For about two years my home has been up for sale with an estate-agent in the normal way. We have had a handfull of viewers but most simply did not have about £20,000.00p, in cash, as a deposit for a mortgage.
I expect that all of the viewers worked locally i.e. in the north of England.
So today, I read in the Mail (and elsewhere) of the latest farce with housing benefit – this time it’s for a £2,100,000.00p five-bedroomed in a spot-on area of London. The benefits claimant gets about £8,000.00p per month just to pay the house rent. Other living expenses on top.
Within the past few days some jobsworth has come-up with the idea that yikes! why don’t millions well, thousands, well, a few hundred – perhaps – of car-commuting computer and IT workers just work from home and greatly reduce rush-hour traffic?
Apart from the fact that many folk already do (yawn) work from home in this way – what, in view of the apparent ease of getting £8,000.00p per month housing-benefit – is the frigging point? Why bother, either a) Scrimping to raise a deposit or b) working at all?
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Normally food retailing companies have a reasonable time even in mega-tax-hike Britain. So watching for ‘weaknesses’? in this line of work is a barometer of reality.
Check-out Ocado the Waitrose ‘franchise’ – never made a profit in ten years and desperate for cash……….
The really big-boys in this line are (seemingly) ok but are diversifying. Every penny counts these days – however you get it.
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6,000 bikes for hire in London – will it work? Who cares. Least of all Barclays who’ve funded it (apparently).
The cash would have gorn in tax anyway so why not put it down as a ‘tax-loss’ and get umpteen £billions-worth of free advertising.
To keep 6,000 bikes on the road (if they actually bother) will take quite an army of mechanics and spares – so the fizzle-out will probably be slow and prolonged. Then it’s back to the car with another shed-load of cash swirled down the money-sink.
With some Canadian bike maker/supplier comfortably on a beach…somewhere.
Downside? There are hundreds of Private bike-shops in London areas. How nice to be no longer really needed. Perhaps Barclays can fund redundant bike-shop owners/workers as they ‘sign-on’ eh? What you call a ‘hidden’ cost perhaps.
**A ‘Bicycle Mechanic’, locally, may be able to earn £10,000 to £15,000 gross per annum. Sadly once the whole farce goes ‘public’ Bicycle Mechanic may become something like ‘Pedalled Vehicle Assessment and Rectification Technician’ in The Guardian, with an advertised ‘salary’ (from public-funds) of say £45,000.00p per annum plus pension. Mind you, the poor bike-men concerned will probably be weighed-down with £20,000.00p or more of University Tuition-Fee loans in order to get ‘The Diploma’! **
Finally, in this ‘Work From Home’ Special – – working from home may not be all that it’s purported to be. For the third year in a row the Vatican reports a yearly loss!!
Income: Eu 250,200,000
Outgoings: Eu 254,300,000
So what hope for mere mortals?