Jack Davies
Recent activity
Comments (430)
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Comment on: Romanian Big Issue seller wins benefit fight
Harry Lime - You are so right when you say "By the time the Daily Mail get their hands on it, this story will damage the sales of Big Issue sellers all around the country"
Yet if the person was English, who had become homeless, was aspirational enough and hard working enough to become self-employed through what is frankly a thankless job - the the Daily Mail would laud the person as not one of the feckless sit on their beackside benefit scoungers.
Buts she Romanian and so the Daily Mail take on this will be because she is not English -
Comment on: Time for change
"Regulating private landlords will help tenants and reduce housing benefit and health care costs, says Richard Kemp"
"Over a period of time, landlord registration will drive up quality, reduce housing benefit costs, reduce health service costs and provide more stable communities. I hope that is an argument that my party will buy"
Interesting opinion. The health and poor housing argument is made and has been many times before. Property being inspected and regularly is good. But where is the argument for reducing housing benefit costs? It is not made in the article.
Its a nice throwaway line thats all. There is nothing at all in the article to say why or how housing benefit costs will reduce. -
Comment on: Time for change
"Regulating private landlords will help tenants and reduce housing benefit and health care costs, says Richard Kemp"
"Over a period of time, landlord registration will drive up quality, reduce housing benefit costs, reduce health service costs and provide more stable communities. I hope that is an argument that my party will buy"
Interesting opinion. The health and poor housing argument is made and has been many times before. Property being inspected and regularly is good. But where is the argument for reducing housing benefit costs? It is not made in the article.
Its a nice throwaway line thats all. There is nothing at all in the article to say why or how housing benefit costs will reduce. -
Comment on: ALMO to engage tenants through smartphone app
I have no problem about using new communications methods such as mentioned above. Though a few thoughts spring to my obtuse mind.
Half of UK adults own a smartphone? Er? There are almost 2 mobile phones per person (about 116m phones sold in UK) so 29m or so sales account for one quarter of sales and between 25% and 50% of people in the UK
I also wonder if there is a correlation in age of these owners to that of those who report repairs or ASB? The report says it is aimed at younger persons yet what percentage of those reporting ASB are younger persons?
Decent enough idea just a bit overhyped for me and maybe wont meet the purpose the article is claiming -
Comment on: Subletting crackdown to criminalise tenancy fraud
Why not add sub-letting to Ground 8 first. Make it an automatic eviction like Ground 8 with no discretion for district judge firstly then give DJ powers to fine and/or send to crown court for the sub-letting issue
Discussions (1)
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HB Bill to rise again?
As (a) Mortgage approvals fell by 10% last year (announced today) - so mortgages harder to obtain clearly and the banks still not lending; (b) Inflation up to 3.7% - self-explanatory; (c) Massive
Posts (40)
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Posted in: Are social landlords 'landlords' or solution to all societies ills?
I fully agree that social landlords should concentrate on being landlords first and foremost.
My view is that the question needs to go further as it seems social landlords are perceived to be responsible for all of society's ills and seen as the first point of complaint - and asb is a good example of that. It goes way beyond asb as some landlords position themselves as community champions and even hold employment support programmes.
When and why did social landlords become the police and the job cente?
I dont doubt that social landlords with high concentrations of tenants in a given area are in a good place in terms of reaching that community but being seen as the first point of call for policing, employment, support and a whole host of other issues is self-defeating. Social landlords should be involved in such wider social issues yet they are seen too often as the lead on such matters and that is plain wrong, yet in their rush to position themselves as community champions they have made a rod for their own backs
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Posted in: Impact of the riots on housing
How about 200 lashes of the birch for home owners and 100 for those who are tenants? After all such thuggery is the presever of tenants and we need to set an example to all non-tenants!!
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Posted in: Can Housing Ass' really not help more after bugular and Arson ?
Apoica above "An everyday story of "needs" based allocation and the secure tenancy as introduced by Thatcher in the 1980 Housing Act. Remove both and it would solve all problems such as this at a stroke."
So in your view all tenants accommodated before 1980 (41 years ago so all over 59s) are model tenants then?
What about the 80 year-old woman in Brighton last week given an INTERIM asbo for:
- shouting Seig Heil at a neighbour
- performing a Nazi salute at a neighbour
- goose-stepping behind a neighbours visitors
- thrown items at a neighbours door including glass and empty alcohol bottles and also out of her window
- thrown out her soiled underwear at a neighbour
- constantly and deliberately littered the communal area
- called young children playing there "Hitlers children"
- deliberately setting off communal fire alarms and placing all tenants at risk by doing so
- and numerous other actions
Edna Beck doesnt have mental health problems either who has "caused significant anti-social behaviour over a lengthy period of time" according to reports on the case of 7 July 2011.
The repotrs on this case above can be humorous when first read, but replace an 80-year ols woman with a 22 year old and see if that changes your opinion!! Evict and evict immediately / birch the little sod / etc etc etc - who would advocate evicting this lady? Why not - is i age discrimination and preconception that little old ladies are sweet and all young people scum clouding your thoughts?
On the same day we read of a 64 year old man back in court for breaching his asbo 5 times in 7 months.
Both can be read on BBC website. Yet Apoica would have us believe that all the (asb9 ills of the world are either (a) committed by young people or (b) are because of needs-based allocation.
Then again the price of electricity and gas is the direct responsibility and effect of needs-based allocation in Apoica's view.
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Posted in: Is it logical Captain?
Mr P
"Profit = Revenue - costs. How have you worked out the 70% margin without knowing any of the landlords costs? You've just chosen a number which happens to be 70 haven't you"
Take your simple equation and
1.Revenue for PSLs in HB is 70% above council rent levels
2. Council rents make a small surplus at 70% less revenue than PSL
3. Council renst incur higher expenditure cost than PSL rents due to regulatory burdens that PSLs dont have
Therefore, if PSLs get 70% more revenue (income) from HB than councils do and PSLs hae a lower expenditure cost then 70% profit margins for PSLs are conservative.
I note you fail to comment on my other points -
A) that the use of PSLs over council rents means a current £3.5bn per annum increase to the public purse
B) that this costs every household in the UK the equivalent of £140 more per year in tax just to pay the PSL added costs
C) that this proves the market you advocate so much fails in housing
And then the further obvious conclusion that as you state that private firms are more efficient then councils (which do return a surplus to the exchequer) then the 70% profit figure I mention is even more of an understatemant as PSL operational costs much be much lower than councils due to their uber-effficiency!
Or, conversely, I could have just plucked that 70% figure out of thin air!!!
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Posted in: Is it logical Captain?
The same statistics also reveal the public purse is paying £3.5bn a year more to private sector landlords than they would pay for the same number of council houses.
That is also an alarming increasing trend as since May 2010 (the last election) 71% of the new HB claimants have been in the private sector.
The cost means as ive said elsewhere that every household in the UK already has to pay £140 a year in tax just to pay this excess to unregulated private landlords. Or the other side of this is that if these were council properties eery household would pay £140 a year less in tax. (Based on 25m households)
The 69% extra HB pays to PSLs over what it pays to council landlords is a national disgrace with no rhyme or reason. Council tenants have greater rights to security, repairs, involvement etc than private tenants yet private tenants are paying (at least) 69% more for this inferior service.
The market rented model fails and clearly fails by providing a product and service that is far less qualitative than a council let for a whopping 69% more and the PSLs dont hae the regulatory and other expenditure constraints that councils have imposed, and those councils even delier an oerall surplus back to the public purse.
Therefore PSL LHA rates must reflect at least a 70% profit margin for which this government is more than happy to pay. It shows this governments hypocrisy towards 'cost-efficiency' however defined and means Joe Public is paying unneccesarily far more in tax to pay for this significant cash cow to private owners
Rick - HA rents are higher than council rents and this is why the figures differ. Both figures invariably meet the full rent unlike the £114 or so in PSL lets which invariably dont cover full rent (hence why the excess is at least 69%)