I saw on the news recently that there will be a surge of building work in the south east soon. As I should have a driving licence by the time steam is up to boil there, I might be moving down for it. Anyone know of any likely sites? I just need to hear about the development regions as I have a fair few months to go before I can re-apply.
Soon? Every possible bit of land round here is being covered in housing, and all high density. What I'd love to know is what happens to the houses the people who buy these vacate, given that the population isn't increasing.
You are aware that our government are handing out visas by the thousand to immigrants? In the last 12 months it has been reported elsewhere that they issued 26,000 fast track visas to so-called IT consultants who were in short supply (despite there being 10's of
000's of home-grown IT consultants who haven't worked for a considerable period of time).And just in case you think IT is the only one being affected, be aware (and very worried....) that last week the EU have now offered free access to EU jobs of any nature to countries such as India and elsewhere:
Yes folks, we are building new communities for non-UK workers.
Andrew
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I think that one particular area that will bear the brunt of the new housing will be north-east of London - Herts and Essex, especially around places like Stansted. Compared to the areas around the north, west and south-west of London land and houses are cheap, with a lot of small towns in rural settings. Stansted airport is also earmarked for a large expansion, I believe. There's a lot of protest about this going on, so when building will actually start is anybody's guess.
Another place to look would be the Heathrow T5 development - this is going full steam ahead at the moment (but ISTR that they have discovered archeological artefacts and things there, so dont' know whether this will have halted anything) and I think that there was great demand for people of all trades. Contract rates were rumoured to be high.
But this could all be incorrect - I only know about T5 because it's close to me & local press has stuff in about it, and Stansted because we'd idly considered moving there,before the new housing plans and airport expansion looked as if it might change the nature of the area.
cheers Richard
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
I don't know if the population is not increasing, but certainly people are staying single until later in life, they are changing their partners more (so move out from shared home to separate - even for a short term), and are also divorcing more, which means even older people are becoming single.
Net result? More single people = more housing needed. Previously more couples shared - so less housing. This apparently is one of the biggest long term reasons for more housing - not an increased population.
D
Thank you for the reply.
I'm not in favour of mass building projects either but not like the political dimwits above who have their heads in the sand, I have to earn a living. Having sampled life in the back of beyond as well as life in the city I much prefer to be near a shop when I feel peckish.
When there is enough housing the prices will stabilise or fall until then there is a desperate need, so bad, that people will tie themselves and all their working capitol to unsuitable boxes in unpleasant areas for 3 to 4 decades. I don't think it is a crime against humanity to work my best for the best I can work for, if that will help them in any way. Do you?
I presume you are aware that the government are also handing out taxpayers cash to these people? There was a recent article on the Internet (which I'm afraid I don't have a URL for) which advised that an immigrant came into the UK on a work visa, and because he didn't have the wherewithal to buy anything the UK taxpayer helpfully funded buying him a car so that he could get to work.
Naturally enough the inhabitants in his locality weren't too pleased at the special favours that were being offered to foreign work tourists who have never contributed a single penny to the UK tax system. I don't think I'd be very happy about it either.
Therefore if the above is a true story it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to accept that maybe the government will be happy to fund the purchase of housing for the thousands of work immigrants they are allowing into the country.
Andrew
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I respect others ability to choose their own lifestyle, however before the supermarket and family car came over the horizon the "feeling peckish" syndrom certainly existed. And its solution was to wander down to the farmers kitchen, collecting a couple of eggs from the hen shed on the way. And maybe helping out in the game of converting a pig on four legs to rashers of bacon. Etc.
;)
I hate to think what would happen to our society if a big rock fell out of the sky and destroyed our infrastructure - the human kind has largely forgotten how to fend for itself, and expects to be fed from the Tescos shelves.
Andrew
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Some months back I read an article that stated that at least 25% of households in the US were single-occupier. Here will probably go the same way.
A propos the areas to be developed, I thought the south bank of the Thames along into north kent was to be the first.
However, just where the jobs are to be to support the occupants of these areas is anyones guess. Central London/the City doesn't have the transport infrastructure to handle them.
Or if a fire knocked the power grid for a while, I wonder how quickly things would deteriorate?
Any other rumours you'd like to get off your chest?
Don't know quite what your definition of 'back of beyond' is - presumably outside the M25 or north of the Watford Gap, or similar. I live in Skipton, N.Yorks. A small lively market town with a very good range of shops and amenities, including a 24hr Tescos (for when you feel peckish) and a good renage of restaurants, 15 minute walk/5 minute car journey away. I commute into West Yorkshire on a very modern fleet of Electric Trains, so reliable you could virually set your watch by them. They are comfortable, air conditioned and rarely overcrowded. If you do hanker for something more cosmopolitan, Leeds is about 1 hour by car, slightly quicker on the train. Personally an occasional sortie for Tapas... or Sushi... or a classical concert at Leeds City Hall... or a gadget hunting trip :) is more enough for me.
If you can find work outside the S.East - and I know this is what determines everything - then consider your options, broaden your horizons - you may be pleasantly surprised.
[Yorkshire advertising spiel over ;-) ]P.S. You don't have to live in a shoe box up here either.
I reckon that's spot on. Looking at my peers, I can see that the vast majority that are not married live by themselves. A few have divorced/split up (that's what prolonged commuting to Europe does for relationships...) and now live in separate dwellings.
If you think about the demographic changes that the country has gone through in the last 25 years, if a mere1m more people live as single entities than in 1978 then that would account for the the same demand on housing as an average immigration figure of 40,000 _unconnected individuals_ per year over the whole 25 year period. The former figure is probably vastly lower than actuality, the latter much higher. Immigration is a complete red herring.
cheers Richard
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
>
Nah. ;)
I thought it was far-fetched when I originally read the article, might well have been a racist organisation making the comment, which someone else had linked to.
But under Labour very little surprises me.
Andrew
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Now this I have to take issue with. The type of unemployed IT "consultants" I come across are those who did very well in the late '90s, working mainly for telcos and .com startups, but who have no real skills.
Back in those days you could easily do contractinng at £70-£100ph just by calling yourself an IT consltant and knowing enough jargon to convince your employer that you know more than they do.
I'm not saying that the migrant IT workers will be better or worse - I don't know. What I am saying is that the majority of those tens of thousands of unemployed IT consultants can't get jobs because they can't actually do anything - and not because there aren't enough jobs.
There is *plenty* of work in IT for those who have an identifiable skillset, which meets the needs of the IT industry as it is today
I suspect they are allowing in precisely the number they need to make up for the shortfall in the UK birth rate plus an allowance for the fact that an increasing percentage of our young people appear to be half witted. In my view immigrants are generally better looking and better behaved than us so I don't see them as a threat.
For networking contracts there is still a healthy pool of work at the £350 day rate level. The days of £900 per day 'firewall consultants' have thankfully passed.
Toby.
For those of use who develop embedded products there isn't.
And even at the height rates were rarely above 350 pd.
Tim
I should think it would last a site longer than a plea for resources in a thread like this -which turns into a plaint for times past (which were always sunny and devoid of toil, where a six mile walk before breakfast was the norm (whatever frame of mind one was in at the outset and whatever the weather betimes) and a death by tubercular infection of some kind was not so much a threat but a way of staving off old age) before there are more than two sensible replies.
People are resourceful, have and always will be.
In this case the back of beyond was a medium sized caravan sans plumbing or electricity and gas lighting that required a walk of over a mile for a new bottle every so often; not funny in winter or summer.
Milk was sterilised (ie unpalatable) and the toilet was a polythene bucket. The village was some 200 to 300 hundred souls all told and the job was labouring which was a struggle as I had a problem keeping things fresh for sandwiches etc and the money was always very, very tight.
I now live in Stoke on Trent. The place is excellent but that is because I am white. I am perfectly aware that even the nicest of my neighbours is a founder member of the British Nationalist party at heart.
I have no problem finding work nowadays because there is so much about. However I have just come out of hospital after a bowel resection. I will be unfit for work for several months and as I have no licence I shall be unable to transport my toolkit which is both extensive and heavy.
If and when I get my licence back -which I lost through drunk driving (a complete one off I assure you) I shall buy a van for the security for my kit and to sleep in if I decide to look for work in an area where the pay is astronomical. I should then be able to afford to move back into the back of beyond for the off times, as and when they occur.
If anyone with a full licence and a feeling for second fix joinery would care to party up with me when I am fitter let me know.
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