Don't cap my benefits - BBC1

[SoleSource]

Anybody watching?

I think you are misguided Gaelic if you think Scottish independence will make Scotland into some kind of utopia. It will have all the same problems it currently does, people will just have other politicians to blame.

This thread isn't about Scottish independence, but I am sick and tired of living in a state that only looks after the rich who live in one particular region of one of its four countries.

Damn missed this

Now I understand why the Tories won the election, and will keep on winning. :-(

The Tories didn't win the election, nobody won, that's why we have a coalition.

The rents in Brent were eye watering. Absolutely shockingly high. I had no idea and I'm glad that I watched this programme. Those people aren't getting squillions in benefits. Huge amounts of public money is being paid to private landlords. That's what is going on. It's like a terrible clash of ideologies happened. The free market (the landlords) and the welfare state (supporting people who can't help themselves.) And between them, they created thjs situation. It's all very well telling people they can't afford to live in London. Up until a year ago, they could.

rather callous suggestion me thinks. A Tory I presume

there would be absolutely no logic in sending someone like Tanya to live in Birmingham. As she said, her entire support network was in London. When she goes to work I would imagine she is going to rely on mum/gran/ for childcare. Move her to a city where she doesn't know a soul and straight away her chances of ever working are greatly diminished.

I think private rents need to be capped. 500 pounds a week is a crazy amount for a house.

That woman who moved to luton annoyed me too. What kind of house did she want?

There was an article in the DM today about 'Maggie's dream' of home ownership and right to buy. No mention of the money wasted paying private landlords because there isn't enough affordable housing available to rent as the money wasn't re-invested in new housing stock.

Some people should be grateful they got a bloody house. 7 kids and wants to live in London - tough. I have one DD and I know me & OH could not afford to live there. The entitlement of some people is beyond stupid. Surely if you loved your kids and wanted what was best for them you would accept a house (no matter how far away) and make a fresh start? Seeing how distressed those kids were was horrible.

It's all very well telling people they can't afford to live in London. Up until a year ago, they could.

No they couldn't afford to live in London a year ago. Up until a year ago the govt was paying for people to live in very expensive rental properties in London with borrowed money. If somebody can afford something then they don't need to rely on handouts from another person/ group and they don't need to borrow money indefinetley. Neither the tenants nor the govt could afford it.

Up until a year ago they did might have bern a more accurate way of putting it.

I would love to know which groups of society can afford rent of £2000+ a month without any kind of handout! Certainly not Mr & Mrs Average, that's for sure. Impatient - you seem to be seriously suggesting that social cleansing of London is acceptable!

Once again, people are just choosing to ignore so many aspects of this. So people seemed to be moaning - consider that they might be seriously depressed, unable to see the wood for the trees, been kicked so many times they can't get up again, desperately trying to find a reason - any reason - that might mean they can stay in their home city? Plus some of these people have only ever lived in London since coming to this country, with a limited social circle and limited opportunities. Why presume that they realised that they were being screwed over for years?

Absolutely yes, private rents should be capped to protect people from exploitation. Anyone who chooses to pay £2,000 a month in rent needs their head examining, so I have to presume that anyone in that position is there because they have no viable alternative.

Yes the welfare state has allowed this situation to happen, but there is no defensible reason for suddenly changing the rules to the detriment of individual families who have made their choices in good faith.

At the point that you put a cap on rents landlords WILL refuse to rent to HB tenants.

I have HB tenants in at the moment. The full amount is covered by the council. if the amount I need to rent out my house was not covered and I had to accept less I would take private renters who could and can afford it.

I am not a charity. I have bills to pay like everyone else.

I don't think there is any easy answer tbh. Surely a rent cap would mean that fewer landlords would be prepared to rent to benefits recipients? This would mean that there were even fewer houses available.

Yes, but there you have it. Your busines model requires top ups from the public purse. If there were more houses for private renters, prices in the private sector would have to fall. Everything to do with houses is kept artificially high. It's neither regulated by the state nor allowed to find its level in a free market. The worst of both worlds.

You are not a charity indeed. Personally, I would rather social housing was run by not for profit organisations.

NeverKnowinglyUnderstood - if you need to charge a figure like £2,000 for an extremely average house, like those in the programme, in order to cover your bills, then I would suggest you can't really afford to be a landlord.

I find it quite amazing that people on this thread are condoning draconian restrictions on individuals while in the same breath arguing that landlords should be allowed to do whatever the hell they like, at the public's expense.

At the point that you put a cap on rents landlords WILL refuse to rent to HB tenants.

Virtually all landlords already refuse to let to HB tenants. I would vote for a cap. I would also vote for a ban on discriminating against HB tenants - I am aware this is mainly the mortgage companies, not the landlords.

It is an outrage that something as essential as housing has come to this; this stupid economic merry-go-round of high rent = high HB = HB caps = social cleansing = high rent now gets paid by private tenants = rents get even higher. And so on.

I am not saying that landlords should be able to charge whatever they like but there would be less need for landlords if more LA housing had been built when the right to buy scheme was introduced. Various governments need to take their share of the blame in this. What is interesting is that I had a quick look at private rental on Rightmove in Wembley, which is in Brent, and the average nice 3 bedroom house is £1600 per month. I bet they are not available to those on benefits though. I don't know what the answer if but moving people wholesale to places were there aren't many jobs seems a bit barmy.

Fwiw I wouldn't class some of the places that featured on the program as really in London, it's greater London not anywhere near the centre.

And the ones that do rent to HB tennants are the ones that can afford properties outright. So likely to be lower grade properties. It's all wrong. The tenants in the programme were hopeless and helpless. Like rabbits in the face of an oncoming juggernaut. How it got to this state I don't know and I can see it has to stop. But there will be pain along the way.

Gaelicsheep Ordinary People would never have been priced out of London if Thatcher had not brought in right to buy. Part of the reason prices are so overinflated in London is that a lot of the social housing has been sold off and there is no affordable land to build masses of new social housing. Because there is less property available to rent prices have risen (that's how supply and demand works).
If a landlord buys a property for £500k he isn't going to rent it out for £400 per month, that isn't feasible. Most landlords have buy to let mortgages and have an average yield of 6%, which has to cover the maintenance and interest payments on the property. They are not going to rent at a price which makes them a loss. The country can no longer afford to pay sufficient housing benefits for these properties either as the country's finances are in a mess.
I rented a property to a housing benefit tenant a decade ago, I charged £80 per week which didn't make me any profit, it just covered the overheads of the property. The local housing allowance at the time only paid £70 per week and the tenant had to pay the other £10, but they refused to pay as they said that I was being greedy. I sold the property to another landlord who put the rent up to £110. I wasn't prepared to make a loss and neither will other landlords regardless of how expensive the rent is.