The desperate search for shrinking votes has pushed Iain Duncan Smith into yet another spectacular own goal. His latest pet idea is to extend the Right to Buy to Britain’s 2.5m housing association tenants. However, whilst social homes are owned by Councils, this latest Tory brainwave means selling off housing association assets which are private property […]
Posts Tagged ‘Homelessness’
Tories make tenants and homeless pay for social housing give away as election bribe
Apr 15th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.
It is immoral to stop squatting unless alternative housing is available
Sep 2nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Tomorrow clause 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act kicks in, which will make squatting in residential buildings punishable by up to 6 months’ jail and/or fines of up to £5,000. Given that there are now nearly 5 million households on Council (including ALMO) and Housing Association waiting lists, together with […]
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Kid gloves for the Banks and throw the poor on the street?
Feb 2nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Businesses need funding fast, so why doesn’t Osborne just order RBS and Lloyds to ratchet up the lending? After all, he controls 80% of the former and 40% of the latter, more than those who talked about seizing the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy ever dreamed of. Why instead does he go cap in hand […]
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Labour’s shame on empty homes
Nov 3rd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Late on Tuesday night, the government rushed through the criminalisation of homeless people squatting in residential buildings with fines of up to £5,000 and a year in jail. To his credit, Labour MP John McDonnell tabled several amendments, including one that would have exempted squatters in buildings which had been empty for six months or […]
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How Grant Shapps is ‘tackling homelessness’
Sep 9th, 2011 by David Osler.‘Tackling homelessness and rough sleeping is what first got me into politics,’ Conservative housing minister Grant Shapps emphasised in a Department of Communities and Local Government press release just over a week ago. I’m glad to hear it, and it is obviously not for me to doubt the sincerity of a man who famously once spent Christmas […]
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Lying about homelessness isn’t the main scandal
Jul 5th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.It’s bad enough that Ministers repeatedly lied in concealing their predictions about the growth of homelessness due to their own measures. But what matters a lot more is what’s going to be done to avert potentially the worst social crisis in Britain for decades. Having to subsist on poverty rations is dreadful, but not having […]
