High Rise Hell

In the light of the utter tragedy of Grenfell Tower, Calton is reconsidering his views on a room with a view. He finds it absolutely astonishing that a 24 storey tower block could have only one staircase and be subject to far less stringent fire safety regulations than hotels or workplaces. That is just not acceptable and must change. Any housing block higher than fire brigade turntable ladders can reach needs to be demolished if it only has one escape route. We don't need a public enquiry to work that out. It is common sense. And safety should take priority over aesthetics (and cost) when it comes to refurbishing buildings. It's not as if we don't know how to get it right - Calton witnessed a good-going fire in an Edinburgh Georgian tenement a few years ago. Some drunken lads apparently thought it would be a good idea to have a real fire in their living-room. In the middle of the floor it seems. Then they went to bed and left it. A passing taxi driver first raised the alarm when he saw flames at a 1st floor window. By the time the Fire Brigade arrived the front window was out and the room ablaze. The occupants were decamping via the back window after a neighbour chucked a brick through it to rouse them. The flat was totally gutted however the surrounding flats were structurally sound, affected only by smoke damage above and water damage in the shop below. There were no fatalities and, apart from the lads responsible, everyone else was back in their homes that night. That tenement was built in the 1840s and still stands today. We have learned nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Calton's deepest sympathies are with all those who have lost loved ones and their homes in the Grenfell disaster. He has the greatest admiration for the emergency services personnel who attended the scene.

Right to buy - election bribe or panacea?

Calton is probably going to vote Conservative in the forthcoming election, however, he totally disagrees with the Tory policy of extending the right to buy to housing association tenants in England and Wales and is therefore appreciating the benefits of devolution which allow Scotland to take a more sensible approach in this particular matter. What is it with Tories and home ownership? It really isn't the panacea for all ills and this latest piece of electioneering is going to give housing associations south of the border a massive migraine. It's also not going to help all those waiting for house or flat to rent at an affordable rate with some security of tenure. How on earth can housing associations operate properly when, as soon as they build some decent flats, they get snapped up? Thankfully, the new flats Calton spied being built on the edge of Dunfermline by Kingdom Housing Association, on one of his recent flights across the water, will not subject to the same barmy legislation. We need a good supply of quality, affordable rented accommodation for those who can't or don't want to buy. It seems that Scotland is leading the way in this respect, although more could have been done sooner to preserve our stock of rented housing.

A lost opportunity

Calton thinks that MP Andrew George's Affordable Homes Bill is eminently sensible and is glad to see it making it through to the next stage in Parliament. If the measures contained within George's bill had been included at the start, much of the controversy over the "bedroom tax" would have been avoided. Calton has always said that he doesn't see why taxpayers should be paying for people to stay in homes with more bedrooms than they need, however, cognisance should be taken of the fact that the disabled have special needs and also of the fact that we are in rather short supply of one bedroom council houses in some (most) areas of the country. It is hard to understand why all but one Conservative MP voted against the bill given that, if it succeeds, it will spike one of Alex Salmond's guns i.e. the promise that, in an independent Scotland, the "bedroom tax" will be abolished. The reason the spare room subsidy legislation is so hated in Scotland is because it is seen to penalise the disabled and those who are unable to find a smaller property in their area. Sort those problems with the legislation and it becomes altogether more reasonable. It's a pity that the Tory Party seem unable to put their hands up and admit that, in this case, they got it wrong. (And it's even more of a pity that, after all their criticisms of the "bedroom tax", only 2 SNP MPs were at Westminster to vote for today's bill.)

Red Road demolition - a symbol of failure

Calton was in two minds over the demolition of the Red Road flats in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, indeed he is in two minds over their demolition at all. It certainly would not have been a symbol of regeneration - more a symbol of failure and so, on balance, Calton is glad that the idea has been dropped. What he can't stomach is trendy lefties bumping their gums over the supposed insult to asylum seekers. The demolition hasn't been stopped - it will still be a spectacle watched by hundreds, if not thousands of people. It will just not be part of the Games. As for the asylum seekers, their main concern is not so much that they are living in a tower block, it's the lunar landscape of rubble around them which will be created by the mass implosions of the other five blocks. Many of them are grateful for the homes they have been given and feel secure in a community of other asylum seekers. It is truly sad that people from difficult situations in other countries have to show us here in Scotland, secure in our detached houses with six-foot garden fences, what community really means. The Red Road flats were built to provide better homes than the toiletless tenements of post-war Glasgow and were much appreciated by the first residents, who looked after them and built a community in them. Unfortunately, the 80's spirit of individualism, coupled with a growing disregard for property or other people, led to the breakdown of that community and the rise in problems at Red Road. The flats were not to blame - it was the people in them and a lack of maintenance. So now we are dynamiting them even although there is a chronic shortage of social housing. High rise flats are not suitable for everyone but, properly looked after and with the right tenants, they could provide part of the solution to today's housing crisis, if only we Scots could learn from the asylum seekers in the one inhabited block. Learn how to value what you've got and look after it. Learn how to live together with your neighbours in community instead of separately cheek-by-jowl. Perhaps Calton should move to Glasgow, to a room with a view, and change his name to Red Road. It would be harder for him to keep an eye on Holyrood but the neighbours might be friendlier.

Give them a bike

In the 19th century, people moved from other parts of Scotland to Glasgow to find work. Now it seems that a reverse migration is needed, with the news that Glasgow has the highest number of workless households in the UK, never mind Scotland. Unfortunately, the sluggish state of the housing market and a general lack of affordable rented homes in most, if not all, parts of Scotland makes moving to find work very difficult. It also seems to Calton that the welfare system does not encourage relocation. Moving costs money, something which the unemployed do not have. It also requires motivation - the confidence that a move will bring an improvement. The sad thing is that Eastern Europeans are more motivated to come and work in Scotland than some Scots are to move to the other side of the country to find a job. Instead of taking the initiative, many unemployed seem to expect the state to provide for them, both in terms of benefits while unemployed and also by subsidising companies to set up businesses in areas of high unemployment. Instead of moving to find work, people expect work to come to them. Sadly, companies which receive large amounts of public money to locate in Scotland quite often leave when the subsidies dry up. The Scottish Government would be better advised to spend the money on improving public transport and providing affordable rented homes in areas where there are jobs. Grants to enable unemployed families to relocate to areas where workers are needed might also be a good idea. The Government needs to encourage mobility but there's no point in telling people to get on their bike when they don't have a bike to get on.

SNP - listening for once

Calton is pleased to see that automatic early release is to be scrapped for violent/sexual offenders in Scotland. About time too. Nice to see the SNP actually listening to the concerns of the electorate for once. It would be even better if they scrapped the same-sex marriage bill, now that over 50,000 people have signed Scotland for Marriage's petition against it. That's more than the combined membership of all political parties in Scotland. Who said single-issue politics was dead?

As to the rest of the rather uninspiring raft of legislation introduced today: Calton is in favour of scrapping the right to buy for council tenants. It should never have been introduced in the first place. He also hopes that changes to licensing of scrap metal merchants will bring them into line with England and Wales, thus making Scotland less of a safe haven for metal thieves. And he dearly wishes that Alex Salmond would stop blaming Westminster at every opportunity. It's getting boring. And we still have more than a year to go!

Hot air with nowhere to go

After spending some time at the sea on Friday, Calton decided to visit the mountains on Sunday, making the most of his chances to do so before they disappear under a forest of wind turbines. While there he kept his eyes peeled for any sign of the East Coast youngsters however they were nowhere to be seen and neither could he see any Golden Eagles. Unfortunately there is still a lot of work to be done to persuade shooting estates not to poison or otherwise kill raptors. On the windfarm front there was good news today with the refusal of planning consent for a windfarm near Drumnadrochit. How the developer can claim that it would have supported 1000 jobs over its lifetime is beyond Calton. He supposes the devil is in the detail - 999 jobs for a short time to build the thing and 1 job to permanently look after it (including sweeping up the remains of dead birds from around the towers and switching the whole thing off when it gets too windy). Meanwhile, it transpires that the government's Green Deal may result in people being roasted if we get any more summers like this one, especially if they live in the top of 1960s flats or modern detached homes. All that insulation is great in the winter but it prevents the heat escaping in summer. Perhaps there is something to be said for traditional methods of house-building using natural materials like slate and stone. Calton is certainly appreciating the slightly cooler temperatures after the heatwave of last week.

And the winner of the 2013 Stable Door Award is ...

Calton has decided that the 2013 Stable Door award goes to Nicola Sturgeon for her announcement that the right to buy policy will be scrapped in 2017. Since the policy was introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government, 455000 council and housing association homes have been sold to tenants in Scotland in one of the biggest social engineering projects of the 20th century. It was a transfer of wealth on a massive scale which inflated the housing market from the late 80's until the end of the boom in 2008. Many people benefited from it but we are now living with the consequences - unaffordable private homes and a severe lack of social housing. Unfortunately, it's a bit late to shut the stable door - nowadays only around 2000 sales take place each year, compared to 32000 in 1989/90. Not that Calton disagrees with shutting it - better late than never - but he does wonder why the SNP didn't make it more of a priority when they came to power in 2007, when more than 7000 homes were being sold off each year?

When never becomes now

Calton is old enough to remember when building societies stopped insisting on seeing proof of an endowment policy or similar repayment vehicle when giving out interest only mortgages. He also remembers clearly seeing warnings that some sort of plan to repay the capital was necessary when taking out such a loan and was the responsibility of the borrower. Letters with traffic light colour codes warning people about the likelihood of their endowment meeting its target have been dropping through letterboxes for at least 10 years now. So Calton has little sympathy with those who 'suddenly' find themselves in the position where they aren't going to be able to repay their mortgage when it matures. Yes, some endowment policies were mis-sold, but we've been through all that and those affected have been able to claim compensation for some years now. Interest only mortgages were not, in the main, mis-sold - borrowers were just overly keen to keep their monthly payments low and over-optimistic about house price rises. The concern is that, now that it's all going pear-shaped and people are faced with a debt they can't pay, they expect someone else to foot the bill, probably the mortgage providers. This, in turn, would penalise sensible borrowers who took out repayment mortgages they could afford. A large section of the population has been living the dream on the never-never and one day soon never is going to become now. They are the ones who should feel the pain, not those who didn't buy into the fantasy of free money in the first place.

Stamping out stamp duty

It's about time the stamp duty on property was revised, although Calton tends to agree with Stephen O'Neill of Newton Property, Glasgow, who advocated a tax on profit when you sell rather than a tax when you purchase on today's John Beattie show. Interesting idea, however it looks like John Swinney is going to stay with taxing buyers, albeit on a sliding scale rather than the current system which involves a step change at certain values, with a knock-on effect on the market around those prices. Calton is not sure how much the change will help first-time buyers outside of the Capital given that most will be looking to spend under the current limit of £125k rather than the new proposed threshold for the tax at £180k, however the measure will help lower income home owners to move tax-free and will also benefit pensioners downsizing to smaller properties below the new threshold. It's definitely an improvement on the old system and, since Calton is not a property millionaire, or even a semi-millionaire, he is seriously considering delaying his next property move until after the introduction in 2015.

How to lose the grey vote

There may be a case for taxing better off pensioners at the same rate as younger people, and universal benefits such as free bus passes certainly should not start until state pension age, however the idea that pensioners should pay more council tax on their homes is just not on. Yes, it would be sensible for people to downsize as they age, thus freeing family-sized homes for families, however it just isn't that simple. People get very attached to their homes, especially when they've worked hard all their lives to pay for them and have invested a lot of time and effort into them. Finding a suitable smaller home is not always easy, nor is selling a larger home in this era of stalled and stagnant housing markets. Also, pensioners with larger houses do not always have the income to go with them. The real solution to the housing problem is to build more houses and lend more money to those who want to buy them. Many older people are already helping their children and grandchildren to buy homes by providing deposit money. The better off pensioners are also providing employment for an army of carers, cleaners, gardeners etc and a lot of the money tied up in houses eventually finds its way back to the state via care home fees when elderly people are no longer able to stay at home. Think tanks like the Fabian Society obviously have to justify their existence by coming up with wacky left-of-field policies every now and then. Politicians with any sense ignore them.

What goes around, comes around

Interesting that, according to Radio Scotland, the only thing Scots liked about Thatcher's policies was the right to buy your council house, because that is the one policy Calton has always disagreed with. It contributed to house price inflation by allowing people to buy houses at a 70% discount and then sell them on 3 years later at full market value. It massively reduced the number of social rented homes available for those who can't afford to buy, an issue which is still haunting us years later, and the homes left in council ownership were poorer stock in less desirable areas. It was a boon for many who were able to take advantage of it, but not all were prepared for the responsibilities of home ownership, where you can't just pick up the phone and call the council if something goes wrong, and now many of those who bought have reached the age where they are going to have to sell their home to fund care in their declining years, demonstrating that what goes around, comes around. Thatcher was right in that local authorities do not make the best landlords, however the solution was to transfer housing stock to housing associations, not sell it off cheap.

A room with a view?

The red, yellow and blue tower blocks always did look rather out of place towering over Kincardine, and so Calton finds it hard to mourn their passing, but the fact remains that they provided 181 homes whereas now there will only be 81. 100 homes lost to a council which suspended the right to buy in 2006 because of a shortage of council houses. It may be that there were good reasons to demolish the blocks but Calton does wonder if we are missing a trick here. The towers should possibly never have been built in the first place but they seemed to be the solution at a time when there was a shortage of housing and we are still in that situation today. If Park Hill flats in Sheffield can be renovated, is there something we can learn from them? The architects of these buildings did not design them as cheap and nasty boxes for the masses - they genuinely tried to provide quality housing for the large numbers of families who needed it and it was welcomed at the time. Part of the reason why such housing fell into disfavour is not so much the design but the lack of maintenance and lack of will to deal with problem tenants. If we sorted those problems then perhaps we would not need to be quite so gung-ho with the demolition button. (Of course Calton may be biased - he does like a room high up with a view.)

Get real, folks

Calton is in favour of reducing housing benefit for under-occupancy, for the reasons he outlined in an earlier post, and it is interesting that no-one seems to be mentioning examples of young single people in two bedroom flats in the recent media coverage of the 'bedroom tax'. He does, however, think that there needs to be exceptions for those with disabilities. He also thinks that social housing tenants should not be penalised if their local authority or housing association cannot provide them with a smaller home. As long as they are on the waiting list for a smaller house they should continue to get full housing benefit. Surely that would not be too difficult to administer? What is clear is that, for far too long, people on housing benefit have had carte blanche to stay in whatever size of house they like, in whatever area, all paid for by the state and the piggy bank is now empty. Welcome to the real world folks - Calton would love to have a bigger eyrie (with super-fast broadband) but, at Edinburgh prices, his funds won't stretch to it. Why should you be any different?

One big no-no

The number of people employed in Scotland has just gone down, we have a huge youth unemployment issue, we have a lack of affordable homes and we are about to see a large number of people trying to downsize to avoid a housing benefit cut due to under-occupancy but the SNP is getting ready to welcome a potentially huge influx of Romanians and Bulgarians with open arms and they don't seem to have any contingency plans to cope if, as seems very likely, the numbers exceed even the most liberal estimate. If any further evidence was needed to prove that our Government is stark, staring mad, this is it. OK, so we can probably house them in all the larger council houses vacated by Scots who can't pay for them any more, but what about schools, medical practices, dentists etc, etc, etc? And what about all the Scots who find they can't get a job because they are all taken by Eastern Europeans? What are they supposed to do? This is not just a few skilled immigrants, which we need, or some temporary unskilled immigrants doing menial agricultural work which we don't want to do. We could be talking millions of people in the space of a few months and we have absolutely no control over it while we remain part of the EU. One very good reason to vote NO to independence and NO to the EU.

Salmond - a modern Canute?

It's no surprise to Calton that the Home Secretary is powerless to prevent unrestricted immigration from Bulgaria and Romania come the end of next year. Freedom of movement is what the EU is all about - if you don't like it, the only option is to leave the EU. Now there's an idea! Not one that our First Minister is considering, admittedly, however an increase in Eastern European immigrants into Scotland nearly a year before the independence referendum may concentrate his mind a bit. It did not escape Calton's notice, on a recent visit up north, that the majority of people serving him in shops, cafes and petrol stations were Eastern Europeans. They were polite and helpful and they have a reputation for being hard-working, however, if their numbers were to increase dramatically it would almost certainly fuel tensions with locals in areas with high unemployment and a lack of affordable housing, ie most of Scotland. If Salmond sticks with his plan to stay in the EU he will be as powerless as Theresa May is to stop the inflow. So much for having control over our own economy. As well try and stop the tide coming in.

Keeping speech and prescriptions free

Calton is not sure that it would be a good idea to remove the 'no overnight parking' signs from Highland laybys. Given the increase in 'wild' camping and caravanning in these times of austerity, this would seem like a green light to low-budget holidaymakers to foul our laybys, with Highland Council picking up the tab. Highland council tax payers may wish to make their feelings about this known to their elected representatives.

Abuse of any sort is foul, however Calton is glad to see that the DPP in England and Wales considers that the bar should be set pretty high before prosecuting, in order to defend freedom of speech. Hopefully the same common-sense approach will prevail in Scotland.

Finally, in today's smorgasbord of  unrelated comments, Calton welcomes the commitment made in today's SNP budget to free prescriptions and affordable housing. He just wishes that John Swinney would stop bemoaning the fact that he doesn't have all the fiscal levers he would like - Swinney has obviously missed his true vocation as an old-fashioned railway signalman. If he loses his job as Finance Minister he could always try pulling pints at his local.

The Young Ones

Calton has just been given a copy of Fife Council's advice about benefit changes. In it, they have an example of two unemployed young men, aged 22 and 23, who each live alone in a 2-bedroom rented flat paid for by the taxpayer. When the benefit changes come into force next April their housing benefit will be reduced by 14% because their flats will be classed as 'under-occupied'. If Calton had his way their benefit would be slashed by 50% and they would be told to move in together. If they want to have a 2-bedroom flat all to themselves they should get a job and put up with anti-social flatmates until they have saved enough money to put down a deposit on a home of their own, helped by the Government's new scheme. That's what Calton and many of his peers did when they were in their early 20's. Why should this generation be any different? How did we end up in the situation where guys that age expect to be given flats for nothing? Thirty years ago you counted yourself lucky if you had a room of your own in a shared flat! This benefit nonsense has to stop.

A leg up the property ladder

When Calton bought his first Edinburgh eyrie it was with a 95% mortgage which was 2.5 times his salary. Those were the days when your banker interviewed you before deciding whether to give you a mortgage and 3 times your salary was the absolute maximum available. Now, the housing market is only open to those with substantial deposits, leaving many young people out in the cold, so the initiative to provide 95% loans on new houses by industry body Homes for Scotland in conjunction with the Scottish Government is to be warmly welcomed. No-one wants to return to the days of irresponsible lending but the pendulum has swung too far the other way, with detrimental effects on the housing market and our building industry. Hopefully this scheme will go some way to redressing the balance and will help more people to get a foot on the property ladder.

Local jobs for local people

Given that Burntisland was one of the places Calton highlighted back in February as a town where industry had been replaced by housing, it is heartening to hear that Burntisland Fabrications are expanding operations there and bringing new jobs to the town. For too long now Fife towns have been dormitories for Edinburgh because of their cheaper houses. It's good to see that trend being reversed.