The real Olympic legacy in London borough of Newham

Today in the news Labour run Newham council has created all sorts of controversy with their plans to exile the poorest in their borough to stoke on Trent of all places. This has been met with a volley of criticism rightly so in my view.

New ham 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.
New ham 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".
Which is of course easy to say when their own government in power failed to build anywhere near enough affordable homes in their 13 years in go?
The simple fact that 5 million people are currently on the housing register for council property in the UK is testament to the lack of homes built in the previous period.
It is a disgrace for labour to claim the moral high ground on this when their record on housing is so so poor. I think the outrage at this story is justified with the new labour MP for stoke equally shaming his party by coming out to say
Unwanted by New ham, unwanted by Stoke. "We look forward to the Olympic flame – but not east London's exiles" - Tristram Hunt.
Talking of the Olympics this borough of London is due to host the Olympics this summer with 40 million pounds of the council’s budget going towards putting on the Olympics disgracefully.
Olympic effect

New ham Council, which is Labour-controlled, is in the east of the city and will host this summer's Olympics.
It has written to the Brighter Futures Housing Association in Stoke, offering it the "opportunity" to lease homes to it.
The letter says the local private rental sector is beginning to "overheat" because of the "onset of the Olympic Games and the buoyant young professionals market".
It says the council can no longer afford to house tenants on its waiting list in private accommodation as the gap between market rents and the local housing allowance has become too great.
The council has been "forced to look further afield for alternative supply", it adds.
'Right-wing extremism'
The Brighter Futures chief executive officer, Gill Brown, has not formally replied to new ham Council's offer.

To me this is passing the buck one council cant and won’t deal with people who can’t afford to live in an area so decide to move them elsewhere so the other council where they are proposed to be going say oh no we don’t want them either. A typically middle class attitude of not in my backyard. An absolute shambles and a disgrace from a party who claims to stand for social justice.

It is clear that we need a major affordable house building programme today but who’s going to put it forward the tories and lib dems certainly wont and on this recent form labour wont either. We need a new workers party who can put forward these demands and speak for the majority of people ordinary people who are suffering due to this crisis of capitalism that they are being made to pay for unfairly.

Housing crisis deepens as cuts bite, Olympic legacy a farce

With housing benefit cuts starting to take affect we are seeing a sharp increase in the rate of homelessness across the country but felt no more so than in our capital city of London.

Repossessions 2010 = 36,300, Repossessions 2011 = 36,200 and the Forecast for 2012 = 'Worse' than the previous year’s still.
There has been a 44% increase in households who are homeless after repossession... ½ effectively.
In what is an Olympic year in London all the hype is around the games and how much of a benefit they will be to us and the capital city well is this true we wonder.
Looking closer at the so called Olympic legacy it is a disgrace that ordinary working people will not benefit from them at all and in affect is a profiteering exercise which we have thought all along.
Let’s take Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest will have 107 homes between them. Built in the next period. How is that even going to make a dent in the housing waiting list which currently stands at over 5 million across the country this is nowhere near enough.

Of the 2,818 homes left after the Olympics only 675 will be social housing. The idea of the market in housing is sickening to me when many people can’t get a home and a roof over their head while greedy landlords and market forces are making a killing out of people who pay huge amounts for small places and in often poor conditions too.
The fact that London renting charges are over double the national average it is London where this crisis on housing is felt most. Youth fight for jobs has launched a housing campaign for a programme of mass social housing building to be started. Looking to build a million homes affordable rents for the next 5 years. We hope this gains an echo at this time and is taken up by the trade unions that can campaign on this issue.
The fact that this will also create much needed jobs in building these houses could provide people with hope and a future. Constructions companies can then re employ workers and start helping workers out who are in need of jobs too at the moment.

Housing will continue to be a big issue and is something we as socialists are very keen to point out the failures of the market on. Yet another area the market has failed the majority of people and that should be planned for people’s needs over the profits of a few.

I myself am still having to live at home at the age of 23 as I simply cannot afford to move out being on such low wages also there is absolutely no council housing available in East Hertfordshire that I can get. I am on the waiting list but there are thousands of others on it. This is a growing issue and needs tackling before it explodes.