Property News · April 22, 2017

Property feeds the roots of inequality in Britain. Inheritance will entrench it | Ian Jack


The homes passed on from this fortunate generation to the next will determine who is rich and who is poor in years to comeWhat did our grandparents leave us? That will depend on who they were and what they possessed, but in my case, not untypical of my generation, it wasn’t very much.From my father’s side the treasures included: a stuffed canary; a tiny stuffed crocodile (a gharial, taken from the Ganges); some crested china bought in seaside resorts; and a canteen of excellent cutlery given as a wedding present in 1899 and never taken from its box. On my grandmother’s death, a display cabinet was bought to accommodate this sudden Victorian infusion into our household, which already had a fine little portrait of Rob Roy inherited from my mother’s father, to be followed much later (after a diversion to an aunt and then a cousin) by a wall-clock and a watercolour of a street in Kirkcaldy that looked very pretty from a distance. I’m sure to have forgotten other items – for example, I’m just now remembering the 78rpm discs of Enrico Caruso and Harry Lauder – but basically that was it. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Property feeds the roots of inequality in Britain. Inheritance will entrench it | Ian Jack

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