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Lack of affordable housing is the real problem facing the firefighters.
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The main reason why the firefighters are striking is because they cannot afford to buy property to live in many areas of the country where they work, with many of them having to commute vast distances sometimes from the other side of the country. So the real issue is lack of affordable housing for public sector workers not low pay. The government therefore should be doing more to provide affordable housing for pubilic sector workers in places where housing is extremely expensive like the southeast of England.
Just paying public sector workers more will not solve the housing crisis as it will just push up house prices even more as more people come onto the housing market so the government really needs to tackle the housing problem more than anything else.
Just paying public sector workers more will not solve the housing crisis as it will just push up house prices even more as more people come onto the housing market so the government really needs to tackle the housing problem more than anything else.
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In todays housing market climate, affordable houses will be of low quality and small etc
There thousands of empty homes in every city but they are in undesirable areas.
If the government were going to build new houses where would they build them, there is already enough complaint about green belt areas and other countryside being dug up for housing,.
I dont have any real answers i just wanted to throw those points in there.
Housing prices are the same for everyone, its not an ideal situation for people to be commuting miles and miles to get to work but it is the same for everyone.
Dont forget althought house prices cost more to buy you also get a lot more for selling.
They actually voted to give themselves 4% wage increase.
Also its daft to compare fire fighters and government wages. You should compare governments wages with maybe owners or directors at top companies........ they give themselves wage packets of £800,000 plus.
but my comparison is more logical than yours, its like comparing chalk and cheese comparing wages of governments and firemen.
well this thread has already gone off topic lol sorry for my part in that.
And im sorry but it is like comparing chalk and cheese.
If you are going to compare the governments wages at least compare them to people who run organisations or something along those lines.
And if you are going to compare the firemens wages, compare them to other lifesaving public sector workers.
theyre all shit wages in the public sector, but I think that firemen do the most dangerous job out of all of them.
So in your opinion is it good that firemen have such low wages?
I can see you putting my views down but not offering your own views.
The original topic of the thread was about housing prices........ i gave my opinions and thoughts on that.
You came in and talked about government giving themselves 40% rises..... which is wrong as they didnt. I cant give any opinion on that as it is fact.
I thought that your comparisons were illogical and then went on to tell you what i think would be more logical comparisons (thus giving you my opinion/thoughts)
Other public sector wages is a completely different discussion altogether. And yes i do agree that they are not paid fairly.
I dont see how you can quantify how ....say a policemans job is more dangerous than a firemans or that of a soldier etc
They are trained to do these jobs which does minimise the risk they are putting themselves into.
If everyone was paid what they worth it would cause the whole country and economy to fold under. Paying people what they are worth is too idealistic. A capitalistic society what we live in pays be supply and demand. Currently we could probably sack a lot of firemen and take on thousands more who would be grateful for the job and £16,000 - £21,000 4 days on 4 days off etc.
Lack of affordable housing is everyones problem in the south east and many other areas of the country.
The Goverments idea of 'affordable' housing here is £100,000 the average house price being above that. A one bed flat starts from £60,000. Why should public sector workers get special treatment when it comes to housing? All members of the workforce are important to the economy and our everyday life, and with a high level of job insecurity its not always possible to negotiate a better wage, hey theres 50 people just waiting to step into your job if you aint happy with the pay.
Skeeter, you need to be able to afford to get on the property ladder first and thats whats proving to be difficult for many. The average wage will not give you enough of a mortgage to buy a flat in some areas, that is unless you are willing to stretch your term to 30- 40 years as has been suggested by some lenders.
Rents have also increased, a 1 bed gf flat in my area would cost you £450-£600 a month. and climbing.
Its a problem that needs addressing for everyones benefit.
You mean like Consultants who earn £60k basic wage?
They *don't* get four on, four off.
Aye, agreed that's poor.
But then they aren't "skilled" either
A local fella to me works in Newbury as a trainee firefighter, he commutes between the North East and Newbury during his working week. He cannot afford to buy property in the South, even if he sold his property here he still wouldnt be able to afford to move to the South.
He should become a fully qualified firefighter very soon, and when he does he will then move back to the North East, as long as he can get a transfer.
Where I live I could buy a 3 Bed Detatched for about £60,000 so you can imagine why he wants to qualify and move back to the North East.
Soldiers are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Even when they are on leave they still have to pack up everything and go back at a moment's notice.
When you see new houses being built, what are they like?
Nearly always they appear to be very large detached, executive style homes, we need more medium sized houses to fit more in to smaller spaces, try and keep the prices down..........
Like someone said soldiers would be a good comparison.
they should be paid more too really then, but dont they get free board or subsidised housing.
I agree that the troops should be paid more as well, however pay increases dramatically on promotion which I suppose is the incentive to work harder in the army.
Incidentally a soldier's hourly rate of pay is just over a pound.
First you said live saving, now you talk about life risking...
So perhaps we should compare them to Police then, who record more deaths per year anyway.
And who get paid more too...
BTW Just to be pedantic - and this was said by a firefighter to me last week - it could be argued that many of us risk our lives on a daily basis as part of our work. I drive a lot, and road deaths are a potential hazard...
What he was saying was that the risk that they put themselves at isn't a great as the Union let on (which corrected me), my question is how much is your life worth? Is a 16% pay increase for the person saving it worthwhile...
At first i said life saving but i though people had enough brain power to compare them with life saving/risking public sector workers. That is what fire fighters do isnt it? so really if people are going to compare it might help to to think about comparisons first.
Everyone is at risk at any time during the day. So going by what that fireman said should we get paid to how much we risk our lives? I think not, that isnt really viable.
Obviously you cant put a price on anyone's life. Fire fighters do know that in their job they would have to risk their lives in their job. That hasnt come as a shock all of a sudden. I have a problem with them using it as a way to get a pay increase. By becoming a fire fighter they should have accepted they will be endangered but they will be trained accordingly to minimise that risk.