Ferdinand

As a Gen-Xer (by one year ?) I think that will be interesting, as that is the Generations that will really feel the pension pressure in terms of workers per pensioner to pay the State Pension. If the Housing supply problem gets towards being sorted - especially in London - (and it could be sorted with appropriate policies), that could release some pressure. To date the politicians are too timid. To my eye they have to either allow the brownfield parts of the greenbelt to be developed out to the M25, select an area (which means a big low density Council Estate) and develop it like Singapore (I mean 1000-2000 acres and densities of double the Barbican - perfectly normal elsewhere in teh world), or find space for another 5-10 Milton Keynes type garden cities. The Oxford to Cambridge corridor *may* be significant. Ferdinand

Very true. I may comment more when I have seen the whole thing, and comment on whether the stuff they document is actually legal, or how borderline it is. Current experience is that LLs walking the boundaries of legality or tax law are going down in droves. And there are plenty of get rich quick merchants selling get rich quick schemes. "Rent to rent" is one, where you rent a house to a middleman who turns it into a stack 'em and pack 'em HMO to get treble the income, and give you a wreck back later. But Councils do not really enforce against illegal HMOs run by criminal landlords, at least in England. Some of the 250m-400m or so raised from tenants by LL Licensing Fees should go to that. F

Quite revealing as to the depth of research, or lack of it. The first chap (46, 25 year property career) seems quite reputable ... upgrading his houses, trading in property with HAs etc. This statement in the commentary at 07:30 is a Black Lie or a sign of Olympic Quality stupidity. “40% of Council Built Properties are now owned by Private Landlords” Council Homes built are in toto roughly 7 million. Of which 2 million have been sold under Right to Buy. The 40% owned by Private LLs (no idea how many are the people who bought the house) is of the 2 million not the 7 million, and the soft voice commentary implies that there are 3 million of them not 800k. They are stoking up hatred and confusing the debate in that multiple. Suspect they have limited their research to the Google snippet for that question, which for some reason points to a misleading Independent article here, which says things like this in an article about the PRS: "There are now just 2 million council homes left in Britain – down from 6.5 million when Right to Buy was introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980, although a number of factors are behind the fall." whilst forgetting to mention at all that millions have been moved to Registered Social Providers, hugely exaggerating the impact of the PRS. Judging by what I have seen so far, it is a complete cesspit of a programme. F

It may have been an old washer some time ago when I did this scientific study. Like decades. ? I'm going back to talking about socks. Need to find some odd ones for tomorrow. "Ask, seek, sock".

In my limited experience if I feel up my trousers after a bit on the clothes horse the dampness migrates with gravity -- downwards. But I suspect neither of us is going to the guillotine for our views on this existential question. ?

Whilst I agree with your general argument Jeremy, I think you will find cheap homes in ex-industrial areas - but you will not find huge numbers of Empty Homes. The UK's addressing of Empty Homes has been very good in most respects, compared to any other major country in Europe. Currently in England we only have a little over 200k "long term empties" (meaning 6 months or more), which is about 0.7%. It's a bit of a triumph, though orgs talking up housing crises don't usually say so. The numbers - both long and short term, have been reduced by about a third over 10-15 years and kept down. What it means is that we are relatively tight compared to elsewhere. I am not sure how far it can be taken below that. This is a Guardian Graphic from a piece in 2014 about Empties across Europe, using EU stats (explains why Merkel could take a million refugees): And here is a piece from Spring 2019, pointing out that there are 216k empties in the England. Another piece here from Sept. (Obvs being the Guardian one of them is written by a person who's numerical qualification is a Fine Arts Degree ? ). There is a category error over time as the first 700k number is all of them (UK), whilst the 216k is England and Long Term ie empty for 6 months. This was a million or so in 2005. Also Scotland is some way behind England on this issue - now doing it, but is overall not a huge number on the stats as England is 85%+ of the UK in pop. (Certainly in our area of the Midlands the market has hardened quite a bit in the last 12-18 months. Talking to my friendly Estate Agents whilst out for a walking lunch yesterday they are getting closer to asking prices than they were, and asking prices are up by 5-7% in 12-24 months - big change here which has been nearly flat for about 15 years with a couple of blips. I trust these particular EAs more to be candid than typical since I have bought a couple of houses from each of them over the last few years, and they know I can and will check as it is all published.) The fount of stats on this subject is Action on Empty Homes and the ONS Licve Tables, who monitor down to tenure stats for each LA area. Personally I am optimistic on HS2 - I think for this area it will really help as times to London will go under 2 hours from about 3 (that might be door to door numbers), which crosses a threshold and makes it a less-than-a-day trip so eg bosses get a couple of hours at work the same day. We get integrated. One interesting stat is that even the current West Coast Main Line upgrade (the Blair 9bn one) achieved a 20% modal shift from air to rail on the Glasgow route - 500k passengers a year. That is why I think Green policy will make HS2 link to Scotland in time. I see HS2 / HS3 / Electric to South Wales etc as just basic plumbing for a 21C economy. Got quite cross because my newly minted Tory ex-Lab MP seems to think it is either HS2 OR Rural Bus Services. Twat. Ferdinand

I would think that would lengthen the time since the water will move to the slowest drying part, which is the waistband.

When you are doing sealant you must have one of these or similar https://www.toppstiles.co.uk/fixing-finishing/silicone/topps-tiles-sealant-finishing-tools

It would help to see a picture of where you are going to put them, with the area indicated. Ferdinand

There are different categories of homeless. On the one hand there are rough sleepers eg on benches, doorways, subways etc as you highlight. That is relatively easy to address with relatively few resources - eg the Tory Governments from about 1990 onwards ran the programme called the Rough Sleepers Initiative which reduced rough sleeping in London by around 70%, at a cost of around 30m a year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_Sleepers_Initiative New Labour repeated the trick across the country in a very few years from 1997 on. IMO the current series of Tory Govts are guilty of unforgiveable neglect of this issue - rough sleeping has gone up again very significantly - yet it is relatively inexpensive and well known how to deal with it. Then there is "sofa surfing" type homelessness - people who cannot afford or cannot find housing. This requires more affordability or housing supply, or denser occupation. Then there is "temporary accommodation" type homelessness - eg people in B&B. This is a matter of people with a right to Social Housing not having supply available. Then there are "Council waiting lists", which is really a measure of people who aspire to less expensive housing rather than homelessness. There are background factors such as average household size have fallen significantly eg couples living apart, and others. And also the one @SteamyTea highlights of accommodation being used as second homes or holiday lets. Will comment on this separately. The are Private Rental Sector issues with the conduct of Councils, but as that is a hobbyhorse for me I will leave it alone here. Ferdinand

Just imagine if I was Jake the Peg and had three different colours. I would have to buy my socks in triplicate like Planning Forms.

I actually had matching green one next to the pink one this morning, but decided life was too short to be boring. I do but they are reserved for walking backwards.

There would also be a massive increase in ‘homeless’, since rentals in both social and private sectors are roughly 100% occupied whilst half of Owner Occupied houses are actually under occupied. Move a million houses from rental to OO, and you create half a million people needing a new house. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817036/FA1422_overcrowding_and_under-occupation_by_tenure.xlsx Ferdinand

Real obsessives will be satisfied today as magenta and green are complementary colours.

Is that not a reference to capital gain rather than rental, although there arecth8ngs such as the tax free lodgers allowance which sensibly encourage exactly personal housing as income supplementing. Clearly a rental sector is necessary as .. leaving aside voluntary renters for jobs, not wanting the biter of maintaining etc ... there are around 12m people with impaired credit who would struggle to buy even if it was affordable. Ferdinand

If it can’t be seen I don’t worry about it. Irritates “all screw heads aligned” people in “shoes off” houses. ? Ferdinand

I have socks which are generally all the same above the foot, even though they may have different colours on the toes :-). Or at least only a couple of versions. Rather like the slight advantage of a dust-coloured car.

Yes. IMO. The Cabinet Level Ministers - bosses of the above - are as bad.

I bought one of these stainless drying racks for £30, which seems great. Just fits in the shower cubicle or the bit of space outside the cubicle. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071K5FQYN/ F

Can you swing the other way and use it as eg garage, workshop or basement? 3m could be a nice gym if you avoid certain equipment. Or you could dig it out even more to have rings? .

Thanks all. So I am in the ballpark with my times. And the thing to watch is to set it up in the morning when the Waschmaschine has run with the morning solar, to be clear for the next morning. F

There is always a silver lining. I make that about 50 bottles of beer per sqm, if you can reach it all from the ladder with a system of trolleys. Or Scalextric AND Beer. YES !!! (Yes. I know ... weird measurement. But it is better than the BBC measuring Madagascar in blasted football pitches.)

I assume then that it is structural. What are your plans for the wall upstairs? If it is staying you will need a new support of some type of course. is the building listed? And a plan and some photos would help. Ferdinand

And to be fair, I still have to strip half the beds from Christmas visitors. And I am planning to move the tumble dryer to be directly next to the washer - just like yours. That will create space for a second dishwasher. More seriously, I do have more time at present as I have lost my caring responsibilities, and am trying to get back into the swing of maintaining a more extensive network of friends, looking for volunteering opportunities and membership groups etc. Potentially quite a creative time.

I think the sore thumb is that the vast majority of pension tax relief money goes to higher rate taxpayers, whilst they want it to benefit lower income groups. I think I would support an adjustment - now sure how far. And because it is already capped quite aggressively (40k max, relief lost over 150k income iirc) there is probably space for a somewhat gradual adjustment. Pros and cons need careful consideration, though. But I think we have a budget coming with significant changes. Ferdinand