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Original poster

Poor forced from the city's centre!

338 replies

redflag · 27/10/2010 11:45

Am i alone in seeing if housing benefit is cut, and the poor are forced out of the cities, buy to let homes will go up for sale then the double dip recession (actually the third dip by my counting) will kill our housing market even more.

People act like only those who are out of work get housing benefit, and also that the poor or out of work don't deserve to have nice things and like like other human beings, getting really sick of it actually!

OP posts:
Chil1234 · 27/10/2010 12:49

Or you could take the view that if there is a glut of houses coming onto the market as BTL landlords sell up, and if this brings prices down, this will enable more people to afford a property than is currently the case?

Bottom line is that everyone, rich or poor, lives according to their means. I may think I deserve a nice little pied a terre in Mayfair with a Ferrari parked outside but my income dictates that I have a semi in the suburbs and a VW. That's life.

HappyMummyOfOne · 27/10/2010 13:52

I think the cap on HB is great, why should somebody who earns have to live within their means but those who dont work not have too?

Yes some workers get HB but many do the bare min hours in order to qualify for WTC and delibrately keep their income low in order to qualify for HB.

foxinsocks · 27/10/2010 13:57

I used to live in central London. I loved it. And then we had children and with the cost of childcare added in, we could no longer afford to stay there. So we moved out.

C'est la vie.

I also hope it may help in bringing prices down tbh.

80sMum · 27/10/2010 13:59

The problem with HB as it is now is that it encourages high rental prices. If nobody (including the local council) could afford the rents, the price should go down. I say "should," as another problem we have now is that there is simply not enough housing stock to meet demand.

foxinsocks · 27/10/2010 13:59

or lower paid wages in central london up as they realise people now have to commute further iyswim

the house prices are really still incredibly high in comparison to wages

TheFallenMadonna · 27/10/2010 14:00

I think only the very rich and those on HB can afford to live in the centre of London now TBH. I know we couldn't, and we earn a very comfortable amount between us. And it really does depend what the 'nice thing' is surely?

80sMum · 27/10/2010 14:12

Regarding "the poor" that you refer to Redflag; I'd say it's not that they 'don't deserve to have nice things' it's just that they can't afford them. No matter how well-off we become, there will always be someone better off: that doesn't mean that we 'deserve' to have the things that they have though, does it?

camdentown · 27/10/2010 14:13

I live on a council estate in central London but I don't get HB. I know lots of people living here who aren't on HB - in council, HA and private rented homes. My son's school is made up of mostly working class families. Most of us are in flats and some of us don't have outside space, so perhaps it's a matter of how you're prepared to live.

My friends are all on ordinary incomes - nurses, retail workers, admin assistants. I don't think there needs to be this mass panic that there will be nobody but rich people left - most people I know won't be affected by this HB change at all.

Hammy02 · 27/10/2010 14:30

Plenty of working people have to move locations due to change in circumstances, why should the poor be exempt. Last year, my partner and I had to relocate 100 miles due to redundancy and the location of the new job. Moved away from family and friends after 30 years. Just got on with it. Didn't bleat about 'unfairness' or such nonsense. If you can no longer afford to live where you do, you have to move. If you had lived somewhere beyond your means, just be grateful for the time you had there.

lerole · 27/10/2010 14:47

I don't see the problem with capping HB why should some people subsidising others living in areas that they can only dream of living in themselves.

Hammy02 · 27/10/2010 14:50

No-one should be living in a house that someone else working full-time could not afford. Makes no sense. This includes those people knocking out kids they can't afford.

Snuppeline · 27/10/2010 15:06

The way I see it the council has inflated rental prices by agreeing to pay extortionate rents in pricey areas of central London. Madness. I too hope that this will bring down rental prices and perhaps by extention also house prices. If those who cannot afford to live in London by their own means move out then so be it.

The lease on my house, a small crummy poorly decorated/maintained house in London is coming to its end and yet again the landlord wants to up the rent. So rather than give in to the demands this time my dp and I have decided to give up and move out of London (far outside it too but in commutable distance to work in London). Some one said that you just need to 'get on with it' - that's exactly right. Touch and it sucks but can't do anything about it. Hopefully rents will go down when the councils stop artificially keeping them up and my family can move back 'home'.

MaMoTTaT · 27/10/2010 15:10

I hope they're going to do something about public trasnport then.

I know in our town getting into town from 2 neighbour estates - one traditional a "council" estate, the other on the north side of the main road a mostly "private" estate costs £1.20 more per trip for the poorer estate than it does for the richer estate.

Yet the distance is the same for both trips

Lets not forget Hammy that lots of people work full time and get housing benefit, and aren't living in "expensive" houses.

TheFallenMadonna · 27/10/2010 15:13

If they're not living in expensive houses, they won't be affected by the HB cap.

MaMoTTaT · 27/10/2010 15:17

well until they include those on WTC in the overall benefits cap.....

I'm sure it won't take long for them to realise, as they get everyone back to the imaginary work that the benefits bill goes up

GoreRenewed · 27/10/2010 15:20

Haven't the poor always struggled to afford to live in expensive parts of the world? I'm not 'poor' but I'm pretty damn sure I couldn't afford to live in central London.

Original poster
redflag · 27/10/2010 15:32

But the people living in expensive houses/mansions have got many many children! Where do you suggest they actually go?

You cant stick 10 kids and 2 adults into a 2 bed flat.

Anyway back onto the subject, i too think it will be great, as houses will undoubtedly become more affordable, but then that brings everyone's house price down, again, thus causing more people to own less of their homes bla bla bla

Great if you are not a home owner!

OP posts:
Snuppeline · 27/10/2010 15:42

Catch-22... While it would be hard on those who own their homes to see their equity diminish that would mostly not affect anyone who isn't desparate to sell or remortgage. House prices should come down a little and prices stay flat for a while to take some of the "hot air" out of the market (or whatever else you call what makes up a property bubble...). Can't think prices will fall too dramatically though (overcrowded island and all that) so those with a healthy loan-to-value status with regards to their properties should be okay in the end.

80sMum · 27/10/2010 16:55

"You cant stick 10 kids and 2 adults into a 2 bed flat"

Well, that's exactly what people have to do if they can't afford anything bigger! That's life! Having 10 children doesn't endow people with some sort of right to live in a enormous expensive house paid for by other people - most of whom, incidentally, couldn't afford to live there themselves. That sort of set-up is just plain wrong and that is what the HB cap is attempting to rectify.

HappyMummyOfOne · 27/10/2010 18:13

"You cant stick 10 kids and 2 adults into a 2 bed flat."

Perhaps they should have thought about finances and housing costs before they had the children. They will have to do what others do, live within their means or find the extra income by taking a second job etc.

popelle · 27/10/2010 18:25

Having 10 children does not give you the right to a large house paid for by the taxpayer.

Chil1234 · 27/10/2010 18:33

In practice, having a large family still means you can expect to be allocated a larger house... just not one in an expensive area. That's the difference. Overcrowding is not healthy. There is too much imaginary-big-family-on-benefits-in-Knightsbridge-mansion bashing going on already.

ISNT · 27/10/2010 18:35

Interesting sentiments on this thread. I agree with the OP, I am not looking forward to the sight of families being forcibly evicted from their homes, their children removed from their homes and their schools, presumably many will have to leave most of their possessions behind, I guess they will be bussed out somewhere, but who will have them? I think it is bad, however every cloud has a silver lining, an I guess the silver lining here is that so many will be filled with elation and cheer to see this happening.

popelle · 27/10/2010 18:41

ISNT you just can't allow people who do not work to live in more areas that those who are working can only dream of living. These people are the only people who will be affected by the HB cap.

Miggsie · 27/10/2010 18:46

A friend of mine was renting a lovely big house near mine and I found out that she was on HB, and I did think, why am I paying my taxes for her to live in a bigger and nicer house than mine? She and her DH were unemployed. If HB was capped then she would not have been in that house.

She has since moved away so this question won't arise now.