Homeless numbers in UK doubles in five years.

[Guerrero]

How can that be?
We are all so caring and sharing these days.
Britain even gave a few million to those poor Chinese footballers.

I was under the impression that every British person lived at least in a two up two down,owned a 4 by 4,had sky tv on a 55 inch screen and had a M&S meal for two once a week.Chuck in a couple of visits to the local hostelry a week and surely all is Hunky Dory?

 

[vegster]

Not everybody gets the opportunity to stick their todger in a dead Pig's head and get ahead in life, Pig head initiations should be available in every secondary school, we need a fairer society.

 

[beorhthelm]

? i didnt think there were any homeless, what with all the twitterati offering to home tens of thousands of refugees.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

100,000 homeless children.
But we give 3 million to Chinese pub footballers.
But never mind that Dave Cameron is a nice bloke actually.

 

[spence]

Conservative rule simple.

Record number of people using food banks in fecking 2015.

Nearly a million unemployed people have been sanctioned

Nearly 3 thousand people have died having been declared fit for work by the current DWP

 

[Guy Fawkes]

No money left in the state coffers by the Government that was in power just over 5 years ago, a Government which failed to save for a rainy day but instead decided to spend far more than it collected and even sold of the family gold reserves, etc...


See, it's easy to blame one party or the other but one of the main reasons is a lack of affordable housing, this pushes the cost of renting or buying up and now people are starting to struggle to put a roof over their heads as a result.

In the South it might cost c.£550 a month to rent a one bed flat in a less desirable area of Sussex (that was a while ago and may well be a lot higher now) and the cost will be a lot higher when you move to somewhere where demand for property is even higher. - That is a massive chunk of anyone's monthly wage when earning around or less than the national average (shop workers, etc) Buy to let means that renters are now paying other people's mortgage payments which are high due to the high cost of the original purchase

But there is a real reluctance to build new homes in this country and one of the reasons is because we don't want to develop land to try to keep up with demand because public opinion is to stop building occurring in the countryside - in the south, often there is little alternative to building there because there is a real shortage of alternative sites.

We also have the problem that house prices have been allowed to run out of control because it would be far too damaging to allow them to adjust downwards and remain affordable because of the political fall out the last time this happened (negative equity) and house price increases have helped boost spending power and keep the economy going.

I believe that the current Government that have been in power for less than a year are looking to build a million homes by 2020 https://www.politicshome.com/commun...-announces-plans-build-one-million-homes-2020

Although i suspect there will be opposition in the areas that they do try to build in, especially down south (Nimby-ism and cries of views being ruined, etc)

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Conservative rule simple.

yep, try to clear up the mess and the disasterous state the country's affairs are in from the previous Labour Government ?

Record number of people using food banks in fecking 2015.

It could also be any number of reasons why they are being used and not just because the Tory's are in power - Less instant cash available on 0% credit cards for example which were used by some as free cash to live beyond their means without regard to the fact that one day they will have to pay them back? (Why wasn't this better regulated when Labour where in power to prevent the problems many face now? )

We had a Labour Government who don't take responsibility for their spending and don't look to budget responsibly or think about meeting their debts or about the consequences of this overspending, and eventual repayment, so why should it be any surprise when a lot of people equally follow suit and only think short term rather than long term with disregard for the consequences of their actions (this debt will miraculously vanish and i can continue to have a higher standard of living that i could afford if i was sensible and lived within my means (Pompey or Palace anyone) the why should i have to pay it back attitude when it could be written off and therefore i can use these loans as free money

A lot of the people using food banks are low paid workers, a group which may include people who don't get help from the Government financially, even before the credit crunch, austerity cuts or the Tory's coming to power, because they may not be married, have kids, own houses, etc.... so they may not be affected by Government spending cuts but they still get targeted for big tax demands (Council tax, etc) which puts pressure on their incomes. The less money people have left from their wages to spend, the more vulnerable they become when wage levels fall or prices rise quickly (food prices and petrol prices affecting their remaining spare income) - the more of a tax burden you place on people, the less they have to spend and the more at risk they become but at the same time people want better services which cost, so how do you balance it? - is it even possible ?

Thousands and thousands of people being sanctioned.

Nearly 3 thousand people have died having been declared fit for work by the current DWP

- context please! How many may have died in the same period of time had they not been declared fit for work? and so on.... It could have been a similar number anyway (natural death rates, etc) How many were actually dying as a result of the physical or mental effort of having to work?

How many people already fit to work have died in the same period of time - do we blame the Government for that too?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I posted earlier in this thread about the housing shortage and increasing costs of renting or buying, pricing many first time buyers out of the market - what did Labour do to address this issue?

 

[pastafarian]

Nearly 3 thousand people have died having been declared fit for work by the current DWP

context please! How many may have died in the same period of time had they not been declared fit for work? and so on.... It could have been a similar number anyway (natural death rates, etc) How many were actually dying as a result of the physical or mental effort of having to work?

How many people already fit to work have died in the same period of time - do we blame the Government for that too?

Exactly context is the key to claims like this.

FullFact have got their teeth into this claim,not surprising it doesnt stand up to scrunity.

https://fullfact.org/factcheck/economy/fit_for_work_deaths_ESA-47588

wont stop people believing it and spreading it though

 

[Deleted member 22389]

You can't go blaming one party for this, they are all responsible. It doesn't matter how many houses you build prices won't come down. It isn't just rich people who are doing okay. What about those who's are selling up from London and buying outright down this way, how can every single new property at 315,000 now be sold where I live. Everyone is responsible and everyone is out for themselves. I have never seen so many chelsea tractors. Developers will not lower prices, and people are happy to pay, it will only happen if we have a crash. Too many people, too much demand we are going to end up like India.

 

[jackanada]

IIRC there has not been any money in the state coffers since 1680.
Also the Tories have now borrowed more money than every labour government in history. So can we stop with the "labour spent all the money" nonsense.

 

[narly101]

I honestly wonder how much of this is being fuelled by overseas investment in property in the South East (including London) - there's an awful lot of background noise, but nothing concrete from what I can see in the news.

 

[janee]

Developers allowed to land bank because it's more profitable to develop as the shortage gets higher

More single person households due mostly to old age

Welfare cuts on Housing Benefit at a time when double earners have to rent

Lack of social housing built since 1980s by all governments

If we had 40 dogs on the streets overnight in Brighton there would be an outcry.

Subsidy all goes into housing benefit which goes to private landlords rather than subsidizing new house building

 

[sir albion]

Nothing changes in this country does it?
It's the same old thing year after year....We send billions and probably 20-30 billion on numerous things outside the country every year and yet all we hear is that we're skint mmmm.
Funny how we sent 100 million for the Syrian refuges in a flash....How about we focus on this country's infrastructure before sending hideous amounts abroad all the bloody time.The British tax payers work hard and it's time we came first as its cuts cuts and more cuts and even the kids between 5/7 are having school meals scrapped yesterday.
The government need to stop sending 10's of billions abroad and get bloody building social or affordable housing,hospitals and schools as we're a ticking time bomb here and it's not going to be pretty.

This country has gone to pot and we have become an embarrassment by not fixing our own issues first....Talk about taking your eye off the ball in the biggest way ever.

 

[desprateseagull]

Massive (old gas HQ?) building in Preston Road has stood empty for YEARS, and there's a fair size empty, overgrown plot a few metres away..

DON'T TELL ME, that 'Britain is full'!

 

[sir albion]

I honestly wonder how much of this is being fuelled by overseas investment in property in the South East (including London) - there's an awful lot of background noise, but nothing concrete from what I can see in the news.

It's being fuelled hugely although the southeast is getting far to overpopulated due to high migration from the EU.
It was always going to happen and most properties that are built are for the middle to upper classes anyway and the low earners are just pushed away for most foreign buyers or wealthier Brits.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Why are we giving millions of pounds to China when we have record numbers of people living on the street?

 

[Westdene Seagull]

To have anyone homeless in such a prosperous country is an utter disgrace. What compounds that disgrace is that many of them are ex-military personnel most of whom weren't given the assistance they required after the illegal Iraq war. The Tories then compounded it by making military redundancies. Maybe instead of chucking a few million towards some crap Chinese footballers we should be using that money to assist our ex-military.

 

[sir albion]

Massive (old gas HQ?) building in Preston Road has stood empty for YEARS, and there's a fair size empty, overgrown plot a few metres away..

DON'T TELL ME, that 'Britain is full'!

I could own 20 properties and keep them empty and just sit on them while the prices rocket like they do in London ....That's why so many are empty.Just because we have loads of empty properties it doesn't mean that they are available to move in.
Council derelict properties
Owners just sitting on a gold mine and not renting
Etc etc
They're empty for a reason and the amount of empty properties means jack shite and has nothing to do with the government on 90% of these properties I bet.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

I could own 20 properties and keep them empty and just sit on them while the prices rocket like they do in London ....That's why so many are empty.Just because we have loads of empty properties it doesn't mean that they are available to move in.
Council derelict properties
Owners just sitting on a gold mine and not renting
Etc etc
They're empty for a reason and the amount of empty properties means jack shite and has nothing to do with the government on 90% of these properties I bet.

The answer to that is simple - at the moment you get 6 months free of paying council tax if a property is empty. After that you have to pay full council tax. They should reduce that exemption period to say two months and after that you pay say 20 times the full council tax rate. Watch how quickly those hoarding empty properties rent them out then.

 

[sir albion]

Why are we giving millions of pounds to China when we have record numbers of people living on the street?

We give over £200 million to India lol
It's just pathetic and I bet their is loads more that we don't know about that will slip out the net like the rest.
It's like me getting paid and sending all my wages to Nigeria....that's what this country does and now you're seeing what happens when you send 30 billion abroad each year.