John, the cynic in me suggests that pensioners who have paid of their mortgages and are living in houses that exceed their basic physical needs, should be squeezed out of them by a variety of means, in order to free up housing for families....Perhaps a window tax or somesuch...? After all heating those oversized houses is just plain wasteful. Of course pension reductions seem to have potential to add to the downsizing pressures..and apparently any such measures applied may reduce the housing shortage by also encouraging those soon to retire to think of downsizing before they are left to depend upon pensions...?
Seems to me the real answer is to build more houses to meet the needs of the growing population size, rather than what some might consider quite drastic measures with regard to private property bought and paid for in a relatively free society. The cynic in me says where does it all end, once you start down that slippy slope of removing the elderly to create spare capacity in a particular area in this case say housing why not go the whole hog remove them altogether!!! As clearly we are becoming a burden on the state and its resources.
It would reduce the pressure on social care. hospitals, housing stock, energy, food take them off the roads reduces congestion , save the state pension costs........ just euthanise us when we retire and cease to be a contributing economic unit.. Just have done with us.
It seems we are just a piggy bank to be taxed by the Government as they see fit, why don't they just get us all to hand over all our money earned during our working lives and they just give us a weekly spending allowance to play with. As clearly the government knows what's best for us.
