“This one's for you StagChilli !”

“This sounds targeted toward buyers with good uni degrees and job prospects, who don't need the help as much as others. As for any policy that affects housing and doesn't help those willing to roll up their sleeves and tackle a fixer-upper, well... here in America, I'd say it stinks of lobbying by home builders. Saving perfectly good homes that only need a little TLC is so much more cost effective than offering incentives that encourage demolishing and rebuilding, willy-nilly. There are tax incentives to make homes more energy efficient, aren't there? Same logic applies, right? This helps everywhere, and lightens the budget load overall, albeit at the expense of shortchanging well-off builders who chip in here and there, as it were. Such changes would most certainly benefit Hull.

Perhaps they feel that a greener world requires demolish-and-rebuild, but I don't think so. Many older homes only need a new furnace, some insulation, and a few energy-efficient windows to be much greener, and are being offered for sale at a fraction of the price of new construction.

Besides, what's the cost of throwing up a lot of new housing to be occupied by those unable to afford a home?”

“Oh, what fun!!! I just posted a reply to StagChilli's thread about inane threads, saying that this thread had disappeared!!! Now, THAT THREAD IS GONE and this one's back!!!

Anyone wanna play phantom pseudothread tag? OK, MissFoodLove, you're it!!”

“The site is being a wee bit tricksy. I found this through chasing Missfoodlove's name.

I'm probably naive but I cannot understand the rationale behind giving first-time buyers a leg-up as long as they are buying a new-build? What benefit can that possibly provide? As MrSeptic says, older houses don't necessarily need much work doing to them to make them viable.

I travel a lot with my job and I see streets of houses that have metal sheets covering the windows because that street/area has run down so much that people don't buy into it. Surely it must be better to renovate those houses, or allow renovation to happen, than to build new ones. Jobs will still be created. Maybe the council could buy these streets at knockdown prices, do them up and sell them on or rent them. Places become no go areas when we allow them to be. Take back control. Do up the houses, do up the area, get the light back in there. If they have guns and drugs, use the police to chase them out. The most depressing thing is when people decide to accept that things are bad. Challenge them!”

“This government are a set of buffoons who have no idea how to run a country. But then, who does? Economists have such dramatically different views on this and they can't all be right.

In the past all civilisations have imploded. Maybe this is out time?”

“I personally would rather see petrol cut than beer.

My car drinks more than I do and Its getting that I can't afford to feed its habit.

I despise paying any tax, especially to Hull City Council”

“Mr Septic, Hull and the north of England has plenty of areas as Jenoh describes with streets of boarded up houses. A small cash injection and some innovative thinking could turn these streets around and provide work and homes.
The new build properties that first time buyers are to be encouraged in to are often built on flood plains and the large conglomerates that build them send the profits offshore, it is not money that is put back in the local community.”

“Totally agree Missfoodlove
It would be better if regeneration of run down properties did happen it would create much needed work for lots of local people who are at the moment struggling to get by. The Budget which was delivered I feel will still not give confidence to people and I still don't feel that it will stimulate the economy into any sustained growth for along time to come my gut feeling is that austerity will get alot worse before we see any real green shoots of a recovery.”

“I'm afraid I found this particular an*****ment in the budget rather cynical, and sickening seeing as one of the first acts this government did when it came into office was pull the rug under much a much needed regeneration of West Hull taking away the promised funding.

This left people trapped in areas due for demolition and surrounded by boarded up properties. And later on restored some funding which was a mere piitance to what they had already taken away. So I take this latest an*****ment with the same contempt as 1p off the price of a pint, an insult.”

“What on earth happened to my word a n n o u s e m e n t ?”

“Missfoodlove:

That's true here too. Some developers are Eastern Europeans who come over here, spend two or three years whacking out houses, then disappear back to Elbonia, where they are of course hailed as conquering heroes for bringing so much cash into the area. Then, the houses begin falling apart and have serious code compliance problems. Being a professional handyman, believe me, I know exactly what tricks they pull, 'cos I have to fix them! And some of these are McMansions selling for double the average neighborhood price, sometimes a million dollars or more. Corian countertops, fancy oak railing, expensive flooring, but just garbage construction underneath it all.

Only builders committed to making a difference in their area will stick around long enough to help turn around these shuttered neighborhoods. It's up to local government to seek out and encourage them all they can.

And, of course, when someone howls that the better off are getting the better deal, the government will appease them by setting aside some of the new houses for council estate use, at the taxpayer's expense. It makes your head spin.

Good luck getting them extradited back here to stand trial.”

“Because new builds need people to build them. Generates money in the economy, growth and all that.

Just giving people monay to buy houses that already exist inflates the housing bubble without improving the housing stock.

A lot of those houses are boarded up for a reason. They're rubbish, the area is rubbish, not worth doing up etc.

There was also the guarantee scheme where the government would cover 15% of the mortgage if you defaulted. Should lead to cheaper lending and not restricted to new builds as far as I could see.”

“Anon_Geoff,
Existing property requires renovation , this will generate money in the local economy, as properties are improved the areas will be improved, the reason a lot of these houses are boarded up is because they were purchased by the council and left to rot because there wasn't the money available to regenerate the areas.
Do you suggest we just build more vast estates like Kingswood and Bransholme? Put large faceless supermarkets and McDonald's on every roundabout? The profits would all end up in Mr Persimmon or Mr Barrat's offshore accounts.
I vote for real communities with corner shops, doctors, chemists schools etc all on the doorstep. We need a return to the nuclear family and this is possible with some clear and forward thinking.”

“New houses generate more growth than renovations.

I'm not arguing or making a point, just answering the question. Economics, innit?”