The cost of living... what can we do?

I always assume an "affordable" home to be smallish often as part of a block, these days and actually has a lower market value.
Not really a house sold at below market value.
So if they are sold on quickly I don't see a problem.

 

Yeah, shared ownership was intended to help first time buyers but as you say it doesn't get you far but surely must be a better option than renting, at least a chance to get a deposit for the next move.
Often I heard it said that getting the deposit together is the hardest part, when at the same time renting.

 

I would in some ways question who actually is a key worker.
I don't suppose that includes the likes of dustmen, postman.

Certainly sounds like the class system is alive and well in Britain still.

 

I just think that when you start singling out certain workers for special help its a bit of a slippery slope.
Often those that were called key workers, in the housing schemes, were and are better paid than the majority, I know you can go on about the average wage and all that, but in all my working life I never got anywhere near the so called average, and I know a lot of others who didn't also.

 

Everyone around here is slagging off the dustmen, all the facebook complaint that they have not emptied my bin etc.
Truth is half the time they cant get to certain roads because of parked cars.
During the winter they are usually soaking wet and cold and in the summer roasting.

They have had to work overtime over the holidays to catch up on having the christmas day boxing day off.

It a rotten job, lots of people do rotten jobs.

 

My nextdoor neighbour works for Biffa, he used to start around 6am and be home by 2pm, but that seems to have stopped since covid and they cant get workers, he said they were using agency drivers and crashed about three lorries, so running around like headless chickens most of the time.

 

Starting at 6 and finishing at 2 is just a normal Dayshift. 8 hours. Same as 9 till 5. I used to work 6 till 6. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday one week. Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the next. Mind you, I would drive from Fife to Greenock and see the railway gangers getting ready to do an outside nightshift, in February, and think how lucky I was in a warm fab, wearing clean gear instead of thermals, three pairs of socks and waterproofs.

 

My old Dad used to be over the moon if he had 6 days 12 hours and 4 hours Sunday.
The money was good but he put in lots of hours.
That was in the 70s.

 

Last month the Scottish Ambulance Service was called out 799 times for people suffering from hypothermia. 121 cases here in Lothian.