Lets Flood again, like we did last summer

There is a very prominent village that I go through on my way to work each day, its called Yalding Kent.
Now they flooded last winter, and got on the news because David Cameron visited and one of the residents decided to take out her anger on him.
Now if I go back in my mind to the days when I was at school, if anywhere was to flood, it was Yalding, it was always flooding, as I remember.
It was an accepted fact.

Difference these days seems to be, that its in minds that this should not happen, and if it does it somebodies fault.
Its all part of the blame culture.
Personally, I say if you live in a hole in the ground, expect to get wet.

 

The thing is, if it dont flood this year will it be down to the dredging or down to the fact that the unprecedented rain fall of last year did not happen this year?

I know people dont decide to live in holes in the ground or on flood plains, but my point was that the place I was referring to is a known flood area, move there and live there at your peril.
It has history of flooding probably going back hundreds of years.

Somerset levels is a good example, I'd not buy a house anywhere near the place.

Regarding new build.

Until the builders and planners get the message that the places they build on flood plains are unsaleable they will carry on regardless.

Can we really be expected to pay vast amounts of money trying to stop places flooding that really will always flood at certain times.
Strikes me as slightly stupid, as water always finds its own level, and if you are below that level, look out.

 

Perhaps part of the problem is that buyers may not be aware of the risk. Sure they can check, and their surveyor (if they get one, which they will if they are buying on a mortgage) should tell them via their solicitor, but its not the solicitor's job to advise whether to buy or not, it is their job to prevent the facts in layman's terms, taking care to be seen to be remaining purely objective. And besides, if you get that far, you're probably just desperately waiting to get the keys to your new property anyway. Nobody's fault, just human nature. But earlier that that, when its still at the stage of looking in estate agent's windows, they're not going to say "Beautiful spacious detached property, ample front and rear gardens, views of stunning countryside, cows, and the occassional raging torrent of sewage filled water".

But in any case, for some people, what choice do they have? An ageing population (houses not been erm, 'released back into the market'), and Britain's DInKy culture and other factors mean that property prices are now out of the league of reach to many young adults, so they have to buy whatever they can get.

 

As I say this place was flooding in the 60s fairly often, probably years before that, its a village where two rivers meet.
No new housing in quantity as yet, but was suggested as a site for a new garden city.

You could build houses from now till dooms day in the UK and there will never be enough, its in nobody, but first time buyers, interests to lower house prices.
And it dont matter how many they build, the price will not come down, that is just part of the property speculators angle.
They are in it to make money, so lower house prices is the last thing they want.

 

Britain is uncompetitive in the global market, so all our stuff gets made abroad where labour is cheaper. We're uncompetitive because everything here is so expensive, and because everything here is so expensive, we have to ask for big salaries just to get by. A typical mortgage will take up between 25% and 40% of your monthly income. That doesn't leave much spare cash for most people to be 'consumers' and keep the economy going, and it also means moral principles of buying local to support the local economy have to go, and 'buy cheap' has to be the way, meaning that we send all the nation's money abroad. No leg room in one's finances means that mortgage arrears become more likely, which means the lenders lose out because if they have to foreclose, they have to pay all the legal costs and then they sell the property at less than its worth (and often less than is outstanding on the mortgage) so they lose out. It is in almost everyone's best interest to keep house prices under control. The main exception is those that have spare property that they don't need to live in. The landlords and the developers.

 

We are 20 metres above a river, down the hill . The river valley is all marked in purple though .

 

Building houses like that makes a lot of sense to me, even without the risk of flooding. You could use the space beneath the house for parking the car(s) thus negating the need for space for drives/garages, or you could have it as a nice sheltered outdoor space for chilling out, maybe with a beer and/or barbie on rainy days. In flood risk areas, I like the idea that was 'floated' (excuse the pun) a while ago whereby houses could be build on top of huge polystyrene blocks so they rise with the flood water and thus stay dry. And why we don't see more use of house boats (narrow boats) is beyond me. Some of them look really nice and cosy. I'd live in one in a heart beat but you only see them on canals, and we don't have any of them round here, but there are plenty of expanses of water.

 

Oh yes I certainly would, plus I'd queue jump massive queues knowing it made only a tiny difference to all the other shoppers in that store, and not pay my council tax knowing it made only a tiny difference to all those that paid, plus not pay income tax and dis-engage from a host of other stuff that would disproportionally benefit me, because if I was the only one that did it, then nobody else would be affected in the slightest, and that would surely outweigh the benefit to us with an income classed as being in poverty?

But I do not.

 

Remember when the Icelandic bank collapsed and lots of councils lost all their (our) money? Well this is how much your council tax affects other: For some time prior to the news that councils had lost £millions each in the Icelandic banking crisis, our local council had been pleading poverty for ages. "We can't afford to fix potholes.... we can't afford to empty your bins more than once a fortnight and we struggle to afford even that... we can't afford to maintain the local parks.... etc etc etc". Then news broke that lots of councils had each lost many £millions in the Icelandic banking crash. Ours was one of them. Which begs the question, if they lost £millions in an off-shore banking crisis, surely that can only mean they had £millions to lose, which in turn can only mean that they were stashing a surplus that they must have had left over after meeting their obligations to the council tax payers, so how come for so long prior to that, they were pleading poverty and trying to guilt trip us all into accept a reduced service at an increased premium?

 

Personally I like to have a bit of cash behind me, for a rainy day

If a council was to spend every last penny it gets in each year there would be no money left for the rainy days.
I'm not sure an investment is money you can afford to lose?

I admit you could argue over the amount they had stashed in Icelandic banks, but I think the idea was a sound one, it was just unfortunate they stashed it in the wrong place.
Lets hope lessons have been learned.

 

For me that's speculation. 'Don't speculate more than you can afford to lose' should apply equally to individuals and Local Authorities.

 

If they were as skint as they made out they were, there would be no money left for the rainy days. Surely if they can't afford to meet their current obligations, that is the rainy day.

Lets say that I told my wife that we wont be having any days out for the foreseeable future, and we'll be living off rehydrated beans and pasta, and the kids are getting nowt for christmas or birthdays, and I'm not fixing the leaky roof as long as the house is still standing, and there'll be no cuppas because we'll be only be drinking water, and we might have to sell the house and move to the nastier part of the region. What if she then found out after months or years of this that I'd been secretly stashing money in an offshore bank account, and lost it all? I bet at the very least I'd be reminded what a swift kick to the goolies feels like, and that's if I was lucky.