worldwiser

We pay around 350 for buildings/contents for a 3 bed terrace in ED. Includes AD for items outside the home. Axa via British Gas quoted by comparethemarket.com

Well in fairness it doesn't cost ?1, unless you're going to eat it raw. And if Iceland really has the most exquisitely-tasting pizza you've ever experienced, I'm guessing you don't really like food very much.

Lynne - I'm sure you're right. But sincere or not, hopefully someone has now whipped them into behaving properly and receiving regular updates will be useful. I still look forward to that entire section of street being resurfaced as James B said had been agreed following the previous damage on that corner. But I imagine that will be totally forgotten by the time it's all finished.

It'd be next door to impossible to impose LLW. Where would the boundary be drawn? M25? Zones 1 and 2? Based on place of work or home address? Why should employees in Croydon be on the same wage as someone working in the West End? LLW will only ever happen gradually and without the force of law.

Lounge lizard: curious to ask how you manage to navigate your way through London only shopping at establishments that pay the LLW. There are only 400 or so companies that do and most of them are large employers like KPMG, Barclays and Gt Ormond St hospital. Easy for them to do it as a marketing exercise but small local businesses will be swiftly snuffed out by moving significantly away from the competition. I guess if you have an audit job doing, you're ok, but pretty much no-one is paying the LLW yet.

No. Dulwich in no sense requires a car park. What a waste of space that would be. There's plenty of free parking already.

Explanation seems to stem from being let down by dodgy contractors. Who have now been fired and replaced and hence a delay. The new ones have apparently set up their facilities on site so there will be no further disruption to parking by their site offices. They're promising weekly newsletters until it's finished. How exciting :-)

Imposing a ?1500 per month max on rents would be about the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. I bet that the average for every rental property inside the M25 would be more than that. Just wait for the black market to explode not to mention sky-high rates of illegal subletting.

An extremely helpful and apologetic letter from the owner's architects was put through our door today. All is explained with contact details should there be further disruption. Anyone who didn't receive a copy let me know and I'll scan it.

Thornton Heath seems to have a bunch of 3-4 beds under 300k. That's not a million miles away from ED. I'd love to live where I grew up. It'd take me a lifetime to afford it so I let that idea go years ago. So should you.

Since almost no-one in London pays the LLW, you can fairly assume that almost no-one in ED does. My main point was that, given Picturehouse is clearly a progressive employer in saying they'll phase in a rise to LLW over 1.5 years (something practically no-one else is proposing) the strike is unwarranted. If everyone went on strike because they wanted the LLW overnight, London would cease to function at all. LLW is something that has to be achieved over time and Picturehouse stand among precious few employers who seem to have committed to this. Their employees don't know how lucky they are to have the prospect of soon being paid better than anyone working a comparable job in London. In answer to ZT, I'd prefer the legal creation of paid jobs to no new jobs. So if they're only going to pay 7.24, that'll still be better than most other equivalent employment nearby or elsewhere. So let them open. As for the rest of ED, hopefully employers will progress towards the LLW but vocal lefties do need at least to accept that businesses run the risk of swift collapse if they move far away from their competition. And that surely serves nobody's interests. The LLW is very easy to support but far harder to put into practice.

No, you do admittedly have to do a bit of maths. ?7.24 + 21.5% = ?8.80, LLW

It of course has nothing to do with the exciting proposal which most people seem to have endorsed wholeheartedly. Of course it's a staggering overreaction if only because Picturehouse already agreed to it! They just wanted a year and half to phase in the increase and I don't think that's too much to ask, especially at a time when hardly anyone has signed up to it. Picturehouse are to be applauded not vilified. You strike when you have absolutely no other option left in this world to get your employers to listen to you over a point of principle. This is so far from the case here that I have barely any energy to even acknowledge their supposed plight let alone support it. The Living Wage is without question a real and live issue deserving of our respect and industry should definitely sit up and listen to it. But adding 20% to the wage bill of an entire city's economy cannot and should not be expected to happen overnight. Employees who misuse their right to strike so totally as they have done here have done the cause a major disservice and deserve to be ignored in favour of people who only (or, god forbid, don't even) earn the NMW. That's the end of the spectrum where the issue needs attention, not here where the issue is practically resolved. They got what they wanted and all they've done is act like petulant children who can't have their wish right away. Badly done Ritzy.

Because why do they (comparatively well-off employees) deserve special public attention in view of the majority of people in the cinema exhibition business (not to mention those in equivalent jobs) who are considerably worse-off? Did anyone hide the rates of pay on offer before they came into work? Striking is a staggering overreaction in the circumstances.

Apparently Picturehouse Brixton offered to increase wages to the Living Wage over 20 months and it was turned down. Both Vue and Odeon's lowest pay grade is hovering just above the NMW (6.31 for 21+) and no-one is specifically calling for their admonition. Ritzy's lowest pay grade is 7.24 and the offer was to increase it to 8.80 over what is a very tolerable time-frame and, indeed, a process sanctioned and promoted by the Living Wage Foundation itself. Ritzy's staff striking in these circumstances is as idiotic as it is selfish. If you condemn Picturehouse for not being progressive enough, I hope you stand ready to condemn all London businesses as there are only 214 employers who've signed up so far. Yeah, let's really stick it to Picturehouse before we address the real villains of the piece.

I'd be happy enough if they'd just close our gate after inviting themselves onto our property. I'm guessing you don't quite bin them straightaway since you seem to be quite aware of the content. Perhaps you could skip reading them and bin them more immediately? There's just nothing quite like being offended at material you've chosen to spend time reading.

If you could find a house worthy of the description for 2m in Chelsea, I'd be amazed. Come to think of it, I doubt you'd have much choice in Wandsworth!

There are only 23 chains in the immediate ED area (ie from Sainsburys to the Townley Clinic and incl. Northcross Road and Melbourne Gv) not including banks or the post office or charity shops. I can't post the names because the forum won't let me apparently. This out of a total of 216 units of all sizes in that same zone. Therefore the current rate of chains is 10.6%. If you get rid of the very large units, it's only 17 or 7.8%. This is ridiculously low. What are you all complaining about?

Just saw that on Frogley myself. Owners. Egg. Face. Oh the embarrassment :-)

It does also coincide with historically low levels of inventory.. whether demand is actually up on historic levels I know not. But I do know that good rental properties are insanely sought after too with people regularly offering above the advertised amount. This being the case, you're left with one inescapable fact. This just in: people from just about everywhere really want to come live in London. Who knew?

PokerTime says there are more than enough properties (if I've understood correctly) poorly distributed between landlord and owner-occupied. This is patently false. If there were enough to go around, prices would be nowhere near their current levels with 6000 people currently chasing a mere 400 properties for sale in ED alone (source: local estate agent). We need hundreds of thousands of new dwellings, have done for years, and yet we build at a rate of tens of thousands. And why is there such acute shortage? Way more single-person households than there ever used to be and a sky-high divorce rate. It's not landlords' fault. You may as well tax young professionals for having the audacity to buy space fit for a small family. Build according to prevailing demand. The single only solution. There is none other that can possibly work.

Well I did suggest the staff should carry a portable machine like they do on national rail. People without access to internet are an infinitesimally small constituency. Those that do have it should not be queuing up for this kind of thing.

Oyster is a system that was designed to eliminate human interaction. I would think on a point of principle they would not take this step. You can top up online and also set an auto top-up at a level of your choosing. Everyone should do this - I haven't had to visit a machine or ticket office in years. Queuing to top up an Oyster would be a woeful misuse of the operative's time.

I doubt FM will have taken out a lease on a property if there was the slightest chance of not being able to operate with flats above. And their pizzas are as good but half the price of Honor Oak.

If you're set on going on Friday, I really would wait until after 9. I've foolishly tried to go earlier in the past and I end up gaining nothing having sat in traffic half the time. And being the start of holidays, it will be infinitely worse. Good luck!