Social housing tenants earning over £30K will have to pay up to the market rent

[Bry Nylon]

Local authority and housing association tenants in England who earn more than £30,000 - or £40,000 in London - will have to pay up to the market rent.

A great piece of long overdue legislation that will be unveiled in Wednesday's budget.

 

[Beach Hut]

So they should, here here

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Seems fair.

 

[BensGrandad]

I agree but I know of somebody with 3 children who was told he didnt qualify and is paying 65% of his take home pay in rent. (£165 per week). Surely that is not right.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I agree but I know of somebody with 3 children who was told he didnt qualify and is paying 65% of his take home pay in rent. (£165 per week). Surely that is not right.

I'm not entirely clear on the point you are making. If you are saying people on low incomes should be entitled to subsidised social housing should a suitable house be available then I agree with you.

Conversely I know of somebody who earns in excess of £50K pa (plus company car, decent pension, private health scheme etc) - plus his wife works - who pays £130 p/w for a council property. Most recent holidays have included Australia, Canada and Thailand. Me - plus every other taxpayer - is subsidising his rent, when he could easily afford to pay full market value himself. Can't wait for this mockery to end.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

I agree but I know of somebody with 3 children who was told he didnt qualify and is paying 65% of his take home pay in rent. (£165 per week). Surely that is not right.

£4 an hour and 3 kids....

 

[Hampster Gull]

I know of somebody who earns in excess of £50K pa (plus company car, decent pension, private health scheme etc) - plus his wife works - who pays £130 p/w for a council property. Most recent holidays have included Australia, Canada and Thailand. Me - plus every other taxpayer - is subsidising his rent, when he could easily afford to pay full market value himself. Can't wait for this mockery to end.

Another great example of unnecessary state interference

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Local authority and housing association tenants in England who earn more than £30,000 - or £40,000 in London - will have to pay up to the market rent.

A great piece of long overdue legislation that will be unveiled in Wednesday's budget.

Indeed, just why we voted Dave
nb Vote Jez in September

 

[Westdene Seagull]

About bloody time to - there are people paid more than me that get subsidised rent yet when I was out of work the council told me to eff off when I asked them to pay my mortgage interest ( apparently if I'd been renting then they would have paid that though ). NOBODY on those wages should get below market rents. I note @jonny.rainbow decides to down thumb the OP but not put forward his reasoning why these people should not pay full rent !

 

[beorhthelm]

it going to be interesting to see how anyone will argue against this policy. from a pragmatic point of view it would free up social housing for those unable to afford, which is the point of it. though i do wonder if it will cause some to jump on right to buy, so may end up a score draw.

 

[Bry Nylon]

it going to be interesting to see how anyone will argue against this policy.

Quite. I see Herr Tubthumper has just "thumbed down" my opening post, but hasn't offered his own view. I took my family to Woburn Safari Park last weekend. Cost me about £150 all in - possibly more. I can afford it but why the fvck should I pay for it myself? Maybe he'd like to bung me £100, or even just £50?

 

[sir albion]

People earning that much shouldn't even be in social housing...We have a 2 million waiting list in this country for social housing and something needs to give.

 

[Hampster Gull]

People earning that much shouldn't even be in social housing...We have a 2 million waiting list in this country for social housing and something needs to give.

I have a lot of sympathy with this, we need to focus on the most needy

 

[Bry Nylon]

I guess the second "thumbs down" means its a no then, Herr Tubthumper, and I'll just have to live within my means and pay my own way.

 

[jakarta]

I guess the second "thumbs down" means its a no then, Herr Tubthumper, and I'll just have to live within my means and pay my own way.

It clearly wouldn't happen in Germany......

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Strange - [MENTION=409]Herr Tubthumper[/MENTION] isn't usually shy in coming forward. I can only assume he can't defend people on £40k+ having part of their rent effectively paid by the taxpayer.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

It clearly wouldn't happen in Germany......

It doesn't, with rent controls across the county and a recent rent cap law in Berlin it doesn't happen for huge swathes of housing stock.

 

[Bry Nylon]

It doesn't, with rent controls across the county and a recent rent cap law in Berlin it doesn't happen for huge swathes of housing stock.

So how does that work in practice? Is that a rent cap on private rents?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

it going to be interesting to see how anyone will argue against this policy. from a pragmatic point of view it would free up social housing for those unable to afford, which is the point of it. though i do wonder if it will cause some to jump on right to buy, so may end up a score draw.

If this is a forward thinking policy along with the right to buy it may be a very good thing. Being the rules have changed for the right to buy scheme with the money being allowed to be used for building new houses this could effectively free up a lot of social housing stock once the new ones have been built. The only issue is that housing associations appear to only building shared ownership stock at present which doesn't suit many people.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

So how does that work in practice? Is that a rent cap on private rents?

This explains rent control

German rent regulation is found in the Civil Code (the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch) in §§ 535 to 580a, and particular rights for tenants on termination are in §§568 ff.[1] Rental price increases are required to follow a "rental mirror" (Mietspiegel), which is a database of local reference rents. This collects all rents for the past four years, and landlords may only increase prices on their property in line with rents in the same locality. "Usury" rents are prohibited altogether, so that any price rises above 20 per cent over three years are unlawful.[2] Tenants may be evicted against their will through a court procedure for a good reason, and in the normal case only with a minimum of three months' notice.[3] Tenants receive unlimited duration of their rental agreement unless the duration is explicitly halted. In practice, landlords have little incentive to change tenants as rental price increases beyond inflation are constrained. During the period of the tenancy, a person's tenancy may only be terminated for very good reasons. A system of rights for the rental property to be maintained by the landlord is designed to ensure quality of housing. Many states, such as Berlin, have a constitutional right to adequate housing, and require buildings to make dwelling spaces of a certain size and ceiling height.

Here's a link to Berlin rent cap law

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/01/rent-cap-legislation-in-force-berlin-germany

In addition there is also social housing which is pretty cheap.

This seems a more sensible approach to me. It also fuels the economy as Germans have more of their wages to spend on the high street.