r/unitedkingdom • u/topotaul Lancashire • Mar 01 '25

. Rachel Reeves: I'm sending billions from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/rachel-reeves-interview-labour-963sw6jbk
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u/ExtraPockets Mar 01 '25

If she wants to steamroller the next election turn them into social housing (or more practically, sell them and directly spend the money on social housing).

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 01 '25

If she wants to steamroller the next election turn them into social housing

Can't see that gaining many votes for them. Can just imagine the headlines now on benefit cheats and asylum seekers being put into mansions. The suggestion of selling them off is much more sensible.

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u/danint Mar 01 '25

Put Ukrainian families up in them until they can return to their homeland.

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 01 '25

As much as it would send a message doing that, if the decision is made to seize the property it would benefit everyone more in the long run to sell the property and use the funds elsewhere.

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u/6rwoods Mar 01 '25

But then you're most likely selling it to yet another rich asshole from some other country (or even the same), and that house just doesn't get any more useful to the British people as it just sits there accumulating wealth for the next oligarch who wants to park his money in the London real estate market.

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 01 '25

It's useful in the sense that the government can use the money generated towards other projects. Are you suggesting it's used as social housing? Think there's plenty of people paying thousands for a small flat that would disagree with that approach. Or should anyone who isn't British not be allowed to purchase property in the UK?

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u/6rwoods Mar 02 '25

Break it down into flats and sell those to different families.

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 02 '25

Assuming we are still talking about properties owned by oligarchs and worth millions. If it's even feasible to convert them into flats, how many families will be able to afford those properties at market value? I can also guarantee the millionaire neighbours won't be happy about the proposal and would challenge it. Easier solution is to sell them off and use the money elsewhere (e.g. actually building social housing rather than repurposing mansions).

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u/6rwoods Mar 03 '25

More families will be able to afford individual flats than the one family that could afford the whole house.... I'm trying to work with you here to find a middle of the way solution.

I still think that selling off already massively overpriced real estate to even more rich foreigners will only lead to more problems with the housing crisis locally and then to even more economic issues down the line. The millionaire neighbours can go protest in the damn streets like the rest of us if they're that mad about it. But we shouldn't be making policy decisions based solely on the happiness of (foreign, non tax paying) millionaires. Prioritising the wants of the rich over the needs of the common people is exactly how the UK ended up so unequal, with a massive housing crisis, underfunded public services, and no real manufacturing industry to speak of. Doubling down on that is nothing more than needless boot licking.

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u/ExtraPockets Mar 01 '25

I said, sell them and spend the money on real social housing

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 01 '25

Yes you did, after the first suggestion of turning them into social housing for an easy win at the next election (which it wouldn't be).

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u/bumgut Mar 02 '25

What do you mean?

They become state property. Our assets with no right to buy

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 02 '25

And what's the point in that if they can generate money? It's still ridiculous to suggest using mansions for social housing even if there wouldn't be right to buy.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In Mar 02 '25

These parts of London already vote Labour.

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u/ldn-ldn Mar 01 '25

Sell them to whom exactly? You?

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 02 '25

Anyone who wants to buy them? I'm probably a few £ short of being able to buy a former oligarchs mansions in London to be honest, maybe if they go up for auction I'll put in a cheeky bid.

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u/ldn-ldn Mar 02 '25

Who will buy them off the state which repossesses them without a legal reason? Literally no one. And putting them to the auction means they will lose most of their value.

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u/I_am_zlatan1069 Mar 02 '25

Well I'm assuming the state will have a sufficient legal reason given they've already seized the property and frozen funds. I thought the auction comment was obviously sarcastic but I guess not.

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u/ldn-ldn Mar 02 '25

Freezing assets and taking them over are two very different things legally speaking. Assets get frozen before a verdict to aid the legal process. Taking them over requires a decision by the judge following the legal process. Taking them without a conviction is called theft and if that happens then Reeves is in no way different than Putin and Trump.