Brighton is 5th least affordable city in UK

[Herr Tubthumper]

The City Council has said it needs 16-20,000 new homes, but has only identified enough sites for 11,500.

Frank Gehry tower blocks are the answer; but it will never happen.

 

[StonehamPark]

How the heck are kids born here supposed to be able to stay here?

I'm 25, I live and work in Brighton.

I'm on a half-decent wage (for my age) and I'm saving up for a deposit for a mortgage...
...to buy in Gloucestershire.

I couldn't afford to pay a mortgage (in Brighton) now and to be honest, I don't want to be struggling each month down in Brighton when I could have a much more affordable house in the Cotswolds.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I'm 25, I live and work in Brighton.

I'm on a half-decent wage (for my age) and I'm saving up for a deposit for a mortgage...
...to buy in Gloucestershire.

I couldn't afford to pay a mortgage (in Brighton) now and to be honest, I don't want to be struggling each month down in Brighton when I could have a much more affordable house in the Cotswolds.

Sad to hear this. One of my big gripes with the UK is the attitude to, and cost of, housing.

 

[happypig]

When I bought a flat in 1987 in Vere Road, I had a couple of grand deposit (courtesy of my mum) and a £28k mortgage. This was just under three times my salary.
A similar flat in that area now (ie http://bit.ly/1fQ3bV2) is £175k, which is over seven times the salary of the same grade.
My son is 17 and will, I imagine, be looking to get a place in the next decade. Fortunately I should be in a position to assist him financially but there are a lot of people who cannot.

Until everyone stops looking at property as a way to make money rather than a place to live things are only going to get worse.

 

[Foolg]

How the heck are kids born here supposed to be able to stay here?

My worry entirely.


I'm going to leave Uni this year £20k in debt, and be moving back in with my parents. I haven't got a clue how i'll do it, it's quite worrying to think about in all honesty.

 

[perseus]

Where did you get this little nugget of information,......?

Census information says household income in Brighton is just below the national average. The same is true of the whole coastal strip between Newhaven and Littlehampton. Household income in Reading is on average a whacking one third higher.

And that includes about 20% commuters to London.

 

[Creaky]

Ironic, isn't it, that as commuter transport routes, road and rail, expand it makes it more and more difficult for people to be able to afford to live and work in the areas they grew up in.

This is noticeable not only in cities like Brighton but also in rural areas where the jobs are generally low paid but housing costs have been driven up by buyers who work miles away.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

It's work in tourism or nothing. Plus the tourism, with its celebrity chefs and second home owning Londoners also drives the house prices up.

Brighton is 2nd to London in new business start ups in the UK.
Working for someone else & being told what to do for low money is so last century

 

[BBassic]

The only way I'm even close to being able to afford a mortgage here is because of an inheritance. I'd be naffed without it.

 

[somerset]

Census information says household income in Brighton is just below the national average.

If I can be permitted a pedantic moment, 'household income' is slightly different to 'salaries'......... a whole range of factors can affect HI.... but the poster I responded to referred specifically to salaries, hence my questioning.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

The City Council has said it needs 16-20,000 new homes, but has only identified enough sites for 11,500.

Where EXACTLY are these 16,000 + people living NOW?

 

[Notters]

Where are the main sites for the 11,500? I can only think of Mile Oak as a possibility.

There are thousands going in down the Marina.

A lot of the tower blocks in Kemp Town and Hove will need replacing too, as they're well past their design life (though not sure where that will put the owners.)

 

[Notters]

Where EXACTLY are these 16,000 + people living NOW?

It's not 16,000 people, it's 16,000 homes - 40,000 people!

 

[The Large One]

It needs a radical approach, a sea change in thinking, to make that sort of development happen. Sadly I doubt our 'politicians' are up to the challenge.

Frank Gehry tower blocks are the answer; but it will never happen.

The Planning Inspector (going through the draft City Plan) called on the council to re-think 'the urban fringe'. She is basically saying, if you want 16-20,000 instead of 11,500, forget the notion of parks, greenery and leisure space. (I'm paraphrasing.)

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/sites/brighton-hove.gov.uk/files/ID-21 Letter to council Dec 13.pdf

The Frank Gehry Towers are not the answer - they could have been a small part of the solution, but not the solution.

 

[Guinness Boy]

This is all part of an long running trend, and is what happens when housing policy merely encourages market forces. One policy that would have a real effect would be a land value tax, which will act as a disincentive/exorbitant cost for over popular sites (rates on Oxford Street in London, or Churchill Square in Brighton, for instance, would rise substantially), and act as an incentive for people to move into those un- and under-occupied housing that litter so many parts of the country -- mainly those de-industrialised areas. A Land Value Tax has long been a Green Party policy, so Westdene Seagull will no doubt think it's a dreadful idea, but Labour are increasingly warming to the idea under Miliband, and I wouldn't be surprised if they put it into their forthcoming election manifesto.

It would be an interesting gamble because the majority of people who turn up to vote Conservative are older and more likely to be homeowners (http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/sociology/voting/revise-it/voting-behaviour). They would have to be sure that such a policy would get young renters out to vote for Labour more than turing yet more homeowners Tory. The modern Labour party will only do things it thinks are a vote winner, even in the Milliband era.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Brighton is 2nd to London in new business start ups in the UK.
Working for someone else & being told what to do for low money is so last century

But not EVERYONE can own a business. You need workers to work in it. This is where the enterprise led vision of everyone from the government to Aldridge academies falls down. Start ups are not profitable for three years or more in general and are hardly likely to be paying a big salary to either their founder or their very small number of staff. Besides there are start ups in Cornwall - they're called "seafood restaurants"

 

[father_and_son]

Surprised it's that far down the list TBH.

That was my thought when I saw this. I expected to be the worst outside on London!

 

[Vegas Seagull]

But not EVERYONE can own a business. You need workers to work in it. This is where the enterprise led vision of everyone from the government to Aldridge academies falls down. Start ups are not profitable for three years or more in general and are hardly likely to be paying a big salary to either their founder or their very small number of staff. Besides there are start ups in Cornwall - they're called "seafood restaurants"

So the labourer/mower man that came down from from Wolves last summer and now works for 6 people I know for a tenner an hour is unique? And our cleaner who put an ad in the corner shop window?

No corporations for the New Wave Sons

 

[surrey jim]

Build more houses? but where??

Preston Barracks is having work start on there at some point (http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/con...lopments/preston-barracks-regeneration-scheme)

Toads Hall Valley (as mentioned above)

Marina, the tower blocks.

Even taking the above into account there is still the need for thousands more dwellings.

 

[Guinness Boy]

So the labourer/mower man that came down from from Wolves last summer and now works for 6 people I know for a tenner an hour is unique? And our cleaner who put an ad in the corner shop window?

No corporations for the New Wave Sons

Cleaners and odd job men have always done that. You still need people to drive buses, police the streets, nurse people back to health, roll out the IT, check the invoices and make the tea.

If you're going to make money you also want people to be making music, writing books and television and playing sport for your entertainment. Even if you're a one man band doing this you're not a start up.

Besides £10 an hour ain't buying you a house in Brighton. After taxes and living expenses it will just about buy you lunch.-