Can anyone explain to me please:

I must admit than when we travel north, there seems to be a great deal of open space, which I am sure is farmland, but never-the-less it appears there is more space to build in the north, and we once again seem to have the north/south divide. Obviously, wherever they are, not all open green spaces are suitable for building, but I think that where we are building gives rise to additional risks of flooding, and we stand to loose some lovely places for the wildlife on which we depend. I don't know if this applies elsewhere, but it often seems to me that there is accommodation above the shops in shopping centres which might well be used, and of course someone has already mentioned the houses which stand empty. We have one locally which as been boarded up for about five years now, perhaps the owners are abroad and will be back, I don't know, but it seems a great pity that these places do stand empty - during the war the government requisitioned houses like this for those people who had lost their homes. A different state of affairs, admittedly, but a course of action which might be taken.

When I hear about the need to build more housing I cannot help wondering when and where it will all stop. Do we just go on building and building until there is not a shred of green ground left? Clearly people have to live somewhere, but there needs to be a coherent policy about the type and situation of housing (high rise, eco etc.) to accommodate these needs without total destruction of farming, drainage, open spaces etc.

I do not claim to know what the answer is, but the priority for proper planning on a national scale is imperative. I do not see this happening.

We travel through villages on our way home from work. One appears to have every other house for sale. My DH was visiting an ex-colleague yesterday and she remarked that only eight homes in her village are not for sale. I live on the Northumberland/Cumbria border. I know we are very northern and rural and property is expensive around here, I was just giving an example. Why does everyone want or need to live in the cities or the south east?

work?

Quite, whitewave we are now in the throes of having a huge Rolls Royce factory built near us which is good in as much as it will provide more jobs, but it will also create more traffic and more people in this corner of the country, which as I said before is already bursting at the seams.

Work I presume hilda. There are not nearly so many jobs in the countryside, or even rurally, as there once were.

The south east is handy for Europe. The north east isnt.

The south-east is handy to some parts of Europe but is no nearer northern Europe than the north-east and with modern transportation there is little or no difference in convenience or time when travelling to, say, Germany, from the north-east. It's even nearer Denmark and Scandiwegia. Presumably the channel tunnel does makes some difference as does the demise of east coast ports. Mind you, I am not at all sure what Britain exports these days – besides, of course, exactly the same quantity of potatoes to Germany as it imports from Germany each year.

Here is a breakdown absent
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/EUOverseasTrade/Pages/EuOTS.aspx

so if it is just potatoes we must be eating an awful lot of them!

rosequartz Thanks. If those figures are the norm, pretty soon potatoes will be all anyone can afford.

www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/forget-detroit---newcastle-new-7109558
This was a couple of years ago but I gather it's still happening. Living Oop North is much pleasanter than in the south east. There are many regular commuters to the Great Wen from Newcastle ,Durham, and York .

I do like potatoes. If ever I was on Desert Island Discs (fat chance!) and I was asked what I would like to take with me, I would ask for seed potatoes. I could catch fish and live on potatoes, fish and the native bananas

Native bananas?

Of course; I trust it will be a tropical island with a mango tree, an avocado tree, banana plants (the sweet variety) and whatever else I like! And good soil to grow those potatoes. And a fishing net.
And Man Friday .....

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/feb/24/uk-trade-exports-imports

Found this too from 2011

91% is one of those meaningless statistics, it varies from area to area. How critical it is depends on how what quality the land is.

Unfortunately much of the growth of population is in areas that are also prime agricultural areas, so that the proportion of productive land already built over or threatened with construction is land that has a competing economic and strategic value in providing food. Go to areas where the land is of poor agricultural value or the terrain is unsuitable for building and much more than 91% isn't built on, but this land is generally far from areas of population growth.

I do get irritated, as Gransnetters will have noticed, with these broad brush statistics that are grossly misleading and tell us nothing useful.

Why build thousands of new houses which nobody who is not already a home owner can ever afford to buy? Young people cannot hope to save huge deposits. I wonder how many of these new houses will be bought to let, driving prices up further?

Perhaps the answer lies with controlling buy to let? Around here no one younger wishing to buy locally stands a chance. Half the village is second homes or buy to let.
Bath house prices are astronomical and villages close by are heading the same way.
My daughter has zilch chance of ever buying in London where her job is, comparable jobs don't exist anywhere else so moving is not an option.
DS and DDIL bought a small flat 8 years ago, it's risen in price but have no chance of getting anywhere bigger within London where they both work.

Some of the open land here in the north west has been designated for tracking. there is a lot of opposition and fear about the impact on house prices as well as the environment.

Buy to let is a problem here as well, not just in the south east. The shortage of social housing alongside increasing demand leaves many young people living in rented accommodation that is owned by people in the south east, as well as local buy to renters. The north west/east are crying out for more affordable housing and need business investment to create jobs.

I agree with you Printmiss about the influx of immigrants and the lack of services and homes to accommodate an increased population.

If only I felt that the political parties could restrict numbers to a reasonable amount, I wouldn't be so worried about the future of my grandsons.

This is all to do with numbers and not a racist comment.

I live in a town in the south east which has minimal space for building and the roads are grid locked at some times of day. Talk about fitting a quart into a pint pot.

When it becomes a vote issue is when I suspect that the parties will listen about the gridlock in the south east. I suspect that that time will come in time for the election in 5 years.

Two years ago it was us babyboomers, refusing to downsize from 3 bed family homes to 1 bedroomed flats who were the reason that first time buyers had such difficulty getting on the housing ladder. Now it is Buy-to-let -ers. I wonder who will be blamed in 2017?

I think there could be more help given to first time buyers. The cost of renting is often rwice the price of a mortgage and has been for many years. So anyone having a good record for paying rent is a good bet for a cheaper payment for a mortgage.
My DD has recently moved from Wales to Yorkshire for work. There are very few 'proper' jobs and paying a decent salary in SouthWales. She worked in Recruitment till the downturn made most of the companies redundant and says now jobs in Wales are advertised at £5-6k less than five years ago. House prices and rents have not gone down. They are also not a great deal of difference in house prices. As she is uncertain how things will go - she is away from the family as they are now grown up and also had the end of a relationship - she has rented her house out to a family and is renting a smaller one herself. The rental on her house is luckily several times more than the cost of the mortgage - of course she will need to pay for any repairs but the house is in very good condition and freshly decorated with a garden.
Jobs are the big issue for most people.
As to the immigrants I personally think that if restrictions are put in place for everyone as to how they qualify for benefits - it could be payments into the system and/or time lived in UK - the problem would greatly reduce. The other European countries do not give immigrants and asylum seekers instant rights to a raft of benefits. To get anything out you need to have paid into the system for a qualifying period and in some places the amount of pay is directly related to your last salary.
Here in France no one gets free health care either. We qualify with enough NI contributions etc for the UK government to eventually pay the tab for 70% of our healthcare. We pay the rest by virtue of a 'top up ' health insurance. This covers us for the remaining 30% of charges and also for any hospital costs as accomodation and food are not covered by the State.
Family allowance is not paid for the first child and I have no idea if there is a similar payment to the working tax credits. People paying little tax do not pay all the property taxes etc. It all works here on the amount of tax you pay.
If UK did something similar it would not be breaking any EU rules and go a long way to alleviating the situation of being such a magnet to those from poorer countries

This weekend it was reported that recent house price rises have been fuelled by the government's help for first time buyers scheme

what is wrong with firms locating to the north east ?
There are whole rows of unused facory units on the industrial estates, whole blocks of offices standing empty. There are swathes of brownfield sites just waiting for development so why doesn't anyone want to come. I agree with Jean, Newcastle is a lovely city and we have fabulous countryside that equals the tourist spots in Cumbria/Cotswolds etc.

No, I think the spoiled southerners just want the convenience of the trains and nearness to London etc and of course the better wages. What they don't think of is the cost of living, which is much lower here so less wages go much further.

We have our share of immigrants, in my local park with DGD the other day, she played with no other English children, most of the mums had accents that lead me to believe they came from Poland and they were very pleasant girls, I have no problem with this. Also there are new houses being built, thankfully not huge estates like in the sixties but small exclusive developments. I saw a sign saying 'starter homes for £69,000'. How that for low prices.

That would be deposit here.