Spending Social Housing Is At A Record Low

Spending on social housing is at a record low, while the amount forked out in housing benefit to private landlords continues to rise, a new study shows.  The amount spent on building homes for a growing population has more than halved from £11.4 billion in 2009 to £5.3bn in 2015, according to a new NHF report. More than a million households are on housing waiting lists and the problem will get worse unless the government is prepared “to make a break from the past”. The sum spent on housing benefit has risen over the last 20 years from £16.6bn to £25.1bn. The yearly amount going to private landlords has almost doubled over the last decade to £9.1 billion in 2015-16. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Rent Rises, Low Pay – Millions ‘Living On Brink’

Exorbitant rents and stunted wages are leaving 3.5 million Londoners without enough money to meet their basic needs, research shows. The number falling short of a minimum level of living in London has increased by 400,000 since 2010, researchers found. Private rents rose by 7.2 per cent in London between 2014 and 2016, double that in the rest of Britain, while the cost of letting “cheaper” properties has gone up four times as much as the rest of Britain. And the minimum wage increase to £7.20 an hour for over-25s hasn’t helped, with high costs of living meaning single adults are actually worse off than before the rise, despite a benefit outside the city. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Fixing Homes Crisis Requires Additional 400,000 Builders

The building industry will have to recruit a worker every 77 seconds for the next four years to meet Britain’s housing needs. Under-investment in the workforce was highlighted as one of the major causes of the housing crisis, according to a report from consultants Arcadis. The group estimated that about 400,000 plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, quantity surveyors and other trades people will have to be taken on every year up to 2021. Arcadis group’s James Bryce warned the industry was facing a skills “gulf,” adding: “Systemic underinvestment in the nation’s workforce has contributed to a reduction in UK productivity. “ Read more on the Morning Star website.

Tories’ £5bn Homes Plan Ignores Council Housing

Senior Tories trumpeted a pledge to give a £5 billion boost to homeownership after claiming that Labour plans to build around 500,000 council homes would “increase inequality. A new homebuilding fund would provide £3bn for the construction of 25,500 homes on “brownfield” land in the next four years. Another £2bn in infrastructure investment would “unlock” up to 200,000 homes in the longer term. But the Tories still refuse to boost dwindling numbers of council homes. Housing Minister Gavin Barwell has said Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to build at least 500,000 council homes would increase inequality between those whose houses earn more than they do and those who do not own a home. Mr Barwell said he wanted to see homes “of every single kind” constructed, but he did not specifically mention council housing. Read more on the Morning Star website.

The Housing Act: A Neoliberal Policy Too Far?

There are examples of government policies and initiatives that unravel almost before they’re unveiled. The Housing and Planning Act could soon be added to the list. This ill-conceived, iniquitous legislation could collapse under the weight of its own nonsense and our refusal to accept yet another attack on public services and working-class communities. According to the government’s timetable, the Act should be implemented next April. It’s not going to happen. Amid political turmoil, the legislation is due to return to Parliament, but not until after the summer recess. Pressure inside and outside the Commons brought some concessions to the original Bill, but privately, local councils, including Tory-controlled authorities, are describing the policy as an “administrative nightmare” and are very worried about its potential impact. Read more on the Morning Star website.

‘Only Public Sector Can Ease Escalating Housing Crisis’

A public-sector building scheme is needed to tackle private developers who “drip feed” new properties on the market and stoke escalating house prices. Grossly inflated prices are a result of an over-reliance on developers, think tank Civitas said, which argued that a single cash boost of less than £20 billion would overcome lack of housing in England. It called for a new requirement on local authorities to step in and commission the building of homes that the private sector has failed to deliver for decades, since council housebuilding went into “terminal decline” in the 1970s. The one-off investment could build 100,000 houses and flats, claims the report. Proceeds from any sales could be reinvested in more homes, it added. Landowners and developers have no incentive to build quickly because a sudden increase in supply would drive down prices. Read more on the Morning Star website.

200,000 Asked For Help To Keep Home

More than 200,000 people on the brink of homelessness became desperate enough to seek help from local services in the last year alone. That number, based on government statistics from 2014-15, represents a surge of nearly 50 per cent in calls to councils in the last five years. Although the 205,100 cries for help to councils in England led to action that prevented homelessness, in the same year 54,000 households lost the struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Advisers at Shelter said the surge came as no surprise, as it received 450,000 calls to its helpline last year. One in four of the calls came from people who faced losing their home within a month. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Shortage Of Social Housing Drives Prices To Record High

Record house prices are being pushed up by an increasing lack of social housing and scarcity of truly affordable homes, say campaigners. The average cost of a house is now £286,000 after rising by 6.1 per cent in the 12 months to September this year, according to Office of National Statistics data. Meanwhile, average prices in London increased by 7.2 per cent to an eye-watering record high of £531,000. The housing crisis is being worsened by the Tory government failing to make provision for affordable home ownership and building of council properties in its widely criticised Housing and Planning Bill. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Tenants Forced To Spend 40% of Income on Rent

Tenants are having to spend two-fifths of their incomes on rent, reveals a new government report. According to this year’s English Housing Survey, private renters in England are spending 40 per cent of their salaries to keep a roof over their heads. Tenants’ rights campaign Generation Rent director Alex Hilton said: “Renters spend two days every week working to pay off their landlord’s mortgage.” The group denounced the current state of affairs as “exploitation” and a “financial thumbscrew” for millions of people who are stuck without alternatives. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Bedroom Tax Inflicted On Disabled Child

The disabled grandparents of a child who cannot walk, talk or feed himself vowed to fight on after a High Court ruling said they would have to pay the bedroom tax - as he isn't old enough to be exempted.  Rejecting the family's application for a judicial review, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said a discretionary government housing grant would make up the difference until April 2015 and that, assuming the scheme remained, there was no evidence to suggest the council would refuse to make up the shortfall in future. He said the family were not financially disadvantaged by the intended and actual operation of the scheme and that none of the detriments which had been suggested would have an "unreasonable discriminatory effect." Read more on the Morning Star website.

Bedroom Tax: Not About the Money

A Tory minister has unmasked the real motivation behind the cruel bedroom tax by admitting the policy was never about saving taxpayers' cash. The DWP revealed stripping Britain's poorest tenants of housing benefit has saved the Treasury £1 million a day since last April. But Tory Employment Minister Esther McVey admitted that the policy "was never all about saving money" - a claim at odds with the line her government used. Ms McVey made the short but stark comment on BBC 5 Live radio in an interview before the first anniversary of the bedroom tax. Disabled People Against Cuts spokeswoman Debbie Jolly said: "At last we have some truth from the mouth of a government minister." Outraged Ms Jolly said it showed the policy was another Tory attempt to "inflict misery on ordinary people struggling with rising costs of living." And she said: "The situation is clear - under this government we not only face an erosion of rights, but continuous attacks on our living standards, homes and security.” Read more on the Morning Star website.

Bed Tax Victory Mum 'Asked By Official to Keep On Paying'

The mum of a disabled boy revealed yesterday that she was asked to keep paying the bedroom tax to "balance the books" of a housing association.  Sarah Davies of Bridgend in south Wales won the exemption with the help of activists who proved her son Ben, who suffers from cerebral palsy, needed his own room. But she was left stunned when a housing officer called just half an hour later to see if she would keep paying until April.  She told the Star: "A man phoned, he wasn't nasty or horrible, he just said could you continue paying until the end of the month so it all balances and works out. He said it's up to me but would I pay it and I said no.” The call came from a senior staff member of housing association Wales and West, from which Ms Davies, her husband and two sons rent their three-bedroom home. Read more on the Morning Star website.

Time to Make a Noise about Housing Attacks

In simpler times, the rent was just the rent. The breakdown of council rents in recent years, to include many itemised service charges, was never for our benefit as tenants. Today, housing experts say that it is "uncertain" whether the universal credit, being phased in from October 2013, will cover tenant service charges, as current housing benefit does. Draft regulations published in June 2012 look set to exclude 13 different types of service charge from benefit coverage. The impact on tenants would be severe, and for some, devastating.  We estimate that the changes would cut the disposable income of single unemployed tenants by one-third, from £64.87 to £42.97 per week. That's on top of the Tories' other benefit changes - the council tax shortfall, the "bedroom tax" and so on. Many councils and housing associations have been considering the withdrawal of some services, because tenants would be unable or unwilling to pay high service charges from their benefit income.  Read more on the Morning Star website.

Homelessness Soars 25% in Just 3 Years

The government's failure to tackle homelessness was thrust into the spotlight after shocking figures revealed that thousands more vulnerable people in England are in need of emergency accommodation.  Around 50,290 families and individuals were classed as homeless in 2011/12, compared with 40,020 three years ago, according to data experts SSentif.  The huge 25 per cent increase comes as the government coughs up less on tackling homelessness with spending dropping from £213.7 million to £199.8m over the last three years. Regionally, the highest percentage increase was in the east of England, with the number of cases rising from 3,660 in 2009/10 to 5,270 in 2011/12 - a huge 44 per cent increase.  Read more on the Morning Star website.