Sod the housing market.

According to this post on A World To Win, which I found on NHS Blog Doctor, public sector workers such as nurses, teachers and firefighters cannot afford to buy homes in seven out of ten towns in the UK. This comes as no surprise to me. Chez MnG would cost about 10-12 times my salary, such are the house prices in this part of Derby. A deposit on this place would cost more than the 1983 purchase price of my parents' house. Not being one for saving, I'm renting this place, which in itself takes most of my salary. Thank heavens for Tax Credit, but then I suspect that if housing costs hadn't been allowed to run away, there'd be no need for it.

To be honest, owning a house is not something I want to do. My grandmother, a Wren who worked on secret stuff, former history and French teacher, wife of a Marine, had to go into a home last year because, basically, to paraphrase You, Me and Dupree, the Grandma-ness has gone. The home's not a problem. It's owned by friends of the family, and Grandma's best friend, the mother of the owner's wife, is also a resident. The problem is the money grabbing authorities. Because Grandma owned her own home, bought and paid for, my mother is having to sell it to pay for her care. At full market value, mind. She can't rent it out, or sell it to my sister cheaply. Bah.

So bollocks to it. I'm not joining the home-owning bandwagon. I'm going to carry on renting, and play the system for all it's worth, by claiming all that I'm legally entitled to. It's how I can afford to go to college.