Looks Like Boy George Has The Right Idea....

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

[fiction-factory]

^Words got moved around there;
finding suitable land is problem

[mikey4444]

FF...if we had plenty of money that we could build houses, new hospitals, new schools, etc, etc as well as new railways.

But we don't have unlimited funds, so we have to choose wisely. I have yet to see a compelling reason why HS2 should be built.

What we need is plenty of new, affordable housing, mainly to rent at reasonable rates. There doesn't seem to much of a problem finding land and money to build houses that only a minority of people can afford to buy.

I have said this many times on AB but a concerted effort to build new council houses, that can't be sold-on at inflated rates is the way to go.
This would provide not only desperately needed homes, but employment for 10,000's of building workers, as well as giving a much needed boost to our construction industry. People in work pay taxes !

[youngmafbog]

Well surely that is down to local councils Mickey. Bournemouth council (tory) has recently built a load, how many labour councils have done the same?

[naomi24]

The Conservative councils in this area are busy building houses too - vast swathes of them in some places.

[retrocop]

//but employment for 10,000's of building workers, as well as giving a much needed boost to our construction industry//.

How many of these building workers be British mikey.? As an aside. My BI.L in Manchester is still out of his recently built house in Manchester due to flooding on Boxing Day in Manchester. He is in a rented flat still. He informs us that the building industry can hardly find bricks in the UK at the moment. It seems no one is making them!!

[mikey4444]

The answer is ymb, is that I don't know ! The initiative should come from central Government, to encourage local Councils.

But the housing crisis isn't really a party-political issue....consecutive Governments, of every hue, have done very little to undo the damage done by the right-to-buy schemes. Council house building after the War was a great success, so I can't really see that it couldn't be done again, if only the political will was there.

[retrocop]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11565540/UK-brick-shortage-will-prolong-housing-crisis.html

The report is just over 12months old but still stands true apparently.

[mikey4444]

Retro...well, if we had a Government initiative and commitment to build more affordable houses, then the brick-making industry could be re-born again, along with all the other providers of materials !

Houses are not built out some of vanishing resource, like helium you know....its just ordinary bricks and mortar. ( and concrete and wood, etc )

We seem to be able to afford to send huge sums of money for temporary accommodation and housing benefit, but can't find the money to build houses, which would provide a permanent solution to the housing crisis.

Building more houses is the ONLY way forward....anything else is just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

[retrocop]

mikey
Too right. Far too long we have been sending housing materials and £billions to countries abroad who don't need our money to build housing. You have now realised at long last we are in greater need for ourselves. Well done.

[naomi24]

^I'll second that.

[mikey4444]

Retro...glad to see that we agree that we should be building more council houses !

[retrocop]

Yes. In the UK for those born here. I don't want council houses being built in Accra or wherever!!

[baza]

Our local brickworks ( Hanson ) closed down and levelled, 147 new homes are now being built on the site. Permission is now being sought to build a further 50. The developers have just discovered that the infrastructure cannot cope .

[mikey4444]

Making bricks isn't rocket science Baza....open another bloody brickworks up then !

Most new houses are not made entirely from bricks anyway...most are timber -framed and clad in brick or concrete.

Lets not get carried away here.....if we had the political will, we would find some ruddy bricks.

[baza]

mikey, I know anyone can make bricks, I was pointing out that the brickworks became a brownfield site, the developers jumped in for a quick buck without looking at the bigger picture.

[mikey4444]

Baza...that will down to "market forces" then I expect !

[retrocop]

mikey
I love your instant fixit solutions. Really quite remarkable and yet rash.
Money to buy land. To build factory and kilns. Investors. Skilled workforce to be found or trained. Raw materials to be quarried. Suitable clay pits still workable in the UK or needs to import same.!!
It ain't an instant fix and Rome wasn't built in a day. Both my sons are in their mid 40s and would of liked a council flat/house to move into. That would be in the Blair/Brown era??
Do you ever look at the wider picture?

[mikey4444]

Retro...perhaps the reason that your sons were not able to have a council house is because the previous Tory government encouraged councils to sell off all their council houses, but prevented them from using the money raised in the sales to build replacement housing ?

[retrocop]

//Making bricks isn't rocket science Baza//

No mikey but it is a Science nethertheless. We are not talking mud hut daub here.

http://www.fao.org/docrep/S1250E/S1250E07.htm

Of course you already knew that really didn't you?

[retrocop]

Most council accommodation still existing in most areas of the UK are handed to immigrants and asylum seekers. Those immigrants trawled by Labour. My sons couldn't get council accommodation on the Island of Barra!! Come to that neither could the natives now!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3366575/Senseless-Syrian-refugees-foisted-remote-Scottish-island-high-unemployment-poverty-given-perks-locals-don-t-enjoy.html