Do you mean build above existing city centre property or convert the upper levels of existing property? AFAIK both are done in some places to a degree, certainly the town I live in has flats above some of the shops in town and I know that when the city I used to live in regenerated part of its town centre there was housing built as part of the development.

I work shifts and have recently been walking through our town centre at about 4am, and walking home about midnight (not on the same days!). I haven't seen any fighting or anything but there is a lot of shrieking/giggling/shouting/drunken chatting - which is at a volume several decibels louder than normal speech - and I am profoundly grateful that we did not seriously entertain buying any of the flats above town centre properties that we half heartedly looked at when we first arrived.

We do live in the town centre, but in a cute little courtyard of Grade II listed properties that were originally servants' quarters for the 'big house' that we are behind, which has mostly disappeared over the centuries - all that's left is the feasting hall, which is now a pub.

Town centre living is fantastic and we did think about buying the house next door when it was up for sale (we rent) but it's simply too small and we don't have any useable outside space - our tiny yard is in shade all day and is frankly miserable. I'd happily live in a town centre in a nice apartment with a decent balcony.

There used to be a rule of thumb with endowments - only ever buy one from a company with Scottish in the title.

Not as good a recommendation now of course since HBOS and RBS, but I must confess it worked very well for me. One matured last year, well below the projections of twenty five years ago, but when I looked at the rate of growth, and the decline in cumulative inflation over that twenty five years, i realised I could have done a heck of a lot worse.

A lot of the problem stems from governments trying to "help". When they defined the outcomes the insurance companies were allowed to project so that customers could, they thought, compare like with like, the people it actually protected were the insurance companies, and not the customers.

Especially as they no longer call themselves insurance salesmen, which is what they are, but financial advisors. Where the heck does that come from?

I think many professions and vocations ("jobs") now use terms that generate an air of perceived respectability. I have every ounce of respect for a bin-man, I don't know why they have to be called waste management technicians, or when the new garbled terminology came into general use (though it was some time while I was gone so probably the Blair years ).

"Financial advisors" on the other hand make me want to spit.

DH is an 'all or nothing' guy; he literally thinks that it's possible to convert ALL of the space about ALL town center shops - well, nearly so anyway. We live in a small-ish town with a small town center. You can see that much of the space above some shops is vacant, but a lot appears to be storage. And with no alleyways to the rear, no dedicated access is possible. And, there is no '24-hour city' here, but on a given night there will be a LOT of noise.

I've seen a lot of conversions in the US and some here in larger towns/cities, and I'm very familiar with a number of 'new urbanist' developments in the US with loft or apartment living above retail. When it works it works, but it's not a realistic solution to a complex problem IMHO. Just one of many divergent opinions we have about how the world "ought" to work

Many of the shops in the medium sized towns around here have closed. They have been replaced with restaurants/bars/cafés and banks. This has given new life to the town centers. The vacant units do not stay empty for long.

In the villages/small towns most of the shops are privately owned and seem to be doing well. I try to support local businesses...hairdresser, pharmacy, supermarket etc. As the saying goes...use it or lose it.

I don't see why it can't be done though.... here in SF condos/apartments over retail are the big thing right now, both in terms of conversions and in new developments. When space is bounded - here on three sides by water - it just makes sense to maximize efficiency of building utilization. The same argument would apply to a lot of the UK. It's hardly going to solve the need for more housing there, but every little bit helps.

At various times I've also seen ideas for converting old terraces into housing more desirable to today's buyers - if these sorts of projects were done right, they could relieve a lot of housing pressure and cut down on commuting. The key is affordability of course.

[QUOTE=bigglesworth;10961251]There used to be a rule of thumb with endowments - only ever buy one from a company with Scottish in the title.

QUOTE]

I had some Scottish Widows endowments taken out for a mortgage back in the early 80's. I paid the mortgage off well in advance of the maturity dates, which was a good job, as the maturities were waaaay below the original projections when they were taken out. They had been sending letters for a few years warning that the expected maturity value had fallen, but I wonder how many people who were holding them to pay off endowment mortgages actually made any contingency plans...

Wal-Mart Associates. ( shop staff )

De-construction engineers ( demolition workers )

It's not just a degree of respectability, it's also to instill a degree of importance whilst disguising the lack of pay the job should remit...... and people fall for it.

A bit like pseudo universities which are really poly technics.......... and degrees that anyone with a grade 6 'o' level could have attained back in the '70's.

How gullible we all are.

I spent a couple of years swinging a sledge in a demolition gang after university.

It was the best paid job I ever had. It was well over ten years of climbing the greasy pole before I made anything like that money again.

Certainly better than my current one....

self-employed navel-gazer.

The bosses of the 6 biggest energy companies in the UK are being questioned by MPs today in regards to these huge increases. It seems they are blaming it on wholesale increases, but the boss of Ovo Energy has said the wholesale prices his company is paying are actually falling.

For those insistent on having only "positive" news about the UK, let's see what else we got today:

• Blockbuster has gone into administration for a second time.
• Post Office workers are going to strike on 4 November.
• UK retail sales flat in October.

There doesn't seem to be much positive so far this week, although some might be able to grab hold of this one: Mortgage lending highest since 2008.

... and the bins on our street haven't been collected for almost a month.
... but at least it isn't raining!

True that, it's been mainly sunny in the south today, didn't rain too much today.

Well plenty of good positive news out of the UK just at the moment, very clear signs that things are definitely improving.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/...rise-pendragon
http://www.theguardian.com/business/...egistry-bubble
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/cit...-of-going-bust

That second one has a sting in its tail.
"Official data showing house prices have increased 3.4% in a year on average reignites fears of housing bubble"

And now another article, Young face lifetime of unemployment, warns charity. The levels of "youth" unemployment in the UK is very worrying.