Social Cleansing Or Lucky Bleeders?

[Atheist-Lite]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17821018

Newham Council accused of 'social cleansing' of tenants

A London council has been accused of starting "social cleansing" in the capital by asking a Stoke-on-Trent housing association to take on up to 500 families on housing benefit.

Newham Council says it can no longer afford to house tenants on its waiting list in private accommodation.

The gap between market rents and the housing allowance is too big, it says.

But the association says such a move could mark the start of "thousands of needy people" being dumped elsewhere.

Labour MPs say the decision to seek accommodation outside London is proof that the government's policy of capping housing benefit is already "beginning to unravel".

(continued, get out of the mousetrap free card and they stll grumble?)

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Can somebody explain all that?

[Atheist-Lite]

Can somebody explain all that?

Yes, but you live in a larger country so you wouldn't understand the micro-management happening here.

[mistermack]

Can somebody explain all that?

If I could, and you understood it, you would qualify for a masters degree.

Or you could be lecturing in sociology over here. The country badly needs someone who DOES understand it.

[Rum]

Can somebody explain all that?

There is a 'welfare' payment here called Housing Benefit. If your income is below a certain level you automatically get it (if you apply for it) if you can't afford to pay your housing costs and it goes towards your rent or mortgage. Although altruistic it also has the handy side effect of avoiding thousands of people wandering the streets with no roof over their heads.

When the new right wing government came in they observed that if you lived in a high rent area, say in and around London, where housing costs can be two to three times that of the rest of the country, the level of housing benefit can be huge and they decided that the public should be 'outraged' by the amount being paid and so they set a limit.

The money is paid by local councils (something akin to county level in the USA) and some of them can't afford even the reduced amounts such are the current financial constraints. So, the story is suggesting, they are being shipped out either to lower rent areas or to areas where they become the responsibility of other councils.

Lost the will to live yet?

[Atheist-Lite]

If any Londoners turn up here we'll post them forward to you Rum. You can always rely on Lincolnshire folk to deal with outsiders properly.

[mistermack]

The abuse of housing benefit in London is phenomenal though. Why should people have a right to housing benefit in a particular area?
Most working people can't afford to live in central London. It's too expensive. So why should we pay housing benefit, in areas where even the fairly well-off struggle to live, on their own money?
What's wrong with having to move?

In London, rents are kept artificially high, by the availability of housing benefit. So people with nothing, are keeping people with jobs from living and working in some areas.

[Rum]

The abuse of housing benefit in London is phenomenal though. Why should people have a right to housing benefit in a particular area?
Most working people can't afford to live in central London. It's too expensive. So why should we pay housing benefit, in areas where even the fairly well-off struggle to live, on their own money?
What's wrong with having to move?

In London, rents are kept artificially high, by the availability of housing benefit. So people with nothing, are keeping people with jobs from living and working in some areas.

You may well have a point but it appears that the people in this story are the victims of a councils desire to dump them on someone else.

[MrJonno]

I think in the US people tend to move to (or at least encouraged to) where the jobs are.

In the UK basically where the jobs are is where the rent is unaffordable (ie London). What is the point in moving people to places where there are absolutely no jobs?. It's treating the symptoms of a geographically completely unbalanced economy.

Rents are not really artifically high due to housing benefits they are artifically high due to middle class people supporting the green belt not to protect birds and squirrels but to protect their pile of bricks. I don't think much of the current government but the only thing I do agree with them doing is relaxing planning permission rules. The UK is not really crowded it just has lots of fields growing food (sometimes not even doing that) that no one eats

[FBM]

If people are going to get free (or extremely cheap) housing no matter where they choose to live, it's hardly surprising that so many would choose to live in an up-scale area. I'm not one of those people, but I understand that not many people would prefer Possum Neck, Mississippi over, say, NYC. (No soup kitchens in Possum Neck. I checked.)

[Atheist-Lite]

The whole system is being distorted by someone printing too much money and that will effect the economy, but realistically London is a graveyard once the global trade system collapses, which it is in the process of doing. So why anyone wants to live there, rich man or poor man, is beyond me. I'm gonna guess it is just another example of monumental human stupidity such as those which litter the ruins of earlier fallen civilizations.

[MrJonno]

The whole system is being distorted by someone printing too much money and that will effect the economy, but realistically London is a graveyard once the global trade system collapses, which it is in the process of doing. So why anyone wants to live there, rich man or poor man, is beyond me. I'm gonna guess it is just another example of monumental human stupidity such as those which litter the ruins of earlier fallen civilizations.

If London fails so does the rest of England, Wales and probably Scotland as well. The UK isnt like the US , Germany or Japan its economy is concentrated in a tiny geographical area

[Atheist-Lite]

The whole system is being distorted by someone printing too much money and that will effect the economy, but realistically London is a graveyard once the global trade system collapses, which it is in the process of doing. So why anyone wants to live there, rich man or poor man, is beyond me. I'm gonna guess it is just another example of monumental human stupidity such as those which litter the ruins of earlier fallen civilizations.

If London fails so does the rest of England, Wales and probably Scotland as well. The UK isnt like the US , Germany or Japan its economy is concentrated in a tiny geographical area

No easy way forward. This is bad news but a massive die-off concerning the global human population is the only way. It is the only way to prevent further damage to the hotspots of biological diversity and shorten the coming 'dead epoch' for higher life on this planet. Can't afford to wait for a resource depletion forced 'natural collapse' and this is fair since you have a short time to figure out some prayers or run away from the mega cities. Before they implode economically.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Possum Neck sounds an awesome place to live.

[Rum]

Possum Neck sounds an awesome place to live.

In fact..Possum is ossum!