Newham council wants to traffic tenants out of London

16:54 PM, 24th April 2012, About 13 years ago 11

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Housing minister Grant Shapps has accused Newham Council, East London, of ‘playing politics with peoples’ lives’ over a radical plan to shunt homeless families out of the capital because benefit caps do not allow them to move in to local buy to let properties.

The council has a housing waiting list of 32,000 people and claims cuts to housing benefits mean tenants can claim a monthly allowance of between £250 for a one-bedroom flat and £400 for a four-bedroom property.

To beat the benefit cap, the council has written to more than 1,000 housing associations as far away as Stoke-on-Trent ‘offering’ them tenants and a bounty payment of 90% of the local housing allowance plus £60 a week.

Shapps says the scheme is an election ploy – London mayoral and local elections are due on May 3.

He also pointed out that a web search for rented properties in Newham highlighted more than 1,000 homes with rents cheap enough to fall within the benefit cap.

Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Labour-controlled Newham Council, has also launched a high profile campaign demanding a change in the law to let the council purchase a buy to let portfolio.

“Government policies push people out from the centre of London out to here,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “There just isn’t the capacity to deal with them and we end up chasing around the country trying to find ways to deal with people who are in need”.

“We’ve got hundreds of people looking for places to stay and the result of government benefit cuts, which are still working through as well, means that many more people from wealthier parts of London are looking for places to live in London and they’re just not there.

“We know it is very hard to get property in this borough and round the east end of London. We have written to 1,179 organisations saying could you accommodate some people? We’re not looking to push people all to one place, we’re looking to find the best possible solution for citizens.”

Meanwhile London mayor Boris Johnson said he would not accept ‘social cleansing’ of the capital by shipping out the poor and Shapps commented: “It can’t be right to have people on housing benefit to live in streets and homes that hard-working people are unable to live in themselves. The system is still very generous and I think Newham are perhaps playing politics given that we are in election season.”

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Tags: Buy to let, CLG, Communities and Local Government Department, Grant Shapps, Housing Association, Housing benefit, Local Housing Allowance, London, London property, Newham, Newham Council, Robin Wales

Comments

15:49 PM, 27th April 2012, About 13 years ago

Did you see Question time last night?
Apparently EU migrants now occupy 50% of Newham's social housing.
I'm sure the long standing residents who have been on the waiting list for social housing for years are highly delighted that the recent EU migrants have taken up the half of the council's housing supply.
Bizarre isn't it you now face the situation of the multi-cultural and largely non-white indigenous population of Newham being replaced by White Eastern Europeans who have no 'Local Connection' and yet LHA claimants who have a 'Local Connection' are being farmed out to a largely white indigenous population in Stoke, because there is allegedly not enough rental property that can be afforded by LHA claimants lied about by the Mayor of Newham.
There is plenty of rental accommodation; it is just not available for LHA claimants for all the known reasons.
Politicians, like the Mayor of Newham engaging in demagoguery and blatant lying do nothing for social harmony.
The problem is with the govt and councils not the innocent LHA claimants.
Quick way to solve Newham's social housing problem get rid of the EU, white migrants and close the borders to EU migration
Operate an Australian type immigration system.
Withdraw from the free movement of labour within the EU.
Newham and other poorer areas of the UK cannot afford to house Eastern Europe.
We have our own population of LHA claimants that desperately need this accommodation but have been displaced by White EU migrants.
We need to look after British Nationals first before councils are obligated to house Eastern Europe!!

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