Tuesday 26 October 2010

Noel Edmunds to launch 'Instant Homes' scheme

Mental powers to house?
Noel Edmunds, more usually known for a string of inexplicable television programmes, is to spend the next stage of his career promoting a new way for young people, who will soon all be ineligible for council housing and also priced out of the housing market, to get their own homes.

"I call the new homes 'Instant Homes'," explains the celebrity presenter. "All it requires is will-power and positivity. What you do is, you shut your eyes and IMAGINE the house you want. You imagine just as hard as you can, you really focus on it, and before you know it, you're starting to feel warm and comfortable and you know where your fridge is. You bring your home into reality INSTANTLY with the power of your mind. That's it. Nothing more to it."

Many people have tried to solve the problems for young people caused by the housing bubble, in which property prices are held artificially high by a combination of property speculators, buy-to-let landlords and second homeowners. But never before has the mind of Noel Edmunds been turned on the issue and some see it as cause for renewed hope. The government has cautiously welcomed his intervention in a problem they have been unable to solve themselves. "But we are concerned that a sudden increase in the supply of housing could drive down prices," said a government insider. "Which would be great for young people, obviously, but terrible for people who already have houses. Well, not terrible, just inconvenient. But we don't want it to happen because it's the kind of thing that loses elections."

Edmunds has responded by saying that 'The government's obsession with money money money shows that they have lost sight of what is important in life'. Since returning from the grave Noel Edmunds has proclaimed his adherence to bafflingly implausible self-help philosophies and has promoted them via the medium of television. This time Noel Edmunds is to come directly to the homes of anyone who phones his 'I Want A House To Party In Too' hotline, to explain to them how they can get their own home that very day. The visits will then be filmed and broadcast as a documentary called 'Noel Edmunds saves the World'.

Some have pooh-poohed the whole idea of 'Instant Homes', saying they are unlikely to keep anyone warm for long, and that the government would be better off taking measures such as building more council housing, or taxing well-heeled amateur buy-to-letters out of the market, a move it was unwilling to take while Tony Blair, a well-heeled amateur buy-to-letter, was in power. Noel Edmunds has responded in turn by calling his critics 'Destructive purveyors of negative energy'. He said "While I provide homes for people, INSTANTLY, they just provide naysaying and 'economics'. I'm having none of it, and if you want to be able to have your own home this side of sixty, call my hotline NOW. Don't say nay, say yay!"

3 comments:

  1. Do you think amature private landlords are the real cause of the prices of houses? I think only about 10% of the housing stock is privately rented, I can't find the stats for who owns what of that 10%, but I do know of professional landlords that own 100s or more houses. Do you have some statistics on the amount of property owned by second home and amature landlordism?

    I wonder if house prices are not more to do with these figures:

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=2338

    http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/hew/2010/jun/hew.gif

    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/populationestimates/flash_pyramid/default.htm

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  2. There are stats - will try to find some soon. It is only one factor though.

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  3. I've been thinking about this post and politically speaking it is not the best thought through of what I've written. I think I got too carried away with taking the piss out of Noel Edmunds and self-help gurus. However the Council of Mortgage Lenders say "As at the end of June (2010), there were 1.26 million buy-to-let mortgages outstanding, worth a total of £149 billion. By value, buy-to-let mortgages accounted for 12% of all mortgages, the highest proportion since records began."

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