Monthly Archives: August 2013

The London Housing Problems

Recently the Mayor of London responded to a survey that Shelter had run, to try to solve the many housing problems in London, like astronomical rents, unaffordable mortgages and rogue landlords. One of the responses was posted on TalkLondon and reading it made me so cross I wrote a very long comment on the site. I then thought I’d post the comment here as well, as I think it’s relevant for everyone to read, not just the people at the council.

I couldn’t disagree more with the statement that buy-to-let landlords are central to dealing with the supply of new homes in London. They are the main cause of the current problems:

A) They force house purchase prices to artificially high levels, by buying up houses for personal gain and profit, but renting them to those who now can’t afford to buy.
B) This causes more people to be unable to save for mortgages, being forced to pay too high rent.
C) They keep rents artificially high, as well as the house purchase prices, to ensure profit of their “business”.

More about the London housing problems →

2013-08-13 Upcoming Beer Festivals

I realise that I hadn’t done one of these for a while and now is a good time to do one, as there are quite a few beer festivals coming up over the next couple of months. This ranges from the massive and heaving Great British Beer Festival in London, to the small and cosy St Ives “Booze On The Ouse”. Of course I can’t forget the world’s biggest beer festival (based on its range of beers) in Nottingham, where they’re planning to beat their own world record by offering over 1100 beers!

It’s difficult to make them all, especially with several of them overlapping, but at least it’s an overview of what your options are for those beer themed evenings and weekends.

Date Location Festival
13 – 17 Aug London Great British Beer Festival
20 – 24 Aug Peterborough 36th Peterborough Beer Festival
22 – 28 Aug Ipswich 31st Ipswich Beer Festival
 2 –  7 Sep Red Lion, Histon 15th Histon Beer Festival
 3 –  7 Sep Chappel 27th Chappel Winter Beer Festival
 5 –  9 Sep St Ives St Ives Booze on the Ouse Beer Festival
25 – 28 Sep St Albans St Albans Beer Festival
 2 –  5 Oct Bedford 36th Bedford Beer&Cider Festival
 3 –  5 Oct Chelmsford Chelmsford City Cider Festival
 4 –  5 Oct Ascot 7th Ascot Racecourse Beer Festival
16 – 19 Oct Milton Keynes Milton Keynes 20th Concrete Pint Beer Festival
18 – 19 Oct Cambridge 7th Cambridge Octoberfest
28 –  2 Nov Norwich 36th Norwich Beer Festival