Well, my last little rant felt good, I enjoyed it and felt liberated. I don’t quite know where the bile came from for this next one it sort of crept up on me.

Housing – Now this is obviously something everyone can give their 1/2p worth on so here’s mine. The situation regarding housing in this country is a shambles. Rents are too high for many people, landlords have far more rights than tennants and yet what is the alternative. Sure if you’re already on the housing ladder or you’re blessed with a credit balance of at least 5 figures it’s all tickety-boo but if not then the general opinion appears to be who gives a ….

There are a couple of things on renting that get my goat, the security deposit for one, you have to hand over money in case you trash the place, fair enough, but ostensibly because you’ve already paid the money and the landlord cashes it you are treated as having already trashed the place. I can’t think of another example where someone can take your money like this. The landlord can then turn around when you leave and claim that you did all this stuff to the property and you have precious little recourse to protest other than take them to court, more money outlaid on spec. It seems de rigeur now for lanlords to take money for general wear and tear which is not supposed to be the tennants responsibility. What about the council tax, make the bloody owner pay it, they own the house they will benefit from the proceeds of sales etc. ok perhaps a bit too extreme, but if it is someone’s second or subsequent house then it’s often just a moneyspinner, make them pay. Maybe you could bring a threshold in so that houses over a certain value the tax is paid by the landlord that would seem fair.

Buying a house, yeah good luck, heaven help you if you live in London, or your credit rating is dodgy or you just don’t want to take out something 6 times your salary etc. etc. What’s the politician’s answer, we’ll build “affordable housing’ in key areas, affordable to whom, I haven’t seen any figures and affordable is a very relative term. Who’s going to control the affordability? If an estate agent offers a house at an affordable price who’s to stop some git coming along and paying far more than the asking price? What about the facilities in the areas, are they being looked at. Where I live is one of these targetted areas and there already isn’t a GP list that hasn’t stopped taking patients and there are no NHS dentists who’ll take registration. The hospital has had a poor report, the council in their latest review has come out as one of the worst in the country, council tax last year went up by one of the highest percentages in the country and this is supposed to be an area they want to entice people into living, not bloody likely, most of us incumbants are looking for a way to get out!

And then you have the countryside mob, don’t build on our green fields etc. etc. Now I’m all for protection of the environment I really am, renewable enrgy and that. What winds me up is that most of these countryside lot are just nimbys they aren’t positive lobbying for housing for the poor on brown field sites and many of them don’t kick up a fuss when it comes to building luxury penthouses and the like it’s just that they don’t want the riff-raff. Now I don’t wish to generalise here, I’m not talking about the fluffies and the spikeys the direct action greenies etc., it’s the countryside alliance and the range-rover parish council brigade that I want shot. “56% say keep fox-hunting” my arse, 56% say keep fox-hunting as long as the hounds hunt the squire rather than the fox, now that I’d pay good money to see…tally-ho!