Islanders fear 'economic clearance' over house prices
The letter said: "Part-time residencies do not sustain our communities and we should therefore
ensure that houses are bought with the intention of being a primary residency.
You could almost have predicted this happening in the Scottish Islands, the buying of second homes as holiday stays, the rise of house prices forcing the young out. It has happened everywhere else of course but now those bleak remote islands of Scotland are being targeted. Hopefully the Scottish government will take measures against it but it is so sad.
Then there is the small problem of only a gathering of 6 at any one time in the household, but the following recent photo of the Whitby bridge hardly makes sense of it! And where are the face masks for goodness sake.
Brian Bilston on 'Gatherings'
All gatherings
Of six or more,
Shall henceforth
be against the law
With NO exceptions
to these rules
(apart, that is,
from work and schools)
If we don't act NOW,
The future's bleak.
This takes effect,
some time next week.
But I am sure the future will brighten up somewhere, after all there is Brexit just round the corner!
Covid has had no effect on house prices at all. If anything they continue to rise.
ReplyDeleteRemote country cottages are seen as safe, whereas city living is scary at the moment. Will it become young people living in cities and the old out in the countryside I wonder.
DeleteHouse prices have shot up around here - I think it's because of removal of stamp duty people think they can charge more!
ReplyDeleteAll down to greed then;)
DeleteOnce one is well on the housing ladder it is easy to ignore the fact that for the young these days it is almost impossible to get on that bottom rung.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is always talk of building more cheaper housing but it never happens - of course.
DeleteWhitby swing bridge wasn't quite this busy when we were there 3 weeks ago. However, there is supposed to have a one-way system in place, the side on to the left of the picture being for walking away from the camera and the side on the right for walking towards it. You can see a sign indicating this just above the railing on the left hand side of the picture. As can be seen, most people are ignoring it. However, the picture might have been taken just after the bridge had been opened for boats, when waiting crowds do tend to build up like this.
ReplyDeleteYes you are right, when the bridge opens, the traffic goes through and then the people. Though in the above no one is keeping to the rules, think it is because people think there is a slacking of restriction and then of course the warnings go out again.
DeleteYour country and mine, housing is out of the budget except the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteTo true Joanne, you would think that owning/renting one's own house was a part of the social contract.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that they do not require certain sales to be set aside for low-income housing. But since many houses are private enterprise purchases, I can see where that could be very complicated.
ReplyDeleteWhen there is building of housing estates a certain percentage has to be low priced but there is never enough. What surely mut be most frustrating for the young is not being able to live in the towns they were bought up in near family.
ReplyDelete