Unemployment

[buzzingtalk]

Building new housing is cheaper than the current system of forcing people into expensive private rental agreements then supporting them with housing benefit though! Especially in big cities where rental prices are much more expensive. Plus, building more houses not only helps the goverment save money in the long run, but it will create jobs too. They can't just expect to stop doing something entirely without thinking of the long term, you have to spend money to save it a lot of the time. And they are playing with peoples lives here, but obviously the people in power are so privelidged that they have no concept or grip of reality when it comes to nitty-gritty subjects such as homelessness or bankruptcy.

[selfraising]

I cannot understand why the numerous boarded up places you see cannot be refurbed, surely this would be cheaper than building new. Know this wouldn't solve all of it but it seems a shame when you see places boarded up and not in use.

[Two_Sheds]

I cannot understand why the numerous boarded up places you see cannot be refurbed

A lot of them have landlords waiting for the price to go high enough to sell. "According to The Empty Homes Agency, there are an estimated 870,000 empty homes in the UK and enough empty commercial property to create 420,000 new homes"

[Two_Sheds]

the impact of all the displaced people from london will mean that the areas where they move to will be overburdened

It's already happening here.
We are a run-down seaside town. The old industries (fishing, shipbuilding, tourism) are long gone.
The upwardly mobile have moved away where the jobs are, and the town is filling up with the retired elderly (who like the seaside) and the unemployed (who are being housed in the unused guest houses).

These people don't have money to spend, so the shops & businesses are shutting down and being replaced by charity & pound shops.

[buzzingtalk]

A lot of them have landlords waiting for the price to go high enough to sell. "According to The Empty Homes Agency, there are an estimated 870,000 empty homes in the UK and enough empty commercial property to create 420,000 new homes"

This makes me angry! There are a good few miles of structurally sound houses on the A406 in London. Yes, they do need a LOT of work but mainly due to the council bricking in the windows and doors to stop the homeless and squatters OUT, and leaving the houses derelict since the 1990's. Its embarrasing, that money is(n't) being spent on new houses and commercial property when there is so much already going to ruin that no one is doing anything about.

Well one thing that could happen from this, is that the landlords are so skint they take a lower price - but with the councils being hard up now, they won't be able to.

TS, I know you are talking about. I work all over Norfolk and spend a lot of time in coastal towns, and even in my year of being here I have noticed a difference in shops and businesses in such places.

[binley100]

We manufacture about 2 million cars/year.

One of the world's top arms manufacturers. (BAE)

.....and most of those cars are way above most peoples budget.......

[selfraising]

A lot of them have landlords waiting for the price to go high enough to sell. "According to The Empty Homes Agency, there are an estimated 870,000 empty homes in the UK and enough empty commercial property to create 420,000 new homes"

That's a disgrace and what a waste!

[murphy99]

Plus, building more houses not only helps the goverment save money in the long run, but it will create jobs too. They can't just expect to stop doing something entirely without thinking of the long term, you have to spend money to save it a lot of the time.

Hit the nail right on the head... this is exactly why this governments current cutback policies will cause untold misery for years to come and the only people to suffer are people like you and I!

I am not saying there weren't faults and shortcomings with the existing schemes in place... there is always room for improvement. Every business has process improvement and efficiency exercises , they don't cripple their business in the process though!!

[jackie j]

£400 a month goes nowhere near helping people to pay rent around here. My sister rents a two bedromm apartment, the rent is £700 a month, water bills are very high as well and then there is council tax.
My eldest son rents a two bedroom house again the rent is £750 a month.
Another son pays £346 a month for a flat on the third floor with just two rooms plus kitchen and bathroom.
When he was on his own he found it very hard to afford to live and took a second job just to get by.
Wages are very low here as most jobs are minimum wage, very few higher paid jobs as the area is a tourist area so during the winter most jobs go.

[TEB]

£400 a month goes nowhere near helping people to pay rent around here. My sister rents a two bedromm apartment, the rent is £700 a month, water bills are very high as well and then there is council tax.
My eldest son rents a two bedroom house again the rent is £750 a month.
Another son pays £346 a month for a flat on the third floor with just two rooms plus kitchen and bathroom.
When he was on his own he found it very hard to afford to live and took a second job just to get by.
Wages are very low here as most jobs are minimum wage, very few higher paid jobs as the area is a tourist area so during the winter most jobs go.

err it £400 a week not a month and thats £400-a-week housing benefit cap for four-bedroom homes

[jackie j]

Oh is it changing cos my sister doesnt get the full amount and they are on pension credits with a 15 year old living with them.
I thought the cap was going to be £400 a month. confused . com. lol

[SarzWix]

At the moment, the amount of housing benefit you can get is based on an average rent in your area for the size of house. This average is worked out from the cost of private rent AND housing assoc rents in the area. So, if the average rent in an area for a 3 bed house is £2000 a month, then that's what the council has to pay. Often, the housing assoc./council house rents in an area are much lower though, so they tend to bring the average down, and this is how people end up having to top-up the housing benefit with whatever other money they have to pay private landlords.

[Madasafish]

Hit the nail right on the head... this is exactly why this governments current cutback policies will cause untold misery for years to come and the only people to suffer are people like you and I!

Sorry you cannot cut the building of council houses if none are being built anyway..

[Two_Sheds]

At the moment, the amount of housing benefit you can get is based on an average rent in your area for the size of house.

It is in theory...!

When I got my one-bed flat I chose the cheapest half-decent flat I could find (cold, draughty, damp, unfurnished, certainly not a palace).

HB refused to pay all the rent (only about 2/3 of it). It was about £80 pw.

I questioned why, and they said "based on the average, your flat is overpriced".

So I clipped out a month's worth of "to lets" and none of them was cheaper than mine. I sent it to the HB dept, asking them to please tell me where these cheap flats are, because I'd like to rent one. They didn't reply.


In Brighton, when I lived in a co-op and my rent was about £35 a week, HB still wouldn't cover the whole amount, only about 2/3 of it.

[Cosmo and Dibs]

¬

Ain't that the truth. There are 2.5 million unemployed now. How are the disabled going to get jobs if these 2.5 million able-bodied people can't?

EXACTLY!!!!

In Birmingham there are officially 44,000 jobs on offer via the Jobcentre, yet there are 250,000 on JSA! Plus more on IB/DLA, etc!

Go figure!