Both of my Grandmothers were able to buy their houses that they had spent years paying rent on thanks to the right to buy scheme. I cannot criticise it as it has meant that my parents were able to actually inherit something which none of their ancestors were able to do so.

Although I believe that for every council house that was sold off another one should have been built in its place.

I think that youve helped make my point very well.
The tenants who bought their properties did very well indeed and in a way good luck to them.
However, surely, social housing is for the poor and needy and should never be sold cheaply to anyone.
Of course you are pleased, as your family made money out of the deal and they had the chance to own their property, although, the maths is fundamentally flawed.
If the housing stock is sold cheaply, which it was (up to 75% discount IIRC), how can you build a new property when you recover only 25% of the value on the properties that were sold ?

As I said, it was a crude vote catching mechanism, specifically aimed at traditional Labour voters and should never have been allowed.

Simply really - these houses would have been 30-40 years old and as such would have had 30-40 years of rental income so the initial investment would have been paid many times over. So selling them off at that point was possibly a good decision as they would have been at a point where they need significant sums to maintain them.

The problem is where did the monies go - managed correctly there should have been plenty of surplus to build more

There are a few more things than social housing that require an answer to that question!

Can we get back on topic, activating article 50 (which nothing to do with social housing)

Yeah let's do that, now TRESemme has thrown everyone a curve ball.

Frexit Anyone?

Frexit followed by Gexit maybe

what a year that would be

With Merkel saying that the UK must pay it's "divorce" settlement figure before negotiations can begin, are all the brexitiers still feeling confident.

Holland are staying in, France look likely to follow (as Le Pen's share of the vote isnt likely to increase far beyond the 35% that she got in the first round) and then all attention will move to Germany.
Nothing is going to happen until after their election, which makes a large hole on the 2 year timescale for negotiations to be complete.

The whole thing looks worse by the day and with UK consumers tightening their belts (see today's figures growth figures for the first quarter 0.3%) which make for very sorry reading and the currency inflation still working its way through the system will tighten things further.

Not a chance the UK will pay a settlement figure in advance of talks.

You just revert to WTO position on both sides and as the EU sells us more than we sell it so they will be harder hit.

We then need to look to alternative markets to sell our goods and other options for supply e.g. manufacture it ourselves or buy product from outside of the EEC let's face it there are plenty of options. Just because Europe is a big customer now doesn't mean it has to be in the future.

I simply don't get all the negativity - a deal is only a good deal if it works for both parties - the idea the EU can bully us into a deal that is so one sided that it is onerous doesn't make any sense.

The UK is a very important market to the EU you don't on your best customer and expect them to remain your best customer. As I said before what we BMW do if the tarifs slow sales down, they will simply manufacture in the UK - win win.

THe EU do sell more to the UK that we sell to the EU but "their " total sale to the UK are spread amongst the 27 nations (Granted Germany is the biggest single supplying nation).
Therefore the "hit" on our sales, although smaller than the "hit" for the EU is massively higher to the UK.
BMW may move some of their manufacturing over here but, what about the UK car industry, which exports over 80% of its production, much of it to the EU



You say that you dont poop on your best customer but, "we" have just told our best customer that we no longer want to be part of their "club" .



It's sure going to be interesting to see how it all pans out and IF the UK economy starts to slow (sorry, continues to slow), the pressure will build on our negotiating team.

I've been banging on for months about the importance of trading with the EU and others have used the Farage line about new markets but it's just fantasy stuff.

It's like your local Londis or One Stop advertising in the next town for business, whilst ignoring the local trade.