FlyTheNest

StephenDolan wrote:Morning all.

Can you imagine the uproar if the Conservatives pledged to force all private landlords to sell to their renters at a heavy discount?

Jim Pickard retweeted
Jules Birch ‏@jules_birch 5m5 minutes ago
Theresa May sounds like she was briefed about this right to buy in the taxi on the way to the Today programme studio

Kevin Maguire ‏@Kevin_Maguire 14m14 minutes ago
Right to Buy is Right to Steal by the Government says @RevRichardColes who sits on a Housing Assoc. Not Cameron's to sell

RobertSnozers wrote:I hear the Tories are going to allow people to buy their own hospital bed if they've been waiting in A&E more than four hours

May2015 Election ‏@May2015NS 13m13 minutes ago
Wow. Labour are beating Tories on the ground in every single seat #Ashcroft polled last week. Not even close.

Extending Right to Buy to housing associations and other distractions
http://www.housing.org.uk/media/blog/ex ... tractions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All the efforts of housing associations, local authorities and others are geared towards ending this housing crisis by building new homes and regenerating existing homes where that is the best solution. The Right to Buy makes that more difficult. For those housing associations that already have the preserved RTB, the discounts of up to £102,500 make the government’s commitment to 1-1 replacement a hollow joke. Here’s just one example. Phoenix Community Housing in London recently sold a home worth £210,000 on the open market for just over half of that. From the proceeds, some went back to the Treasury, some to the local authority leaving a receipt of just £27,000. Have you tried building a new home for £27,000?

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
So a Housing Association, like @WHOMES_HR on whose board I sit, goes to the market, raises finance, does deals with contractors and...(1/3)

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
....builds urgently needed units for people to live in at social rents and then the government forces us to sell them off at a 35%...(2/3)

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
.... discount. That's #righttobuy ? Sounds like Right to Steal to me.

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
These homes, btw, were built AFTER the transfer of local authority stock to the Association and never were council houses.

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
@Darren_Fewins Maybe indeed - my point is that the government does not own these assets so how can it sell them? #righttobuy

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 1h 1 hour ago
@John_J_C_Moss @RachelAFisher But John by what 'right' goes the govt sell off assets which don't belong to it?

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 58m 58 minutes ago
@John_J_C_Moss @RachelAFisher Some HCA grant funding sure, but how does that confer title? And we're building 500 new homes post Transfer.

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 56m 56 minutes ago
@Robert_J_M_T @redrumlisa But these properties belong to the Housing Associations!

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 23m 23 minutes ago
@rac240464 @Kevin_Maguire Nearly all of the finance for our new build comes from the banks, not the HCA.

David Orr
‏@natfedDavid
To be clear Teresa May @BBCr4today we did not assume all would buy at once. Our figures detailed and conservative. Where can we find yours?

https://twitter.com/natfedDavid/status/ ... 9442446336

mikems wrote:I want the right to buy my privately owned flat. Why can't I?

Richard Coles @RevRichardColes · 23m 23 minutes ago
@rac240464 @Kevin_Maguire Nearly all of the finance for our new build comes from the banks, not the HCA.

yahyah wrote:Ashcroft's info on marginals, 3 gains for Labour.

mikems wrote:They had an extra day to think about it...and came up with this load of old cobblers.

WelshIan wrote:Morning everyone.

I haven't watched Newsnight in a long time, but watched most of it last night after Jack Dee's rather poor election 'comedy' panel show (including the now obligatory dig at Ed M).

Allegra Stratton on the Labour manifesto was rather sneery, especially the end where she said something along the lines of 'well, at least Ed Miliband tried'. Then we had the pleasure of Kirsty Wark interrupting and talking over Tristram Hunt. There was a nice moment in the interview though, where she mentioned Nick Clegg and Hunty had to visibly stop himself from laughing out loud.
Funnily enough, she let him talk when he was struggling with the volunteer child care at primary schools (mainly on the cost of DBS checks, etc).

I won't be watching again, and the BBC have likely lost me for Election Night. Anyone got any views on which would be the best channel to watch?

yahyah wrote:Ashcroft's info on marginals, 3 gains for Labour.

David Schneider ‏@davidschneider · 11h11 hours ago
Telegraph: "Tories are the party of working people". In other news, lions are the Health & Safety team for antelopes.

David Cameron ✔ @David_Cameron
This is the cover of our manifesto.
At its heart is a simple proposition: security at every stage of your life.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/liv ... 9b1f5e46ca" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FuriousGeorge wrote:Did the tories remove the requirement on developers to build a certain % of affordable homes on new builds? Seem to remember something about that somewhere.

The leadership of Milton Keynes has said the decision to water down the affordable homes requirement for developers has ‘swung the balance much too far in favour of the developers’.

The deputy leader of a Conservative council attacked the government for ‘storing up problems for the future’ by allowing developers to scrap affordable homes to protect profits.

Council figures show the town will build 500 fewer affordable homes over the next five years because of the amendments 12 months ago to planning laws. An example given by the council was the re-submission of a development, which was scheduled to have 63 affordable homes, with no affordable homes on the grounds of profitability.

Emma Reynolds, shadow housing minister, said to the Guardian: ‘There is a massive shortage of affordable homes across the country. Now even leading Tory councillors are attacking their own government for their failed housing policies.’

The news comes after the planning minister admitted the government will not set an affordable housing target for its new wave of garden cities and instead planning decisions will be ‘locally-led’ with the decision over the number of affordable homes falling to councils.

Local authorities’ power to demand affordable housing in developments was significantly weakened by the introduction of ‘viability testing’ which allows developers to reduce or remove affordable homes if it would make the scheme unprofitable.

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/governme ... 33.article" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“This is yet another uncosted, unfunded and unbelievable announcement from the Tories.

“Having exhausted the magic money tree, the Tories now want people to believe that they can magic up billions of pounds a year from selling off a few council homes. Last year that raised just over £100 million, while this policy costs £4.5 billion a year.

“Under David Cameron home ownership is at its lowest point for three decades – there are over 200,000 fewer home owners since 2010.

http://press.labour.org.uk/post/1163320 ... d-unfunded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RobertSnozers wrote:

yahyah wrote:

RobertSnozers wrote:I hear the Tories are going to allow people to buy their own hospital bed if they've been waiting in A&E more than four hours

& allow them to rent it out to the next patient for profit ?

Well of course. We have to encourage that sort of aspiration and entrepreneurial spirit

Nick Boles - standing in for Matt Hancock - for the Conservatives said some “big global corporations are taking the mickey” in relation to tax avoidance. To the audience of accountants and business bosses he suggested they ask a nurse before adopting a tax avoidance strategy. If she gets angry then you probably shouldn’t do it, he said.

PorFavor wrote:I think I saw (I can't find it at the mo), over at the Guardian, that Frank Field thinks this "right to buy" thing is a good idea.

I take back all I said, then . . . .

Conservative manifesto - Early highlights
Here are some early highlights from the Tory manifesto. Journalists have only had it in their hands for a few minutes.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/liv ... 9b1f5e46ff" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RobertSnozers wrote:Right to buy 'wrong in every way imaginable'

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2015 ... maginable/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;