More Than 600 'Affordable Homes' Built In Merseyside Were NOT Affordable

More than 600 "affordable" homes built in Merseyside in the last three years weren't actually affordable. Data analysed by the Press Association's Radar service shows that Homes England, a government body responsible for building affordable housing, has built some homes which don't meet the guidelines needed to be classed as affordable. Liverpool had the highest number of homes which missed the guidelines of being 80% of market value for buyers, with 258 homes not meeting the criteria. Between 70% and 85% of the homes built in Merseyside by Homes England between April 2015 and March 2018 did meet the guidelines. Read more on the Liverpool Echo website.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/more-600-affordable-homes-built-14847498

First Right-To-Buy Sales Go Through After Pilots

The first sales have taken place under the government's controversial right-to-buy policy for housing association tenants. A handful of sales have gone through in recent days in London and Merseyside following a pilot project involving five housing associations. The housing minister said every house sold would be replaced. But the chairwoman of the public accounts committee said ministers had no idea how much the scheme would cost. Under the pilot schemes in London, Merseyside, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Surrey, tenants had to have been resident for 10 years before they could become eligible to buy. Read more on the GovUK website.

Millions Spent Papering Over the Cracks of Bedroom Tax Disaster

Merseyside councils last year paid out £4.6 million in discretionary housing payments (DHPs) to help households affected by the bedroom tax, according to research by Labour MP Frank Field. The Birkenhead MP said the money provided by local authorities had "papered over the cracks of the human disaster" created by the controversial policy. Merseyside has been one of the areas worst hit by the bedroom tax, with a shortage of one and two bedroom homes making it difficult for social housing tenants to downsize. Read more on 24dash.

Freud Deliberately Misleads House of Lords Over Bedroom Tax…Again!

Did you know – according to the ignoble Lord Freud – that:

·         200,000 1 bed properties become available in social housing each year

·         There have been “a matter of more than 100 FTT (bedroom tax) appeals.”

That is what he told the House of Lords and he is yet again being totally disingenuous.

1)  200,000 one bed SRS properties each year?

The actual and universally accepted figure is 68,000 not 200,000 and so we see Lord Freud tripling the amount of the real figure as is his want.

2) “…a matter of more than 100 FTT appeals?”

Having personal knowledge of over 80 bedroom tax appeals myself just from one small part of Merseyside alone and further knowledge, some first-hand and some second-hand of a further few hundred bedroom tax appeals in Merseyside and hundreds more across the UK we again see Lord Freud knowingly misleading the House of Lords yet again. Read more on the Speye blog.

5000 Pre1996 Cases DWP – Hahahahaha!

DWP estimate no more than 5,000 pre 1996 exemption cases.  I estimate 40,000 - a big difference. Merseyside has 5 councils, each of whom have stock transferred organisations running the former council housing.  I have preliminary figures from two of these in St Helens and Wirral which total over 900 cases and both equate to around 15% of bedroom tax cases in their respective LA areas.  Merseyside has 24,286 confirmed cases of bedroom tax according to latest DWP figures and so if this 15% is replicated across the 5 councils it would be 3,625 pre 1996 cases in Merseyside alone. Anyone think the DWP estimate of 5000 total case for Merseyside’s 5 councils PLUS another 340 or so local councils is a good one? Read more on the Speye blog.

Housing Benefit Cuts 'Lead To Thousands in Merseyside in Debt'

Thousands of families on Merseyside have "spiralled into debt" in the 100 days since the government introduced housing benefit cuts, a study claims.

Ministers introduced changes to benefits for tenants with spare rooms, dubbed a "bedroom tax", in April.  However, the National Housing Federation said it had forced 14,000 tenants in "one of the poorest areas in the country" into rent arrears. The federation's report found 6,000 of the 14,000 householders who had fallen into arrears since the cuts were introduced had done so for the first time.  Download a copy of the report from the NHF website.