EU and UK politics [OT]

[RolStoppable]

LurkerJ said:

It does read like a hit piece because it is GB news.

You don't have to be a lifelong citizen to be eligible for social housing, about 50% of social houses in London, for example, go to non-UK born. You don't have to spend 10 years to tick the local connection test either, living 6 months in the area is enough connection. 10% going to non UK nationals is a lot, it's all relative after all when you have over a million people on the social housing waiting list with no proper plans to accommodate those already in the country let alone the higher numbers that will pour in and become eligible for those houses with Labour in power. And if there is oversupply (there isn't), the eligibility criteria for social housing should be extended to catch a much bigger slice of the public because the middle class is going bankrupt paying for rentals.

The overarching point in my posts is that there is no plan to fix the housing market or address the strain migration has specifically on it, every country has its own set of circumstance and challenges and this is by far the biggest challenge the UK faces, if Americans don't have this problem and don't need to find the balance, good for them, but this isn't working here. The net effect of Labour policies over the next 5 years will make the challenge worse for everybody, not better. It doesn't mean that I want the tories in charge, I just don't want to hear fantasies from Labour about being able to solve the crisis while increasing net migration when their plans are clearly not realistic. 

You mean the net effect of all the current Labour policies. They've been in charge for a little over a month now, so them fixing, what, 15 years of conservative leadership in such a short time is not realistic. Maybe they do suck and won't do anything beyond what they have now during the next five years, but it's pretty early to go all-in on the doom and expect a net negative. On the other hand, fixing this crisis altogether within five years certainly does sound like a fantasy, and if anyone says that it can be done after all the damage the Tories have done, then I agree with you that it is a pipedream.

The situation in the UK reminds me of Germany where rents aren't under control either and the government's targets to build new spaces are a pipedream too; Germany's problem is the result of government decisions that date back around 30 years and have never been addressed properly. What's the case in Germany is that the current government is a coalition where one party blocks new taxes altogether, but Labour in the UK should have much better conditions than that. So that's that. But either way, I'd say the government has to build at a rapid pace for at least two decades before things get back in order.