New Permitted Development rights do not create worse quality homes

I have the greatest respect for Ranjan and an even greater resentment of Council parasites. But there is no getting round the fact that even within the current planning system, I consider the conduct of landlord developers absolutely outrageous in playing the system for maximum personal gain.
Three houses in my road have been permanently wrecked by being turned into rent-a- coffin disposable carbon unit storage . The people who "live" there are far from happy about anything.
They move in after laying out the maximum amount of cash that can be taken from them and immediately find that the landlord does not give a toss and the agent has been lying to them in telling them that there is pent up demand and they had better start paying rent a month or two before they actually move in or they will lose the vacancy. Then they find that the people who they live cheek by jowl with are socially incompatible. If they leave, they just get exactly the inhuman treatment in the next rent-a-coffin.
In my road we even have two strangers sharing a sub-divided single garage. All this is entirely legal and generates an income to the council which is then used to fund council inspections. In my opinion there is a overwhelmingly obvious need to reduce demand - not to increase supply by creating rent-a-coffins.
The reason that so many people own so little is not that they cannot put it anywhere.
This is why so much money is wasted on renting storage units. As time moves on the storage unit renters slowly accept that they are increasingly unlikely to ever get a space big enough to express the creative autonomy that is absolutely basic to human existence, and they throw their prized possessions away.
In the meantime we have ever more parking permits being charged for, not one of which will ever create a single parking space.
This country is absolutely finished.
The quality of life just keeps falling even for the most fortunate like myself.

I have the greatest respect for Ranjan and an even greater resentment of Council idiot parasites.
But there is no getting round the fact that even within the current planning system, I consider the conduct of landlord developers absolutely outrageous in playing the system for maximum personal gain.
It has absolutely nothing to do with providing a service beyond the incidental.
Three houses in my road have been permanently wrecked by being turned into rent-a- coffins for disposable carbon unit storage.
The people who "live" there are far from happy about anything and are constantly at each other’s throats.
They move in after laying out the maximum amount of cash that can be taken from them and immediately find that the landlord does not give a toss and the agent has been lying to them in telling them that there is pent up demand and they had better start paying rent a month or two before they actually move in or they will lose the vacancy.
The truth is that the agents look for an easy life in drive up the rents resulting in lengthy voids which can drag on for many months.
Then they find that the people who they live cheek by jowl with are socially incompatible.
If they leave, and they do exactly that every few months, they just get exactly the inhuman treatment in the next rent-a-coffin – unless they get lucky for a short time.
In my road we even have two strangers sharing a sub-divided single garage.
All this is entirely legal and generates an income to the council which is then used to fund council inspections.
In my opinion there is an overwhelmingly obvious need to reduce demand - not to increase supply by creating rent-a-coffins.
Before you even start to consider how this might be accomplished and over what time scale, you must first face up to this reality.
It does not work for rats and it does not work for human beings.
The reason that so many people own so little is not because of that they cannot put their possessions anywhere.
Their lives are unstable and stressful and rent-a-coffins make this worse.
This is why so much money is wasted on renting storage units.
As time moves on the storage unit renters slowly accept that they are increasingly unlikely to ever get a space big enough to express the creative autonomy that is absolutely basic to human existence, and they throw their prized possessions away.
It is not because of IPADS or tablets!
I worked in I.T. at every level from hands on engineer to international programme manager and, like many of my colleagues, I have never touched a tablet and can only send these ridiculously limited texts via a Galaxy Note.
That so many people are so keen to avoid talking to people is a sign of just how easily people can be indoctrinated.
There are millions of people who have never touched computer technology and have absolutely no desire to do so.
There are millions of people who like to read books.
There are millions that cannot read a tablet!
The reasons are physical and far too complex to go into here.
Check out the vestibulo ocular system for a start!
Then try to connect the biological function with subjective perception.
Very few people will ever get there and yet this is central to human life socially apart from anything else.
In the meantime we have ever more parking permits being charged for on a political basis, not one of which will ever create a single parking space.
This country is absolutely finished.
The quality of life just keeps falling even for the most fortunate like myself.
Sorry about the duplicate posting but once again, the note that I deleted, did not get deleted.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 27/07/2020 - 22:37Good gracious, Paul - where do you live? Sounds like the bottom of Misery Lane, Purgatory. Let me know and I'll avoid it like the plague! I thought the tiny flats made by jigsaw puzzle division of disused warehouses on industrial estates which councils use as "temporary accommodation" for homeless people were dreadful, but what you describe in a residential neighbourhood sounds even worse.
Your post raises a number of questions in my mind: what is the outcome of the council inspections you mention? Why don't you move away? I realise your property will have been devalued by these developments, but that is only going to get worse the longer you stay. Most difficult question of all: you mention an obvious need to reduce demand - how do you suggest we do that? (In the rat experiments you refer to severe overcrowding led progressively to aggression, homosexuality, mothers eating their newborn young and eventually large-scale cannibalism.)

Reply to the comment left by Old Mrs Landlord at 28/07/2020 - 07:121. What is the outcome of the council inspections you mention?
100% of the residents of the road registered objections on the council web site.
They elected a representative to speak for them at the usual council farce enquiry.
Before the representative was allows to speak he was informed by the planning officer that they only acknowledged him as an individual & not as a representative,
As such he was only allowed two minutes to speak after a timer was set by the planning officer.
When he had used his two minutes he was informed that his comments were noted.
The council officials then took a vote & the 100% objections from the neighbours who were fully supported by three councillors were totally ignored.
The properties then generated another revenue stream for the council.
As the years have rolled on I have watched the people in the road attack one another with increased frequency & increased ferocity.
As yet more of these rent a coffins infect the locality, the people who live here move away.
In this short road of 38 houses at least five households have left the country.
2. Why don't you move away?
That is exactly what I intend to do but the matter is complex & will take at least a year. I have around £1m invested here.
NB: This is wealthy Winchester which, if you & other readers check it out for yourself, is frequently voted as having the highest quality of life overall in the UK.
3. I realise your property will have been devalued by these developments, but that is only going to get worse the longer you stay.
See my answer above.
4. Most difficult question of all: you mention an obvious need to reduce demand - how do you suggest we do that?
(In the rat experiments you refer to severe overcrowding led progressively to aggression, homosexuality, and mothers eating their new-born young & eventually large-scale cannibalism.)
See my answer above. The inevitable decline has been happening with increasing frequency & ferocity.
I am a landlord.

How tragic that this is happening in beautiful Winchester. Your local councillors certainly have a lot to answer for, but no doubt their focus on revenue raising is driven by successive governments starving them of revenue throughout years of austerity. I note you have no more suggestions than I regarding measures to reduce demand. Politicians seem far more concerned with their own careers than the welfare of the people they are elected to represent and serve.

Reply to the comment left by Old Mrs Landlord at 28/07/2020 - 10:43The irony is that the councillors are totally opposed to this. They are just being ignored.
I also note that just a few months ago, a national association of local government officers, seriously proposed that they be granted the right to suspend a democratically elected councillor if they so desired and not just because the councillor had become involved in anything corrupt.
The demand reduction is really not something that can be discussed on most forums. It just becomes a silly rant that drags on and on.
It sounds like you are well down the thought train quite independently of anything I can say.
I leave it for others to form their own opinions.
"If we do not take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us.”

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 27/07/2020 - 22:07
Many year ago, the old BT offices were turned into flats - now personally, I wouldn't want to live on a roundabout in the middle of a main road, but people bought them. Same with the county court building - now flats. Is it better to leave them empty and vandalised or turned into accommodation, esp since many businesses will go bust because of CV19 and offices won't be needed? And, of course many private landlords will be selling up, so some sort of accommodation is needed. Surely they still have to conform to min size etc and be licenced if HMOs?

Reply to the comment left by Kathy Evans at 28/07/2020 - 14:26
I believe under the PD rights relating to conversion of offices into residential minimum sizes have been waived along with some other mandatory requirements. Hence the outcry.

Reply to the comment left by Kathy Evans at 28/07/2020 - 14:26
There is absolutely zero chance of any of the destroyed family homes that I refer to being left empty. They range from £400K to over £500K.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Shears at 28/07/2020 - 11:30
cllrs can be reported by council staff to a disciplinary body--prescott introduced the scheme--he had no intelligence to understand the stupidity of such a set up. councils should have no power over elected reps