{"id":8074,"date":"2016-03-10T15:09:29","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8074"},"modified":"2016-03-10T15:09:29","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:09:29","slug":"dont-kill-affordable-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8074","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kill affordable homes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite will join housing campaigners this Sunday (March 13) in opposing the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Housing and Planning Bill which, if passed, will annihilate affordable housing in the UK.<\/p>\n

 
\nDemonstrators will assemble at noon in Lincoln\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Inn Fields in London and will march to Parliament Square, where a rally will be held to send a clear message to the government that the controversial Bill will only further fuel the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s housing crisis and help only a small, and largely affluent, few.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Bill is now in the committee stage in the House of Lords.<\/p>\n

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Vanishing council homes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Through the legislation, the government aims to extend right to buy to housing association tenants, which is to be funded by councils being forced to sell their \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigh value\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 properties that become vacant.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Local Government Association (LGA), chaired by Tory peer Gary Porter, estimated that this measure, coupled with existing right-to-buy policies, would mean that by 2020, nearly 100,000 council homes would disappear. Council housing waiting lists, where nearly two million people now languish, will spiral out of control.<\/p>\n

 
\nMore and more people living in council housing will be forced into the private rented sector through another measure in the Bill called \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpay to stay\u00e2\u20ac\u0165. Those who earn more than \u00c2\u014140,000 in London and \u00c2\u014130,000 elsewhere will need to pay the market rate rent to remain in their council accommodation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which could mean a hike in rent of up to 400 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe LGA has estimated that this measure will mean that 60,000 households will be forced out of their homes.<\/p>\n

 
\nSecure lifetime tenancies in council housing will also be abolished, and will be replaced with two to five year tenancies with no right to pass on to children.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe LGA notes that, taken together, these measures will translate into a ballooning bill for the taxpayer. Because more people will be forced into the private rented sector, where costs are much steeper, the housing benefit bill, which now stands at \u00c2\u014125bn this year, will further skyrocket.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government has said that measures in the Housing Bill are designed to help ordinary people achieve their dreams of homeownership through their starter home scheme.<\/p>\n

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Starter homes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Under the scheme, starter homes, whose construction will be funded by both public and private money, will be sold to first-time buyers who are under 40 at a minimum 20 per cent discount \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a discount which will be funded by the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government has said these homes will be affordable, but their definition of \u00e2\u20ac\u015baffordable\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 is up to \u00c2\u0141450,000 in London and \u00c2\u0141250,000 everywhere else.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the capital, a household would need to earn at least \u00c2\u014170,000 annually to afford these new starter homes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while the average wage in inner city London is only \u00c2\u014134,000.<\/p>\n

 
\nAn analysis by estate agent Savills found that the starter homes will be out of reach for all people in need of affordable housing in 220 councils and for 90 per cent of people in another 80 councils.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor the very few who can afford these starter homes, they will be able to sell these homes within 5 years at the full market rate and so pocket the 20 per cent taxpayer-funded discount.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner called the Housing Bill a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshambles\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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‘Utterly absurd’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is not one measure in this Bill that addresses the root cause of the housing crisis in the UK and particularly in London, which is getting worse and worse every year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe main problem is a severe lack of genuinely affordable housing stock. This shortage of housing is what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s causing house prices to soar. Instead of addressing this dire need, the Housing Bill will destroy whatever affordable and social rent housing is left. Flogging off housing association properties and forcing already cash-strapped councils to pay for this sell-off is utterly absurd.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRight to buy has already proven to be a disaster \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nearly half of the council homes sold under the scheme to date have ended up on the private rental market,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo extend this scheme will only further exacerbate the shortage of affordable homes.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government should be taking advantage of this period of historically low interest rates to embark on a mass council house building programme. We need at least 240,000 homes built each and every year to keep up with demand.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA housebuilding programme itself confers economic benefits beyond helping drive down housing costs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our research has shown that for every \u00c2\u01411 spent on housing construction, an extra \u00c2\u01412.09 is generated in the economy. Each \u00c2\u01411 also generates a 56p return to the Exchequer.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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‘Disastrous’ private rental market<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Turner slammed the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s light regulation on the private rented sector.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s private rented sector is the least regulated in the entire EU. This light-touch regulation is another factor that has caused private rents to spiral out of control, even as the quality of accommodation deteriorates. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also why our housing benefit bill has become untenably large despite individual households still being punished by cuts to the benefit they receive.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Housing Bill does nothing to address the disaster that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become the private rental market in this country. But the solutions for this are clear — we must introduce rent controls which are standard in Germany and Sweden, abolish rip-off letting fees and ensure that private landlords are registered and licenced and that tenants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights are protected.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Housing Bill as it stands now is, more than anything, an anti-housing bill,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA home is not a plaything in some twisted, real-life game of Monopoly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a human right.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe urge the House of Lords to reconsider the legislation that will only further intensify the housing crisis, and we call on all who agree to attend this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demonstration.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan highlighted his committment to opposing the Housing Bill, noting that it would be particularly bad for Londoners.<\/p>\n

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“The government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Housing Bill is an attack on affordable housing and council tenants \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a particular attack on Londoners and the capital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social mix,” he said.<\/p>\n

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“I am fighting the Government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plans to raise rents for working families and to force the sell-off of council homes to highest bidder, which will lead to a hollowing out of the capital. I will continue to oppose the Bill in Parliament to try and stop it becoming law \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we must all unite to put pressure on the government to drop this mean Bill.”<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out more about the Kill the Housing Bill demonstration on Sunday (March 13) here<\/a>, and read Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s charter on housing here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite will join housing campaigners this Sunday (March 13) in opposing the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Housing and Planning Bill which, if passed, will annihilate affordable housing in the UK.   Demonstrators will assemble at noon in Lincoln\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Inn Fields in London and will march to Parliament Square, where a rally will be held to send a clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[109,131],"wps_subtitle":"Fight to stop housing bill \u00e2\u20ac\u0098shambles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8074"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8080,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8074\/revisions\/8080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}