Mortgages available for nuclear fallout shelters
Nikki Knewstub
Friday 28 April 2017 00.00 EDT
Building Societies are trying to ensure that some of their customers will be left come the nuclear day of reckoning.
The majority of major societies, it seems, are quite happy to lend money for the building of fallout shelters. Such buildings have had a spectacular revival this year.
A spokesman for the Woolwich said: “We would rather lend money on a shelter than on a swimming pool. It would be considered an improvement or extension to the property.”
But those with swimming pools already being built need not worry. The manufacturer of a DIY shelter, which retails, for £1,200 plus VAT reckons that a swimming pool (empty) would be the ideal place in which to erect a shelter.
Mr Bill Jones, the company’s sales director, said one of the problems after a nuclear attack could well be people without shelters trying to take over the shelters of the more provident.
It was for this reason he suggested that his shelter be kept parcelled up, so that the neighbourhood nasties did not know it existed. “Any nuclear war will be preceded by days or at least hours of traditional warfare.” he said.
“This would give someone with a shelter plenty of warning to get it up. A swimming pool is a very good place. All you need is a wooden base and sandbags.”
The Abbey National said it had no objection in principle to a loan for a shelter, provided it was more solid than the instant variety.
A spokesman for the Inland Revenue said that whether a borrower could claim tax relief on such an investment would be up to individual tax inspectors, who would have to decide if the shelter constituted a genuine improvement.
