Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Overcrowded England

It's official - England is the most crowded nation in Europe.

Not only that, it is the third most crowded major nation in the world - only Bangladesh and South Korea top our land for packing more people in.

The previous most crowded nation in Europe, Holland, has actually seen a slight drop in its population per square kilometre, but England's is set to rise and rise to from 395 today to 464 by 2031.

Why 2031? I don't know, but it means a 15% increase in population inside 25 years and you don't need to be a rocket scientist or a demographer to know that most of that will come from immigration and that it is going to mean a whole heap of problems.

Action is needed now to stem the influx. It is no longer enough just to cap immigration - it has to be stopped completely and, if possible, reversed. It can not be allowed to continue as it is now - with thousands coming in every year - unchecked, unmonitored and unabated. The pressure on our infrastructure will be too great and the competition for public services - already stretched thin - will become so great they will literally break apart.

This country stands on the brink of ruination. Can we just sit by and do nothing?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The UK has a land surplus.

We are living in crowded and dense cities, not a crowded and urbanised
country

Contrary to popular belief, the UK has approximately only 7.5% of its land settled upon. The Urban plot of 4 million acres is only 6.6%. The UK actually has a surplus of land. Despite claims of concreting over the South
East of England, only 7.1% is settled with the Home Counties being underpopulated. The North West of England is densest with 9.9% settled.

The value of the land accounts for 2/3 of the average house price.

Over 90% of the population now live in urbanised areas, the second highest percentage in Europe, leaving the countryside virtually empty, because of
the draconian Town & Country Planning act. This crams near 55 million people into around 7% of the land, which is only 4.2 million acres out of a UK total of 60 million acres. 60 million people own just 6% of the land.

The UK has 60 million acres of land in total.

70% of the land is owned by 1% of the population.

Just 6,000 or so landowners - mostly aristocrats, but also large institutions and the Crown - own about 40 million acres, two thirds of the UK.

Britain's top 20 landowning families have bought or inherited an area big enough to swallow up the entire counties of Kent, Essex and Bedfordshire, with more to spare.

Big landowners measure their holdings by the square mile; the average Briton living in a privately owned property has to exist on 340 square yards.

Each home pays £550/ann. on average in council tax while each landowning home receives £12,169/ann. in subsidies. The poor subsidising the super rich. In Ireland where land redistribution occurred, there is no council tax.

A building plot, the land, now constitutes between half to two- thirds of the cost of a new house.

60 million people live in 24 million "dwellings".

These 24 million dwellings sit on approx 4.4 million acres (7.7% of the land).

Of the 24 million dwellings, 11% owned by private landlords and 65% privately owned.

19 million privately owned homes, inc gardens, sit on 5.8% of the land.

Average dwelling has 2.4 people in it.

77% of the population of 60 million (projected to be more in new census) live on only 5.8% of the land, about 3.5 million acres (total 60 million).

Agriculture only accounts for 3% of the economy.

Average density of people on one residential acre is 12 to 13.

10.9 million homes carries a mortgage of some kind.

Average value of an acre of development land is £404,000. High in south east of £704,154, low in north east of £226,624. London is in a category of its
own.

Of the world's 15 most expensive prime commercial property locations, five are in England.

London's West End occupation costs of £98 per square foot are the most expensive in the world. They are around 40 per cent more than any other city in the world, and double that of Paris, the next most expensive European
city.

Prime site occupation costs in Manchester and Leeds are around 40 percent more than mid-town Manhattan.

Reservations of land have been placed by builders to a value of 37 billion to build the 3-4 million homes required. The land reserved is almost wholly owned by aristocrats; with none of it on the land registry. This land is coming out of subsidised rural estates, land held by off-shore trusts and companies and effectively untaxed.

Tony Blair ejected from the House of Lords 66 hereditary peers, who between them owned the equivalent of 4.5 average sized English counties.

The averaged sized new home in the UK is a paltry 76 square metres, while in Germany with a similar population density new homes are 109 square metres,
nearly half as much again in size. In Australia the average sized new home is 205.7 square metres, in the Netherlands 115 square metres and in Denmark
137 square metres. Danish rooms are twice as big as the hutches now on offer in the United Kingdom. In Japan, a country once notorious for small homes,
the average sized new home is now 140 square metres.

cheers