'bedroom Tax' - Anyone Agree With It?

[Gromit]

The so called 'Bedroom Tax' starts today. Anyone receiving Housing Benefit (HB) who has a spare room will have their HB reduced.

Will it solve the housing shortage?
or
Is it a cynical stealthy way to cut the benefits bill?

[Gromit]

Whiskeyron

Councils were forbidden from using the money from the sale of council houses to build new homes. The aim of the policy was to rid local authorities of the burden of tenants, not build them new homes.

[naomi24]

Whiskeryron, I agree. Council houses should never have been sold off. If the government of the day wanted to help people onto the property ladder, it would have been wiser to help them buy into the private sector leaving social housing available for those who needed it. Bad decision.

[jake-the-peg]

//Em, second home owners aren’t stopping people buying property//

Really Naomi - I thought there was something called the law of supply and demand?

Second home owners push up prices making houses less affordable - this is especially a problem in popular holiday areas like the South West

[emmie]

Naomi, who made the home prices high in the first place, it wasn't the locals, who stayed put mostly. I know things don't stay the same, and we have become much more mobile, and for some that means moving away, but i do object that some blow ins snap up properties that weren't expensive to start with, and yet never or rarely live in them, perhaps visiting once or twice a year for their annual holiday, effectively a holiday home. I think that in places like Cornwall properties could have been made available to locals before being sold off to rich incomers. A old friend did this, she and her bloke bought nice place but rarely used it, not even renting it out to a local?

[emmie]

gromit, don't agree, it was to help council house tenants get a foot on the property ladder, you had to live in the property full five years before selling, and i know many who bought and didn't want to move, so have stayed put, they just wanted more security of tenure than offered by the council. And the feeling of ownership is a damn sight better than paying endless money to the council for no return.

[emmie]

many moons ago i looked into buying privately, it just wasn't feasible, the bank said how much i would need as a deposit, and indeed how much i would have needed to be earning and it wasn't nearly enough. They told me so, and so that was that. I had the chance to buy this place, but as it turned out with o/h and all would have been in a far worse position.

[naomi24]

Jake/Em, of course it happens - but it isn't the crux of the problem. Far from it.

[emmie]

fgt, why doesn't that surprise me. of course you do, as do many others, without first understanding what this means for many people, families.
heaven help the poor council tenant, labelled as a dossing scrounger constantly in the media, and many people actually believe it. Let's hope no one is in this position, as you will be just as aggrieved.

[jake-the-peg]

It's the crux of the problem if you live in Cornwall

Less so if you live in Sunderland

That's the problem with a 'one size fits all policy'

But then the Conservatives are past masters of square-peg round hole policies!

[Gromit]

The aim of the policy of selling off council houses wasn't to get people on the property ladder. They virtually gave away the homes. It was to reduce costs for local councils and to raise money to supplement the rates which had been capped by central Government.

[daffy654]

The buy your council house policy wasn't around in 1972 jordyboy. You must have your dates mixed up.

[emmie]

Naomi, it's a large part of it. Those in the capital who can afford mega bucks to buy a property, have pushed buying and renting fees through the roof, so those who can't afford to rent/buy in the capital may well have to move, or already done so, making this a wealthy city with no people on lower incomes who actually run the capital, it's infrastructure of street cleaning, council officers, those who do the work, but can't afford to live here, it's bonkers.

[emmie]

JTP, i doubt very much if Labour would have done differently, and the policy itself was a good one, it just wasn't followed through.

[naomi24]

Jake, //Less so if you live in Sunderland //

.... and most other places. As I said, it is not the crux of the problem.

Em, As I said, desirable places attract high prices. It's the same the world over.

[emmie]

please note that some local authorities were selling before this came into effect, and by the way our labour run council is still doing it. So don't just blame the tories.

http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/right-to-buy

[sara3]

my elderly neighbour is the only one living in a 3 bed council property, and I think it is wrong.
what the government needs to do is try to marry up people's actual needs, and then sort out property swaps. if they won't do that, they shouldn't charge people extra. and if tenants refuse to move, they should pay the extra.
they don't own the properties they live in, they rent them dependent on their needs. and needs should be re-assessed.

[emmie]

Naomi, but many weren't desirable places, Cornwall was once many little fishing villages, and of course the bigger towns which still had a fishing industry as its staple. until one day someone decided to buy a second home for leisure, then it went from there. Now mostly it's known for it's tourist industry, and the rather dull Rick Stein. I know because we spent many a happy holiday there. In B&B's of course. x