People of Kent: Move to France & Commute !!!

[CarZee]

This is incredible...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2938297.stm

Commute from France, council suggests

Commuters could have a French lifestyle, 55 minutes from London Tens of thousands of commuters could be encouraged to move to France under plans to reduce demand for housing in south-east England.

Kent County Council and Eurotunnel are working on plans to encourage at least 10,000 families to move to the Calais area, according to the Financial Times.

They would commute to work in England through the Channel Tunnel.

The plans follow a government decision announced in February to build hundreds of thousands of new homes in the South East - including 116,000 in Kent by 2021.

Alex King, Cabinet member for regeneration on the council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "People of Kent have a right to expect that we look at every option to see how we mitigate the effect on the Garden of England."

He said good links already existed between northern France and Kent, with a 20-minute journey through the Tunnel that had built a "natural affinity" between the two regions.

"We have much better links with the north part of Calais than we do, for example, with Oxfordshire," he said.

Greenfield pressure

"We've already got a thriving colony of businesses that moved to Kent from France, around Ashford.

"There are certainly people who commute both ways on a weekly base at the moment.

"It's not beyond the leap of imagination to see ways and means, provided there is sufficient capacity in the tunnel, for a much greater number of people to move across and consequent reduction in fare costs."

Eurotunnel told the FT the plans, which were at an early stage, would need at least 10,000 households to move.

When the new high-speed link opens fully in 2007, train journeys from Calais to London would take about 55 minutes.

The demand would reportedly be largely absorbed by existing housing in the French region, with some new developments.

Arrangements for cross-border taxation, social services and education - similar to other cross-border arrangements in mainland Europe - would have to be drawn up.

The Conservative council's leader Sandy Bruce-Lockhart has described coping with the new homes burden as "one of the biggest challenges to ever face Kent".

The money for new schools, hospitals and other services to go with the housing would cost Kent residents more than £7bn, and 2,000 acres of greenfield land would be needed, he calculated.

So, to sum up, you get to live in Calais (shithole), pay French levels of tax () and yet not benefit from French employment legislation (35 hour week..) if you're gonna move to France, why the hell would you commute into this country???

There are only another 176,999 reasons why I'm compelled to kill whoever came up with this idea.

[RLK500]

That's was the first thing I though of......Calais........it's only slightly removed from a landfill site.......

[robp]

There is one advantage; you would never go hungry. Just claim asylum everyday on the way to work and get a free meal (and a house, healthcare....)

[Thom]

pay French levels of tax () and yet not benefit from French employment legislation (35 hour week..)

People pay taxes in the country they work in, not in the country they live in.

That is exactly the reason I would like to move to Luxembourg

[GregE240]

How little you know Thom. I bet your ignorance is bliss sometimes.

[Thom]

Well among all the French people I know who happened to work abroad they never paid taxes in France, if this can help you.

[GregE240]

If that is true, and I have no reason to suspect otherwise, then why the sweeping statement?

Its this very reason thats putting me off getting a property abroad for rental, but financing it here. Good old Indrev Landanue.

[Swilly]

I wonder what the French have to say about this.

Guarantee it will be at the UN security council within a week.
All you Rosbeefs invading their country.

>> Edited by Swilly on Friday 11th April 15:46

[sjg]

This is exactly why I'm moving out of Kent as soon as I can. I've been living with my parents since I left uni - I just cannot afford to live anywhere else.

As I live and work near one of the big commuter stations for London, house prices are getting ridiculous. Studios and 1-bed flats are usually over the 90k mark, even in undesirable areas. Rental prices are now so steep that I could barely afford rent, bills, student loan repayments, food and running a car - and I earn more than the national average wage. Rent and I'd stand no chance at all of saving up the sizeable deposit I'll need for my first mortgage.

So now they're planning to offer incentives to get a tiny number of the wealthy city commuters out of Kent? How is that going to help people like me who can't afford even the most basic accommodation? How does it help those even worse off, the nurses, young teachers, mechanics and anyone else who's under average wage?

I've lived here all my life, I'd be quite happy to stay around where friends and family are, but I am simply priced out. The sooner I can find a job up north or back over in Wales (where I studented) the better.

Kent is rapidly turning into an area of affluent city commuters, benefit scroungers, asylum seekers and no-one else. Pointless stuff like this really isn't helping.

[griff2be]

"We have much better links with the north part of Calais than we do, for example, with Oxfordshire," he said.

What tosh.

I own a house in Oxfordshire but am currently staying in Kent. What better links does the man want?!

Edited to say that I had written this before the above post appeared and don't wish it to appear that I am making light of housing shortage/pricing issues in South East.

However if any particularly attractive Kentish nurses wish to come and live with me I'd be happy to make arrangements...

>> Edited by griff2be on Friday 11th April 17:01

[AlunR]

griff2be said: "We have much better links with the north part of Calais than we do, for example, with Oxfordshire," he said.

What tosh.

I own a house in Oxfordshire but am currently staying in Kent. What better links does the man want?!

Edited to say that I had written this before the above post appeared and don't wish it to appear that I am making light of housing shortage/pricing issues in South East.

However if any particularly attractive Kentish nurses wish to come and live with me I'd be happy to make arrangements...

>> Edited by griff2be on Friday 11th April 17:01

But in terms of transport links the mans right. Pity he sees that as such a positive thing. I'd be keeping quiet about how crap the public transport is around here - "you can get to London quicker from France than you can from Oxfordshire" - Muppet.

[atg]

You'd think a less boneheaded approach might be to sort out some of the dumps in the Kent area, using the new housing and the money that'll bring into the area to kick-start some urban redevelopment. One resource Kent is not short of is shitholes; might as well put them to use. "Garden of England" it may be in some places, but if the council looked at the population density they'd relaise they should bloody well concentrate their efforts on the towns along the M2. The Thanet gene pool is drying up. They desperately need new people to breed with .

If 116,000 homes get built, that means 116,000 new home owners ... and those people will earn about 3 billion pounds a year. That is an huge opportunity for local business, even before you consider that benefits from the construction work itself.