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I Don’T Want To Hijack Mikey's Earlier Thread

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Bigbad | 19:06 Tue 10th Nov 2015 | News
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but as the countryside and green belt have been mentioned, I thought I would start a new one as it is a subject that concerns me greatly.

We are constantly being told of the need to build more houses, but where does it stop?
Villages are now becoming towns and suburbs are now ‘joining up’ with cities.

Many of us choose to live in the countryside, and look out of our windows at fields, but will we end up looking at housing developments in the future?

One of the villages I drive through has houses on one side of the road, and fields on the other, but those fields are now being turned into a housing development.
My previous house was chosen because it backed on to a country lane with fields beyond. I believe these fields are also earmarked for development.

Other villages and market towns that I pass through have placards up with things like “say no to more houses in our village”.

So what are the reasons that we need more houses? I do of course, have my own opinions, but will wait and see what others say.
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We don't have a housing shortage. What we have is a people surplus. If we don't do something about that we will end up building on every square foot of land.
19:15 Tue 10th Nov 2015
mikey, whilst you say there's no move for the monied to retire to merthyr, there were more than a few accents in the pub i was in last week that you wouldn't normally associate with that part of the world - the lamb inn at penderyn (hirwaun, just up the road from where tower colliery used to be)
Mush...I haven't been to the Lamb for many years ! The Red Lion around the corner would be my choice.

Not quite Merthyr though !

Actually those accents might have been Polish. There is one of the biggest meat packing plants in the UK, nearby at Dowlais Top, that employs lots of Poles, who have managed to find the jobs that the local unemployed could seem to find.
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I think divebuddy nailed it with the first answer. And yes Mikey, some will “blame immigration for all Britain's ills.” Myself included.
There is a small market town about 4 miles from me. The town is full of Eastern Europeans.
Last year the doctors surgery decided it was over-subscribed, and de-registered people from the surrounding villages. Every time you go into the chemist (located next to the surgery), there is always an immigrant collecting their free prescription, or buying a pregnancy test. The offspring then being born on our NHS as a British citizen.
Yet they STILL continue to build new houses in and around the town. I think it’s safe to assume that if the surgery is over stretched, then so are all the other local services.
I don’t subscribe to the bleeding heart theory that immigration is "good for the country because they do the jobs that the British people don’t want to do, and therefore put money into our economy.”
These scrounging Brits who claim that they are better off on benefits should be MADE to do these jobs, and learn to live within their means like the rest of us have to. It just means they’ll have to save up that little bit longer for the next tattoo or piercing, or get their nails done less often!
That way the tax payer doesn’t have to support them, which CAN only be good for our economy.
^Good post.
Bigbad...this market town near you....why are there so many Eastern Europeans there ?

Could the jobs that they are doing not be done by your own unemployed ?
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Yes Mikey, probably. But read my post properly - particularly the part where I say “These scrounging Brits who claim that they are better off on benefits should be MADE to do these jobs, and learn to live within their means like the rest of us have to.”
You did indeed Bigbad ! My apologies for not crediting you with saying that.
//Actually those accents might have been Polish.//

unlikely. unless benedict cumberbatch has a polish accent.
Well, he has got a Polish name, now you come to mention it, mushroom.
At a time when demand for housing is at a record high, the number of new homes being built is at a record low.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/3B73/production/_84191251_uk_house_building_624v2.gif

Of the record low number of houses, most are the wrong kind. Builders can only make a profit on very expensive new houses, and that is mostly what is being built. There is a hiuge demand for affordable houses, but hardly any are being built.
building more houses to accommodate more people is no answer on its own. these houses need services and although builders are sometimes (but not always) made to upgrade roads, they don't build sewage plants, electric substations or upgrade water mains; they don't build schools, or hospitals, and they don't provide expensive necessities like MRI scanners or Intensive Therapy facilities - nor do they train the staff necessary to operate these facilities. and no, we can't carry on poaching trained staff from less well off nations, that's immoral.

all this costs, and the country is still on its uppers. where's all this extra money coming from?
Sorry Gromit, our fact-based offerings aren't required on this thread.
It's yet another opportunity to give immigrants a good kicking rather than discuss the dreadful state of the UK house-building industry.
Building is again the short term easing of the issue which allows authorities, and indeed the population, to ignore the real issue again for a bit. Have a look at my previous link to show you what that progresses to. Over time this country bit the bullet and faced the underlying issues.
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jackthehat. My offerings are also fact based, as I know the area where I live, and maybe if I did a search, I could offer you a link, but that would mean, I feel, giving out too much personal information. Something I’m not prepared to do. And maybe it has been an opportunity “to give immigrants a good kicking” but the scrounging Brits have had a kicking too!
More people means more houses needed. Where do we draw the line?
When I was younger, anyone that needed a council house could get one. But it seems that now it’s a case of go to the bottom of the list and wait for years.
Yes, I know that a lot of council houses were sold off, and that of course was wrong, but if we took back all the houses that had been sold, would there be enough to go round.? I doubt it.
I'll wager it's not far away from Boston, Lincolnshire
Further to mushroom's post, my town's sewage plant has been putting out a stink since the end of summer. It probably hasn't been upgraded in thirty years, during which time the town has sprouted half a dozen extra housing estates.

I should be writing to my local council about it, insteaf of spending time on here but this never gets touched upon when TV debates talk about the housing crisis and I'm hoping to make the infrastructure side of the argument catch on.

20,000 Syrians is, reputedly, a "piddling" amount but it is still a town twice tge size of where I live and they didn't bring their sewage works with them, so we're going to have to build the equivalent of two market-town sized plants. p.d.q!

I suddenly wonder where Germany's treated water is pumped away to... and really wish I hadn't.

Council houses should be sold to all public to finance build of high storey flats for rent.
Tamborine,

There is an acute shortage of affordable property, so selling off what we have would make the problem far worse.

The Government pays £26BILLION to private landlords through housing benefit. It pays that astronomical amount because there are not enough cheap houses. If a fraction of that money was diverting into building instead of landlords pockets, then we could have plenty of new affordable houses.
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And I wonder Gromit, how much of that 26 Billion goes towards paying for housing for Immigrants.
Gromit, councils own high rise blocks & thereby collect rents. Building more utilises land more effectively for mass occupation, instead of spreading individual houses per family across limited land.

As for private landlords, most are investments properties like any business.

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