Disquieting information here:
from ever-campaigning Claire Wright. It raises some very serious questions about where the “Success Regime” gets its ” numbers” from.
Well done Councillor Wright for not letting this slip through the net.
A Freedom of Information request needed here, methinks.
£3 billion or £5 billion to be made available to build 25,000 houses by 2020:
“OK Hammond is giving us £3 billion to build 25,000 homes by 2020 – that’s £120,000 per unit, right? So, you know that site we’ve had our eye on in the Home Counties, that we were going to put the £350,000 houses on – let’s just go right ahead and charge £475,000 and claim the subsidy. Right. That’s a £120,000 extra profit for each house. Phil – that looks like a nice little earner for us, can you get Damien to buy them all with those Panama shell companies he set up for us? Sweet!”
Hammond wants to “emphasise” brownfield sites:
“Phil I found a rotten brownfield site – it’s absolute rubbish – literally, built on an old landfill site the council is offering us for £1 – I know, I know – old Bill came up trumps, well worth that deal we did for his daughter. What do you think about slapping up a few ticky-tackies at about £50,000 a pop, claiming the brownfield subsidy of £120,000 each and flogging ’em off fast at a bargain price of, oh, let’s say £250,000? In, out, bosh, bosh, a donation to the party and bob’s my knighthood. Get on to it Phil – and keep a couple back, I hear Bill has a couple of other kids he needs to set up”.
Hammond has also suggested developing derelict shopping centres for housing:
“Now, about Middletown Shopping Centre. Yes, I KNOW it’s fully let, yes I KNOW it’s popular, yes, I KNOW there’s a waiting list for vacancies, yes, I KNOW it’s been a nice little earner for us over the years. But that new Hammond idea is the way to go. So, Damien – cut down the maintenance to bare bones, bung up the bogs and start telling the papers about the terrible drug problems there. Yes, I KNOW there isn’t a drug problem – it’s your job to make sure there is, Damien. … Now how many units can we cram in there with a £120,000 each subsidy. Yes, I KNOW they will have to go 5 miles to shop, but that isn’t my problem. (Starts to sing): “We’re in the money, we’re in the money…”
“Key measures announced today include the launch of a new £3 billion Home Building Fund to help small and “custom” builders deliver 25,500 homes by 2020.
This will be used to unlock a pipe line of up to 200,000 homes over the longer term – with the emphasis on development on brownfield land.”
1. It will not stop land banking or developers dribbling out new houses to keep prices up.
2. Large builders will now create small offshoots to sponge up the money.
3. DEFINITELY no social or truly-affordable houses.
4. So far, no help for low and mid-income people to truly be able to afford deposits and mortgages without the bank of mum and dad.
5. Many of the new homes will probably be buy-to-let.
6. No INSISTENCE on brownfield sites, just am ” emphasis”.
Nice one. Just 25,000 more houses … a drop in the ocean …
An interesting comment, too, below about how MPs act like sheep for their Whips …
” … “Mr Howlett was the only Conservative MP to vote dfor Green MP Caroline Lucas’s bill in support of introducing proportional representation for elections, which she previously tabled as a private members bill.
He suggested that though few Tories supported electoral reform, some MPs appeared to be open to persuasion.
“I know a number of MPs who I spoke to just outside the lobbies who were asking ‘Is this a whipped vote, or not a whipped vote? Oh it’s not a whipped vote, I’m not going to go through.’” They did think ‘you know what, it would be quite interesting to be thinking about that’.”
Mr Howlett also threw his support behind a petition organised by the Make Votes Matter campaign group calling on the Constitution Minister to look at the possibility of changing the voting system.
Labour supported queued around the block at the party’s conference in Liverpool last weekend to hear about proportional representation in what is understood to be the biggest rally in favour of the policy in the party’s recent history.
MPs from across the opposition party’s factions – including John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Chuka Umunna, and Stephen Kinnock threw their weight behind the policy. Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn has yet to decide on the issue, however. …”
East Devon Watch 