Grim picture for private renters in Herts time to cap rents now!

With the ever deepening housing crisis in Britain and with no political party prepared to do anything about the private sector which they bend over backwards to please. There is very little hope for young people today ever owning a property or being able to afford a rent. In Herts and Essex recent figures out are staggering. PRIVATE rents in Herts and Essex are set to see some of the steepest increases nationwide in the next decade, rising faster than property prices according to a new report from the National Housing Federation. The organization says years of not building enough homes will push charges in the East of England up by nearly two thirds (64 per cent) in just 10 years, compared to a 59 per cent rise nationwide. In Herts, this would mean rents rising from £902 per month to £1,478 per month – an extra £577 every month. Meanwhile, house prices in the East will rise 52 per cent, compared to 50 per cent nationwide. The picture is already bleak for the county’s renters: average rents in seven out of 10 districts – including East Herts - rose faster than incomes in 2012. Across the county, average private rents rose by four per cent while incomes actually dropped by two per cent. Three Rivers was hardest hit, with rents rising six per cent while incomes dropped 10 per cent, but in East Herts, rents rose from £839 in January, 2011 to £865 in Jan 2012, up three per cent while incomes dropped an average of six per cent. The NHF predicts monthly rents will hit £1,419 in 2022. In Essex rents are set to rise from £773 per month to £1,267 per month in the next decade. In Uttlesford costs have jumped from £832 in January last year to £834 this year – a hike of 0.3 per cent and monthly charges are estimated to hit £1,368 by 2022. Claire Astbury, East of England lead manager for the National Housing Federation, said it was crunch time for Herts and Essex’s “unsustainable housing market”, She said: “One in 16 East of England families is currently on the waiting list for social housing and it looks like the situation is going to get far worse. “Successive governments have failed to tackle the under-supply of housing. Now time is running out to fix the problem and a whole generation are at risk of being priced out of renting a home, let alone buying one. “Being unable to afford the homes they need can stop people from moving for work. It also prevents young couples from starting families, having a huge impact on people’s aspirations and ultimately affecting the economy. “Even working families are becoming more and more reliant on housing benefit to help pay their private rent. It’s clear that the chronic undersupply of new homes … needs to be tackled now, to ease the financial pressure for families and Government.” With extracts taken from http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Homes-and-Gardens/Property/Rent-rise-gloom-for-Herts-and-Essex-families-19102012.htm According to the National Housing Federation there has been an 86% rise in employed people claiming housing benefit over the last 3 years- 417,830 more since 2009 Its time rent caps were introduced and properly enforced to make sure rents are always affordable to working class people. With a 37% increase in rents over the last 5 years. The Main cause is housing shortage. The case for massive council house building now is overwhelming

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.

The silent problem of homelessness

Mainstream media often overlooks the fact taht homelessness is on the sharp rise in Britain today and with housing benifit set to be slashed back in 2013 there is no doubt in my mind there will be more people living on the streets in the years to come. With Labour and tories backing laws to criminalise squatting making it illegal to squat and limit peoples choices where they can go to kip at night is a grave concern of mine. The media who are petti bourgeois in the main live a very comfortable lifestyel and report on homelessness only around christmas time to ramp up sympathy for the poor but if they really cared that'd look to really do something about it. But they do not.
lessness is the most extreme form of housing need. But it isn’t just about people sleeping on the streets. There are many more people in England who do not have a home despite not actually sleeping rough. Some have to put up with living in temporary accommodation where they have an uncertain future. Unable to afford alternative options, others have to endure overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Having a home is about more than just having a roof over your head.


Homelessness is not just a housing problem. Not having a decent home adversely affects all areas of your life - from your health, to your achievement at school if you are a child, and your ability to get work if you are an adult. Conversely, if you are struggling with your health or your employment, this may in turn affect your housing needs and the security of your home.

People end up homeless for a wide variety of reasons:

When relationships break down, often one person is forced to move out without anywhere to go.
Private tenancies frequently last only for six months or a year, and when they come to an end people may face homelessness due to a lack of other affordable options.
When faced with an abusive home life, many children decide to run away.
After a reduction in or loss of income due to health reasons or unemployment, or a sharp rise in interest rates, a person may find themselves unable to keep up mortgage repayments. Some people on low incomes who rely on housing benefit to pay their rent can face eviction because of errors and delays in the benefit being paid.

lessness is still viewed by many as the result of personal failings. But homelessness is caused by a complex interplay between a person's personal circumstances, and adverse 'structural' factors, outside that person's direct control. These problems can build up over years leading to the final crisis when a person may become homeless.

Home
Total numbers of homeless people in England are very difficult to calculate because of the transient nature of the homeless population and because the various forms of homelessness are counted in different, but sometimes overlapping ways. However, there are various figures available. Some statistics are snapshot figures that count numbers of people at a particular moment in time. Others are ‘flow’ figures which count people becoming homeless over a period of time.

People sleeping rough are often difficult to count for a number of reasons, for example because people bed down at different times, move about, are hidden away in derelict buildings or travel on night buses. The numbers of people who sleep on friends’ floors, and stay in squats and other insecure accommodation are often not known.

In summary, the main sources of published statistics on homelessness are:

•Street counts of people sleeping rough
•Data from local authorities on the number of people who apply to them as homeless
•Local authority data on cases of prevention of homelessness
•Statistics from homelessness services about the numbers of clients they serve.

which can often be misleading or inaccurate too. This is a growing issue and a problem for many and as the size of the global economic crisis looks set to deepen in the next few years people will be forced into increasing difficult decisions about their lives and thier lifestyles. I myself am lucky enough to have never experienced being homeless and dont pretend to know how it is like but i still think that the issue shouldnt be ushered under the carpet just as some of are lucky enough to not be homeless . It is not a prospect many wish for and some may be reluctant to be helped off the streets this can be a challenge but support must be there if they want it at all times. The other big problem is a lack of affordable housing in this country which i have addressed on this blog before which does play a big part in more and more people being forced on to the streets.

Housing benifit crisis brings despair , united response needed

A father killed himself after his housing benefit was cut, an inquest heard on Tuesday 23 August. Richard Sanderson of Southfields, south west London, committed suicide after receiving a letter from Wandsworth council informing him his housing benefit would be cut by £30 a month.

Mr Sanderson's death came a month after the government capped housing benefit (Local Housing Allowance) at between £250 and £400 a week depending on property size. Recording a verdict of suicide, the Coroner said: "He carried out a considered act in response to his inability to find employment and the fact that his housing benefit was about to be cut and the family would have faced having nowhere to live."

Merton council estimates that 3,000 people in the area will be hit by government housing benefit cuts. Annys Darkwa, from a local housing charity, was quoted as saying that tragic cases like this would become more frequent in the coming months because housing benefit cuts would hit the most vulnerable the hardest.

Mrs Darkwa said: "We are going to see this happen more and more as we expect 80,000 people across London to be evicted due to housing benefit cuts." Publicly, ministers deny that their policies will produce homelessness but leaked correspondence between ministers' aides has shown that they have been coolly discussing 80,000 homeless as a result of this stage of the housing benefit cuts. When fully implemented the figures could rise still higher.

Even before the housing benefit cuts began to bite, homelessness was on the rise because of the impact of recession. For example, in the London Borough of Haringey, which includes Tottenham where August's riots began, applications to the council for assistance due to homelessness were up by 83% year on year in the first three months of 2011. For every family making such an application many more will be suffering hardship but avoiding homelessness.

Next year, further changes will mean that single people between 25 and 35 years old will no longer be able to claim for a flat and will be expected to live in cheap shared accommodation despite the shortage of such accommodation.

Many such people already have to make up their rent because they cannot find anywhere cheap enough to be covered by existing benefit rates. In Haringey alone, for example, this change will hit 810 young people.

The government claimed that rents would fall but in fact they have continued to rise. According to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services the average rent in England and Wales rose by 0.6% to £705 a month in July.

The average rent is now £29 a month higher than in July last year. London had the greatest annual rent increase (7.9%) to hit a new high of £1,009 a month.

This crisis hits low-paid workers as well as people entirely dependent on benefits. In London around a third of people getting housing benefits are workers in low-paid jobs. Many others who cannot claim benefit are finding rocketing rent levels very hard to pay.

The combination of rising rents and cutting benefits is placing people in an agonising vice and none of the main parties speaks up for them - Labour had its own plans for benefit caps when in office.

We need an energetic trade union and community campaign against low pay, for emergency rent caps instead of benefit caps and for a programme of social house building and renovation.


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In this issue


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Fighting public sector cuts

Mass action can stop


The fact that Labour in their 113 years in government in the so called "boom" years failed to build anywhere near enough housing renders them absent in this debate. We are still feeling the effects from Margret Thatchers days of where council housing was sold off to the private sector and people could buy their own homes. One of the worst things ever to happen to this country i feel. It moved people on and gave them a false sense of a advancement in class, many wallowed in their greed and it was actively encouraged by the then tory government. The fact that no government since labour or tory has done anything about a mass housing crisis is a disgrace in my view. The fact that we even have homelessness in this country one of the richest in the world is just appauling . We can afford to build more houses and invest in peoples future but housing builders and the governemnt wont do it as they see no profit in building social housing they feel its a waste of money and too much of a cost and they get very little rent back. This highlights again the ruthlessness of the capitalist system that greed and profit comes before peoples needs. A change is needed and the trade union movement should be putting housing at the top of their agenda i would say.