PG wrote:

There's plenty of resentment these days, even in the Dordogne where
locals are begining to lose patience with the Brits moving in and acting
as if they own the place.

They do own the place!*!


Prices have been rocketing - perhaps the
relaxation of planning regulations in 2004 will help.

Dunno about that, planning regulations depend a lot on how well you know
the local mayor in my experience. From 2004 the property taxation
regime will change with a 26% tax on capital gains being levied directly
on the sale of property. Along with Notaires fees and other taxes this
will make some difference. This will surprise a lot of foreign property
investors in France. Maybe Ian knows some ways around this like
ownership though an Isle of Mann company?

It is also a pain in the a*se as it will be even harder to move house to
find work.

Overheard in a bar in St Foy the other week, some town hall officials
and a couple of locals discussing the fate of a large property that had
just come on the market. ".... Just so long as the English don't get
their hands on it......"

There is another issue, many UK 'mountain' businesses only employ UK
based staff on short term contracts. This way they avoid some local
labour regulations and don't pay French National Insurance rates. Local
businesses are not happy to say the least.

But I blame the French government. They have created a dependency
culture in France where vast sections of the population receive state
aid, from engineering giants Alsthom to the 3 million or so civil
servants to farmers to overgenerous unemployment packages. This has
been in part financed through the EU - as I reported on my Web site last
year 85% of the budget for snow canons in the Southern French alpes
comes from EU funds - that is the UK tax payer is paying for snow canons
to be put in to ski stations with dubious economic benefits. Maybe it
is only fair that British people get something in return?

Anyway the whole dependency culture has completely impoverished the
nation (social security budget 11 billion Euros in the red this year),
to the extent where people can't even afford to buy property in the own
country.