Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?

As yet another unseaworthy vessel slides off the scaffolding we brace ourselves for the inevitable exponential inflation of the housing market. 'Your' government, in 'your' best interests, you must understand, has decreed that 'hard-strapped' developers now need your money to help them sell their shoebox-sized properties- the smallest in Western Europe and probably set to shrink still further, with more deregulation in the pipeline. Stage two has hit the ground running, perhaps dancing to the tune of, 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles.'

So, after years of BBC et al prodding- property programs might even outnumber those featuring so-called celebrity chefs- one of 'our' cloned governments has finally come up with that long-anticipated half-baked attempt at appeasing the property developers/investors.



Perfect. Thanks to Alexandre Dulaunoy

Much as the creation of the NHBC was almost entirely aimed at creating a climate in which cowboy builders might more easily do a runner, rather than offering any form of after-sales security regarding recently thrown-up houses, 'Help to Sell' is entirely a means by which overpriced homes might once again flood onto the market, underwritten as ever by the tax-payer. Because it makes far more sense to have hundreds of younger home-buyers mortgaged up to the hilt than to bring down those inflated prices to affordable levels. What could possibly go wrong?

Hark to the sound of Veuve Clicquot corks a-popping in Tory-landlordshire! Oh, the twists and turns that we might endure in order to further ramp up those most-wealthy to least-wealthy differentials.

Naturally, it 'wouldn't' have been possible to have invested in the building of more Council properties, which might have forced down exorbitant private rentals. Not only are current rentals hugely out of kilter with the value of the properties offered, extortionate letting agencies are now charging the earth simply for handling now-demanded-references. That's right, one now requires the good-character references of others before one is permitted to pay in excess of £600 a month for a damp cellar. Remember the red tape bonfire we were promised, worked a treat, hasn't it?

Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps this 'Help to Sell' scheme will curtail exorbitant rents, but then again the inability of first time buyers to afford a mortgage didn't manage to bring down house prices, did it? Curious that, don't you think? Clearly market values, though much trumpeted, are not always the most favoured route of the wealthy market manipulators.



Precisely. Thank you, davelocity

Returning briefly to the issue of 'character references,' I've found myself writing more than one or two of these, in recent years. I've written the things, charged nothing- unlike some professions that I could mention- hand-delivered them to the agency, Hell, I've almost ushered the process from inception to conclusion, and yet it is the agency that charges in excess of £300 simply for... and the rest, alas, remains a mystery, another deregulation mystery, one by which yet more wealth seamlessly slides from those who earned it and into the pockets of the parasitic classes.

So, in the dark-light of the launch of this 'caring' policy what, do you suppose, are the chances now of any government minister seriously reigning in those payday loan companies? Good, or perhaps not so good?