Mapping the credit crunch
We like this idea of crowdsourcing - where we recruit you in an act of journalism to help us create a picture of an aspect of UK life.
On the blog last week we mentioned that we wanted to experiment with mood maps. We're working with CASA (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) based at the University College London, who've developed MapTube, a map-sharing website.
In a totally unscientific study that makes no claims to be anything other than a (potentially) interesting experiment, we want to create a mood map of the credit crunch. And we hope to use it to inform our journalism.
We're asking you what single factor is hurting you most about the credit crunch?
Follow this link to the MapTube website to take part
Already done it? View the map as it grows
UPDATE: View the Northern Ireland map. Apologies not to have this sooner. We explain why here.
You can choose from six options and will be asked for the first part of your postcode - that's it. It should take less than a minute to complete and the map is updated every 30 minutes.
You won't be asked for any personal information and what you do submit won't be used for any other purpose.
As ever, let us know what you think or suggest questions you'd like us to ask in the future. Leave comments below or email us.
And for those of you who want to know a bit more -
- The map will obviously be blank at first and take a little time to populate.
- As the online form takes only the first part of your postcode, a number of streets/larger area than just your house will be shaded when you submit your answer.
- It works on a first past the post system so if 800 people select mortgage and 799 select food - mortgage will display on the map. But, depending on the numbers taking part, we might try and break this down further and represent in more detail at a later date.
- The MapTube website also allows you to take other information and lay the maps on top of each other - try it out in this section of the MapTube website.
If you have questions, drop us a line.
UPDATE: There's a pie-chart showing a break-down of the stats on
Dr Andrew Hudson-Smith at CASA's Digital Urban blog.
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Comments
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With reference to the piece in todays programme about housing benefit it is indeed correct that there is a shortfall in the amount paid compared to the actual rent which is bad enough but how many people know that if someone quits the marital home that is in joint names any housing benefit terminates after the person has left for 26 weeks regardless of whether they have claimed benefit for the whole of this time or if there has been any financial settlement.
this is the situation I now find myself in, without any warning my 13 week old claim for housing benefit has been terminated because as far as the council are concerned I have more than £16,000 in capital despite having in reality about £15 and being not in my first flush of youth having great difficulty in finding employment. I spent a great many years as an unpaid carer for family members and must have saved the state a shedload of money and now when I am in a position of genuinely needing assistance I am apparently entitled to nothing......thankyou the 'welfare state'
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Sorry for being dense - I need a hand!!
(1) my mortgage has just come down slightly from 7.25% to 7% (i think). That's affected me, but in a good way!!!
(2) how does the credit crunch affect the already sky high petrol prices? Do you mean because no one is building refining capacity in Europe any more, as it will all be built in Asia?
(3) food prices - again do you mean Percentage Increase, because 10p on the milk (or even 50p) wont really figure in comparison to £50 on say, rent.
(4) my Gas bill has more than doubled in recent times - but is that the sort of thing you mean, or is that too long a time scale.
(5) my tax bill has jumped too, cos of the no-longer-10p-band..
I realise I *may* be taking this too seriously, and it all could be 'just a bit of fun'!!!!
all good wishes
nige
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Why is council tax not on the list? It is a big chunk out of our pensions.
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Why all this fuss about fuel bills. My heating is only 30% of my council tax. It is high time that the extortionate rise in this tax was fully aired. My council tax has more than doubled in 10 years. It is a very gr3at pity that Councils have no competitors for the "service" they say they provide. If they had competition they would go bust.
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What hurts us all is the extra money being introduced to keep the show on the road. The price of essentials will rise as our pound notes are diluted. We will not see this extra money in our wages, only in what we borrow to pay back at a later date (with interest). We are being stuffed for our labour, by labour. Mervin knows about moral hazard but has been sucked in by Brown to try and prop the housing bubble up. It will end in tears, lets hope its soon before everybody is priced out of somewhere to call their own.
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Isn't the credit crunch really more of an everything crunch? Can the fundamentals of the economy really be sound?
Looks like the deal was that the masses were offered play-now, pay-later lifestyles in return for looking the other way as the rich got richer and nature was used up. What will happen now that nature (including oil and gas) is running out and the masses can't pay the bills? What kind of economy would work for everyone?
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Nanny State in denial. Road Roller Talking Machine Gordon Brown and Government blaming Local Election results on ten pence tax and credit crunch. Don't make us laugh. They should look to the massive raft of regulations and laws affecting British Citizens freedoms and individual Rights. This isn't about money, it's about power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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Hmm, interesting idea but it is somewhat flawed in that it presumes that the "credit crunch" is having a negative effect on everyone. I don't have a mortgage or rent to pay, don't use lot of fuel, don't holiday often and buy food based on quality rather than price, so none of those things affects me. I will be using cash to buy a house soon and falling house prices will therefore work in my favour. I realise I am probably in a very unusual position, and I don't for one moment suggest it's a good thing in general, but I do think that there should be an acknowledgement that not everyone is suffering, no matter how much we feel for those who are.
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And, as well as the raft of social clamp down, money milking legislation comes, with it, the labyrinthine networking, banking, talking the property market "up"capitalist credit crunchers who've had it their own way for so very long and whom, amazingly, emerge as quasi victims to be bailed by the Bank of England. The poor things: Their Golden Goose in hospital right now undergoing therapy and being given a new identity in readiness for a new season of laying golden eggs for the chosen few. Politicians and corporate interests: Nice people, bet they don't keep rabbits.
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I have been living well below the poverty line for many years, but whereas I used to just scrape by, I am now struggling more than ever. Ten yrs ago my Gas payments were about £3 per week, now I have to pay £12.50 per week. Electricity used to be £5 a fortnight, now it is over £5 per week. I live alone in a one-bed flat in an inner-city riot-zone and my water bill is £340 per year. My income has not increased accordingly. I am in receipt of JSA of £60 per week. How does the Government expect anyone to live on that? The likes of Gordon Brown, Prescott and Blair, and all the rest of the parasites probably spend more than that on their lunch each day. Take a look at the Sunday Times Rich List and you will soon see where all the wealth lies. The majority of the wealth is in the hands of the minority, whist others starve. I aave only about £10 per week to spend on food. Charities in my city (Bradford) are distributing food parcels. How can this be necessary in 21st Century Britain? Why do I have to validate my existence to the Government via the JSA rules? This country got rich, roughly between the 17th & 20th Centuries, not only via the exploitation associated with Colonialism, but also upon the backs of the British Working Class, people such as previous generations of my family, who worked hard all their lives because they had no choice, from childhood, down coal mines and in textile mills, in between going of to fight in wars. And they tell me I have no inherent right to claim State Benefits? THEY OWE US A LIVING!!!! Stuff the Government, the Monarchy, the Aristocracy, the Lords & Ladies, the rich Capitalist-Industrialists who have amassed vast personal fortunes. Take it off them and re-distribute it fairly amongst us all. DISOBEY! SMASH THE SYSTEM! EAT THE RICH!!!
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In my area, the only alternative to JSA is Minimum Wage jobs, paying the princely sum of £5.50 per hour. I was earning £5 per hour 20 yrs ago. The Jobcentre did a 'Better Off' calculation that said I would be approx. £40 per week better off (inc. Tax Credits) if I took a Min. Wage job - that works out at £1 per hour. If anything, the National Minimum Wage has kept wages down, it's a con. The National Minimum Wage should be at least £7.50 per hour and JSA increased to £80 per week.
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I can remember many years ago, at least 10 but quite possibily 20 years ago hearing a "leading Economist" being interviewed on Radio 4.
He said we are paying ourselves 1st world wages but are in danger of becoming a 2nd world economy. He added that it was fine as long as long as we could borrow the difference.
Seems he was more or less correct.
I actually have a similar experience to (1) above when I was made redundant for the second time in 5 years, after 40 years of "paying my stamp" I was refused unemplyment benefit beacuse I had a Company Pension of £60 per week.
I survived but I then realised just who benefits from our "Benefit System"
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My rent was 371.00 per month. Haringey Council increased this to 431.00 (April 08). My salary has not gone up (bar the 10.00 due to tax code changes). Council Tax is an extra 5.00 per month. Jam (food) and bread have gone up by as much as 40 pence per item (from 0.80 to 1.20 jam even from 1.15 to 1.69). The German President just stated that the finance industry should stop being so greedy and redistribute the wealth and be more social. We are now seeing the downfall of the "free" market economy.
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whilst I can clearly see how the credit crunch is having an affect on mortgages, food prices are more to do with global food supplies not a lack of finance.
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This is rubbish. The credit crunch is causing problems for financial institutions, and by extension making loans and mortgages more expensive and more difficult to get, which is in turn affecting house prices. Food-price inflation, high oil prices and what have you have nothing to do with it. So what a cretinous question and map to have. Well done for being so informative!
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I agree with your comment regarding the 'credit crunch' smarmyjiff, however if you read the actual question being asked, i.e. what is most affecting YOU; I believe the map reflects responses to the question and the article clearly explains its not scientific etc. Just complaining (and using strong abusive words) about something and recommending nothing helps no one. What would you have done better?
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Amazingly bad science here. Half of these things have nothing to do with the 'credit crunch'. My mortgage has gone done, and having just changed power suppliers so has my fuel bills. I am spending less in the supermarket by buying fewer things that are likely to be thrown away - but this has nothing to do with higher prices - more to do with trying to be less wasteful.
Where's my map?
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What's more - you say at the beginning that it's "a totally unscientific study" and then "we hope to use it to inform our journalism."
Fantastic. Why don't you just make it up?
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The credit crunch has little to do with increased food prices which are driven by worlwide supply and demand. Indeed, restritions available funds may alter the buyers choice of food reducing demand for expensive meat or imported foodstuffs for example, reducing their market price.
Your "unscientific survey" assumes that the effect of the credit crunch is negative on the individual or at least neutral. Banks and building societies are now competing to offer the best rates to savers; annuity rates for pensions have much improved in the last six months.
The price of housing has been driven up by demand driven by an increasing population and the availability (up until recently) of relatively cheap loans. House prices will fall in response to the credit crunch. What is far more serious is the population crunch.
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I am a bit confused actually. My understanding of Credit Crunch is that it is mainly to do with liquidity amoungst financial institutions which enable them to loan money to each other. The knock on for this is mainly the housing market (Morgages and Rents). So perhaps the map is not a map of the impact of the credit crunch so much as a map of economic issues!
The other item is fuel, as it is the cost of fuel and associated fuel poverty that has the biggest impact on the price of other commodities (including food, etc).
Taxation increases are another area entirely, Council Tax increases for example, are due to the combined problems of inefficacy, Increased Costs as a result of Fuel Impact Prices, and dependency culture. If there was more transparency about how the money gained from taxation was actually used, we would probably begrudge the expense less.
The trouble is that the government are not being clear about what is actually being done to ensure the economy regains stability. The separation from the political base (PMs Office) and the Economic base (Treasury) is not there any more and thus economic decisions are being made purely for political value. This means that what the public end up seeing are "knee jerk" reactions to the political panic at the public's often misconceived understanding about some very complex fiscal issues.
This attitude will return to haunt this government during its last term and for any succeeding government.
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In response to ‘Anarchy UK’, by what right; should you have anything? It may be that the wealthy elite take more than their fair share, but that doesn’t excuse your idleness! There are factory workers working 16 hour days in the Third World on a pittance. Even with a lower cost of living, they get nothing compared to what you get just for sitting on your backside all day.
Exactly what is it that makes you more worthy than them?
On the survey: I’m surprised at the choices. What is meant by ‘other’? Is it for those hit by loan or credit card repayments? Or maybe just for those suffering from an excess of credit crunch stories in the media? and I can’t see what the choice ‘holidays’ means – is it for those who can no longer afford to pay for their hols with their credit cards?!
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The government is clearly out of touch with the ordinary man and woman on the street. The unelected Gordon Brown is trying to bluff his way out of what is a crises to me. The public are very clear on what is going on, hence the stand off in the housing market. Buyers are waiting to see how far prices will fall and sellers are reluctant to lose any money they may have gained due to an overheated market. This is and will affect High Street spending and the domino effect continues through manufacturing and construction. The cost of essential things that we need to live are rising and we are being taxed to the hilt. Home Information Packs by the way, the government may have blagged them in to be legal by claiming they will help speed up the whole process, but don't be fooled that these are anything other than an indirect tax on the hard pressed public.
My employer met with me yesterday to say that I have to take a 25% pay cut, I spoke to ACAS about this and there is not an awful lot I can do about it. I could challenge it but was advised that this could lead to my employer taking offence to this and thus jeopardising my job. So, my employer is using the current financial conditions affecting him to take more money out of my pocket and he knows that I need my job and can't do anything about it without taking huge risks. I am buying a new house through necessity and the lender is stinging me for a £3,000 arrangement fee. I am borrowing way within my limits, have never defaulted on any commitments and have a sensible outlook on the risks involved where prices can go down as well as up. I guess because I can afford the £3,000, the lender knows I am a good bet not to default and that's another chunk of money they can use to offset any losses on reckless lending.
Having spoken to ACAS about my pay cut, this is not uncommon at the moment, so more people are set to be hurt. Wages have not kept pace with the rises in house prices, despite the low interest rates many people have been allowed to borrow beyond their means. Even though I have been sensible and borrowed way below what a bank would lend me, I am being hit very hard in the pocket. However, I realise that I am not as bad off as those in China or Burma.
In summary, banks should go back to the old methods of calculating what an individual can borrow for a mortgage. I have seen people borrow 6x+ their income on 100% mortgages over 30 year periods. I have heard people claim they have made 300% profit on their home in less than 2 years, why should this be? A home used to be viewed as something to live in and bring a family up in, not an investment vehicle.
Someone in power needs to come out and tell this country exactly how things are and where we are heading. The banks need to come out and reveal all their losses, I think we know they nor the government are being completely transparent about this. Inflation is rising and therefore rates will not come down, yet why are they a problem when they are nowhere near the levels seen in the last housing recession? Until such time as the ordinary man, woman, businessman gets some clarity from those in the know, the state of flux will continue to hurt those who have worked hardest to bring many wealth that they never expected. I take my hat off to those in industry, manufacturing, construction, the nurses, police, lorry drivers and too many others to mention that get paid well below what their efforts merit when you consider they keep this country rolling whilst footballers command and demand wages in excess of £100,000 per week.
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Its peculiar that under a labour government the gap between the wealthy* and poor is huge and is growing. The economics of the country seem to indicate that there's little chance of it altering.
If the food, petrol, water and fuel bills are up its because the majority of businesses that run them are foreign owned and they know that in Britain we'll pay anything and not complain, so why not? If our businesses were ripping off the French we'd love it, now its vice versa.
Small businesses are feeling the pinch too, there's huge amounts of silly regulations and laws and employee litigation that mean companies are fearful of doing anything entrepreneurial. Add to that tax hikes in NI, Corporation Tax and your country's engine is under a lot of strain. Not to mention interest rates. Labour: The enemy of small business.
The amount that the government has poured into public services since 1997 is huge, and it probably would have meant that by now we'd have public services to be proud of.....but then they opened the flood gates, let thousands of foreign people and families in and "shared" out our services we had paid for!!!! Socialists left will probably say this comment is racist but I stand by it, its defies common sense.
If I were a Labour voter I'd feel pretty upset about how they've sold the working people down the river.
You could vote Tory, I hope they do better and listen to the country, but frankly the state we're in it'd be like changing deck chairs on the Titanic.
*I'm not sure how you define "wealthy", could a Socialist enlighten me. I have own teeth, a job, a car and a house I have worked for plus I'm not the jealous type. Does this make me a taxable Tory target? Don't tell me its the "ST Rich List", they're all too smart to be trapped by the Inland Revenue!!!
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Why isn't Northern Ireland part of this map? We're part of the UK too, and we're feeling the credit crunch..
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What have rising fuel/food prices got to do with the credit crunch? The credit crunch is only affecting mortgage rates.
Very poor tabloid style journalism from the BBC.
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Hello
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated. It's an interesting experiment, and we're conscious of needing to improve and develop it.
anakat and ironbunsenburner - take your point that Council Tax is not listed.
Several of you mentioned that you felt the term 'credit crunch' was wrong - comments noted. It was chosen as an easy way for people to grasp instantly what this is all about.
A number of you also wrote to say you were unaffected by credit crunch and felt this should have been reflected. We did include a 'not affected' option - what else might we have done?
Maps are a simple tool that we think could be an interesting way to uncover stories and trends that we couldn't have done otherwise. All comments and ideas on this very welcome.
Richard, our colleague at CASA has responded as to why Northern Ireland isn't featured and some of the other plans we're thinking about for the map. He writes
'The Credit Crunch application uses postcode district boundary files to draw the maps. These exist for England, Scotland and Wales, but I couldn’t locate a usable source of Northern Ireland data.
My intention was to use our source of postcode unit boundaries and aggregate them into the districts, but this is causing a problem with some of the islands around the outer Hebrides, Shetlands and Orkneys.
Hopefully I’m close to having this problem solved, so I’ll upload the new area files when I’m sure they’re working. In the meantime, any Northern Ireland postcodes that have been entered are being stored, you just can’t see the results being updated.
Also on my list of things to do are some maps showing how the responses to each of the questions are geographically located, for example plot just the percentage of ‘Mortgage’ responses and see whether they cluster around population centres while ‘Fuel’ might dominate in the more rural areas.'
Thanks,
Richard Milton
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benhussell ( 25 ) You wouldn't expect me to - but I don't agree. And I don't think I am alone:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article3784907.ece
Rupert
( iPM Ed )
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Does "Fuel" cover motor vehicle fuel or domestic energy? The two things are completely different. Someone who is concerned over vehicle fuel may not be concerned over domestic fuel and vice-versa.
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I think the government should just realise that when a tax becomes unfair it therefore is virtually impossible to justify.
This is true with petrol. Not only do we pay a massive amount in duty but then they add on VAT. So we pay tax on tax. This is with money we have already paid income tax on. If it wasn’t true you’d think it was a sick joke.
David G
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I do agree that Council Tax should be included on the map - it is absolute iniquitous burden that has become akin to a 2nd mortgage with the services it is supposed to pay for becoming poorer year on year
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What an irony - the socialist principle of nationalisation coming to the rescue of a collapsing capitalist system!
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For me, and others like me, the main negative effect of the credit crunch has been the fall in interest rates as deposit interest rates now barely match the increase in the inflation rate. It is a pity that your questions do not include the impact of falling interest rates as many pensioners do rely on interest income in order to make ends meet.
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Like others, I had difficulty with the question. Only some of these elements have been directly affected by the credit crunch. Where they have, the cost of mortgages, for example, has fallen dramatically and house prices are down. So this s a positve impact. I worry about my ability to continue to get work (as an independent consultant), but at present I am very busy. (And shouln't have time to be browsing and posting!)
I like the idea of mapping views, but you need to be more careful in crafting the question to get meaningful views back.
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Fall in interest paid on savings is not included in the list of factors affecting individuals/families.
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Could there be such a thing as 'crunch-wash',I am sitting waiting to see if my job is surplus to requirements even though where I work (a university) is financially sound?
The ability of companies to cast staff adrift as a result of what could happen seems wrong and the Unions should be a lot more aggressive about this activity.
Being frank companies like Woolworths, Zavvi etc never sold anything of real value and relied on people having more money than sense.... but South East trains and Pfizer's here in the affluent South East?
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