Once again, the evil spectre of “ethnic cleansing of the poor” is being broadcast by the hand-wringers and lentil knitters of the left as er…. a left wing council decides to investigate the possibility of outsourcing those who live in really expensive accommodation ( yet expect the council to foot the bill via housing benefit) to some God forsaken blot on the Northern Landscape where rents are lower than a snakes belly.
I thought I’d have a little look at this, as surely it cannot be in the interests of a left wing council to expect the very clients they work so hard on creating in the first place to lump it up North with whippets and cold lard? Now we all know that living in London is expensive – partly, in my opinion, because the State hands over large lumps of money to Landlords in the form of housing benefit – meaning that as long as poor people want to live in the city, landlords can pretty much charge what they want and send the council the bill. Wages are kept low because the cleaner hard at work hovering the office of the CEO is having her rent paid by millions of ordinary workers. Her landlord smiles, she smiles, her boss smiles and we get handed the bill - as usual.
Except of course, that‘s all about to change. With a cap of £26000 on benefits for any household, the rent slush fund/gravy train is coming to an end. In a normal market, this would mean landlords would be falling over themselves to lower the rents to match the lower income from the council or employers would be putting up wages so that a supply of cleaners and drones could still live within a commutable distance. But this is not happening because our friends at Newham Council, instead of ensuring that the most needy get the reduced housing pot, are actually making sure that these unprofitable wastrels are no longer a drain on anyone’s finances.
None of this computed until I was told by a little dickey bird to have a sniff around how many members of the Socialist Peoples Republican Council of Newham actually own rental properties. Correct – Councillor Chowdhury for example, rents out EIGHTEEN properties to the needy and sends the council the bill. Vast swathes of ex council properties have been acquired by the comrades and rented out, at vastly inflated rates to the recipients of council housing benefit. Now that is about to dry up, the last thing the Glorious Comrades want is tenants who cannot pay their manipulated market rates – hence the cattle trucks heading off up north with the feckless.
Newham is the Olympic borough, rents will peak this summer and our councillor friends will make a killing from charging private punters what they used to charge the taxpayer whilst basking in the Socialist Glory of a flag waving multicultural festival of “equality” for all – minus the poor who no longer have their bills paid for them. In the rush to qualify for the Olympic Greed 100m finals, Newham’s councillors may just have jumped the gun again. Put them back under starters orders….
