In that noble rag,The Mail On Sunday,Iain Duncan Smith set-out his vision for Housing benifit.

Everyone of working age to pay towards accom costs .

A cap on Housing benifit,which,he feels,will force landlords to REDUCE RENTS.

THERE IS MORE OFCOURSE,but those two points merit discussion,I think.

i only bought the mail once. That was enough. But i take your point. cloud cuckoo land.

Of course rents will come down.

And the price of petrol will come down with it.

we can dream there will, more likely high rents as people lose there homes because of the housing benefit cuts.. i'd like to see all rents come down and see mps pay for there own places and not us, but will it happen a big no.

The danger of pushing down rents is that people who borrowed money to do up properties to let them out will be forced to sell up, thereby restricting the availablity of rental housing at a time when more families are being forced to rent due to the unavailablity of mortgages. Hope that makes sense.
Anyway I dont want to see a return to the cardboard box cities and squatting culture of the 1980's - the Tories have a truly rotten record on social housing.

it is sad if people bought them to let and spent money on them but that is the risk you take and there should plan for the long term and not for short term profit which most do. so only alittle sorry for them.

paul stephens wrote:

it is sad if people bought them to let and spent money on them but that is the risk you take and there should plan for the long term and not for short term profit which most do. so only alittle sorry for them.

I dont much care for private landlords who are in it just to make a big profit, personally, but I suppose you could argue that providing rented housing meets a social need, and that if the government cant do it, then private individuals will have to step in to fill the gap. Some of them probably have very sensible motives, others just want a quick buck. Last time I rented privately was in the early 1980's - it was a drop dead gorgeous 2 bedroom flat with direct access to the River Dee at Chester and stunning views across the river to the Welsh Hills, from an elderly couple who owned the house. Rent was £19 a week, way below the going rate, whilst my salary was over £7,000 PA. I used to swim and even ice skate across the river from the front garden. On summer nights the pleasure cruisers would pass by with live jazz bands on board. Sometimes you get lucky.

A few years ago, the advice was to sink your money into a house and rent it out: great pension fund.

I should think the economic situation at the moment has had an effect on those landlords...

charles47 wrote:

A few years ago, the advice was to sink your money into a house and rent it out: great pension fund.

I should think the economic situation at the moment has had an effect on those landlords...

thats true, but not at rip off rents, or if there were then maybe its time to cut them.
alot of housing assocations are still building affordable homes, so there are more affordable homes becoming available. also more councils are selling there homes to housing assocations or like my local council setting up the own and then building more homes..

where hb is concerned perhaps its time everyone started emailing or writing to lord freud who is responaible for overseeing the changes

its all for our own good.must be right,that nice iain duncan smith says so.he should know.im sure bhe knows all about homelessness,

i do try to believe at least four impossible things before breakfast.

Ministers vowed to make the "absurd" housing benefit system fairer, with housing swaps potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people.
A total of 234,000 households in the social tenant sector are overcrowded while 456,000 are under-occupied, meaning people have more than one extra spare room, according to official figures.
Welfare reform minister Lord Freud said: "We cannot continue with this absurd situation where some of our poorest families have to live in overcrowded conditions while others are subsidised to live in big homes with plenty of spare room.
"It's not fair on those families struggling to get by and it's not fair on the taxpayer. That's why, after the benefits free-for-all of the last decade, we are putting fairness back at the heart of the system."
More than three million tenants - 70% of housing benefit recipients - live in the social sector at an annual cost of well over £12 billion.
A Work and Pensions Department spokeswoman said: "From April 2013, we will restrict housing benefit for working age tenants in the social rented sector. This will apply where people live in a property that is too large for their needs.
"We will work with local authorities to ensure that the housing is more sensibly allocated and that entitlement to social housing reflects family size."
The move is likely to prove controversial for older couples who have lived in council houses for decades since their children have left home.
But the spokeswoman added: "Specific policy detail is yet to be agreed but the principle would be that working age housing benefit claimants who are living in a property that is too large for their household size will have their benefit

I find this astonishing, surely what meagre council housing that exists will become vacant when the elderly people are no longer around, it's just an excuse to shift around hordes of less well of people.
How can cameron back this when he was having help with his mortgage in his substantial dwelling during all the expenses rip offs, why did a millionaire need a mortgage? It's all about fairness folks, eh?
I hope everyone who voted for the nasty party are well and truly happy now. The other lot don't matter in any case they were always of no consequence and will surely be consigned to the political wilderness next time.
Vicky

it is going to hard on councils as alot will now want one bed places and i know my local council only have 800 and a waiting list of 900 wanting a one bedroom place, so where are all the needed houses going to come from. shall we all just get a tent and camp by parliment instead save money that way no bills to pay.. perhaps people who did vote for them that there will always be the same..

copying Petes' post over to here

Pete the Paint wrote:

Hello, just me getting worried about the latest threatened cuts in HB. Here in Devon, their saying that a two bedroomed, privately rented house, will be cut to £290 per month. That means that they will take £104 per month off me. Thats £24 per week! Thats an awful lump out of my money.
I wish the news wasn't so depressing all the time. It can really drag you down.
I think I'll ring Teignbridge D.C. tomorrow and find out when all this is going to happen. If it does, it looks as though I'll have to give up my council parking space as well as my garage

Signed, Worried

Myrtle wrote:

Oh Pete, I do hope that doesn't happen, that's an awful lot of extra money to find.