Hundreds Of £100,000-A-Year Families Get Help To Buy Loans

The Government's flagship 'Help to Buy' scheme was set up to provide cheap mortgage guarantees to help families struggling to scrape together the money for a deposit for their first home. But new figures reveal the scheme is giving more help to families earning over £80,000 than it is to those getting by on less than £20,000 a year. Some 1,793 families with incomes of more than £100,000 a year have qualified for assistance under the Help to Buy scheme. A further 2,448 families on more than £80,000 a year have received assistance. By contrast, the scheme has helped just 2,466 families struggling on incomes of under £20,000 a year. Read more on the Daily Mail website.

The Budget: Housing Changes

From April 2017, those out of work between the ages of 18 and 21 will not be automatically entitled to claim housing benefit. Parents whose children live with them will be excluded from this measure. Vulnerable groups will also be excluded, as will claimants who have been in continuous work for the preceding six months. As many as 300,000 fewer people are expected to be eligible for Universal Credit as a result of the changes. Higher earners will have to pay more in rent for social housing. Those earning more than £30,000 (£40,000 in London) will have to make a bigger contribution if they live in council or housing association property. However, for everybody, rents will be reduced by 1% a year for four years from 2016. Read more on the BBC website.

Crackdown on 'Rich' Council House Tenants

Big earners living in council houses or flats and paying cheap subsidised rents are to lose the perk in a Budget crackdown. George Osborne will announce that anyone earning over £40,000 in London or £30,000 outside the capital will lose benefits and have to pay the full market rent. The crackdown, which will save taxpayers £250m a year, is aimed at the likes of Frank Dobson, who still lives in a council flat near the British Museum, despite serving as a Cabinet Minister under Tony Blair and earning a six-figure salary. Read more on the Sky News website.

Tenants on £100k May Get ‘Right to Buy’ Discount

Thousands of people earning as much as £100,000 a year could qualify for six-figure discounts funded by the taxpayer under David Cameron’s controversial new right to buy plans. Government data show that significant numbers of housing association tenants on four times the average salary will qualify for the £104,000 London discount.  Critics said the disclosure made a mockery of Mr Cameron’s vow to help “working people” enjoy the dream of home ownership and one senior London Tory MP urged ministers to “iron out its obvious iniquities”. Government data show that there are 21,000 households in social properties, including council and housing association homes, who have incomes higher than £60,000. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Government to Target High Earners Living in Council Houses

Thousands of people earning at least £100,000 a year live in council houses subsidised by the taxpayer. Figures show that around 5,000 people on six-figure salaries are paying cheap rent on properties owned by councils or housing associations. Figures compiled by the CLG show that high earners are subsidised by the taxpayer by £4,200 a year through low rents. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the evidential basis is for his Department's finding that 34,000 households with incomes of over £60,000 are living in social housing; and if he will make a statement.

Grant Shapps [holding answer 28 June 2012]: The estimated number of social tenants with incomes over £60,000 is based on two surveys, the English Housing Survey (data for 2008-09 and 2009-10) and the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey 2008-09. Almost 10,000 households living in the social rented sector were sampled in total. Incomes over £60,000 are relatively uncommon in the social sector so comparatively few respondents met these criteria. The range of households with incomes above this level, between 12,000 and 34,000, is therefore our best estimate of the actual number of high income tenants.  Datasets from both surveys are deposited at the UK Data Archive and are available to external users.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of people with household earnings over £100,000 who are living in council or social housing; and on what evidential basis this estimate was reached.

Grant Shapps: The estimated number of social tenants with incomes over £100,000 is based on two surveys, the English Housing Survey (data for 2008-09 and 2009-10) and the Department for Work and Pensions' Family Resources Survey 2008-09. Almost 10,000 households living in the social rented sector were sampled in total. Incomes over £100,000 are relatively uncommon in the social sector so comparatively few respondents met these criteria. The range of households with incomes above this level, between 1,000 and 6,000, is therefore our best estimate of the actual number of high income tenants. Datasets from both surveys are deposited at the UK Data Archive and are available to external users.

High-Earners Will 'Pay To Stay' In Social Housing

Landlords will be allowed to increase rents for high-earning social housing tenants in order to fund the building of new homes, under new plans announced today. The government’s housing strategy pledges to protect the rights of existing social housing tenants, but says this should not prevent landlords ‘tackling the small minority of tenants who abuse their social housing, this includes households earning high incomes who continue to occupy subsidised housing.’ The government has suggested the ‘pay to stay’ proposals, which will be subject to consultation, could apply to the estimated 6,000 social housing tenants earning more than £100,000 a year. Read more on Inside Housing.

Pay To Stay Scheme to Fund New Affordable Homes

The housing minister has pledged to put ‘every penny’ raised from increasing the rent of high-earners living in social housing into building more homes. Grant Shapps told Parliament that there were currently around 6,000 households in the UK with combined incomes of £100,000 or more. Mr Shapps said: ‘That is something we intend to tackle with the pay to stay scheme.’ When asked if would consider ring fencing the money raised by the scheme, Mr Shapps said that it was unfair that people were using social housing to live in areas which many people could not afford. ‘We think that there are some tens of millions of pounds that will be available with pay to stay,’ he said ‘And with that money we will use every penny of it to provide more affordable homes for those who really need it.’

Eviction Threat for Social Housing Tenants Earning More Than £100,000

Social housing tenants who earn more than £100,000 a year could be removed from their council or housing association home under plans being examined by the Government. The move follows criticism over its plans to cap housing benefit and allow social landlords to charge higher rents for new tenants on fixed term tenancies, the minimum of which can be just two years. Housing Minister Grant Shapps complained that some wealthy people were living in properties that should be kept for the least well off. Up to 6,000 people could be affected, according to figures prepared by officials, and ministers are ready to change the law if necessary to ensure local councils and social landlords can evict those who refuse to leave. Read more on 24dash.