August 18, 2006
HOW DO YOU SAY OWNERSHIP SOCIETY IN BRITISH?
Tories to convert council rent into mortgage (Rosie Murray-West and George Jones, 18/08/2006, Daily Telegraph)
Every social housing tenant will be given the opportunity to own his or her home under a Conservative government, David Cameron announced yesterday.He wants to create a revolution in ownership by allowing any council tenant the right to convert rental payments into a mortgage.
"In this way we can create a whole new generation of home owners," the Tory leader said. "Millions of people would be able to own their flat, own their home. Millions of people would be able to pass property on to future generations."
Under the proposals, unemployed people would be able to use housing benefit to build up equity in their homes.
Funny to read folks who misinterpret the Democrats ability to filibuster SS privatization as the death knell for the Ownership Society when the rality is that whichever party is most closely identified with the Third Way (by whatever euphemism the candidates settle on--New Democrat and compassionate conservative being the most recent) will win the White House. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 18, 2006 9:58 AM
The Brits have their own problem w/the death tax.
Housing's risen so much, and their estate value's so low, around $500K, IIRC, that there's grumbling.
Add this into the mix......
Tories are conservative and they want to "give" people who are "on benefits" and who aren't working a chance to buy the public housing where they live at the taxpayer's expense with absolutely no responsibility in a vague hope that if they have a mortgage they'll put more of their "discretionary income towards the cost of housing."
I had no idea there were still lotus eaters loose in the UK.
Posted by: erp at August 18, 2006 5:53 PMWhat could be more conservative?
Posted by: oj at August 18, 2006 6:35 PMWhat could be more conservative?
Well, for starters, Take the able-bodied off benefits and make public assistance available to only those temporally in need.
Those who require long term or life-time public assistance should be housed in facilities where their needs can be seen to. If they aren't able to take care of themselves, they certainly shouldn't be given a check (or a credit card, as we do in the U.S.) to do with as they please.
That's also conservative, not more conservative. It doesn't matter how you make them owners, just that once they own they're invested in conserving society.
Posted by: oj at August 19, 2006 8:28 AM