howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
courtesy of the "independent"
Children sleep within inches of fungi growing through walls. Immigrants live illegally in sheds in other people's back gardens. These are just two examples of the rise of slum housing in Britain, as individuals and local authorities struggle to cope with a 21st-century housing crisis which has led to unscrupulous "slum landlords" profiteering from society's most vulnerable.
A chronic shortage in social housing and an unaffordable housing market mean that around 3.4 million people in the UK rent their homes, a 40 per cent rise in the past five years.
Local authorities are turning a blind eye to illegal and unsafe housing because they do not have the resources to re-house those inside, housing officers admit in footage obtained by uncover documentary teams for Channel 4's Dispatches.
Dr Julie Rugg, from the Centre for Housing Policy, who was commissioned by the Labour government to review the private rental sector explained: "An environmental health officer might say, 'Look, 60 of these properties... I could condemn them tomorrow... but where are these people going to go?'
"The ability of the environmental health officer to react is undermined and in some cases they get actually quite dispirited because they know that other parts of the council aren't going to take any action."
The programme exposes the practices of unscrupulous landlords who evict people from their homes in order to charge new tenants higher rates, and whose properties fail to meet the most basic standards required by law - yet authorities seem unable to take action.
The programme, presented by Jon Snow, also reveals communities of illegal immigrants living in garden sheds in Southall, West London.
An undercover reporter pays £40 a week in cash to share a shed in a back garden with a stranger, in which the wiring is unsafe, putting their lives at risk. In the house itself, the landlord rents a room to an Indian family comprising two adults and two children. The children are continually bitten by bedbugs.
Campbell Robb, chief executive of homeless and housing charity Shelter, said: "Many environmental health officers tell us they see problems all the time. They don't have the powers or the capacity to do something about it. Let's be frank, the cuts that many councils are going through at the moment, this is one of the areas that is going to suffer most."
Research conducted by Shelter says that more than 90 per cent of environmental health officers with tenant liaison responsibilities have encountered examples of landlords engaging in the harassment or illegal eviction of tenants.
Eighty per cent of environmental health officers have come across landlords in their area who persistently refuse to maintain their properties to a decent standard and yet two-thirds say no landlords have been prosecuted in the past 12 months.
Mr Robb said: "The Government has to recognise its responsibility to protect this vast and growing population of private tenants.
"We urge the housing minister to work closely with all local authorities and ensure that they are using every weapon in their armoury to crack down on unlawful operators, like those exposed in Dispatches. It is absolutely essential that we are sending a clear signal to tenants, landlords and local authorities that enforcing the law against rogue landlords is a priority."
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
I suppose the immigrants living in garden sheds will claim to be the gardener, if the authorities come round, and that they are just working in the garden shed.
They might not have the money to rent a house, which begs the question, what do they live on in the first place?.
They must be receiving some sort of income or benefit.
Or are they working illegally and sending the bulk of their wages abroad? In which case, their condition is self-imposed, as they evidently don't want to spend the money required for proper accomodation.
Not much for me to lose a night's sleep over!
I'm always worried that our seafront shelters are becoming permanent residences, and might become a kind of Bombay suburb growing up on Dover seafront.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
you may be missing the point alex.
landlords are taking money from either the tenants or the taxpayer and are doing nothing in return.
besides that the programe exposes landlords that evict tenats in order to get a higher rent from the next one without keeping their properties up to standard.
we have seen this in dover.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
One of the many immigrant families round the corner from the shop was subletting upstairs of the house he was in and always had a wallet full of cash.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
a house two doors from me was housing between 20 and 30 people at any one time, i could never work out why.
later i discovered that 6 houses in the clarendon area were being sublet, the money taken was worth a lot more than back home.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
yes howard you are aware of the problems priory residents have had over the years with bad landlords
something that still goes on today
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
let's face it keith, the authorities have no interest in the vulnerable people that are suffering.
the programme starts in a few minutes, will watch it avidly.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,895
The point of my post was that the landlord was not benefiting only the legal tenant who was subletting to his fellow countryman, hence his very full wallet.
I am watching the scam and junk mail documentary on BBC1.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
I understand it that the tenants who are living in large crowds in one house do so to pay less rent.
Housing benefit is calculated on an ara basis. One gets so and so much for living in a particular area, regardless of how much one actually pays on rent.
It is important to state whether it is a bed-sit, joint tenancy, or single room with shared kitchen and bathroom etc.
One is also supposed to state how many other tenants live in the same building, and in the same room/rooms.
I immagine that there must be immigrants who are getting housing benefits that are much higher than what they are paying as rent, if they are living 2/3/5 to a room!
At the end of the day, though, these people end up with a part of the housing benefit in their own pocket, so it works out both for the landkord or tenant who is sub-renting out, and the crowds who are lodging. Simples.
Even if the lodgers are working and not on housing benefit, it still means that they pay less of their wages to the landlord or tenant who is sub-renting out.
If many immigrants choose to live that way for their own financial gain, what can we do about it?
As for bedbugs, they are not choosy
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
What a terrible state to be in.
Alexander, i'm sure some of the present cllrs will correct me if im wrong, but the council's housing benefit is paid directly to the landlord, so tenants would not benefit.
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i am sure that is right keith, getting back to the programme i was totaly disgusted at the living conditions of some people.
the landlord living in an executive mansion charging people for living in sheds beggars belief in the 21st century.
Charles Dickens would be mildly surprised and outraged.........
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
No, Keith, housing benefits are paid to the claimant, who pays the landlord.
The Council would probably not pay housing benefits to many individual people living crowded in one small place, so it is more likely as I stated above, that many immigrants who live crowded are doing so to save on rent, whether they are on benefits or working.
My guess is that they claim one thing when asking for benefits or applying for a job (that they live in a house, or flat, or bed-sit), but then pay the landlord less rent in return for sharing the same room with other tenants.
I doubt they say to the Council "I share the room with two other people".
Housing benefits vary if one is living single, or married; living with a close relative might exclude benefits.
As for London, where rent is very high, living in garden sheds is probably an individual decision of people who have an income of sorts, be it benefits or wages.
I doubt that the people concerned officially state they live in a garden shed. They probably use the address of the landlord to receive letters, so the address could be: 1 Victoria Park, and not: the garden shed of 1 Victoria Park.
But in return for living in a garden shed, they do pay a lot less rent, and have more money to spend otherwise. If they share the shed with other tenants, they pay even less rent.
Now, if a Council were to give permission to build, say, 1,000 affordable houses for renting out, and then asked the people living crowded together at one address, or those residing in garden sheds, to move into these affordable houses, these people would likely turn the offer down, as they would be paying much more rent if they accepted.
So I think we should not lose the plot on this one.
What would likely happen, is that a thousand people/families would move into the 1,000 affordable houses, paying the rent, and then sub-let rooms to more immigrants, who in turn would be paying less rent because they are sharing with other tenants. We'd be back to base one, but with a much increased problem.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
you clearly did not see the programme alex.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
howard;
i watched it, and was totally disgusted by it.
its disgusting in this day and age that it still goes on.
and the tory mp trying to say it was just a minority of cases
come on boy open your eyes.
alex;l
whilst i don' wish to disagree with you maybe one of our leading cllrs will advise us on how housing benefit is paid, it always used to be paid direct to landlord
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
I didn't watch the programme, so maybe it dealt with different issues than those I mentioned above.
Keith, you may be surprised to find out that it isn't as you thought re. payment of housing benefits, which might validate what I mentioned in the above posts, even though the programme was evidently about other issues.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
can any cllrs out there give some answers please
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS