Bristol: van-dweller capital of UK (1 Viewer)

[mikebeaches]

Living on the outskirts of Bristol I've long known there are lots of folk living in vans in the city. The story started to grow in the local media a while back as the numbers increased and now it seems to be making national headlines, with the latest article appearing on the front page of The Times.

Apparently, the reason people live in vans is a mix of those doing it as a lifestyle choice and those doing it through necessity. A lot of vans are parked on The Downs, an open green space in the posh part of the city.

Times article link (without paywall):

https://archive.is/lmfEH

 

[Nigel Crompton]

From today's Times ... (paywall bypassed)

https://archive.is/lmfEH

 

[PP Bear]

Firstly, as a nation we should hang our heads over housing. Double, triple ownership, wealthy buying up homes to make more wealth, lack of investment, lack of houses, immigration whether legal or boat hoppers, has all resulted in the housing market in the state that it is.

Not sure what the answer is, but I bet there are some that could afford to rent but choose to live cheaply and enjoy the lifestyle too.

In another world, if there were houses, flats, properties to live in, then the problem would be so much smaller if at all.

Would help if the people tidied up, cleaned the area, maybe less graffiti, then they’d be more acceptable by locals, who knows.

Bet this sort of thing expands across many more towns and cities.

 

[monzer]

Yeah when there are so many people who need to live this way rather than choose to it's a sign that something clearly isn't working with the countries housing policy.

I do hope all fellow van dwellers actually enjoy their lifestyle or it would be quite a sad existence otherwise.

 

[The Wino]

Interesting article. It does make you wonder about the selling off of all the council houses and it's effect

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[jerryz]

Brighton (Blighton) has dozens of them parked in at least 7 locations clusters of 20 vans, rv , MH , buses etc some never seem to move ...

 

[EuroTrotters]

Housing !

There are many estates where more people don’t work than do.

That’s why they can’t afford to move out and buy a house of their own.

Yes, the UK Gov should get a grip of the housing situation. They don’t have an obligation to house the homeless. But we spend billions housing young, male economic migrants.

But a lot just need to help themselves, rather than rely on the government or housing charities.

 

[The Wino]

Housing !

There are many estates where more people don’t work than do.

That’s why they can’t afford to move out and buy a house of their own.

Yes, the UK Gov should get a grip of the housing situation. They don’t have an obligation to house the homeless. But we spend billions housing young, male economic migrants.

But a lot just need to help themselves, rather than rely on the government or housing charities.

Just let those migrants work while waiting for the glacial assylum system to process the application. But I doubt it is billions and we weren't any better on housing people before there were as many migrants in dinghies it's lack of political will and priorities.

 

[Just smiffy]

Some of them don’t help themselves though, I wouldn’t want this crap outside my van if I was living in my van next door…

 

[dash300]

Interesting article. It does make you wonder about the selling off of all the council houses and it's effect

Living in a Council house isn't free!

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[The Wino]

Living in a Council house isn't free!

It's just not available to most people as an option!

 

[TheMachMan]

Our son rents a one bed flat in Bristol at an extortionate rate. Took him and his GF ages to find one as the demand and competition is huge. It’s not sustainable. They both have well paid jobs but most of their wages go towards the rent and bills so are going to move into their van.

 

[mikebeaches]

Our son rents a one bed flat in Bristol at an extortionate rate. Took him and his GF ages to find one as the demand and competition is huge. It’s not sustainable. They both have well paid jobs but most of their wages go towards the rent and bills so are going to move into their van.

The rental market in Bristol is pretty brutal. And the article suggests it is the most expensive city for accommodation outside London.

 

[tinkertaylor]

Surprise surprise, selling off council houses has come back to bite us all, who would have thought it, short term gain, long term pain.

Legislation and tax changes to punish small landlords isn't going to make things any better either, neither did Truss and her catastrophic attack on our economy that led to interest rates rocketing pushing up the price of btl mortgages and then rents.

Can't believe anyone would vote for the morons that are presently in charge, their not fit to run a bath let alone a country.

 

[PP Bear]

Some of them don’t help themselves though, I wouldn’t want this crap outside my van if I was living in my van next door…

Lady said her van water tank holds 20 litres and that’ll last about 5 days, poooooweeee

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[PP Bear]

Surprise surprise, selling off council houses has come back to bite us all, who would have thought it, short term gain, long term pain.

Legislation and tax changes to punish small landlords isn't going to make things any better either, neither did Truss and her catastrophic attack on our economy that led to interest rates rocketing pushing up the price of btl mortgages and then rents.

Can't believe anyone would vote for the morons that are presently in charge, their not fit to run a bath let alone a country.

Maybe they’re the best of a bad bunch. Can’t ever hope potty mouth Rayner and her lot get in. Watch out if they do, as I reckon it’ll be worse than these idiots

 

[Just smiffy]

Lady said her van water tank holds 20 litres and that’ll last about 5 days, poooooweeee

I guess she doesn’t water her garden…

 

[PP Bear]

I guess she doesn’t water her garden…

Hmmmm the lady garden

 

[Orion]

There seems to be thriving population of full time, static, narrow boat residents on nearby canals as well. The Kennet & Avon as far out as Bradford-on-Avon and beyond surprised me with the amount of ‘river lifers’.

 

[Nanniemate]

I have not watched all the video but the girl in the orange jumper claimed to have been a no blame eviction

OK

Then she states she had no savings

Understandable due to high rents

Then asked how much was the van

£19000

She needs a decent one to avoid the cost of repairs.

OK

£19,000 is a good deposit on a house in Wales

1000s commute to Bristol / over the bridge to work because of the higher wages (most of my working life I was one)

2 question

Where did the £19000 come from

Is it a life style choice

I met a lovely young couple last year who had renovated a canal boat .
Because they liked the lifestyle and could save to buy their own home at a faster rate.
In the area they wanted to live without paying rent.

There is no black and white answers.

I was having a discussion yesterday about a number of councils are not building or purchasing houses due to the right to buy regulations.

Get a house live in it on a cheap rent for a few years then buy it at 25% cheaper than market value.

And you can still sell on or rent out immediately

The policy needs looking at. More single household properties are needed. How many of us are sitting in properties with more bedrooms than we need ?

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[Bucket]

Since moving to Bristol we have noticed the growth of these live-in enclaves. The one just close to IKEA is particularly notable when driving north on the M32.
I have a lot of sympathy for anyone who lives full time like this in the UK, particularly in the winter, and wonder how they cope generally let alone dealing with sanitation and supplies like gas.

 

[scotjimland]

There are many estates where more people don’t work than do.

That’s why they can’t afford to move out and buy a house of their own.

many families with both parents working can't afford to buy even a modest house or flat

my daughter , works full time , but still lives with us as she can't afford to buy or even rent a flat of her own .. a modest house where we live is over £300,000 .

Generally speaking mortgage applicants would need to be earning around £66,000 to £75,000 to afford a mortgage of £300,000....



the housing market is broken... it started when council houses were sold and councils were prohibited for using the money for building new social housing..

our village has dozens of empty houses, used as holiday lets and second homes .. local youngsters can never hope to buy in the village where they were born... this is happening all over the UK

in a word.. it is Wrong

and Sunak's answer ?

criminalise homelessness in a key crime bill this year.

 

[Jim]

Absolutely no need to congregate in lines like that. I’d fine every one of them for a lack of imagination.

 

[monzer]

Absolutely no need to congregate in lines like that. I’d fine every one of them for a lack of imagination.

I guess in their case they feel safer in numbers. It does look bad though unfortunately.

 

[Nanniemate]

many families with both parents working can't afford to buy even a modest house or flat

my daughter , works full time , but still lives with us as she can't afford to buy or even rent a flat of her own .. a modest house where we live is over £300,000 .

Generally speaking mortgage applicants would need to be earning around £66,000 to £75,000 to afford a mortgage of £300,000....



the housing market is broken... it started when council houses were sold and councils were prohibited for using the money for building new social housing..

our village has dozens of empty houses, used as holiday lets and second homes .. local youngsters can never hope to buy in the village where they were born... this is happening all over the UK

in a word.. it is Wrong

and Sunak's answer ?

criminalise homelessness in a key crime bill this year.

That raises another question

Who sold those houses at inflated rates ?

Local people.

My uncle was highlighting the issues of young people not being able to buy .he is sitting on a 3 bedroom house so I suggested he down size to a smaller property and sell the house to a young family at an affordable price.

He is comfortably off and not short of cash

The look on his face was classic.

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[Bertilak]

Perhaps we should reinstate the original concept of Rates (aka Council Tax)...
You pay tax based on the current rental value of your house...
Then whenever the rents in an area increase, the council gets a cash injection to assist building more homes and infrastructure.
Perhaps when house values go up through shortage of supply, homeowners should be thinking "sh!t, that's the tax going up 25%".
Perhaps NIMBYs would welcome new developments to keep the prices low, rather being invested in the shortage and the suffering of others.

The rules are there, but aren't used because voters don't like paying tax... -democracy in action?
IMHO, paying full CGT on house inflation wouldn't hurt either...

 

[dawsey]

It’s so much easier now than it used to be. Much more comfort, much less boredom.

First time I tried to live FT in a camper was when I was a student in 1994. I thought I could save on rent. Back then, however, it was much tougher to live in a camper. No mobile phones, no rapid charging, no lithium batteries, no invertors, no mains devices, no solar panels, no 4G, no internet. All to do at night was read a book under a gradually dimming 12V light powered direct from the starter battery. Granted it was a 1978 Bedford CF…

I lasted about 4 days before the boredom and lack of human contact forced me back to shared student digs.

This is part of it - the whole ‘van life’ thing, as well as the rapid growth in popularity of campers and MoHo in general is that they are now comfortable, centrally heated, and well connected. You can do everything, banking and all else via the internet. TV, comms, the works.

Simple fact is that living in a van is now a viable option and can be very cheap and comfortable. We have been living in ours in France for 18months, very few problems. All that’s ever needed is a source of fresh water and somewhere to dump the waste water.

 

[mikebeaches]

I know there are people living in vans all over the UK (and further afield) but, interestingly, all of the other hotspots highlighted in The Times article were in the south-west of England, with the obvious exception of Brighton.

Perhaps because the winters are milder?

 

[tinkertaylor]

Probably due to the fact the media are very much based in the south of England, especially the times, after all gypsy's are all over the UK and that's what these van lifers are in affect.

Not to worry as the homeless are set to be criminalised by some new legislation anyway so that should sort it out, fine em. If they don't pay the fines then stick em in prison, we have the space.......It will show em, even if they did have a job they will then become unemployed after their annual CRB check fails, another master stroke of good government

 

[weejocky]

Any van dweller on a road like that for longer than a month should pay council tax. Why are they letting them stay for free?

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