Brian Caswell
who won £24.9m in 2009
Brian used some of his winnings to
save his life; he had an emergency
quadruple heart bypass and paid
to go private.
Cheryl Brudenell used part of her
£916,915 winnings for her “Robbie Hobby”;
she’s watched singer Robbie Williams
perform around 40 times across the world
Jamie Heavens was just 22 when he won his million. He was in a pay queue at a petrol station. A guy in front bought the same scratch card Jamie always bought.A few minutes later, Jamie had that guy in front to thank for the fact he held a winning card in his hand.
After a couple of early extravagancies
(a car and a wedding), Jamie says he’s pretty sensible with the cash.
He owns a couple of properties, helped out some friends and family.
He’s still got his job as a roofer in Bournemouth, and his mates still buy him a beer.
Money mine in mining village
£2000 wads of £20 notes keep turning up
Bundles containing thousands of pounds in cash keep turning up on the streets of Blackhall Colliery, County Durham
They’re left in plain sight
There’ve been 4 this year, the latest discovery was last week
Since 2014, 13 have been handed to Police by the finders
The owner has 2 weeks to collect the cash
It is then returned to the finder if not claimed, according to the Police
Can finders be keepers, what’s the law?
Technically, you’re guilty of
‘theft by finding’
if you don’t hand it in,
or try to find the owner
The money can be yours say Police,
after a period of time
But if the ££ proves to be from money
laundering, you won’t get it
TSB customers vow to quit the bank
Latest IT meltdown leaves wages unpaid for thousands
Thousands of salaries failed to make it into TSB accounts last week because of another IT shutdown at the bank
Bad timing for TSB
It happened last Friday, when people were….
1. expecting wages
2. trying to pay rent
On top of which….
Earlier in the week, the bank was slammed in an independent report by law firm Slaughter and May. The report looked at last year’s mega meltdown which left millions unable to get into their accounts.
The report highlighted…
😔 Inadequate preparation for a major IT upgrade by it’s Spanish IT firm
😔 Customer confidence is waning
😔 Furious customers were unable to get through to TSB
😔 Those that did, were asked if they could borrow money from friends/family
Many took to Twitter to complain about the latest fiasco saying …
"they’d had enough" "time to ditch and switch"
Gareth Shaw, Head of Money at Which? said
“It’s beyond belief that customers have experienced more problems as a result of yet another IT glitch from TSB, hot on the heels of a damning report into the bank’s system failure last year?"
Consumer organisations are calling for legislation that protects access to cash when technology fails
Banks: weekly IT shutdown rate - Is yours on the list?
See here: https://bit.ly/37B8RAh