FORUM: Beware Tories’ ghettos for the rich

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Published: 13 August, 2010

LONDON boroughs including Camden and Westminster may well become virtual no-go areas for any household on a low income looking to find a home in the private rented sector, warns the former Labour Mayor of London Ken Livingstone  

When you hear some people talking about the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat government as if it was in any way a good thing you have to ask if they have been paying attention to their housing policies.

Everyone in Camden knows just how important it is to solve the shortage of affordable homes in London.

People want to know that they and their children will be able to get a secure, affordable, home and not have to wait years or live in slum conditions.

Boris Johnson’s administration has broken promise after promise.  

And now David Cameron’s government is planning to end the secure tenancy for public housing, so that new tenants won’t be sure that they can stay in their home. 

The housing minister has suggested that it might be for a housing association, or housebuilder, to decide whether to continue with lifetime tenancies in their properties, or instead restrict them to a limited period.

That will create a two-tier supply of cheaper homes and put many families at permanent risk of uncertainty about their tenancy. 

It will bring more instability to our communities.

Instead of building council housing, the Tories are attacking tenants.

At the same time they are opening up a new front that will cause a crisis if we do not stop them.  

We know that one of the root causes of Londoners having to claim housing benefit in the private rented sector is the shortage of council housing.

But many hard-working families currently in receipt of housing benefit in the private rented sector will be forced out of their homes or driven deeper into poverty, due to new caps on housing benefit.

Thousands of families are likely to be affected as the weekly amounts allowable in benefit will be cut either to 30 per cent of average local rents or a maximum of £400, making many areas of London completely unaffordable for those on low incomes.

It is thought that up to 20,000 households in London will be adversely affected by government proposals to cap rents in this way including over 15,000 households with children.        

A large proportion of families affected are working, particularly those living in two- and three- bedroom accommodation.

London boroughs including Camden and Westminster may well become virtual no-go areas for any household on a low income looking to rent a home in the private rented sector.

It will hit children living in poverty. 

In London 59 per cent of children living in the private sector are living in poverty.

The Tories have made clear where they stand. 

Councillor Philippa Roe, the Conservative housing spokesperson on Westminster City Council, has said bluntly: “Large families have to be realistic about living in the heart of the capital and may need to be housed outside of the borough.”

That sums it up – parts of London will steadily become ghettos for the rich.

As part of my bid to stand for Mayor in 2012 Westminster North Labour MP Karen Buck is leading on campaigning against the benefit changes and to develop a housing policy to help Londoners get access to more affordable homes.

We need the biggest possible pressure on the government to axe these two nightmare Tory policies.

KEN LIVINGSTONE
www.kenlivingstone.com