Moving The Poor Out Of London......

[Caius]

This is video about something called the ‘Out of London‘ scheme. The video itself focused on a man who had used the programme to move from London to Swansea. So, what seems to be happening is that the poorer inhabitants of the UK's wealthiest city are being encouraged to move to locations which already have high levels of poverty and homelessness. Anybody else heard about this scheme? How does it work? The local authorities where these people are moved to must also be complicit and and getting financially rewarded. Any views or insights?

[Bloo Loo]

If they cant buy them out with second homes, then lets rent them out with second rentals.

[@contradevian]

This is video about something called the 'Out of London' scheme. The video itself focused on a man who had used the programme to move from London to Swansea. So, what seems to be happening is that the poorer inhabitants of the UK's wealthiest city are being encouraged to move to locations which already have high levels of poverty and homelessness. Anybody else heard about this scheme? How does it work? The local authorities where these people are moved to must also be complicit and and getting financially rewarded. Any views or insights?

Amazed that Northampton is on the scheme, given its only 60 miles from London. Then again there was a massive expansion of social housing in that town in the 70's.

Edited July 28, 2013 by aSecureTenant

[worried1]

I think this has always happened to a certain extent. I remember talking to my grandparents who would be pushing 100 by now and they were moved from inner SE London to new housing built on greenfield sites in outer NW London back in the 1930s. Of course, these suburbs are now popular and expensive themselves so the current schemes are looking to move people much further.

Different people will have different views as to whether it is right or wrong, but it certainly goes against the government's current rhetoric that recovery must impact all of the UK rather than just London.

[Bloo Loo]

amazing they had 3 places to offer the guy from the off...I wonder what the waiting list is for locals.

[The Knimbies who say No]

If Tesco want a shop in central London, at present they can pay NMW and force the taxpayer to pick up the tab for housing costs via in-work benefits. Why should Tesco, and others, not be forced to pay a living wage for all of their workers? The benefits system is simply a conduit for taxpayers' money to be paid out as dividends or into the pockets of landlords. I have some sympathy with those who are forced to move, but I have more sympathy with everyone else who is being forced to prop up a house of cards to benefit a few large corporations using emotional blackmail.

Edited July 28, 2013 by cheeznbreed

[@contradevian]

amazing they had 3 places to offer the guy from the off...I wonder what the waiting list is for locals.

Sarah will be along shortly to ask if he's paying bedroom tax.

Tempted to move to Swansea myself if it gets you a large 3 bed council house with a garden for growing vegetables.

[Caius]

Sarah will be along shortly to ask if he's paying bedroom tax.

Tempted to move to Swansea myself if it gets you a large 3 bed council house with a garden for growing vegetables.

From what I heard about that area, I very much doubt you'll find much in your garden to harvest when the time comes.

[worried1]

If Tesco want a shop in central London, at present they can pay NMW and force the taxpayer to pick up the tab for housing costs via in-work benefits. Why should Tesco, and others, not be forced to pay a living wage for all of their workers? The benefits system is simply a conduit for taxpayers' money to be paid out as dividends or into the pockets of landlords. I have some sympathy with those who are forced to move, but I have more sympathy with everyone else who is being forced to prop up a house of cards to benefit a few large corporations using emotional blackmail.

Good post. It is true of course, but if Tesco et all are forced to pay above NMW in central London as well as their other costs being higher, isn't there a point when thy don't want to do business there any more?

Then we are left with a situation where 'Whole Foods Market' and the other over priced ones take over and make it even more difficult for the poorer people still living there. London becomes even more elitist and divided than it already is.

[worried1]

amazing they had 3 places to offer the guy from the off...I wonder what the waiting list is for locals.

I guess it is easier to offload the places in the unwanted estates to ex-Londoners who are amazed at bring offered an actual house with a garden rather than a flat halfway up a tower block where they are the only ones who speak English. The worst council estate in Swansea probably seems like a dream compared to an average one in London.

London is a great place to live if you have a lot of money, but definitely the worst if you don't.

[winkie]

Good post. It is true of course, but if Tesco et all are forced to pay above NMW in central London as well as their other costs being higher, isn't there a point when thy don't want to do business there any more?

Then we are left with a situation where 'Whole Foods Market' and the other over priced ones take over and make it even more difficult for the poorer people still living there. London becomes even more elitist and divided than it already is.

Tesco their shareholders and others win both ways, they pay non living wage wages because they can and they and their shareholders/investors are also benefiting from tax payer top-ups their customers have to receive so that they can continue to live work and eat in an artificially overpriced areas.....natural market forces would see to it that people would move to areas they could afford to live in if subsides were not provided and house prices/rents would drop as a result.

[The Knimbies who say No]

Good post. It is true of course, but if Tesco et all are forced to pay above NMW in central London as well as their other costs being higher, isn't there a point when thy don't want to do business there any more?

Then we are left with a situation where 'Whole Foods Market' and the other over priced ones take over and make it even more difficult for the poorer people still living there. London becomes even more elitist and divided than it already is.

This is the standard argument of the left that ensures that the current situation prevails. But that assumes that the city can function without any people doing the lowest paid work, which of course it cannot. Shelf-stackers, refuse collectors, street sweepers, office cleaners, waiting staff, transport workers(not all of whom are low paid of course) etc etc, take a bow, you are all absolutely key to the functioning of the city. The argument that they could be priced out of town en masse and that the rest would start paying a truer cost for their previously state-subsidised essentials unperturbed is not credible imo- companies that depend on these services would have to pay more or move out themselves. Would a bank be happy to pay it's cleaning staff £25/hour if that was the true cost of a private individual providing that service? Or a lawyer pay £8 for a sarnie from a supermarket?

It may sound like I'm an anti-Londoner, but nothing is further from the truth really. I just really despise this situation where people are being kept on NMW, while others(their employer and landlord) are 'paid' handsomely as a result of this person's employment, at others' expense, simply to create the illusion of a functioning city economy. The same situation appears all over the nation, but is more pronounced in the capital of course since housing is that much more expensive.

And they wonder why the regions are faltering when the Government is actively insulating corporations from the market forces they love so much when they are working in their favour. It's disgusting imo.

Edited July 28, 2013 by cheeznbreed

[@contradevian]

London just isn't designed around "the poor" and never has been. You only have to delve into history to see how miserable a place it can be. I'm not "anti-Londoner" myself as I had a good time when I was living there.

But there is nothing that forces Tesco to pay a "living wage" that would make a self contained home or flat affordable.

Indeed this debate is going on in New York where working for a fast food place (indeed having several such jobs) would barely pay for a crappy rooming house.

The kind of staff attracted to working for Tesco etc, would be young, immigrants prepared to rough it for a few years, or P/T students and London has never had a problem in attracting them, regardless of the conditions, because there is always somewhere in the world that is worse.

The exception was the "social housing" period, perhaps after the war, where say a bus conductor could bring up a family in fairly decent living conditions. But its now reverting, and all the `market` will provide are pretty squalid overcrowded rooming places, for people on limited means.

[winkie]

They don't want the poor moving out of London when over the last 30 odd years they have been encouraging them to move into London......poor people make other people rich, just as long as they can put up with poor conditions.

[Caius]

They don't want the poor moving out of London when over the last 30 odd years they have been encouraging them to move into London......poor people make other people rich, just as long as they can put up with poor conditions.

So this scheme doesn't exist then?

[winkie]

So this scheme doesn't exist then?

No it exists for only those who can't stand the heat.......

[The Knimbies who say No]

London just isn't designed around "the poor" and never has been. You only have to delve into history to see how miserable a place it can be. I'm not "anti-Londoner" myself as I had a good time when I was living there.

But there is nothing that forces Tesco to pay a "living wage" that would make a self contained home or flat affordable.

Indeed this debate is going on in New York where working for a fast food place (indeed having several such jobs) would barely pay for a crappy rooming house.

The kind of staff attracted to working for Tesco etc, would be young, immigrants prepared to rough it for a few years, or P/T students and London has never had a problem in attracting them, regardless of the conditions, because there is always somewhere in the world that is worse.

The exception was the "social housing" period, perhaps after the war, where say a bus conductor could bring up a family in fairly decent living conditions. But its now reverting, and all the `market` will provide are pretty squalid overcrowded rooming places, for people on limited means.

It's not a measure that could be done in isolation as you say- it has to be done hand in hand with a policy which essentially vetoes the immigration of unskilled workers. It would be folly to try it otherwise.

[long time lurking]

amazing they had 3 places to offer the guy from the off...I wonder what the waiting list is for locals.

I was thinking exatly the same

http://www.swanseahousing.co.uk/index.php?section=information&option=waiting_time_calculator_results_

Just one area but I smell a rat

Edited July 28, 2013 by long time lurking

[Caius]

I was thinking exatly the same http://www.swanseahousing.co.uk/index.php?section=information&option=waiting_time_calculator_results_

Just one area but I smell a rat

There is a lot of homelessness in Swansea.

[winkie]

Not dissimilar to the ten pound pom but only a short train ride away.

[Lord D'arcy Pew]

The high priests of Political Correctness are as guilty as those they preach against.

They just have different victims.

[Tankus]

And one way

[Caius]

The high priests of Political Correctness are as guilty as those they preach against.

They just have different victims.

Maybe The Masked Tulip can throw some light because I believe he moved to Swansea from London on one of these schemes.....

[Self Employed Youth]

The empty social and buy to let housing in ex pit towns and the like where rentiers suffer the problem of low housing demand (and thus rents) due to emigration resulting from job losses in the manufacturing industry, can now be repopulated and function as asylums for London's and the South East's unemployed and disabled.

Bringeth your unemployed and disabled to Barnsley (with their housing benefits), for all our young workers are leaving and rents are being forced down due to low wages. Don't let rents fall, reinvigorate our local property markets with social cleansing and landlord subsidies.

It is in your interests too! If you remove your unemployed with secure tenure you can jack up so called 'social' rents for new tenants and boost your rental income too!

We could call it the BARNSLEY clearances; Benevolent Asylum; Rehousing Nationals Somewhere Like Empty Yorkshire

[winkie]