It's a Strike!

"Unions: the people who brought you the weekend. And capped working hours. And employment rights and protections. And fair wages. And pensions. And ended child labour. What a bunch of greedy bastards." - Priyamvada Gopal

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When I walked into uni today, one of my lecturers handed me a sticker and thanked me for my support. He’s striking, along with over two million other public sector workers, to fight the cuts against pensions. It’s the biggest nationwide strike in decades with numerous different unions objecting to the government’s proposal which will see people working longer, and paying more to receive their pension.

Normally I see strikes as quite a nuisance, resulting in little change and mass inconvenience to many hundreds of people; the Southampton bin-men walkout for example achieved nothing but a huge pest infestation and a revolting smell in my street. However today, I see them as nothing of the sort and believe that action, not talking, is the only way for workers to get what they want. The government is not unlikely to rethink and actually listen otherwise.

Teachers provide us with an education and a subsequent future, ambulance men and women save our lives and airport staff allow us to travel the world, and all do it whilst paying their taxes. Without question, these people have contributed to society so surely they have the right to a decent pension? The same goes for everybody else; if you’ve worked hard in your lifetime then you should have the right to a happy and secure retirement, not one spent endlessly worrying about money.

If I had started a job as a teacher and signed on the dotted line for a specific pension, at the end of my career then that pension is what I would expect. It shouldn’t be cut. It would be what I am rightfully entitled to.

Some officials believe that the cuts are inevitable; that the money saved will help with Britain’s ever-growing debt problem but it seems like nothing more than a quick-fix scheme that, in the long run is going to leave many retired people struggling. Besides, in recent years there have been plenty of things we could have saved money on, for example a £500,000 ‘Bat Bridge’. We could have saved a lot by not ever building that at all.

Like many people, I’m often guilty of shunning a protest before I really know the reasons behind it but if striking is the only way of getting a message across in this instance then so be it. It doesn’t mean that I’ll condone every future protest, but I’ll make an exception for this one because it’s a matter that could potentially affect my future too.

Actions speak louder than words and I hope David Cameron listens.

No Place Like a New Home

As a child, if somebody had asked me what I wanted my ‘grownup’ life to be like, my answer would always be the same; a nice husband, a couple of kids, possibly a dog, but most importantly a nice little house of my own. Stereotypical I know but I wanted what my parents had; a happy family in their own home.

As a teenager, I began focusing on my life ambition to become a writer to hopefully get my own house when I became successful (fingers crossed). I ignored the news when it warned about housing prices, mortgages and equity because, I thought, by the time I wanted to buy a place of my own, everything would be sorted and I’d be ok.

However now, at the age of 22, my dreams of someday owning my own property have flittered away. I fear that I’ll never get my own little house, unless a distant relative I’ve never heard of before decides to leave me their millions, or, more realistically, I win the lottery.

Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against renting, for the last three years I’ve rented, but I just feel that home ownership offers a much better sense of security and independence, plus you can decorate however you like!

We all know that getting onto the housing ladder, at any age, now seems like an impossible task. The  downfall of the housing market alongside housing shortages and the lack of money in everybody’s pockets has meant that many people are realistically never going to get a chance to own their own home. For those like me who are going to be saddled with thousands of pounds of student debt before they’ve even started, well, what chance have we got?

Currently, some of my friends are saving up for house deposits of around £30,000, and when their wallets aren't bursting at the seams each week, it seems rather pointless.  It’s going to take them years, maybe even decades before they are able to afford their own places and who knows what the housing market is going to look like then.

So in step Cameron and Clegg with their £400m fund to kick start the building of 16,000 new houses under their newly published strategy aiming to “unstick” the housing market. In theory, it will allow lenders to lend and buyers to buy and it would also mean that first-time buyers will be able to take out “taxpayer-backed 95% mortgages,” a brilliant idea, right?

Well actually, I don’t think it’s that bad. Under these proposals, buyers will only have to put down a 5% deposit for a newly built home rather than 20% which is what the banks are currently asking for. It’s a step in the right direction for people who would have never been able to afford a deposit otherwise. It’s not going to fix our debt problems and restore the market quickly, but perhaps if the scheme proves a success then lenders may just be inclined to lower their rates and owning your own home may not sound like such a preposterous idea in the future.

But, not to speak too optimistically, it could have an altogether different domino effect as if the housing market experiences another downturn then the loss would be shared between the taxpayer and the bank alongside the home owner losing their deposit. I suppose though, if you want to own a home that badly, it’s a risk you should be prepared to take and how are we ever going to restore our market if we don’t take risks? 

For the foreseeable future it seems as if any incline in the housing market will be unsteady with as many, if not more, downs as ups. Yet if this scheme works it could boost our economy and create jobs, something we have all been moaning about for too long. I think we need to stop waiting around for a miracle payout that’s never going to happen and take risks like this in a bid to get Britain back on track. If you don’t try you’ll never know.

Of course, our money (or lack of) isn’t one to be gambled, but in my eyes this proposal has more pros than cons. I doubt that it will “unlock” the house market once again as Cameron believes, but it’s a start, and we have to start somewhere.

Above: The graph shows the rapid incline in house prices across the country. (Source: Nationwide)