Poor slightly priced out! Today's Groaner

ruggedtoast

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/01/housing-benefits-cuts-rents-study

Housing benefit cuts will put 800,000 homes out of reach to bone idle, according to study.

A further 800,000 homes will be put out of reach of people on housing benefit because of government welfare cuts – leaving a family of doleys the choice of working for a living, or moving to somewhere marginally cheaper, according to a study by housing experts.

The Chartered Institute of Housing has found there will be thousands more claimants than properties that are affordable on benefits alone, raising the possibility that the poor will migrate to "benefit ghettoes" in seaside towns or the north of England, as its well known the Job Centre never even look at your jobsearch book in these places.

From this month, the government has capped housing benefit payments to, for example, a maximum £250 a week on a two-bedroom home. Funded mostly by people who work and can't afford to spend £250 a week on a two bedroom home.

The result is that in many towns and cities there will not be enough affordable homes to rent for those claiming local housing allowance, the benefit paid to tenants of private landlords. The problem is most acute in central London, where in two of the country's richest boroughs – Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea – more than 35,000 homes will at a stroke be put out of reach of people who think an early start begins after Jeremy Kyle.

Grainia Long, the interim chief executive of the institute, said the welfare changes will "see for the first time more people chasing homes than the market currently provides".

"The only option to stay might be to get up before noon and sign up with an agency for some temping" she said. "This will mean that more than 1.3 million private tenants face the new year with dread – facing an uncomfortable prospect of getting up when its still dark and going on the tills at Greggs or something."

Charities said the analysis vindicated their warnings that the government's plan will cause panic amongst the !!!!less and workshy.
Labour says it supports the principle of the benefit cap but added: "The government has got to get the detail right otherwise it will simply clobber the poorest and put families on phone to Wonga.com after they've spent all their rent on Dominoes and those terrifying looking dogs".

Liam Bryne, the shadow welfare and pensions secretary, said there was evidence the benefits cap had been "so badly thought through it could actually end up violating people's human right to spend 18 hours a day watching Bid Up TV and re-runs of Two and a Half Men on Dave … it's time to go back to the drawing board."

The Department for Work and Pensions said housing benefit was unfair because some families on benefits had been able to live in homes that most working families not on benefits could not afford. But they were swiftly discredited as fascists and Nazis by a woman in a beany hat.

Edited slightly for editorial bias.

Generali

ruggedtoast wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/01/housing-benefits-cuts-rents-study



Edited slightly for editorial bias.

Rare for the Grauniad to be so candid IME.

System

The sneaky, almost unnoticable edits certainly improved the article.

PasturesNew

The problem is most acute in central London, where in two of the country's richest boroughs – Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea – more than 35,000 homes will at a stroke be put out of reach of people on housing benefit.

Well, bugg4h me ... that's tough t1tty isn't it!

Road_Hog

Generali wrote: »

Rare for the Grauniad to be so candid IME.

Fortunately the Guardian will be going bankrupt in the not too distant future.

Generali

Road_Hog wrote: »

Fortunately the Guardian will be going bankrupt in the not too distant future.

How so...?

LydiaJ

The impression that I get from reading the article is that rental properties above the level of the cap will suddenly cease to exist once the cap comes into effect, so there's no need to worry our little heads with the complicated question of what will happen to the rental market for those properties.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

LydiaJ wrote: »

The impression that I get from reading the article is that rental properties above the level of the cap will suddenly cease to exist once the cap comes into effect, so there's no need to worry our little heads with the complicated question of what will happen to the rental market for those properties.

The thing is though, outside of a very few properties in central London, the difference between the 30th percentile rent and the 50th percentile rent is just not that big at all.

£11 a week on average.

This will have very little impact to the wider market. It's already been in place for new claimants since early last year, and rents rose to new record highs regardless.

geneer

LydiaJ wrote: »

The impression that I get from reading the article is that rental properties above the level of the cap will suddenly cease to exist once the cap comes into effect, so there's no need to worry our little heads with the complicated question of what will happen to the rental market for those properties.

:rotfl: Very good.

Road_Hog

Generali wrote: »

How so...?

Falling sales.

http://cifwatch.com/2011/07/31/the-guardians-latest-precipitous-circulation-decline-their-increasing-reliance-on-the-bbc/

Falling revenue.

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/guardian-media-group-reports--25m-drop-in-revenue/s2/a545419/

Despite their restructuring, they're going down the pan and have been for a few years. It hasn't helped that NuLabour are not there to advertise all public sector jobs in their rag, which will continue to hit revenue.


"Andrew Miller, the chief executive of GNM's parent company, Guardian Media Group (GMG), warned staff in a series of meetings this week that the group could run out of cash in three to five years if he does not make radical changes, which could include up to 175 redundancies."

"In May The Guardian's average circulation was 262,937, down 12.5pc on year, while The Observer's circulation of 293,053 was down 13.9pc. GNM responded by axing 203 jobs in the last financial year, on top of nearly 100 the year before, but its revenues fell so sharply that the job cuts were not enough to reverse its huge losses.

In particular, recruitment advertising, long the cash cow for The Guardian because of its preferred status for public sector job adverts, has fallen by £41m in the last four years as Government departments have slashed spending on advertising."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8583220/Riches-to-rags-as-Guardian-bleeds-33m-in-a-year.html

thescouselander

Is it me or are the allowances still remarkably generous?

a maximum £250 a week on a two-bedroom home.

Now I can imagine how this could be a problem in London but for most this sort of rate should be more than enough. I cant see what the problem is.