Resolution Foundation. Increase Pensioner Tax

[El Cid]

The housing crisis all comes down to the law of supply and demand; when demand exceeds supply, prices go up. The high demand for houses has the same root cause as all this country's social and economic problems-an unsustainable population thanks to decades of uncontrolled immigration.

 

And so the supply and demand system is not working.

 

On average, working people could expect to pay around 7.6 times their annual earnings on purchasing a home in England and Wales in 2016, up from 3.6 times earnings in 1997

 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/bulletins/housingaffordabilityinenglandandwales/1997to2016

 

Instead of encouraging immigration, we should skill the UK population so immigrants are only needed to as lesser extent.

But the main solution would be to get rid of this crazy idea that we can build on brown field sites, year after year.

 

Manchester’s population is growing nearly 15 TIMES faster than homes are being built, new analysis reveals.

 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/property/population-growth-outstrips-new-housing-12652058

[ECCOnoob]

 

Why's it difficult to understand that the real price of houses has increased massively in the last 2 decades?

 

So have wages.

 

There was no such thing as a mandatory minimum wage until the introduction of the act with the first payments not applying until 1 April 1999.

 

Before then you got paid what a company decided you were worth or whatever you could argue from your boss.

 

Even when the Act first came in the hourly rate for an adult was £3.60 compared to todays £7.83.

 

Try £6,200 a year as in line with my first full time job. Compared to national madatory minimum £13,100.

 

Lets not forget that the tax free allowance back then was just £4600 compared to today's £11800.

 

As I keep saying. Its all relative.

[Cyclone]

Graduates certainly can.

 

Can they? Do you know how many graduates end up in zero hours contracts or "the gig economy"? It's very high.

The rise of zero hours contracts has been well documented, yes a small proportion of work like that always existed, but now it's exploited and is not a small proportion.

 

I don't quite understand the vehement denial of the facts.

It's like the slightly older don't want to acknowledge how the game has changed and how it's harder now than it was for them. Are you scared that someone might take it away from you? Or just so selfish that you don't care?

 

And the constant reference to the minimum wage, it's entirely irrelevant, MW doesn't mean that someone can afford to buy a house, so why bother mentioning it.

House prices to average earnings ratio has increased massively. Houses are FAR MORE expensive today than they were in the past, it's not an opinion, it's an objectively measured fact.

 

---------- Post added 08-05-2018 at 21:33 ----------

 

So have wages.

 

Simply not true.

No, it's not relative. REAL house prices, adjusted for inflation have increased.

If you want to argue you're first going to have to actually go and find the facts out, because otherwise you just look like an idiot.

[Longcol]

So have wages.

 

 

No they haven't.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/wages

 

Average wage £300pw in 2000, currently £513pw - nothing like doubled.

[ECCOnoob]

No they haven't.

 

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/wages

 

Average wage £300pw in 2000, currently £513pw - nothing like doubled.

 

Increased by 71% then based on your exampled "average"

[area 51]

Could not agree more.

 

Can't afford the exact house you want in the exact area you want.... tough. Buy something more affordable and keep moving up the ladder when income allows. Its what millions of people for decades past have had to do. Its what I am still doing now.

 

For the record there are still plenty of 3 bedroomed properties in Walkey for signfiicantly less than "£170,000".

 

Yes, CYCLONE may well have bought their house in 2001 for just £55k but back then minimum wage was around £7100 net per annum. Now the same minimum wage is over £13,800 net per annum. An increase of nearly 93%. Its all relative.

 

Besides, if we are talking about suitably qualified graduates with a degree in a desirable and valuable field then they will receive entry level earnings significantly higher than that.

 

Yes, house prices have risen and many areas that were once deemed cheap are now popular raising demand. But, what's new? Supply and demand is not a new concept. Neither is the dramatic rises and eventual crashes of property prices.

 

At the end of the day, nobody is owed a lifestyle.

 

When you finish mandatory education you have a hard but necessary choice. Get a job? Do vocational studies? Do a degree? Pick a career?

 

The outcome of that is down to one person. You make your own way in the world.

 

All this talk of inter generational conflict is absolute nonsense. Just how did these commentators think the majority of the former generation actually get into their so called comfortable positions in the first place.... most of them worked their backsides off in much harsher and less rewarded working conditions than now.

 

Lets go back say 40 years shall we..... No minimum wage, no working time directives, no 'flex working', no shared parental leave, no anti-discrimination or disability protections, no minimum paid leave, no mandatory pension offering.

 

Many of the current generation will benefit from their parents "wealth" when they die anyway. All this crazy scheme seems to achieve is to tax the hell out of the pensioners accumulated assets at source.

 

Lets say the 25s do get their £10k windfall..... Then what? What happens next time they want something but cant quite afford it. Will there be another round of experts screaming how its all so unfair?

 

The solution is simple. Want a house?, want a start up business?, want to get on the ladder in life? Do what every generation before has done.

Get a job and work for it.

 

I really do worry we are developing an ever decaying generation of people who treat university as some automatic passage in life, graduate having never done a proper days work in thier life and then expect to walk into a £30k+ salary, have a car, house and 2 holidays a year by default.

 

The world of social media and modern day television is drumming an unrelentless narrative of rich, unworthy, talentless and narcissistic characters who attact millions of fans by hardly lifting a finger who in turn are desiring to be just like them thinking the world will be handed to them on a plate.

 

Having worked up the hard way (and I must add, shamefully still just within

the boundary of being a so called millenial) I can very clearly tell them life does not work like that.

 

We are fuelling an entire generation of entilement syndrome and it has to stop now.

Good post,totally agree with you,i worked long hours and gave up lots of leisure time to now be in a position of owning my own home with a paid for mortgage and money in the bank.My parents had nothing and they were supposed to be the lucky baby boomers.It takes time,good things come to those who wait.

Edited May 8, 2018 by area 51

[Longcol]

Increased by 71% then based on your exampled "average"

 

And house prices have about trebled in that time.

 

https://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_report.htm?location=sheffield&all=1

 

I've recently retired. Bought our first house for £16.5k in 1987 when I was earning £9k.

 

Salary for same job now about £27k - 3 times as much. Same house now about £170k - 10 times as much.

 

I had it a lot easier than my two lads (early / mid 20's).

[area 51]

And house prices have about trebled in that time.

 

https://www.home.co.uk/guides/house_prices_report.htm?location=sheffield&all=1

 

I've recently retired. Bought our first house for £16.5k in 1987 when I was earning £9k.

 

Salary for same job now about £27k - 3 times as much. Same house now about £170k - 10 times as much.

 

I had it a lot easier than my two lads (early / mid 20's).

 

House prices are too high,i agree with you on that but whats the answer.Increase interest rates,build more houses ,either way they will still be out of the youngs reach.Most new houses and flats soon find their way into the hands of rental investors.

 

---------- Post added 08-05-2018 at 22:10 ----------

 

An alternative route could be to reverse the law introduced by Thatcher that allowed landlords to end rental agreements without a reason instead of the system before where has long as you paid your rent you could stay there indefinitely.That would stop the landlords who want to sell all their properties when they retire to live off the proceeds.I am sure it would free up a lot of affordable properties.I blame a lot of the housing problems on the private rental industry.

[Michael_W]

There are pros and cons for every generation, I would imagine financially very few have ever had it easy, some of course though will always be better off financially than others, but the idea of just handing £10,000 to people of a certain age is as ludicrous as some of the generalisations made about people born at different times over the last 50 years or so.

[Guest makapaka]

Bought my 1st in Wincobank,would have loved to have bought one in Fulwood then but couldn't afford it,likes been said and moved up accordingly until I got the one I wanted.

 

Great what if someone can’t afford a house in wincobank?