Tuesday, Sep 07, 2010
Following on from today's Citywire article
Mortgagestrategy: Housing benefit cuts are "recipe for destitution"
The government’s proposed cuts to housing benefits are a “recipe for destitution” that will hinder the UK’s economic recovery, the British Property Federation is warning. The BPF says the cuts will be hard for up to 800,000 claimants of Local Housing Allowance, who may be forced to move away from employment hot spots because of high housing demand. It estimates there are over 400,000 new claimants that will be hit by the changes, and that a further 400,000 people already in work and claiming the benefit may be priced out of their homes -and so potentially have to leave their jobs.
Posted by jack c @ 04:12 PM (1111 views) Add Comment
8 Comments
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1. drewster said...
Claimants will be forced to move away from employment hotspots? Err no, not quite. More like employers will be forced to actually pay a decent wage which covers the astronomical rents and/or commuting costs in employment hotspots (which is media-code for inner London).
2. enuii said...
It was quite common in late Victorian and Edwardian times for the upper working and middle classes to have live in home help in the form of elderly spinsters or widows. One house in Manchester we researched had and elderly woman living in the coal cellar who was basically kept with a roof over her head in return for work around the house, perhaps this will be the future for the destitute once again.
3. mark wadsworth said...
Wow. British Property owners ask government to continue giving them shedloads of money. No chance of an ulterior motive there, then?
4. the number cruncher said...
enuii - sometime irony is lost...
As much as I hate rent seekers, and do hope we can rid them from our economy, a cautionary note for the many Ebenezers who read these posts, from a Mr C. Dickens.
Scrooge: Are there no prisons? Benefactor: Plenty of prisons. Scrooge: And the Union Workhouses? Are they still in operation? Benefactor: They are. I wish I could say they were not. Scrooge: The Treadmill and the Poor Law, they're still in full vigor, I presume? Benefactor: Both very busy, sir. Scrooge: Oh! From what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.
Scrooge: I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there. 1st Benefactor: Many can't go there. 2nd Benefactor : And some would rather die. Scrooge: If they would rather die, they'd better do it, and decrease the surplus population.
Scrooge: There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!
skip to 3:03
5. easybetman said...
@enuii at 2, the French are already doing that sort of intergenerational 'sharing'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10813243
6. enuii said...
Excellent easybetman; seems like an excellent way to stop ones daughters being regularly deflowered at university by the more unsavoury students whilst providing first rate BTL parasite free accomodation and minimal student loans.
7. uncle tom said...
This piece is one of the most perfect examples of greedy vested interests pretending to be socially concerned that we've seen for a long time..
8. Bulboy said...
In "Basic Economics - A Common Sense Guide to the Economy" by Thomas Sowell it is repeated on couple of occasions with examples from all over the world and through time that the worst that can happen to an asset is price control. One of the economists stated that the rent control introduced just after the WWII in one city did more damage than the actual bombing. So inline what we see is partial withdrawal of the rent control which surely is move in the right direction.