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Single earner with 2 kids living in London on top-1 percentile income here. 60% of that monthly income is going towards rent, taxes and utilities for a terrace in Zone 4, plus nursery charges for our toddler. My wife can't find a job here, as she's an ex-journalist, and not a native speaker. No tax allowances (due to £100k+/y income) and no recurse to public funds (I'm on Visa, and not an EU citizen) doesn't help eit…
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That's what I suspect, but it's crazy. The average salary in London is £27k, a senior dev will earn 3x that (I'm guessing). And that's still barely enough to live comfortably. I guess that's the point of the campaign in the linked article, but I can't see how that will change, unless the financial bubble bursts.
I think £27k is the UK average or the southeast average? I thought the london average was closer to £60k? I can't find a source for that though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom#In...
It's 2007 and income distribution is probably per capita rather than average salary. In that case it's not as extreme as I've implied.
EDIT: A newspaper article from last year claims the UK average is 26k, so London is probably significantly higher. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-average-salary-26500...
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> It's maddening that property owners can vote against new construction, when they have a deep conflict of interest. > landed incumbents voting to screw over the young That pesky "democracy" and "giving everybody a voice" getting in the way of what I want right now . (oh, and a small nitpick: Homeowners don't have conflict of interest, they simply have a different interest which may conflict with yours)
Count enough heads and the Right Thing will be found? Democracy is the null hypothesis, not Truth.
When you require a large number of people to adjust their behaviour to suit your interest, significant measures of patience and modesty are admirable traits.
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>That you see yourself as being one of the "original" residents doesn't give you some inherent right to below-market-prices in property. It speaks volumes that you implicitly put the rights of Russian oligarchs and Arab oil barons to buy property (which they often leave empty) above those of the working and middle classes of London. I'll come back to London when they start taxing the wealthy again. Until then I'll wa…
> It speaks volumes that you implicitly put the rights of > Russian oligarchs and Arab oil barons to buy property > (which they often leave empty) above those of the > working and middle classes of London. Sure. But if we'd been having this conversation 20 years ago, it'd have been the rights of the Yuppies above the East End families, and then 200 years ago, it would have been those wealthy landed gentry pushing out…
Because there is no irony. I bitched about that too. I don't want ANYBODY priced out.
>I'm also curious about just how many Arab Oil Barons and Russian Oligarchs you think there are, as a percentage of an 8m person city?
One unoccupied oil baron's mansion in Central London could be demolished and replaced by affordable housing for hundreds of people.
Rich people occupy more valuable space.
>Because right now, blaming a handful of immigrants who are buying multimillion pound properties that almost no-one else can afford smacks of racism.
I think you're confusing an understanding basic physics with racism.
Single earner with 2 kids living in London on top-1 percentile income here. 60% of that monthly income is going towards rent, taxes and utilities for a terrace in Zone 4, plus nursery charges for our toddler. My wife can't find a job here, as she's an ex-journalist, and not a native speaker. No tax allowances (due to £100k+/y income) and no recurse to public funds (I'm on Visa, and not an EU citizen) doesn't help eit…
Now I have a baby and the wife can't really have a career because a nursery would cost more than she can reasonably expect to make as a designer at this stage.
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Sorry, I don't know London, but I'm trying to understand your situation. You have a mortgage for around 1.5k for the next 25 years, shared between you and your gf for a flat with a spare bedroom close to the centre of London ? Sounds rather affordable, what am I missing ?
£1500 for the mortgage, plus bills, council tax, land rent, home insurance, repairs, etc... that is around £2000 per month not counting food, travel, clothes and entertainment. So realistically you need to earn £3000 after tax to be able to afford it, which translates to a pre-tax salary of £50k. We are lucky to earn more than that but the vast majority of people I know would not be able to do it. We barely feel midd…
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom
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> It speaks volumes that you implicitly put the rights of Russian oligarchs and Arab oil barons to buy property (which they often leave empty) above those of the working and middle classes of London. It's not about putting anyone's rights "above" anyone else's -- whoever is willing to pay the most gets the property, that's all there is to it.
Not rights but interests. The brits are getting the shaft, while the rich foreigners pour their money.
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The cost of living in London is insane and it is a really interesting thought experiment. A lot of my friends are moving out of the city and I can't see myself staying here more than another year or two. But for some context, West Hampstead is a fairly nice suburb on three different train and tube lines. The rent for a one-bed flat is high as they are bid up by couples who are both earning. You are at a big disadvant…
How can rail transport be that expensive? (I'm genuinely asking)
Of course, network rail, the line operator, kicks back money for lateness but the strange rules of your franchise like paying out only on overall lateness and not considering a train that's too full for you to get on as late means they keep 90% of that back for themselves.
For most folks that's only part one of your commute, because few of us actually work where we get into the city. Typically this means getting on the underground for another 30 minutes, this time cattle is being a bit polite.
* Actually, the £4000 is what I would pay if I paid for a yearly ticket. Since I don't always work in London, I get month tickets. These cost £400 a month.
I'm leaving London with my girlfriend in a week, to move to Edinburgh. Been here seven years, both on a good salary, yet we live in an impoverished area and would never be able to afford to buy a decent place to live even where we are now. Edinburgh offers us an objectively better standard of living in every measurable aspect except proximity to Europe. I won't miss London.
There are plenty of places to relocate.
"Are there no prisons?" "Plenty of prisons..." "And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?" "Both very busy, sir..." "Those who are badly off must go there." "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." This isn't JUST about privileged young would-be urbanites having to live a f…