Employed to be given council house "priority"

[Mitre10]

Surprised not to see a thread on this already.

Chances of it going through?


Westminster council may give employed housing priority

People in employment would be prioritised on Westminster's council house waiting list

People in employment could be given priority in getting a council house over those who are unemployed, Westminster council has said.

The Conservative-run council said the policy was designed "to reward those who are in jobs".

But Labour councillor Guthrie McKie said: "To discriminate against people for being unemployed is disgusting."

A decision on the proposals will be made in February. If approved, plans will be implemented by April.

The council said the proposal was "designed to recognise positive contributions to society, reward those who are in jobs and to encourage those who are not currently employed to seek work".

Under the council's plans, working households will be defined as those where the main applicant or their partner are in work, have a permanent or temporary contract or are self-employed.

People who would be prioritised must have been working for a minimum of two years.

But Mr McKie said: "I don't think its a good policy.

"There should be a level playing field. We are in a climate of unemployment increasing.

"This policy is driven by political ideology, not the need to resolve problems with social cohesion in the region."

Westminster cabinet member for housing, Councillor Philippa Roe, said: "We want to introduce a system which is fairer to local people and rewards those in employment.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12309895

 

[pk]

We are all "employed" to some degree. It's all about proving it. For the records, like.

Sorry but if you're able bodied/minded, child-free, young, fit and single in London claiming HB and JSA, it's time to learn about the art of washing pots for £3.60 per hour.

The world does not work like your mum's house. Grow up or go hungry.

 

[fractionMan]

ffs pk

 

[pk]

That wasn't aimed at you, Mitre10, just so you know.

 

[weltweit]

Where will the unemployed live.... ?

All those ex MPs convicted of Fraud and leaving her majesties pleasure ...

Where oh where will they live ?

 

[scifisam]

How weird. Shouldn't the reward for being employed be, um, your wages?

We are all "employed" to some degree. It's all about proving it. For the records, like.

Sorry but if you're able bodied/minded, child-free, young, fit and single in London claiming HB and JSA, it's time to learn about the art of washing pots for £3.60 per hour.

The world does not work like your mum's house. Grow up or go hungry.

A lot of the people I know who fit that description have applied for such jobs, but there are a lot fewer jobs than people.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

We are all "employed" to some degree. It's all about proving it. For the records, like.

Sorry but if you're able bodied/minded, child-free, young, fit and single in London claiming HB and JSA, it's time to learn about the art of washing pots for £3.60 per hour.

The world does not work like your mum's house. Grow up or go hungry.

The view of the utter fucking arsehole, thank you for illustrating that.

 

[pk]

ffs pk

What? ffs pk nothing.

The benefit trap is just that... a trap.

Fuck it off.

Don't ever fucking moan about the system not working if you're not working.

This is about people who have been cheated, don't discriminate.

We all need our pillow at night but I'm fucked if I'll see a working class family sleep rough because some smart-arse student's grabbed a 2 bed for knowing how to fill out a few forms.

 

[pk]

The view of the utter fucking arsehole, thank you for illustrating that.

Hey, I'm your friendly neighbourhood arsehole.

However you try to play this system, you're fucked.

 

[fractionMan]

 

[pk]

fucking LOL

 

[Santino]

The deserving poor, I call them.

 

[weltweit]

I don't really understand the policy - or what pk is saying .. also ..

I would have thought what we don't want anywhere is ghettoes...

It would be better if working and unemployed mixed together than if whole areas were ghettoes of the unemployed. Where in Westminster are the unemployed supposed to live exactly.. Wandsworth?

 

[scifisam]

What? ffs pk nothing.

The benefit trap is just that... a trap.

Fuck it off.

Don't ever fucking moan about the system not working if you're not working.

This is about people who have been cheated, don't discriminate.

We all need our pillow at night but I'm fucked if I'll see a working class family sleep rough because some smart-arse student's grabbed a 2 bed for knowing how to fill out a few forms.

WTF are you talking about?

 

[RaverDrew]

We are all "employed" to some degree. It's all about proving it. For the records, like.

Sorry but if you're able bodied/minded, child-free, young, fit and single in London claiming HB and JSA, it's time to learn about the art of washing pots for £3.60 per hour.

The world does not work like your mum's house. Grow up or go hungry.

Meanwhile, in the real world...

 

[pk]

Tin of beans is enough! What more do you want!

They'll be round with the baliffs to pick up the council/leccy/gas bill in the morning.

Sweep the streets for free! We're British! Right?

 

[DexterTCN]

We all need our pillow at night but I'm fucked if I'll see a working class family sleep rough because some smart-arse student's grabbed a 2 bed for knowing how to fill out a few forms.

Yeah....tough love.

Or, in this case, economic discrimination. And you added in families, you're not getting to keep families.

 

[oryx]

Until the law changes, local authorities will have a duty to house those in priority need. (NB I know this need not necessarily be in council or HA housing and it can be in private sector or temporary accommodation).

So if this council (with its notorious history of homes for votes/gerrymandering) decides to prioritise working people for council or HA properties, there's a lot of non-working homeless people it will be obliged to house in private sector or temporary accommodation, with the associated cost - and private sector rents, with the attendant HB costs if a household isn't working, are massively higher.

Even if Westminster decide to export people in temporary accommodation to outer London boroughs, which they've a long history of doing, the associated costs will still be higher than housing them in council/HA accommodation. Fail.

When I read this I seriously wondered about the reappearance of workhouses in 21st century form, and a return to Cathy Come Home type situations.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Is there any such thing as council housing since Labour insisted on stock transfers due to their lack of belief in the principle of public borrowing for legally required improvements?

Anyways, the stupid thing is that the govt have already announced plans to take social housing off people who get a job - hardly an incentive to better oneself in itself but a total case of non joined up thinking. On the other hand, if we organise the insurrection properly they won't be around to carry it out.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I'll see a working class family sleep rough because some smart-arse student's grabbed a 2 bed for knowing how to fill out a few forms.

How often does this happen?

 

[Kanda]

How often does this happen?

Is PK saying the working class are thick? Maybe. Can people be bothered to fill in forms? Maybe.

The smarter one out of the two will win though.

 

[Plumdaff]

How often does this happen?

Oh round pk's way the council estates are full of young single people in multi-bedroom properties idling away the hours while pots remain unwashed. Decent hardworking ordinary families have to use them for shelter.

Of course this area is only located between "unreasonable fears" and "wild imaginings" in his brain.

 

[Stoat Boy]

I might be wrong I always believed that the original ethos behind council housing was to provide decent housing for working people. And that the current situation, in which if you do everything right in terms of employment and so on actually leads to you being the bottom of the queue when it comes to getting housing allocated. Personally I think that it does not hurt to see people actually getting a 'benefit' in terms of social housing due to them actually doing the right thing.

Maybe have a two tiered system so that housing is allocated on a 50-50 basis between those who just queue and pay their own way and those who have to rely on state benefits.

 

[The39thStep]

I don't really understand the policy - or what pk is saying .. also ..

I would have thought what we don't want anywhere is ghettoes...

It would be better if working and unemployed mixed together than if whole areas were ghettoes of the unemployed. Where in Westminster are the unemployed supposed to live exactly.. Wandsworth?

Some of the current thinking around social housing is to 'change the mix' of tenants and housing tenure.Emerged under the Labour Govt and embraced by this one

 

[Santino]

I might be wrong

Just remember this.

 

[William of Walworth]

Is there any such thing as council housing since Labour insisted on stock transfers due to their lack of belief in the principle of public borrowing for legally required improvements?
Anyways, the stupid thing is that the govt have already announced plans to take social housing off people who get a job - hardly an incentive to better oneself in itself but a total case of non joined up thinking. On the other hand, if we organise the insurrection properly they won't be around to carry it out.

That was a total disgrace agreed, but it was a blatantly Tory policy inherited from th Tories. Something you somehow didn't mention ....

Everything wrong with Labour when they were in power was to do with their resemblance to the Tories (the real enemy)

 

[Voley]

Splendid stuff from Westminster, as ever. The Designated For Sale policy clearly wasn't enough for them.

 

[Voley]

Some of the current thinking around social housing is to 'change the mix' of tenants and housing tenure.Emerged under the Labour Govt and embraced by this one

That emerged pre-Labour too. The Designated For Sale scheme (Homes For Votes in real language) was often justified as 'keeping the balance' of an estate.

 

[_angel_]

Hang on is this at the same time as wanting to kick out employed tenants for the crime of earning too much???

 

[_angel_]

We are all "employed" to some degree. It's all about proving it. For the records, like.

Sorry but if you're able bodied/minded, child-free, young, fit and single in London claiming HB and JSA, it's time to learn about the art of washing pots for £3.60 per hour.

The world does not work like your mum's house. Grow up or go hungry.

yep there's no one being made to lose their job at the moment