It's about as logical as the articles that appeared in many newspapers yesterday that reported that nurses and teachers would need to borrow '20 times salary' to afford a home in Richmond. As the starting salary for a teacher in London is £22K (considerably above what many other people earn in London) this would mean that the cheapest home in Richmond is £440K. Maybe it shows how lazy journalists are that none of them bothered to check how much the cheapest home in Richmond is. I've just done that and the cheapest one bedroom home within 1/2 mile of Richmond is £159K. The whole argument over 'key worker housing' is complete nonsense on several points: 1. Go back 30 years and you wouldn't find 25 year olds not owning their own homes as a measure of hardship - people generally could only afford to buy their first home when they got married - and successive governments have repeatedly eroded the concept of marriage and strong family units - consequentially we are left with the mess that is yob Britain now. 2. Key workers are no more likely to be single than any other workers. Therefore many will have partners and taking the example of a newly qualified teacher living with another newly qualified teacher their joint income is £44K (minimum), rapidly rising to a joint income of £60K (or more). This also doesn't take account of the pension structure that exists for key workers which in many cases is a non contributory final salary scheme equivalent to a 15% of annual salary for someone trying to 'buy' the same pension in the private sector 3. Key workers don't always need to live where they work. Taking teachers as an example I'm sure many would prefer not to bump into their pupils when they are outside school hours. On the basis that many millions of people in the UK commute to work each day why can't key workers? This removes the need for them to live in the most expensive areas. If I took a job in Kensington should I automatically assume I am entitled to a salary that enables me to buy in Kensington? 4. The housing market is distorted in the South East not by everyone willingly paying more than they need to for housing, but by a shortage of housing. Elsewhere in the country there is an excess of housing. Government policy needs to focus on spreading economic growth more evenly - in the north west government spend accounts for 60% of GDP which demonstrates not enough is being done to encourage businesses to locate or expand outside the south east. Many people in the south east would love to move to challenging roles in areas where the cost of living is lower but employers are not supported in developing their businesses outside london. 5. Part of the pressure on housing (driving up prices) is the breakdown of the family and marriage. By removing incentives to marry and bring up children together, the government has arguably accelerated the breakdown of families – take the £7B in benefits now paid to single parent mothers compared to £1B in 1997. If more families can stay together (and many relationships fail because of money problems) there will be less need for more and more housing for single occupants.

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 10:54:00	Will Watson
Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 11:17:00	Jonathan Sheldrake
Re:Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 16:16:00	Will Watson
Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 11:22:00	Toby Lovern
Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 11:40:00	Michael John Mignola
Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 11:59:00	Anneberth Lux
Re:Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 15:42:00	Stephen Pett
Re:Re:Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 17:57:00	Lois Westby
Re:Re:Re:Re:House Prices in W4 Halved!	22/05/05 18:11:00	Asha Smith
Re:House Prices in W4 Halved! (n/m)	23/05/05 06:58:00	David Johnson

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