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The lack of affordable housing is down to Thatcher's promoting sale of council properties. When I was working, I had to deal with many families/older folk/ disabled folk in inferior housing. The worst ones were ex council properties purchased by their tenants  with a very high discount who then sold on for a profit. The new owners frequently rented out at exorbitant prices and failed to maintain the properties. I remember a gentleman who needed to be visited by a district nurse daily becoming very upset as he rented a room in an ex council flat and shared kitchen and bathroom with 6 other people  (it was a 3 bed flat) the landlord did not allow visitors to the flat and this gut was frightened he would be evicted if the nurse visited daily. Unfortunately, the guy was re admitted to hospital and ended up in a care home as he could not receive medical help at home.   Private developers  are not keen on providing a larger percentage of 'social housing' as it dents their profits. Also a social rent is still around £200 plus a week

Hello, I was wondering if others have had experience of roof repairs and guarantees. A while back, we had a water leak come through in our top floor room.  A roofer came and went out on the roof to take a look - they said it was to do with a leak near the chimney.   They did some rendering around the chimney and this cost £1800 plus £750 for scaffolding (so £2,550 total).  They said the work came with a 10 year guarantee. About a year later, there was another leak on the same wall, which looked exactly the same size and colour as the previous leak. But it was about 2 metres away from it, on the other side of a window.  I contacted the roofer about this new leak, thinking it would be covered by the guarantee. However, he said the new leak was due to a different and unrelated problem, and so was not covered by the guarantee. This new leak, he said, was due to holes in the felt underneath the tiles. He said there are holes in the felt all over the roof (so if this was the cause, I expect the first leak may have been caused by that too - but he didn't mention the holes in the felt for the first repair). It feels like the 10-year guarantee doesn't mean much at all.  I realise that the guarantee couldn't cover all future problems with the roof, but where do you draw the line with what's reasonable?  Is it that a leak is only covered if an identical leak happens in exactly the same place?  There were no terms and conditions with the guarantee, which I didn't question at the time.  

I always like Redemptions coffee though I've not visted for awhile..Romeo Jones was always my 1st choice for takeout Coffee Redemption 2nd. What IS with all these independent Yoga and Pilates Studios? Theres one on London Rd in Forest Hill (Mind) thats recently opened and then theres the Pilates place thats opened on North X Road. I looked at the prices of the one on NorthX road and was frankly shocked at how expensive it is, The FH one is slightly less.  Made me decide to stick with classes in The local authority gym

Dulwich Village update: The old DVillage location is (again?) under offer. The storefront next to the new grocer is going to open as a yoga and pilates studio...the name of which I've forgotten. 🤦‍♂️  Megan's is starting to push its takeaway coffee and cannibalise some of Redemption Coffee's market share. Is Megan's struggling? It's quite a big restaurant they have and rent cant be cheap. The reinventing of the Megan's branch on Lordship Lane as Ollie's seems to have stalled. And Redemption is looking a bit tired these days...