Home Ownership Incentive Schemes – Parliamentary Written Answer

Grant Shapps:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent from the public purse on advertising the Government's Own Your Home scheme.

Mr Marcus Jones: In 2015/2016 spend on the campaign has been approximately £4 million. Activity consisted of radio, press and consumer advertising, out of home on-street bus stop posters, digital and Facebook advertising and a series of 'How to' online videos promoted through You Tube. On average around 140 people are helped through government home buying schemes every day and over 335,000 households have been helped to buy a property since 2010, through schemes like Help to Buy and the reinvigorated Right to Buy.

'Anti-Homeless Spikes' Spotted Outside London Building

Metal spikes designed to stop homeless people sheltering in doorways have caused outrage, after photographs of a London building went viral. The property, a building of flats on Southwark Bridge Road, has a series of at least 17 inch-long metal studs embedded in the floor of an alcove next to the doorway. The photographs were posted on Facebook, before being posted on Twitter, where they have been shared thousands of times. The pictures upset a lot of people, with many comparing them to spikes used to stop pigeons landing on buildings. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Bedroom Tax Protestors Joining 'Benefit Justice Summit'

Tenants protesting against the bedroom tax and other welfare cuts are to join a 'benefit justice summit'.  The summit will see residents come together with trade unions, disabled people and other campaigners against the Government's forthcoming raft of benefit changes.  The protestors are to meet at the University of London Union on March 9.  Over 70 Facebook pages have now been set up to protest the bedroom tax.  Read more on 24dash.