Tag Archives: social housing

Adrian Sanders

Adrian Sanders writes… The cap that doesn’t fit

By Adrian Sanders | Sun 31st October 2010 - 4:50 pm

People outside of London who cannot afford to buy a home or meet their rent without help from the benefit system are missing out in the current debate on the capping of Housing Benefit.

The housing benefit bill doubled under Labour but it wasn’t because of an increase in claimants, it was because Labour failed to ensure enough regulated rent social housing was built for the increasing numbers of people who could not and cannot afford to buy.

The problem didn’t start under Labour; it began in the early 80’s. The ratio between wages and house prices rose at the same …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 38 Comments
Dominic Curran

Opinion: Are there no workhouses? Our skewed housing benefit debate

By Dominic Curran | Sun 31st October 2010 - 12:53 pm

This recent debate about housing benefit has been explosive, with anger and froth expelled by both sides of the debate. And with Christmas coming, I can’t help feeling that there are many out there whose approach to housing the poor is somewhat Scrooge-like. ‘Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?’ they are almost asking.

Housing benefit reform is a tricky beast, no doubt, as the most outrageous (but numerically few) examples of, say, unemployed immigrants getting £1,000 a week to live in Notting Hill have riled many, myself included. But it’s worth asking the question why are so many …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 62 Comments
Iain Roberts

Labour’s manifesto pledge to cap Housing Benefit

By Iain Roberts | Sat 30th October 2010 - 9:35 pm

Those listening to Labour’s outrage about the so-called “social cleansing” they believe would result in capping Housing Benefit to four hundred pounds a week might get he impression that Labour opposes the policy.

Odd, then, that it appears in the Labour Party manifesto for the 2010 General Election :

Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who try

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 74 Comments
Sue Farrant

Opinion: A post-CSR view from the South West

By Sue Farrant | Sat 30th October 2010 - 3:25 pm

Down here in the South West we are bracing ourselves for the impact of the government’s efforts to reduce the budget deficit.  The public sector is by far the biggest employer here (about 40%) and redundancies seem inevitable, compounded by posts falling empty and not being filled thus reducing the number of real vacancies. Will the private sector be able to grow fast enough to compensate? I live in Sherborne, a pretty little market town which is renowned for its variety of small, independent retailers. They sustain the local way of life, provide some limited employment opportunities and attract visitors …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Simon de Deney

Opinion: emotional cleansing or ‘oops, your metaphor’s slipped’

By Simon de Deney | Wed 27th October 2010 - 4:15 pm
Fluff over substance
I have a confession. While I have reservations about the current policy on social housing, that’s not what this piece is about. Andrew Stunell has written compellingly about our policy as has Dominic Curran.

All I’ll say is that successive Labour and Tory governments have failed abysmally over the last thirty years to invest in affordable housing. They’ve helped exacerbate social and community division, inflate housing price bubbles and distort the economy and our attitudes to wealth. Unwittingly or not, they are the architects of the ghetto. So

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
Andrew Stunell MP

Andrew Stunell writes… Myth-busting: what the Coalition’s plans for houses really mean

By Andrew Stunell MP | Thu 21st October 2010 - 12:32 pm

There has been a lot of talk over the last few months about the Coalition’s plans for social housing. Much has been written, and most of it has been wrong, as illustrated by Dominic Curran’s piece on Lib Dem Voice yesterday. This piece is intended to explain what we are actually doing, rather than what the Labour party, and their friends in the media want you to think we’re doing.

Firstly, we will be increasing social housing supply by more each year than Labour achieved in thirteen years added together.  That’s because Labour sold off almost as many houses as …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 41 Comments
Dominic Curran

Opinion: Council Housing – our role in its downfall

By Dominic Curran | Wed 20th October 2010 - 12:17 pm

Housing is not an issue of Conservatism or Socialism. It is an issue of Humanity

The Conservative Minister for Housing said that. In the 1950s. His name was Harold Macmillan, and he oversaw more than 300,000 homes built every year of that decade, two thirds of which were council homes.

Those words were spoken in a time when there was a consensus that the state should step in where there had been a market failure, and to ensure that everybody who wanted a decent home could afford one. Fast forward fifty years and what has happened that concrete and brick foundation …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 54 Comments
Ed Butcher

Opinion: social housing rent should be means tested

By Ed Butcher | Tue 10th August 2010 - 1:20 pm

Our Lib Dem MPs seem to be lining themselves up against the Prime Minister’s suggestion to review they way council houses are allocated, but doesn’t the desperate shortage in affordable housings mean we need to look at reforming the allocation system? Few benefits are given without continued means-testing, so why should council housing be any different?

I am completely against turfing out council tenants when they no longer need it. However, regularly assessing how much council tenants can afford, and adjusting rents accordingly, would be a fair way of allocating what is a precious and finite …

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Posted in Op-eds | 39 Comments
Alex Marsh

Opinion: Social housing – an unlikely new battleground?

By Alex Marsh | Fri 6th August 2010 - 2:20 pm

In the weeks following the election the Coalition had very little to say about housing. The budget announced restrictions on the local housing allowance on the back of a narrative about needing to rein in the vast amounts being spent on multi-bedroom properties. We are yet to see what the consequences of this will be. But there is cause for concern.

In recent days housing has suddenly emerged as a new battleground, both inside and outside the Coalition. On Tuesday we had David Milliband invading LibDem territory with his advocacy of a Mansion Tax. On Wednesday we had pronouncements from …

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Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments
Sara Bedford

Social housing: a home for life?

By Sara Bedford | Wed 4th August 2010 - 8:55 am

None of us, especially those who are councillors, can fail to understand the huge crisis of social housing waiting lists. It’s not simply the homeless or those in desperate need of a decent home. Many families will never be able to afford to buy their own home, yet face many years in unsuitable and overcrowded accommodation because of a shortage of affordable homes to rent.  Currently social housing tenants are granted secure tenancies, not only for their lives, but often to pass onto their children. This continues regardless of the needs of future tenants. So would fixed-term tenancies be a fairer way to allocate the limited supply of cheap housing?

Certainly David Cameron seems to think so. Speaking in Birmingham yesterday, the Prime Minister said it makes sense for tenants to be given fixed-term deals in future – so they can be moved on if their circumstances change and those in most need can be housed.  After hearing from a mother living in overcrowded accommodation, he said:

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