Sunday, Jun 27, 2010
Council tenants to be moved closer to jobs, somehow
Telegraph: Coalition to tell unemployed to 'get on your bike'
Iain Duncan Smith disclosed that ministers were drawing up plans to encourage jobless people living in council houses to move out of unemployment black spots to homes in other areas, perhaps hundreds of miles away. The former Conservative Party leader said millions of people were “trapped in estates where there is no work” and could not move because they would lose their accommodation. “Often they are trapped in estates where there is no work near there and – because they have a lifetime tenure of that house – to go to work from east London to west London is too much of a risk because if you up sticks and go you will have lost your right to your house." [ - If only there was a transport network which linked east London to west London...]
Posted by drewster @ 10:22 AM (1158 views) Add Comment
10 Comments
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3. peter said...
No doubt this will involve more tax money being channelled into the pockets of professional layabouts - and landlords.
But I've got a better idea. Just stop their welfare and they will have to move - or end up on the street. They won't be worried about losing their accommodation then, because if they just sit there they won't have any to 'lose'.
4. paul said...
It's actually quite a good idea. I can think of fewer better things to help people to work who want to work. And if they don't want to work ...
5. hpwatcher said...
Another way to drive up property prices.
6. paul said...
I don't see why this drives up property prices - it increases labour mobility so should have a zero net effect.
7. tom101 said...
Why not have reduced corporation tax in less developed areas....like up naarth!!!
8. Stevie Dee said...
An old set of failed ideas by a new set of failed monkeys!
9. uncle tom said...
Depressed areas are notoriously difficult to re-vitalise, and huge amounts of money have been wasted in the past as govts have attempted to get industry to set up biz in high unemployment areas - heavily subsidising employment that often vanishes a year or two later.
Better that the nation's workforce be more mobile, and for that to happen we need more homes, and an end to stamp duty.
It makes perfect sense to offer grants to help with moving expenses, even to go abroad - if it will reduce a benefit claimant's burden on the state..
10. mark wadsworth said...
The Tory idea is mental. Even in areas with lots of employment, there are council estates with lots of unemployed people (i.e. London). If commuters can make their way in to London from all over the South East to work, how come that journey is too far for people in Hackney or Newham?
I agree they ought to build a lot more social housing, especially in areas where people want to live, but IDS as usual is confusing cause and effect. While the geographical immobility of people in council houses is an issue, it is largely self-selection - people live on council estates BECAUSE they are unemployed and not the other way round. The causes of unemployment are far easier to address - replace Welfare State with flat rate Citizen's Income to get rid of poverty trap and cut taxes on output (like VAT).
And of course another Tory idea to keep the Home-Owner-Ist machine turning is to SELL OFF council housing, and not to build more of it. And you'll find that georgraphical immobility among owner-occupiers is even higher than among tenants, whether private or social.