'how To Get A Council House,' A Programme On Channel 4 Last Night.

[sandyRoe]

I caught the last few minutes of this and there was a man saying that benefit restrictions will see a change in the nature of the area, Tower Hamlets where the show is set. Where are the people who can no longer afford to live there to go?

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/cvc9cd/how-to-get-a-council-house--series-2---episode-1

[emmie]

anywhere that the council deems fit, or not. the cause of much of this is as follows,
change in housing benefit payments, there is now a cap on how much will be paid, and the extortionate rents now charged for even the most measly accommodation in the capital.

the lack of affordable homes,
the building of massive amounts of private developments, much of which is being bought sight unseen, by foreign investors, who then leave the place empty. More of this and many of the ordinary folk who run the capital won't be able to live here.

[emmie]

its been happening for a long while, but its speeding up. Those who want to live and work in the capital have to have enough funds to pay their way, many do not, those in low paid jobs, who cannot support rents of 500 quid and upwards a week, you can get lower, but social housing is not often available

[HARPY]

// change in housing benefit payments, there is now a cap on how much will be paid, and the extortionate rents now charged for even the most measly accommodation in the capital. //

I would think most people agree there should be a cap London rents are extortionate so long as they have a roof over their heads they should be grateful.

[emmie]

fine, but where do they live, if their jobs are here, and then are transplanted to Birmingham, do they then have to find equivalent work there, its not as straightforward as some might think. One of the programmes on this highlights some of those its affected, and those in already cramped and expensive accommodation kept on having more children, why, because they know that the housing benefit would be paid, one guy worked part time, had seven children under 10 years old, that part doesn't make sense.

[emmie]

another woman hadn't worked in 12 years, and when faced with the fact that she couldn't afford to live in the capital, because of the housing benefit cap, was asked to move, so she did, but her eldest girl didn't want to go, so stays with relatives in the capital.

[HARPY]

emmie if you slept out on the street of London tonight and i offered you a flat in Leeds would you accept it.

[Old_Geezer]

I did not see the programme as the title didn't interest me; but I will say that if folk can not afford to live in an area they ought not assume they are entitled to do so. If an area needs local folk to take low paid jobs, that would not cover the outrageous commercial house rents demanded in that area, then that is the reason why, and the only reason why, the council is supposed to own a housing stock it can rent out at a fair price and solve the issue. If a council has failed to do this, and I'm not going to hunt down the reasons why, then it has a problem, and may not be able to fulfil it's duties to the domestic rate payers due to lack of staff. In which case it has an incentive to extract its digit rapidly and put the matter right.

[belrec]

i watched most of this and took each case on its own merits. There were some families with noone working - these were quite rightly moved to other areas where they could afford the rent. BUT it did not encorage them to get jobs, which i believe was the point of the benefits cap in the first place.

there were a few who believed they were OWED benefits and a place to live etc and one guy wasnt even trying to help himself.

As someone who has worked all her life and sometimes also had to struggle to make ends meet at times, it is difficult to understand why these people are not helping themselves more.

One notable comment from a DSS worker to a woman with 5 children and both her and hubby not working was "you still have sky?!!" which implied to me that they were not prioiritising their money correctly.
if you are short on funds you cut back.

the programme did seem to be fairly balanced and not extreme which was a pleasant change though :-)

[sandyRoe]

A city populated mostly by millionaires would still need some workers. And they won't be happy doing a long commute twice a day for a low paid job.

[emmie]

Harpy, no i would go and find some relatives to stay with until i could sort myself out.

[emmie]

sandyr, we have over 8 million souls who live here, not all are happy millionaires, many are average joe, with average joe wages, but they are the ones by and large being forced to think about whether they can afford to live here, the place is being strangled by high rents, and massive house buying costs, most young people simply couldn't afford a cupboard, let alone a two bed flat. One neighbour rents his place out, i don't know how much for, but i bet its more than a grand a week

[sandyRoe]

If private landlords want rents that ordinary workers can't afford then the councils should start building 'affordable' rental properties.

[emmie]

belrec, exactly, work all your life, whilst some never have, not because they cannot but because they don't want to.

[emmie]

that would be ideal, except that much land is now being given over to developers, and they won't unless strong armed into it, build affordable homes, so the councils are as much at fault. Not to mention that once these properties are up, and sell flat for a million or more, then no one but the well off or foreign investors as i have pointed out can afford to buy.

[emmie]

because of the benefit caps, private landlords are not interested in renting to those who simply can't pay 500 quid a week or more, they won't get the money for the rent via the local authority because of this benefit cap -
that is a fault with the greedy landlords. and very few people can afford to pay these types of private rents. build more affordable homes, fine, how do you allocate them out, you would be possibly back to renting to families who don't work?