WageWar Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Paul Kenny, the GMB’s general secretary, said housing shortages and rising rents meant housing benefits were lining private pockets across the region. He said: “This exposé shows the rich and powerful sucking up taxpayer’s money through housing benefit. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/billions-going-fat-cat-wallets-6737809 http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/private-landlords-pocket-millions-housing-6736885 http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/largest-recipients-housing-benefits-wales-6736664 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-fatcat-landlords-squalid-hostel-3178185 The amount made from the Bellgrove has tripled from £500,000 in 2000 despite it being described then as the “worst inScotland”. And this is why councils need to look at running HMO themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 And in Manchester http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/private-landlords-pocket-millions-housing-6736885 Manchester council paid four private landlords sums ranging from £185,000 to £275,000 - a total of over £920,000 - for housing tenants in 2012/13. But they say the names of the property moguls cannot be subject to scrutiny because they are not registered as businesses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilham Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 I wonder what would happen if councils refused to pay housing benefit to landlords not registered as a business?. Considering the amounts involved for even a single property landlord I don't see how they could argue it isn't a business transaction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 I wonder what would happen if councils refused to pay housing benefit to landlords not registered as a business?. Considering the amounts involved for even a single property landlord I don't see how they could argue it isn't a business transaction. Make it compulsory to show you're declaring the income? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justonemore Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 "The landlord … watches the busy population around him making the city larger, richer, more convenient. .. and all the while sits and does nothing. Roads are made … services are improved … water is brought from reservoirs one hundred miles off in the mountains and -all the while the landlord sits still … To not one of these improvements does the landlord monopolist contribute and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced … At last the land becomes ripe for sale – that means the price is too tempting to be resisted any longer … In fact you may say that the unearned increment … is reaped by the land monopolist in exact proportion not to the service, but to the disservice done." - Winston Churchill during debates on the Finance Act 1910 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eddie_George Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Here are some more scroungers: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ukip-housing-spokesman-trousering-fortune-3175130 http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/richest-mp-britain-slams-welfare-3178089#ixzz2uCTKZ5sV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 But they say the names of the property moguls cannot be subject to scrutiny because they are not registered as businesses. Only 'business activity' I know where you can get away with such privacy. Scoop millions in HB from the Council and no need for public trading address or registered office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Only 'business activity' I know where you can get away with such privacy. Scoop millions in HB from the Council and no need for public trading address or registered office. It's called being self-employed. Landlords are not the only people who can do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamdamosuzuki Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I raise this subject at work and the first word out of peoples mouth is BUT................... So ingrained is this theft from us all via HB. The biggest national scandal I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomberbrown Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 This is what you get when successive governments effectively outsource their housing obligations (RTB > BTL) and fail to build more social housing purely for rent. Although it's mainly the Conservatives (Margaret Thatcher in particular) that are vilified for the RTB policy in the early 80's, it was actually taken from a Labour idea/manifesto a lot earlier than that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Buy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilEdna Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I can't remember being more sickened by any other housing story than this one. Apologies if it's been posted elsewhere. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/revealed-fatcat-landlords-squalid-hostel-3178185 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butthead Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Is it a housing story? Or is it a story about how the public sector is incapable of spending money wisely and that the benefit system benefits nobody but the already rich? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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