Tonight's Property Ladder, Channel 4

[IMM]

Oh brainwashed one. Only 7.5% of the land is built on. Too much of it to build to make any impact at all.

[G&M]

He was doing his stuff about five miles from here :-)

[IMM]

Balls! Not everyone wants to live in London. Most people in the UK detest the place.

Balls again. In a rigged land market the situation is different. There is an "artificial" land shortage. Why don't you find out instead of prattling garbage.

More tripe. As soon as those people no longer rely on the city for there living, they get out sharpies to there £700K house.

[G&M]

it can influence - the civil service.

I think it was more down to that episode of Yes Prime Minister when the head of the armed forces refused to move out of London "because how could the wife get to Harrods"

[G&M]

But by moving jobs out of London, demand would drop and prices would be far nearer the amount people with real jobs could afford.

[IMM]

Most of that series was based on fact. The main MOD and government research sites are never more than 1 hour out of London. It is disgusting how centralised the country is.

[Tony Bryer]

Hmm. Roughly one person in 7 (23618/172808: 2001 census) in LB Richmond is over 65. Most will be homeowners and could sell up and buy a very nice place away from London. But for the most part they haven't. Perhaps they realise that as you get older having shops and friends within walking distance and public transport that runs every day of the week beats being stuck in some lonely country cottage.

[IMM]

Those that are outsiders, still yearn for where they came from.

[Chris J Dixon]

Greek actually.

Chris

[Capitol]

They were probably in the IR or the NHS!

Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

We tried that in the 40's and 50's. it did actually work for a while. The policy was destroyed by cheap public transport and cheap rented housing. The only way to make it work now is to drastically increase the London congestion charge, to stop subsidising public transport, privatise it and make people pay the real going rate for transport(airlines?) and all services( the cost of digging up London roads is horrific). When firms can no longer afford to attract workers, they will voluntarily move out of London and the people will follow. We also need to stop paying a London allowance to civil servants etc. The market will soon sort out the problems. Comfortable-NO, will it work YES!

Moving Parliament would also be a good idea, but the featherbedded politicians would fight change, tooth and nail. Regards Capitol

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[Huge]

My thought exactly.

[10 lines snipped]

No. Described as a "New Yorker" in the intro.

[al]

With you on that ... I like living in London because it's got some life. Not some dead-end middle-of-nowhere country place with no restaurants, no pubs, no clubs, no museums, no theatres, no public transport, no nightbus, no open minded people ... etc. etc. etc.

And before I get a raft of people deciding to side with IMM, I do realise that normal, well balanced (and quite skilled DIY'ers!) live outside of London too ;o)

I choose to live in London not because I work here but because I want to. Some people like the quiet life - I don't.

a

[Mike Mitchell]

When the terrorists make London uninhabitable for 1,000 years....

MM

[Owain]

"G&M" wrote | "IMM" wrote | > > When is this government going to decentralise, starting with | > > the thing it can influence - the civil service. | > Great idea. Get all the departments out of London. They started | > in the 1970s but Thatcher stopped it: Social Security at Newcastle, | > DVLA in Swansea, etc. | I think it was more down to that episode of Yes Prime Minister when | the head of the armed forces refused to move out of London "because | how could the wife get to Harrods"

The Scottish Parliament wants to do something similar, but the civil servants want to stay in Edinburgh.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Quite true. The stupid peasnts look at Londom salaries and imagine they will get rich.

Well maybe, if they finally retire to a barn near Manchester, they will be.

But most people in london are simply struggling to pay the mortgage every month.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thats because as a nation we like to have gaps between houses and towns.

It provides places to put teh roads and raliways, walk the dogs, and plant the odd tree.

30% occupancy of land is very high desnity urban stuf.

7.5% is still very very full, when you allow for the huge tracts of land in te UK that are completely isolated and not sutuable for building on at all.

[G&M]

Good move. There's lot of unused old oil rigs in the North Sea !!!!!!

[G&M]

Hmm - good reason to leave the civil servants there for a while longer. And the politicians. And ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yiddishy momma too. By the accent.

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