Newham Council accused of 'social cleansing' of tenants

[dipsydoodle]

A London council has been accused of starting "social cleansing" in the capital by asking a Stoke-on-Trent housing association to take on up to 500 families on housing benefit.

Newham Council says it can no longer afford to house tenants on its waiting list in private accommodation.

The gap between market rents and the housing allowance is too big, it says.

But the association says such a move could mark the start of "thousands of needy people" being dumped elsewhere.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17821018

Right to buy policies were always flawed because they reduce available social housing, only those actually living in a council property with no other property of their should be allowed to inherit a tenancy, onward renting of council property should be made subject to a stiff sentence and the entire Olympic Village should've been turned over to LB Newham.

[HiPointDem]

1. not a surprise at all. all such schemes -- including schemes for native americans to buy lots on

tribal land and such -- are just ways to put communal or public property into market, where it will eventually make its way into the hands of "investors"! sacred investors, whose very touch makes property valuable.

i once stopped a "suit" from picking a bouquet of flowers in a community garden. His parting shot to me: "They're just going to waste there!"

That's the way "investors" look at all communal or public property: it's useless unless it's in their pockets or on their girlfriend's table. *Then* it's useful.

[LeftishBrit]

2. All reminds me of Shirley Porter and the great Wandsworth scandal.

[T_i_B]

3. Stoke would not be the ideal location

The fact the BNP have done very well there in the past and dumping hundreds of the most needy in society on Stoke would inevitably cause a load of social problems and resentment for them to exploit.

It doesn't help when the housing minister is Grant Schapps, quite possibly the worst minister of the lot right now. The trouble is that it's the poorest who are pawns in the politicians games.

[dipsydoodle]

4. By the same token

its also why they're strong in LB Newham. Catch 22.

[T_i_B]

5. Dumping them on others ain't going to help anybody

It's just going to create create far more problems then it solves.

[fedsron2us]

6. Of course we could simply build more public housing

but that would actually mean doing something productive to address the problem and would provide people with jobs.That simply can not be allowed to happen in the UK as it would violate our sacred rentier economy so beloved of the Duke of Westminster and all Tory grandees.

The worse thing about this policy is that London Councils with their higher levels of HB will outbid local councils such as those in Stoke and Hull for the properties available in the provinces. Thus while Londoners may get a roof over their heads in Stoke those who have lived in Stoke all their lives may end up homeless.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Anyone hear the 'Today' interview with the single mother in Waltham Forest?

(A recently widowed single mother, with a child at school, just to add to her problems).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9716000/9716075.stm

They have told her they'll give her accommodation in Walsall - and this is the only offer they'll give her. She has no connection with the West Midlands whatsoever. She does have family in London.

The report also says the Olympics is making things worse - private landlords in east London are (legally) getting rid of tenants when they can, so that they can rent the accommodation out at vast profit during the Olympics (£2,000 per week for a 2 bed flat in Leytonstone).

[T_i_B]

8. And another point here....

....is that people are being relocated to areas where there is even less employment, so they are even more likely to stay on benefits. Just goes to show how counter-productive some government policies have become that they result in issues like this.

[fedsron2us]

9. A lot of Housing Benefit claimants in London are not unemployed

At least a third are members of households with at least one person worrking. Many others are pensioners. Making people who have jobs in London to go and live in the Midlands is tanatamount to forcing them onto the dole.

[T_i_B]

10. London's homeless face being sent to Yorkshire

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/londons-homeless-face-being-sent-to-yorkshire-7909364.html

Homeless people are to be forced out of London because councils say they cannot afford to house them in the capital.

They could be sent to Hull, Yorkshire or run-down seaside towns on the south coast because cuts to housing benefit will leave them unable to afford London rents.

Four councils today announced “urgent” plans to buy 150 homes outside the capital in a move that echoes Boris Johnson’s warning that the cuts could lead to “Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing” of poorer people.

Tory-run Croydon said it had been forced into the move with Richmond, Kingston and Sutton councils because benefits will be capped at £500 a week from next April. This will mean about 900 families in Croydon alone will be unable to pay for their housing. The borough plans to target homeless people, saying it will save £300 a week for each one it manages to rehome in cheaper areas.

[non sociopath skin]

11. Well, we knew this was going to happen, didn't we.

"Vote Tory - the Party of Ethnic Cleansing".

The Skin