Boats Among Only Affordable Homes

[Lady Muck]

Thing is, most of London is prime real estate now. It's now £500,000 for a house near where the riots began in Tottenham. Because of this, ordinary people cannot afford to live where they grew up. Such a contrast to where I'm from where the great majority don't move away.

I can't imagine what its like if you have a young family, no support network nearby. Not everyone wants to leave their hometown do they? But London forces this on you whether you like it or not.

My partners family was mostly in Camden and Islington. Ok half the family are incredibly wealthy (auntie lives in an actual manor house in Islington), but most are not and have had to move away. When I met him indoors he'd left the family home in Islington and moved to a dump of a flat in Lower Clapton. In 2001 that flat (1 bedroom garden flat in a Victorian Terrace) was £600 a month. Now you can expect to pay £1400. A room in Hackney Wick is £700 a month.

[John V]

The ability to remain in the area where you were born and grew up has never been a "right". The history of my family, like that of most other families, is a history of migration, following work or homes as needed. I was forced to move from the country town where I was brought up to an urban area as it was impossible for me to have ever afforded a mortgage for a property there. 40 years ago cheap properties were in areas like East London. My parents were forced to move from the North to the South for work, my grandparents moved to Tyneside from Cumbria and Norfolk to find work......and so on. The expectation to remain living where you would wish to is unrealistic for most of us.

[cuthound]

There are some for not much more than that, but they're in TfL Zones 5 or 6. Zone 1 is triple that or more, going by some recent auction results. Engineers Wharf has vacancies, and the auctions there, when anybody actually bid, ended at just under £6000 per year. Not quite £350 a month, but if you already own a boat, much, much less than renting a studio flat a few hundred metres away.

Until we moved to Staffordshire, I used to live on the zone 5 & 6 borders. My neighbour used to let one bedroom out, Monday to Friday to "satellite workers" for £400 per month.

[John Williamson 1955]

That's now about the going rate for a single room in Hayes, about £700 for a twin/ double. £900 for a studio flat.

[Lady Muck]

Oof and then on top of that a travelcard. Nightmare. Thankfully I dont need to commute, have been into West End once this month. Once our mooring goes up to unaffordable, we will go to the darkside. Looking forward to it, actually.

[Guest]

Proof that the housing market is not just broken but utterly smashed to little pieces.

True, and deliberately so.

[cotswoldsman]

Oof and then on top of that a travelcard. Nightmare. Thankfully I dont need to commute, have been into West End once this month. Once our mooring goes up to unaffordable, we will go to the darkside. Looking forward to it, actually.

And you will be welcomed on the dark side

[Alan de Enfield]

Once our mooring goes up to unaffordable, we will go to the darkside. Looking forward to it, actually.

 

Will you really leave CWF and join Narrowboatworld ?

[Lady Muck]

Anyway, back on topic, kind of - £250 would once have been enough to rent a room. No more, now you either share or consider something like this:

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/short-term-rent/tiny-boat-for-rent/1112814648

 

ETA: at least it has electric, there was a chancer trying to rent one same price with no electrics or engine, last summer. I think Starcoaster wrote an article about someone renting a boat like this.

Edited April 30, 2015 by Lady Muck

[Richard10002]

According to Shelters calculator, I can't afford to live in most of the country... £100k deposit, £500 per month mortgage, 4 bedrooms.

 

Surprisingly, I live in one of the areas that they calculate I can afford. It isn't particularly near where I grew up, but I don't care a jot.

 

Do Gooders keep talking about how bad it is that people can't afford to live in the village/area where they grew up, but when did God/life give us the right to live where we want.

 

I live in the kind of house that I want, in an area that I can afford. I kind of expect others to do the same.

 

If you can't afford to live in Campden Town, (or wherever), you move to somewhere you can afford, which might be just down the road from me in Manchester, or that other undesirable place, Birmingham, etc..

 

It's fine to aspire to what you might consider to be better, but it is for you to make it happen.

 

I never understood the right to be able to buy a house, nor the right to live where you want - it's been spun out of all proportion!

 

As for living on a boat... They will be complaining that there is no security of tenure of the mooring, no one to empty the cassette when it's full, and no one to make sure the power stays on and the batteries are charged.

 

Shelter do a good job, but as soon as they spin the political angle, they lose me.

[Phil Ambrose]

The ability to remain in the area where you were born and grew up has never been a "right". The history of my family, like that of most other families, is a history of migration, following work or homes as needed. I was forced to move from the country town where I was brought up to an urban area as it was impossible for me to have ever afforded a mortgage for a property there. 40 years ago cheap properties were in areas like East London. My parents were forced to move from the North to the South for work, my grandparents moved to Tyneside from Cumbria and Norfolk to find work......and so on. The expectation to remain living where you would wish to is unrealistic for most of us.

My story is similar to John's and the moves kept coming, I moved from London to Lincs, my Bro ditto to north of Rochdale only my Sis remains. All of my cousins are scattered around the country and as for nieces and nephews, well the world beckoned.

Phil

[Lady Muck]

Most of my schoolmates are still in my hometown. My dad lives about 300 yards from where he was born, not moving from your hometown is the norm where I'm from. My mum is from that town. People only seem to leave to persue a career that they couldn't do if they stayed. My brothers both moved back after studying. .

 

Out of my form class just two of us have left the town.

 

I didn't make any comments about rights, so don't know where that comes from?

 

My partners brother has just had to relocate to Essex. His wife broke her back and she needs to be near her parents so they can have the kids when she does physio sessions. This is what I meant about support networks. Thankfully he has a degree and a good job so they bought a house with little difficulty.

 

I think all of us on this thread are very fortunate, we are lucky we were not born thick and working several part time minimum wage cleaning jobs. No amount of hard work in a job like that will get you anywhere anymore, things have become so skewed in favour of the fortunate. Its a lie to say hard work will make you rich, it doesn't necessarily, it depends how priviledged you are in the first place. I am very very lucky to have a talent for designing that people are willing to pay for. I could work anywhere. Not the case for others and I don't see why they should be treated like this because they were dealt a bad hand in life. Rights don't interest me, but a bit of kindness wouldn't go amiss.

 

Anyway, I reckon London is going to be a very boring place to be if things continue, glass, steel, everyone in banking and all the pubs turned into flats. If it ends up that way they are very welcome to it.

[Sabcat]

Social cleansing is a very real thing in London.

 

As for the comment that living where you're born isn't a right, it bloody well should be. Connections, support networks are not only desirable, they're necessary. Without them, if a person is forced to move, perhaps more than once, it turns them into bitter people and we end up with the kind of misanthropy we see on this thread.

[GUMPY]

40 years ago I couldn't afford to live where I grew up in North London so had to move out 50miles.

Moved onto the boat 25 years ago and now I can't afford to live where I did 40 years ago.

Its nothing new and doesn't just affect the young.

[Alan de Enfield]

Lincolnshire folk don't tend to move from their birth village - hence the 'pointy' heads, webbed feet and extra fingers.

[mayalld]

The ability to remain in the area where you were born and grew up has never been a "right".

 

 

Well, historically, it was rather more of an obligation.

[Guest]

Most of my schoolmates are still in my hometown. My dad lives about 300 yards from where he was born, not moving from your hometown is the norm where I'm from. My mum is from that town. People only seem to leave to persue a career that they couldn't do if they stayed. My brothers both moved back after studying. .

 

Out of my form class just two of us have left the town.

 

I didn't make any comments about rights, so don't know where that comes from?

 

My partners brother has just had to relocate to Essex. His wife broke her back and she needs to be near her parents so they can have the kids when she does physio sessions. This is what I meant about support networks. Thankfully he has a degree and a good job so they bought a house with little difficulty.

 

I think all of us on this thread are very fortunate, we are lucky we were not born thick and working several part time minimum wage cleaning jobs. No amount of hard work in a job like that will get you anywhere anymore, things have become so skewed in favour of the fortunate. Its a lie to say hard work will make you rich, it doesn't necessarily, it depends how priviledged you are in the first place. I am very very lucky to have a talent for designing that people are willing to pay for. I could work anywhere. Not the case for others and I don't see why they should be treated like this because they were dealt a bad hand in life. Rights don't interest me, but a bit of kindness wouldn't go amiss.

 

Anyway, I reckon London is going to be a very boring place to be if things continue, glass, steel, everyone in banking and all the pubs turned into flats. If it ends up that way they are very welcome to it.

 

Sorry but I take issue with that particular comment because its a sweeping generalisation.

 

My daughters partner took on a part time job working as a hospital cleaner at just about the NMW, stuck at it even though he didnt enjoy the job very much at all, got himself known and was able to then to apply for a job in the hospital CSSD department and then a theatre porters job, the latter two jobs were fixed term but it got him known further built up an employment record on his CV and is now working as a care assistant in a secure hospital facility and with his experience and the training opportunities he will be offered will be able to transfer to his nurse training in a couple of years. All being well he will emerge with a degree and the ability to apply for NHS Band five posts. So its not quite true in everybody's case.

 

Sometimes people aim a bit too high, rather like some people who want to live in London but simply cant afford to. I understand the point about networks being important in the case of some people but this cannot apply to everybody who wish to live there.

[KenK]

London housing has always been expensive compared to the rest of the country. 35 years ago we purchased our first house, a three bed semi between Southampton and Portsmouth. Next door to us there was a single lad, early twenties, turned out his parents had paid for his house, they had also purchased an extremely nice house of their own a couple of miles away on the coast. Those two houses were purchased outright after selling their London home when the father retired. That part of the south of England isn't cheap housing by any means but it was a lot less than a London equivalent even in those days.

 

Yesterday, in the Chandlers where I had gone to collect my wife's birthday present, a new windlass, yes I know I spoil her, I was talking to a young couple. They were heading for London, new boat to them, bit basic but liveable. I asked the obvious questions how long had they been boating, a couple of weeks, their first boat. Hired before, no. Why were they going to London, we are going to live there on our boat, do you have a mooring, no we'll sort it out when we get there. Had they done any homework, no. The last question, do you work in London, no we'll look for work when we get there.

 

Maybe they will make it maybe not.

 

Ken

[John Williamson 1955]

Anyway, back on topic, kind of - £250 would once have been enough to rent a room. No more, now you either share or consider something like this:

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/short-term-rent/tiny-boat-for-rent/1112814648

 

ETA: at least it has electric, there was a chancer trying to rent one same price with no electrics or engine, last summer. I think Starcoaster wrote an article about someone renting a boat like this.

From the advert "The boat is currently in Hackney and moves regularly within zone 1. " Shouldn't that read "The boat must be moved every fortnight along a range of at least 20 miles in a year"? I wonder if it's even got an engine?

[Richard10002]

Social cleansing is a very real thing in London.

 

As for the comment that living where you're born isn't a right, it bloody well should be. Connections, support networks are not only desirable, they're necessary. Without them, if a person is forced to move, perhaps more than once, it turns them into bitter people and we end up with the kind of misanthropy we see on this thread.

Sounds like a bit of a victim mentality?

 

Whose money are you going to use to make that happen? All well and good if you grow up in a relatively cheap area, but you can pay for them if they grew up in an expensive area!

Edited April 30, 2015 by Richard10002

[cotswoldsman]

From the advert "The boat is currently in Hackney and moves regularly within zone 1. " Shouldn't that read "The boat must be moved every fortnight along a range of at least 20 miles in a year"? I wonder if it's even got an engine?

Funny how we react differently. I saw the ad and it made me really sad that we have come to time when someone can advertise something like that for £250 and you just think about the rules for a boat with no mooring

[Jerra]

As for the comment that living where you're born isn't a right, it bloody well should be. Connections, support networks are not only desirable, they're necessary.

I am sorry but I can't get my head round this one. To go back a little before I come to this point.

 

50 years ago here in Rural Cumbria it wasn't the norm to stay where you were brought up. I was in a group (I suppose today it would be called a gang) of 12 only one of whom stayed in the village/town. I live 50 miles from where I was born, my wife 60, my brother about 50, one daughter 130 miles the other 150 miles.

 

Had I remained where I was born I would have no support networks now when I am getting to an age where I might need them. My youngest daughter had 7 years of ill health while living 130 miles away, she had fabulous support network from her friends and when need be from us at home (she would be brought down home for a while).

 

Non of my wife's or my relations lives any nearer to their birth place than 10 miles.

[Phil Ambrose]

Lincolnshire folk don't tend to move from their birth village - hence the 'pointy' heads, webbed feet and extra fingers.

There is a lot of truth in that, whenever someone is getting married the first question that is asked about the partner is " is he/she local?" When we first moved there (near Boston) as you walked around you could only see about 5 different faces and when I bought a milkround I was amazed at the size of extended families. It seemed everybody was related.

Phil

[mark99]

There is nor so much a housing shortage, there is an out of control immigration mayhem of a QUARTER OF A MILLION extra people per year seeking to live here.

 

( que the usual suspects revving up the outrage bus )

Well said. How can you manage housing numbers when you cannot manage demand?

[Arthur Marshall]

Well said. How can you manage housing numbers when you cannot manage demand?

Well one way of managing demand is to sell off all the council housing, and then set up Housing Associations instead, and then sell them off cheap. Housing benefit is a benefit to landlords, not tenants. Immigration in most of the country has nothing at all to do with it, unless you count the bloody Scots like my wife...