Social Housing

Hmm and if you are homeless the chances of being registered to vote...

I have a HA house next to me. Last year it was let to a couple with two children. For the first 9 months they did not move in. The father of the girl, a builder, spent months working on it with various mates he brought in. The whole family live in large expensive houses in the area. They now sleep the odd night but spend a lot of time in parents house. A number of neighbours spoke to the housing authority about this. No action was taken. They drive expensive cars. I asked if the house was let in a liveable condition and was told yes. I feel that the money spent on the house could have been a deposit as there are plenty of similar houses for sale at around £80,000. The house could have been let to some one who really needed it.

They could have been reported, when allocated a house by housing associations or council the tenant has to move in within in few weeks and must not own a property. Perhaps the rules are different here.

speye.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/lha-maxima-cut-of-1billion-buried-in-budget-today-the-figures-here/

Housing benefit cuts in the budget. He didn't mention those in his big speech, did he?

So depressing. Marieeliz that is a strange story. Why would they do that?
On the positive side some LA tenants spend a lot of money and effort making their council houses and their gardens look nice. Maybe because, until the Chancellor, started to talk about getting rid of security of tenure for council tenants...

It was reported. Housing officer came out. Curtains were hastily put up overnight as they were told of the visit. We were told that our complaint had been closed. Twelve months have now gone by so they have secured tenancy. The officer said , "it is confidential so I cannot tell you what they have done but the inside is outstanding." I was gobsmacked as we had lived through over 9 months of noise whilst they were doing it. So we're well aware of what had been done. We're also told that they could not take expensive cars into consideration. Front is stone chippings back overgrown. Think they will buy when 3 years are up and Daddy will let it?

speye.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/bedroom-tax-and-a-sanctuary-non-room/

This is interesting about the bedroom tax, and what is or isn't a bedroom.

speye.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/tories-right-to-buy-for-ha-tenants-is-a-scam/

I think this is an appalling way to abuse the housing right-to-buy.
HA housing will cost the tax payer a lot more than now.

It also seems a lot like the gerrymandering that Shirley Porter did years ago, a way to get poor people out of London.

What did happen to Ms,Porter

She handed over a pittance, I think, having given all her fortune to her son.
She was in court and found guilty of gerrymandering and ordered to pay millions, but absconded abroad.

www.jrf.org.uk/press/destitute-uk

This is a result of government policies on housing, benefits, etc.

ab, She lives in Israel. I don't think she's welcome in the UK.

Is she still there?
She set up some sort of foundation with the money that was left.

It seems she has a flat in London (bought for £1.5million about 10 years ago), so not sure where she actually lives.

I know a man who due to divorce was living in a HA house as he had two children who regularly stayed with him. After some years he received a letter telling him he was now eligible to buy the house. He decided to look into it further and was told that really the HA would prefer to keep the house in their pool so if he would like to find another house to buy they would take a stake in that one - that is then what he did and he lived in it for about ten years. When he remarried and wanted to move he sold the house and repaid the money to the HA . They gave him a great boost when he needed it but retained their stock of houses - win win all round really.

But what about the next people who rented the HA house, Welshwife?
This is the relevant bit from that article.

"So take the social tenant in London currently paying £140 per week for a 3 bed flat and let’s call him John. John is told by his housing association that his property is NOT eligible for the RTBE and instead he can have a portable discount voucher to use anywhere in the UK for his £104,000 RTBE discount.

John cannot buy his home but he could use the £104k voucher to buy another social housing property outright and £104k could afford a 4 bed house with front and back gardens in many places. John would have to move yet he gets a property for nothing and has no mortgage or rent to pay.

The London housing association landlord gets this £104k from central government and the property that John vacates is re-let at the so-called affordable rent level of £340 per week by the housing association the day after John leaves.

The landlord therefore pockets £104,000 and receives an additional £10,000 per year in rent from what was John’s property and all for saying that for whatever made up reason that John’s property was NOT eligible for RTBE.

But that is only half the story reader, it gets so much worse!

The government gets this £104,000 from FORCING the sale of a council house property or properties in order to pay off the housing association landlord and so the social housing stock is decimated to do this.

All of this sham and scam hinges on what the housing associations say is eligible – and of course as I have outlined above there is a huge financial incentive for those housing associations to deem as many properties as possible as NOT being eligible for the RTBE!!

Of course the new tenant in John’s old property would receive this £340 per week in Housing Benefit too as – perverse as it may sound – this £200 per week increase in rent from £140 to £340 per week is fully eligible for Housing Benefit and so the taxpayer forks out this £10,000+ more per year too – for the same property (!!!) and the ‘welfare’ bill also increases."

It's the tax payer who loses.

"The all party Public Accounts Committee have scrutinised this voluntary deal and its Chair the Labour MP Meg Hillier says :

“The approach to paying for this policy seems to be entirely speculative. On the basis of evidence heard by this committee, there are no costings or workings out. We are not talking about ‘a back of an envelope’ calculation – there is no envelope at all.” "

This is the government's Right to Buy deal.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/03/luxury-flat-developers-reuben-linked-to-46000-of-donations-to-zac-goldsmith

Not a single affordable house in this. Boris has signed it off to say they are not needed.

It's just all so depressing. Were my poor parents alive now they would be at the mercy of private landlords presumably as there doesn't seem to be any "council housing" available for those who can't afford to buy.
The business of selling off council houses was a disgrace.
I really fear for our DGC's future housing. . .

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2016/05/20/destroying-council-estates-will-not-solve-housing-crisis

Impressive, this.

This is interesting in theory. The government's policies have made this possible. I feel sorry for the tenants made homeless.

speye.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/peterborough-council-to-make-5-3-million-from-evicting-tenants/

Daphne, do you think there should be another election for these council seats?

politicalscrapbook.net/2016/10/the-bnp-have-taken-a-majority-on-an-essex-council-after-standing-under-a-fake-name/

It's only the parish council, which has virtually no power.

Unfortunately, I suspect people knew exactly who they were voting for, because the people who won are quite well-known activists. That area is a right wing stronghold. The BNP latched on to the concerns of NIMBYs, who don't want new housing in the area.

Oh, right. They still cheated, but they might have got more votes if they'd been honest.
BNP making a big deal out of it, though. They were saying there could be a BNP mayor next, but parish councils do not have mayors.

This is interesting, from 24housing.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/silver-renters-on-the-rise/

and this

www.24housing.co.uk/news/government-backs-homelessness-reduction-bill/

Second reading on Friday.

Comparing the way different European countries look at housing needs.

www.24housing.co.uk/news/piecing-together-a-european-best-practice-puzzle/