LHA gravy train still in full swing in London...

ILW

dickmysuck wrote: »

Well Im certainly not firing blanks Yes I have got quite a few laddies into delicate state, but I am a good father. I spend time with all my kids, not like some dads who are never there for them.

So you go for the laddies as well as the girls. Must be very busy.

dtsazza

dickmysuck wrote: »

I know lots of people hate me and say I should go and get a job, but while the system is so messed up you may as well be smart about things.

That's true. Which is why people are supporting proposals to fix the system, by making it pay more realistic amounts (i.e. less than the minimum wage job you mentioned, else there's just no point in working).

Flight2quality

TedButler wrote: »

Time will tell if they really bring in the £500 ben cap, this would be a huge change with dramatic consiquences.

They chickened out last time they were going to cut housing ben in April, if it goes ahead next year then look out for the burning police cars and looted shops before they have to move away from London.

The cuts that were postponed last April are supposed to be coming in Jan 1st. Will they postpone again or could we see some big falls in rents and then house prices because of the cuts?

wotsthat

Flight2quality wrote: »

The cuts that were postponed last April are supposed to be coming in Jan 1st. Will they postpone again or could we see some big falls in rents and then house prices because of the cuts?

Are the only two options a postponement or house prices?

Flight2quality

wotsthat wrote: »

Are the only two options a postponement or house prices?

They are the 2 main ones yes, what else have you got in mind cleverclogs? Do you think they will carry on paying thousands per week for these low income families to live in London?

FTBFun

Flight2quality wrote: »

They are the 2 main ones yes, what else have you got in mind cleverclogs? Do you think they will carry on paying thousands per week for these low income families to live in London?

Are you worried about losing your housing benefit?

wotsthat

Flight2quality wrote: »

They are the 2 main ones yes, what else have you got in mind cleverclogs? Do you think they will carry on paying thousands per week for these low income families to live in London?

Maybe LHA will be reduced slowly over a period of time to allow an orderly transition from reliance on benefits to self sufficiency.

Maybe some of the LHA recipients might move to areas where LHA goes a bit further. Maybe landlords will accept a cut in rents to keep valuable government funded tenants in place.

Maybe if some of the LHA recipients move out workers who waste money commuting could afford to live in London. Might reduce pressure on transport systems and create vibrant areas where people spend earned money rather than benefits.

Maybe it's all pie in the sky but, if you'd read the thread, you should see that there are more choices than a) doing nothing or b) having a house price crash.

drc

dickmysuck wrote: »

The trouble is there are so many households in and around London who are getting more than £240 wk housing benefit. Some a lot more, as has been said some get up to £4000 a week just for rent plus council tax benefit.

Where on Earth are all these families going to go?

Everyone keeps saying well if they can't afford to live there then they shouldn't live there. But the situation is that large numbers of low income families are living in high income places like London. Because housing benefit had no limit for so long, rents have been pushed up very high in some places. Remember that newspaper article of that Somalian family getting £4000 a week just for rent to live in big house in the city?

First problem is where are they all going to go? Just outside London will soon get chocka block and they will have to go further afield to find rents cheaper than £240 wk for a place with enough bedrooms.

Second problem is what will happen to the London property market when housing benefit stops pushing up rents? Will anyone move into these empty properties and pay such high rents of £4000 a week out of their own pockets? No I don't think so either.

The landlords will want to make these big houses into a number of smaller flats, but planning is getting very hard for that sort of thing.

What will almost certainly happen is the downward spiral of rents in London, bringing down with them house prices. When the downward momentum gets going the foreign property owners will get scared and pull out on mass. But they will find too many properties all flooding the market at the same time and not enough buyers.

If all this happens at the same time as mortgages getting more expensive and harder to get then look out below. This bear market in housing might find a bottom sooner than most expected.

Lets hope you are right and this is the start of a return to normality and sanity.

pararct

Cheaper property in the inner boroughs of London would not be a bad thing.

Supply and demand will rule as it always has done. If there are insufficient persons not in receipt of HB to rent the properties then rents will fall. If there are then they will remain static, I doubt however they will be increasing over inflation in the short to medium term.

When I did my time in the Army both I (and my family) had to go and live where they told us, some times this was a nice cosy married quarter in Wiltshire (which I still had to pay rent on) or for me a cold dirty shell scrape somewhere else in the World.

No one has a divine right to live anywhere, taxpayers money in respect of benefits should be spent wisely and in the interests of the taxpayer. If this means moving persons to cheaper areas then so be it. All I would ask of the authorities is that this is carefully managed to avoid benefit ghetto's being established.

As to veiled threats about the scale of rioting and disruption as and when this starts to happen then take note that the powers to be will this time be prepared and offer a very robust response.

We have already seen some persons convicted in the last episodes of rioting removed from social housing and had their benefits removed. No doubt this will be the starting point in the next round.

ryantcb

my tram experience
nuff said