David Roberts

Trying to make the law and farming mix. Occasionally succeeding. Dabbles in history and old cars

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@stevepennick @AshyCompounds @Victoria_Spratt @jrf_uk @Autonomy_Inst @grok And we all had honey for tea. That’s as much of a boomer fantasy as someone dressing up in a red coat and pith helmet and blithering about battleships.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@stevepennick @AshyCompounds @Victoria_Spratt @jrf_uk @Autonomy_Inst @grok The OP is a young urban renter. The Rent Act 1965 made life extremely difficult for young urban renters. The best my parents (earning fairly good money) did in the 1970s was a lodging room. If you got a council house (which wasn’t a wreck), then, yes, you won the housing lottery

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@stevepennick @AshyCompounds @Victoria_Spratt @jrf_uk @Autonomy_Inst @grok The pre-war Rent Acts didn’t do a lot. The Rent Act 1965 wiped out institutional investment in housing and made renting a house or flat in London for young workers nigh on impossible. The economic damage was enormous. So, no they didn’t “work”.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@shivmalik His record on employment generation isn’t bad. The GMCR masterplan mess less so. However, he is inextricably tied up with Renaker, which seems to have a remarkable ability to achieve £5,000 m2 for high rise apartments in a highly saturated market. 2007 vibes.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@fancy_disgrace @commontruth_ That is the bulk price. Build your own bespoke house and you’re on £3500-4500 per m2. Some very bright people have spent the last ten years and several £bn trying alternatives. They’re either terrible (shipping containers) or don’t work (factory built houses).

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@commontruth_ @fancy_disgrace Sorry - chapter and verse (and there’s two years of inflation to add to these figures) https://t.co/8wGExbr2zM

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@fancy_disgrace @commontruth_ You sure? - check the size of your new builds. A standard 2-3 bed house costs on average to build, excluding land, £2500-2750 per m2. Bespoke council developments (rather than s106 purchases) actually tend to be slightly more expensive due to the need for a procurement process.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@commontruth_ @fancy_disgrace That presupposes building and operating council housing is cheaper than existing private rental housing. It probably is with gilts at 2%. Dubious at 4% and definitely not at 6%. Costs £250k to build a council house outside London. At LHA rents, the figures don’t work.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@peterrhague I suspect the hybrid figure includes mild hybrids which are v common now. Much cheaper technology than PHEV (at the moment anyway)

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@RichardJMurphy The markets price democratic choice, by auction in the case of gilts. % goes up the fewer the bids. Complaining about investors being unwilling to lend is just as childish and Little Englander as most of the Brexit arguments. The UK needs to start acting like an adult.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@Hoopie1261 @Simmons__ The Germans would veto any access to the ECB. They’re already paranoid about the prospect of having to bail the French out.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@trevgoes4th Hmm, apart from rubbish disposal, social services, fire, police, leisure centres, roads, libraries, street lighting to name a few. Even living on a boat you probably use at least several of these services or have the ability to?

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@EJShone93 @DanNeidle Because for most businesses, it’s ****ing complex. Get it wrong and you’re fined. Get it really wrong and you’re out of business. The HMRC tax manual is 17,000+ pages and that’s before you get into case law.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@SamJRushworth And so the higher interest rates that are now permanent due to the Labour gov’s massive unfunded spending increases are somehow better? 🤔

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@10to15percent @Dioclet54046121 @moving_charlie Housing has hit max affordability, so (certain areas aside), it will fall back v wages for a while. If interest rates went down and the money taps turned on, then yes they’d rise.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@10to15percent @Dioclet54046121 @moving_charlie Closer to £250k, John. Without land. Housing costs what it does to build. The last 18 years have seen miserable wage growth. Wages are starting to catch up but it will take time and pain and for the gov to stop making supply worse - RRA etc

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@DanNeidle @TobyManning No idea. However, their opinion of your good self may be a rare example of where all five agree😆

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@thealexbear @battieboy365 The people buying these things can afford to have one and all the others. It’s a billionaire version of Pokémon cards. There’s so many “specials” now, they probably will crash in value at some point, so in 20 years time there might be some interesting motors in the classifieds

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@thealexbear @battieboy365 Given what people are paying for Miuras and Countaches (not to mention the slightly strange US obsession for manual Aventadors), I would say the brand has the cache to carry it off.

[David Roberts @DRagrilaw]

@ChristineKayNow @peterproperty There you go again… one of the reasons Jeremy Corbyn managed to lose to a buffoon was that he essentially went round telling everyone they were right wing scum. Rubs people up the wrong way.