PricedOut
Administrators
Concerned Citizen
Posts:47
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| 19/01/2008 9:33 AM |
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We are planning to organise a Priced Out protest or publicity stunt in the next 3-4 months. The aims of the event are to:
- Give people the chance to get their voice heard and make a clear statement that we want the Government to do more to assist priced out people in the UK
- Raise media interest in the campaign (our last 2 protests generated significant media interest)
- Increase the numbers of people involved in the campaign and give a clear representation of the numbers of people affected by high house prices in the UK today.
We would like your suggestions for possible places/events for our protest. For example, our first protest was in Brighton to coincide with a speech given by Gordon Brown. The second was at a property investors event at the Excel centre, London.
We have one idea so far, similar to the last protest, which is to protest at the Landlord & Buy-to-Let Show on 18th-19th April at Kensington Olympia in London. But ideally we'd like a few more suggestions to choose from. If there are plenty of good suggestions we could even consider more than one protest in the next 3-4 months, particularly if folks are happy to lead on organising a protest in their own area.
We look forward to your suggestions.
The Priced Out Team
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chefdave
Activist
Posts:464
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| 19/01/2008 9:47 AM |
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Yeah i've got a suggestion, lets go straight to the Headquarters of Northern Rock, demonstrating how devastating it is that the government have poured billions of pounds away into the bank in order to prop up the housing market.
NR are basically headline news everyday now so would be great for the media to get our side of the story.
It would really annoy NR workers and depositers causing a bit of controversy. Great for publicity! |
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unclealbert
Activist
Posts:438
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| 19/01/2008 1:00 PM |
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I've said before, it would be good not to highlight the protest as the 'hard-done-by generation' which have no hope of getting on the housing 'ladder/snake' thereby enforcing landlords mindsets that there is still hope etc etc.
Just wave the banners around saying,
"BUY TO LET - SPEND YOUR LIFE IN DEBT"
"BUY NOW! HOUSES NEVER LOSE VALUE!"
"DON'T BE SHY - BUY BUY BUY"
"DON'T MISS THE BOAT - BUGGER IT'S LEFT ALREADY!"
Maybe a little song could be sung as background, something like,
Gordon Brown won't make you frown,
Gordon Brown won't let you down,
Gordon Brown knows what to do,
When old England gets caught with the flu,
He's the man with a great brain,
He won't let your money go down the drain,
Invest now with Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown won't let you down...
or you could just shout:
"Gordon Brown is a prick"  |
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chefdave
Activist
Posts:464
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| 19/01/2008 4:31 PM |
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On second thoughts I'll leave the Northern Rock issue up to the taxpayers alliance. I'm with you on this one unc, if we turn upto a property show campaigning against them buying houses as investments it will only go and confirm to them how much of a good investment they are because all the protesters will have to continue to rent.
The administrators wrote:
"We have one idea so far, similar to the last protest, which is to protest at the Landlord & Buy-to-Let Show on 18th-19th April at Kensington Olympia in London"
Are people seriously going to be investing in property in April? If so once again I'm with unclealbert, I think we should turn up as a covert operation and tell all the potential investors how we've all done amazingly well out of property and how now is exactly the right time to invest and then stand back and laugh whilst their investments go up in smoke.
I think the media finally have a pretty good picture of whats going on by now. Have you seen the front page of The Independent today?!!!
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unclealbert
Activist
Posts:438
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| 19/01/2008 6:08 PM |
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" if we turn upto a property show campaigning against them buying houses as investments it will only go and confirm to them how much of a good investment they are because all the protesters will have to continue to rent"
Mods >>>> PLEASE think about this - Can we have some feedback?
cheers |
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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| 21/01/2008 1:57 PM |
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Some ideas to expand the debate:
Possible protest targets
1. Irresponsible estate agents , i.e. Foxtons
2. General buy to let investors at property shows
3. Individual MPs who have Buy To Let portfolios but talk about social justice
4. Mayoral candidates?
5. Housing minister Yvette Cooper for being totally useless
6. Celebrity buy to letters, e.g. Konnie Huq
7. Prime minister at an appropriate event, e.g. a housing conference
The main point of a protest
1. Pity people who can't buy
2. Houses are bad value for money
3. Buy to letters are scum
4. Irresponsible estate agents are scum
5. Change the tenancy laws to favour long term renting
6. We want prices to fall
Catching the eye of the media - visual stunts
1. Climbing inside cardboard boxes to illustrate the houses that the Priced Out will eventually be forced to live in
2. Ball and chain to express oppression of a huge mortgage
3. Large banners saying something profound, god knows what
4. Set up a mock estate agent in pariliament square and sell off cardboard boxes as the new studio flat for modern families
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chefdave
Activist
Posts:464
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| 21/01/2008 2:55 PM |
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| Embarassing MP's with BTL portfolios would be a superb idea. Bobed, are you aware of any? |
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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| 21/01/2008 3:10 PM |
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Michael Meacher?
I'm sure more info can be found in the Register of MPs interests
As for another target, what about Kirstie Allsopp who is now a "politician"? (Politicians are always good cannon fodder.)
Her partner in crime, Phil Garside, could be a target too. His latest contribution to the debate on housing is the social ills of Gated Developments. I wonder if he ever thinks about the social ills of high house prices?
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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| 22/01/2008 1:56 PM |
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| Lots of views, few suggestions |
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slicedcake
Activist
Posts:249
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| 24/01/2008 10:47 AM |
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Posted By chefdave on 21/01/2008 2:55 PM
Embarassing MP's with BTL portfolios would be a superb idea. Bobed, are you aware of any?
Blair & Brown?
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slicedcake
Activist
Posts:249
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| 24/01/2008 10:51 AM |
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Join with shelter - affordable and healthier housing for all?
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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chefdave
Activist
Posts:464
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| 25/01/2008 4:21 PM |
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Excellent references bobed, I particularly like Phyllis Starkey's explanation:
"Former family home in Oxford, now let to tenants"
Maybe its just my cynical mind at work but it doesn't say exactly who's family home it once was. It seems you can't even trust the Lib Dems not to dabble with landlordery these days.
Thing is with this protest stuff, we're quite a small group really so instead of dispersing our efforts I think we should actually concentrate them. Lets pick one landlord (I'll quite happily suggest my last) and try and make his life hell. That way he should kinda get the feeling of knowing what its like to be at the mercy of somebody else. |
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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| 26/01/2008 3:46 AM |
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Posted By chefdave on 25/01/2008 4:21 PM
Excellent references bobed, I particularly like Phyllis Starkey's explanation:
"Former family home in Oxford, now let to tenants"
Maybe its just my cynical mind at work but it doesn't say exactly who's family home it once was. It seems you can't even trust the Lib Dems not to dabble with landlordery these days.
Thing is with this protest stuff, we're quite a small group really so instead of dispersing our efforts I think we should actually concentrate them. Lets pick one landlord (I'll quite happily suggest my last) and try and make his life hell. That way he should kinda get the feeling of knowing what its like to be at the mercy of somebody else. When there are few people willing to protest it's important to pick the right target that will get press attention or to put together a publicity stunt.
A pulbicity stunt that makes a good visual point requires a low turnout but some upfront thinking about the message and the visuals.
Protests must target high profile figures. The reason the first protest was successful was that it targetted Gordon Brown. The second protest was less interesting to members and the press The next protest must target an organisation or individual who stands in the way of affordable housing.
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bobed
Activist
Posts:100
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| 27/01/2008 1:21 PM |
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Found this on HPC... Maybe thousands of spoof letters/emails like this one would make an impact?
Hi,
I'm in the market for a secondhand car for my wife and I've always admired the impressive fleet of Minis used by Foxtons.
It struck me recently that the as the credit crunch shows no signs of abating and after reading in several newspapers that property is currently highly overvalued and is due to correct dramatically, that it is likely that there will be less need for such a large fleet of cars at Foxtons.
At the point that you decide to make redundancies and cut other costs by reducing the size of your car fleet, could you contact me with an idea of the selling price and condition of your Minis, please?
Ideally, I'm looking for a car around 2 years old, preferrably one that has been driven mainly by one of your older, more sensible employees.
Regards |
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Ian Abley
First Timer
Posts:1
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| 31/01/2008 5:16 AM |
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Gordon Brown says he wants to build new towns to alleviate the unaffordability of housing. However every new home, no matter how cheaply built as construction, will enter the market at much more than the cost of construction. The planning uplift in the value of land is what attracts the developer. Fairly obvious. That is how an agricultural hectare that could easily take 20 to 40 homes will not be worth £10,000 but several millions of pounds.
What if Priced Out protested by declaring a new town of your own, where the farmer collaborated to let you occupy the hectare. You could invite people to build "sketches" of homes to show that anyone could build at £800/m2 of floor space, plus minimal land cost, if farmers were free to sell redundant farmland.
That would scare the property market rigid! Because why would anyone buy a new home from a developer for £250,000, or an existing home for the same price, when they could have one built for £100,000.
Your protest needs to challenge the need for planning approval.
www.audacity.org would be happy to help with that sort of protest.
A New Town that people can afford.
Somewhere near a station and the major road network. |
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chefdave
Activist
Posts:464
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| 31/01/2008 2:04 PM |
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| Yeah great, lets just build our own town, that'll only take about 20 years and hundreds of thousands of pounds. Instead why don't we look at ways of making the vast housing stock that this country actually possesses cheaper so that FTBers don't ge ripped off by land speculators. |
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gingerboris
Concerned Citizen
Posts:61
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| 01/02/2008 6:44 AM |
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Why don't a load of us enter ourselves into a local 10K race?!
Get PO T-shirts done and run and get sponsorship for PO.org. 10K is only about 6 miles so most of us could manage that even if we aren't runners. entry fees are usually no more than £10 and it'd get us noticed - OR even better do a 'Hoof for Housing' walk around central London – banners, T-shirts and get other org's such as Shelter involved - it may end up being a glorified pub crawl pub at least it'll get us noticed?! We basically need to be a pain in the arse and shout at/to about people…
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emily
First Timer
Posts:15
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| 03/02/2008 4:10 AM |
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| What about some banners that reference the long-term impact of being priced out, something along the lines of "no kids for me for another 15 years, wonder how much that will cost the NHS?" |
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