Unsurprisingly, repossessions are at a 14 year high. It would have been unthinkable for the recession to have had any other impact on householder finances, as is indicated by this report on the BBC website today. So it was pretty useful for John Healey, the current housing minister, to be interviewed today on Radio 5. I say ‘current’ housing minister because it’s quite possible that by the time you read this he will have either been fired or done the honourable thing and quit.
Basically, he’s reportedly said that “It can be the best thing for some people to be repossessed.” Yup, that’s right – check out Guido Fawkes here. Now, just in case you’re feeling confused that a member of the party that is purportedly ‘for the people’ is advocating that being evicted is acceptable for some, I will remind you which party he belongs to. New Labour. That’s right. Not the Tories, but New Labour.
Now, my initial thoughts were that he’d basically put his foot firmly in his mouth and what he’d really intended to say was ‘It’s never the best thing for people to be repossessed.’ That was a reasonable expectation of what to be expecting from a ‘socialist’, after all…but I did a Google search and…oh dear.
Unfortunately, this sort of caring approach to the property owning democracy is nothing new for Healey. Take a look at his coments from last year where he lauded a fall in home ownership. So it would appear to be more policy than slip of the tongue. Which makes you wonder what the housing policy of this Government really is.
- Housing policy is to push people out of owning their own houses back in to state or local authority owned housing, redolent of East Germany in the 1970s?
- Housing Policy is to remind anyone who owns a house that they cannot necessarily expect any help if they are threatened with repossession?
- Housing Policy is partially dictated by the banks who want to get some easy money back by repossessing a few more people.
- Housing Policy – like other policies – is to made so ludicrous that New Labour cannot possibly be re-elected and they’ll escape the consequences of their totally fucked-up handling of the economy.
You pays your money, and you takes your choice.
But if you’re one of his constituents – sack ‘im in May. You know it makes sense.
so are you suggesting that if you stop paying your mortgage, you should still be allowed to stay in your house? If so, why would any one pay their mortgage?
or let me guess, you think if you lose your job, you deserve a break. Maybe so, but not a break on a legal contract. Without the rule of law, there is no law. If you can’t afford the house you are in, you shouldn’t be in it. If you could never afford it, you shouldn’t have been allowed to buy it. The problem is that house prices are too high, and the average man can not afford the average house.
I can tell you are an ideal-world type socialist with good intentions and a kind heart, not a genuine working class socialist, or you would be attacking the fact that houses are out of reach of most working class people, and you would be glad to see numerous repossessions, as it would allow prices to fall and sensible hard working people to get on the property ladder.
Ask yourself, what have these people, whos houses are being reposessed, really losing? Their 10% deposit? Their 5% deposit, or maybe they got a 100% or a 125% mortgage prior to 2008 when anyone could, and they are losing nothing but crippling debt. This is why reposessions can be good for the individual as well as for society in general in the long term. If you are still in denial, fighting for the cause of the person who is losing their house due to financial difficulty, you may be thinking “no, they are losing their HOME which is sad”. Well you are wrong, they will get a new home, with parents, grandparents, friends, or even social housing. Society will catch them, having a home you can not afford is a burden, not a privelege and definately not a right.
The MP is actually speaking the truth. But soon his boss Gordon Brown will force him to retract the statement or resign, because this government want to brainwash people into socialist utopia thinking such as yours and maintain the status quo.
Actually, Bill, you have me wrong on the politics – I’m no socialist, been self employed for over 25 years, never claimed benefits in my life. I work hard to pay my mortgage, thank you very much, and am no bleeding-heart liberal. Clearly if someone won’t pay their mortgage then they shouldn’t be in the house.
But if they can’t pay temporarily, that’s another matter. And my main thrust was that this is a housing minister from a supposedly caring political party who make a lot of noise about how cruel and heartless other parties are.
Of course there is no right for people to buy a house; the problem is that for many people living with family or friends is not feasible. Many folks who’ve bought houses at stupidly high prices felt that they had no choice in the matter, as they may not have been able to get Council Housing (ever tried? It’s not easy.) Successive Labour Governments have seen housing prices go through teh roof and did nothing to attempt to control things, with the result that when the collapse did occur many people found themselves in the hole.
Thanks for commenting.