How Iain Duncan Smith is helping people into work....

**Francis Overdere** · 24-04-2012, 08:06 AM

..... by moving them into areas of even higher unemployment.

Newham Council accused of 'social cleansing' of tenants

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.

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

What a bloody mess. As mass immigration continues,increasing unemployment and pushing up the demand for property thus increasing rents,benefits for the unemployed are cut are frozen. More and more people,including low paid workers, are going to find themselves being forced to move to deprived areas where the rents are lower and unemployment higher.

Cameron and the Tories are determined to remove the poorest people from London.The services in the places they are forced to move to will collapse under the weight of the new arrivals and we will have more deprivation and poverty than ever.

**flamingreen** · 24-04-2012, 09:38 AM

Cameron and the Tories are determined to remove the poorest people from London.The services in the places they are forced to move to will collapse under the weight of the new arrivals and we will have more deprivation and poverty than ever.

HOwever you surely don't approve of supporting mostly immigrant families to live in prime real estate in inner London? Its scandalous.
The numbers of indigenouys families in this situation are relatively small, most having already been driven out of London by immigration and rising house prices.

Theyre talking about it on Radio Five at the moment.

**Francis Overdere** · 24-04-2012, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by flamingreen

HOwever you surely don't approve of supporting mostly immigrant families to live in prime real estate in inner London? Its scandalous.
The numbers of indigenouys families in this situation are relatively small, most having already been driven out of London by immigration and rising house prices.

Theyre talking about it on Radio Five at the moment.

I don't think any families should be living in prime real estate. However the wholesale removal of people from London, however welcome it may be for Londoners,is going to create a huge problem in other areas. If you lived in Stoke with all its unemployment and social problems would you want to accept 500 more families? And no matter how many properties become available in Park Lane, they still won't be affordable by many workers.

Each case should be dealt with on its merits rather than this blanket policy which also covers low paid workers.

**lankou** · 24-04-2012, 10:10 AM

This is relevant to the thread:-

http://www.rman.co.uk/article_privat...ctor-5367.html

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[TD="width: 85%"]Private landlords deserting housing benefit sector

News Category: Industry News

Published: 24-Apr-2012

More than half of landlords can no longer afford to rent to housing benefit tenants because of cuts to allowances, with seven in ten saying they will not have housing benefit tenants in three years’ time.

The claim has come from the National Landlords Association after it surveyed its members.

The survey showed that 53% of landlords believe Local Housing Allowance cuts have made it unaffordable for them to rent to those on benefits.

Nearly half of landlords (46.9%) believe tenants aged under 35 will be hit hardest by the changes and almost 69% of landlords say they can’t see themselves letting to LHA tenants in 2015.

The LHA cuts have seen maximum rent benefit payments reduced to the 30th percentile of local average market rents rather than the previous 50th percentile.

The age at which a tenant on benefits qualifies for any more than a single room in a shared house has also been raised from 25 to 35, forcing many more people into shared accommodation.

David Salusbury, NLA chairman, said: “It’s concerning that so many landlords appear to be planning to withdraw from the LHA market within just three years, as they can no longer afford to let their properties to tenants at the reduced benefit rate.

“In view of the pressures on housing, the private rented sector will inevitably play an increasingly important role in providing housing to LHA tenants, particularly those aged under 35, who aren’t able to access other housing.

“It is vital that local authorities work with landlords to provide the support services needed to help this demographic, as many are forced to move into shared accommodation.”

The NLA also reported that three-quarters of its members have not been approached by councils about reducing rents in return for direct payment of LHA.

The survey shows that just 25% of landlords have been approached by their local authority to reduce rents.

David Cameron drew criticism earlier this year when he claimed in the Commons that rents were falling as a result of the welfare reforms.

Landlords who voluntarily drop their rents can do so in return for direct payments of LHA.

Salusbury said: “They have the discretion to make LHA payments direct to housing providers, but our research shows that only 25% of local authorities are currently speaking with landlords.”

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**sidmouth** · 24-04-2012, 10:17 AM

Whichever way you look at this it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong for the families being displaced and wrong for the people of Stoke-On-Trent.

**Francis Overdere** · 24-04-2012, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by sidmouth

Whichever way you look at this it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong for the families being displaced and wrong for the people of Stoke-On-Trent.

Repped from me.

**BCG Jason** · 30-04-2012, 10:07 PM

IDS has come out and rubbished the Stoke claim saying it is the oppostion exagerating he thinks outer London suburbs would be sufficient to reduce the rental costs, this in principle I would agree with.

**Francis Overdere** · 01-05-2012, 08:20 AM

Originally Posted by BCG Jason

IDS has come out and rubbished the Stoke claim saying it is the oppostion exagerating he thinks outer London suburbs would be sufficient to reduce the rental costs, this in principle I would agree with.

Great.Now all he's got to find is landlords in the outer London suburbs who will let to benefit claimants and councils willing to take on needy families.