McDonnell’s distorted and dangerous version of Right to Buy

Reply to the comment left by Dylan Morris at 14/09/2019 - 10:22
Excellent point.. This will introduce more instability into the financial system again. They are in effect granting mortgages to borrowers who cannot afford them. A better level of security for the banks is an investor who has accumulated deposits/other assets to tide through the ups and downs of the economic cycle as opposed to someone who can only purchase based on a 100% or near 100% loan and the purchase price slashed. 2008 must now be a distant memory to the policy makers.

Reply to the comment left by Michael Barnes at 06/09/2019 - 23:29
Only if cross collaterialised.... unless they also override the terms of the mortgage agreements.

Reply to the comment left by michael fickling at 06/09/2019 - 19:41
And if it wasn't wrong to take away someone's property, why is just directed as landlords? Surely Labour should be taking all privately-owned homes and giving them to the local councils to rent out. Especially those where the mortgage has been paid off as the rent would be giving the council extra money - oh, wait, the rents would have to be paid by the "taxpayer" (any of them left?) as the retired people with paid off mortgages wouldn't be able to afford it without housing benefit. So let's just redistribute the big houses (like Corbyn's) and house two or three families in them. I wonder why there's no mention of forcing unemployed people to work - I though it was supposed to be "from each according to his ability; to each according to his need", so don't try and tell me that these unemployed people aren't even able to sweep a street or pick litter or load a wagon. Would save a mint in benefits (not that it matters as "the state" would be paying either way) . These Corbynistas need to re-read their Marx and Lenin (and Trotsky) - you can't have socialism in one country, it has to be international, or you get USSR or Venezuela.

Right To Buy as introduced by Thatcher in the early 1980’s (and vehemently opposed by Labour) and still operating now, was all about tenants in social housing purchasing their Council home. It was primarily designed to improve Council estates by giving residents a stake in their home and pride which would uplift the quality of the area. In many cases it did just this. Should this Labour communist idea ever see fruition then the position will be very very different. We would be looking at tenants in private housing, some in expensive properties in very desirable areas, purchasing not social housing to give social tenants a stake, but for the sole purpose of transferring wealth from landlord to tenant. Lenin and Marx would be very proud of their student McDonnell.

A number of ex council R2B properties bought were i) bought at a massive discount then on the QT let out soon after & then they often bought another property elsewhere in another family member's name on a buy to let basis (at 85% loan to value back then which is creeping that way now) or moved in with boy/girlfriend or family elsewhere or ii) after e.g. 3 years they Let to Buy. In either case these council tenants became the next wave of new landlords (fueled by greed they accuse the landlord community of) or iii) after 3 years they sold it often to an investment purchaser (as not always desirable properties for FTB's who either wanted new build or properties with more character or just simply liked renting & didn't want to buy nor take on responsibility of ownership & high service charges which ex council flats often come with). I know this for a fact as I am a mortgage broker albeit now semi retired & dealt with a number of these clients back then & lost much business as a result of telling them they weren't allowed to buy & rent it out & I was obliged to report this if I knew this to be their intent. I also had a number of council tenants' adult children remortgaging their main residence to raise the funds to fund the purchase for a parent on the basis it was a good long term investment even though they had to wait until their mum or dad eventually died to benefit from it. These children are now part of the landlord community their parent having long since died). Lastly, even though the purchase price was heavily discounted, a number of these council tenants wanted a self certification mortgage, often inflating their incomes in order to obtain the necessary mortgage amount. It just created mass mortgage fraud. I hasten to add these clients also went elsewhere to get their mortgage as I challenged their incomes.
End product; abuse of the R2B process, less property to rent for the next generation, created a property boom, made people greedy for the wrong reasons, ex council tenants are now landlords & moaning about being accused of being greedy, and it created shed loads of mortgage fraud. I know a large number of brokers who eventually got found out & done for this.

Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies gave a warning about interfering with private property rights on today’s Politics Live programme.

He outlined the effects of proposals that were in McDonnell’s speech, then he brought up other policies that had been talked about, including “the potential for renters to buy houses from landlords at below market value” He said “You have to be very careful at that point where you are clear about rights to private property because if you lose an absolute legal clarity about rights to private property then you really really risk particularly international investment on which this country is actually peculiarly dependent.”

About 58 minutes in https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008rss/politics-live-23092019-labour-party-conference

Also in a good interview - for a change - by Emily Maitlis on Newsnight with Keir Starmer this evening, she referred to a text by an unspecified Labour MP to the journalist Kevin Schofield, saying:

'We look like a chaotic, scruffy, angry, deluded, dangerous rabble. We hate success, hard work, intelligence and wealth. We like mediocrity, laziness, irresponsibility. We're chanting the name of our leader like a cult. Why would anyone vote Labour?'

She also questioned him on the issue of 'asset-stripping' (aka theft).

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 23/09/2019 - 23:34
Thanks Ros

I had deliberately missed that with the fast forward button, having been bored to tears listening to him over what seems like an eternity.

Why was he knighted? He pretends to hate it. “He told the Ham & High, a local newspaper in his constituency that "I've never liked titles" stating that "When I was DPP, everyone called me director and I said, 'Please don't call me director, call me Keir Starmer.' It's a very similar battle now."[35].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer

I don’t remember seeing him on the news being restrained in his best suit while a member of the Royal Family forcibly dubbed him Sir Keir. He could have turned it down of course - but he took one for the team.

The text from the Labour MP is a cracker. They should set it to music and sing it at the end of conference instead of that nonsense about a flag being soaked in workers’ blood.

I also liked the bit where the hapless chair person declared the result of a vote on a show of hands. “I thought it was one way but Jennie said something else, so..…Yes that was lost“ She was referring to Jennie Formby, the mother of Len “Adonis” McCluskey’s illegitimate child. Then the chair person said it was carried, and was promptly corrected by a man to say it was lost. She then refused an anonymous card vote which would have decided the matter fairly. Or not. Democracy in the Labour Party run by Corbyn, McCluskey, Milne, Murray and Formby has limits, you know.

As Emily said, unmissable. About 31 minutes in https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008rt5/newsnight-23092019

I forgot to mention he fourth M round Corbyn, Screaming Karie Murphy. Sorry Karie.

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 23/09/2019 - 23:34
My favourite bit last night was when channel 4 news said that the labour party were going to go into the next election campaigning not to be for or against staying in the European Union. The reason I loved it so much was that I've always been a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

But in fairness to the labour party...

They have recognised that if you are proposing another referendum and if remain is on the ballot paper, some kind of deal is also on the ballot paper then leave also has to be on the ballot paper; anything else is not democratic.