egafd.com

I read today that since George Osbourne has imposed limits on how much money the State will pay in Housing Benefit, it could force the poor out of central London. I've never really understood why so many people are on Benefit in London anyway when there is a lot of work to be had, I've never had a problem getting a job here, and also just how 'poor' are many of these people? The current amount of rent they get paid, the subsistence they get to live on, their Council Tax being paid, other Benefits too for them and their kids - many of them are getting more money in total than a lot of people who get referred to as being 'lower-middle class'. Can people really see this happening though, Benefit receivers leaving central London?

"I read today that since George Osbourne has imposed limits on how much money the State will pay in Housing Benefit, it could force the poor out of central London."

Bloody hell, has he, the bastard? That means I might have to move out of my Mayfair mansion. However, I do have my eye on this very attractive castle in Wales......

CHeers
D

On a serious note, Max, I think it is unacceptable that huge rents e.g. ?1000 a week should be funded across the board by the state.
This money just goes straight into the mitts of landlords as far as I am aware.

For the unemployed, living in a house with a huge rent makes it in the vast majority of cases, highly unlikely that they will ever have a job which pays sufficiently well to fund the rent on such a property.

However a separate issue to consider is that of low paid workers in essential jobs such as ambulance workers. How are they going to be catered for?

How are pensioners who might have lived in these houses all their lives be catered for?

Finally, perhaps stating the obvious, one of the reasons we are in this mess is because the Thatcher government sold the family silver i.e. sold off the council housing stock at knockdown prices so that we have now a hugely reduced quantity of social housing throughout the country.

Cheers
D

Maybe Buy To Let dosnt look so attractive now !wink!

I always thought it was the plan to move the riff raff out of the capital by how much is charged for rent and general cost of living.

Sounds like a Tory move to me.

Could you imagine aregualr family with a washing line living in those glass buiding aprtments along the Thames?

I dont think so

London wants to keep the wealth in the capital and hate to see people begging so of course this is part of the grand design of seperating the more financially affluent from the broke as a joke welfare dependent lot that blight central London.

No ones saying it of course because that wouldnt be politicially correct.

All that undoing the damage Labour has done is paying lip service to its voters as they try to legitimise their reasons for their decisions but ultimately its to get the eyesore poor out of their view and out into the suburbs where they belong.

The word I remember for this at school was gentrification

Do you think this has anything to do with the Olympics coming to London in 2012?

Well said OED,every word correct. Tories dont like having working class folk in their areas,they avoid them like the plague.

This new right wing coalition has alreayd shelved plans to build 150,000 affordable homes that was on the agenda if labour had got back in. Thats how much they value working people on a low wage getting a start.

All the wealthy areas of London have less well-off bits in them. There are council estates in central Hampstead, St Johns Wood, Maida Vale, Kensington, Chelsea and many other areas. These buildings arent high-rise though, just 5 or 6 storey buildings where huge numbers of people who would be described as 'working class' live. You will always find pubs in those areas that are like traditional East End boozers, where the people from the estates go, and jJust 100 yards away will be a posh wine bar. Just off the Fulham Road in South Kensington is row upon row of council estates; and the western end of Chelsea, known as Worlds End, is nothing but working class. George Osbourne could literally change the demographic of this city like no one has EVER done before with his reforms.