Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Just been looking at pepper sprays, seemingly some are legal and some are not.

Tasers not legal in this country.

What will he say if the Cons win it , Hays that is .

What about a Victorian sword stick ?

Have you been getting threatening letters, from TANKER

Rochester and Stroud will be the one to watch.

But nobody is boasting about HEYWOOD & MIDDLETON BY-ELECTION which could be a better indicator of G/E.

LOL. He'l do the usual Tory U TURN.

Ha ha ha, them were before my time, blimey.

Id expect Del and Rodney to come flying out of that.

What is it, one of them Anglias????

Yes its a Ford Anglia

I passed my driving test in one of those and at the first attempt. They were very easy to drive and with nice shortish gear sticks.

But it didn't have the 'Police' logo on it. That was on the Ford Anglia behind us. :-)

LOL.

Went well with the noddy bikes.

They have Mountain bikes now to get around those drug & mugger infested inner city estates

Boom Time For Landlords, The UK’s Soaring Housing Benefit Bill
Posted on October 5, 2014 by johnny void

Whilst the Tory Party pat themselves on the back at conference for the misery their welfare reforms have caused, recently updated benefit expenditure figures make a mockery of any claims that these vicious cuts were carried out to save money.

Housing Benefit (or Local Housing Allowance) makes up one of the largest parts of social security spending and every last penny of it goes to landlords. Ever since this government weren’t elected they have made brutal cuts to this vital benefit which pays for the UK’s poorest people to have a roof over theirs heads. Despite this the Housing Benefit bill is soaring and expcted to rise even further.

£24.8 billion was handed out to landlords in the form of Housing Benefit cheques in 2012/13 – the latest year for which exact figures are available. This is a rise of £2.7 billion, in real terms annual spending on Housing Benefit since the Tories came to power.

Much of this increase is in payments to private sector landlords rather than towards housing association or council rents. But it is not soaring private rents that have caused the increase in spending, Housing Benefit rises are now capped at 1% annually whilst total caps on the amount landlords can receive are in place in high rent areas such as the South East of England. It is claimants who have had to absorb the cost of rent rises, out of already meagre benefits.

Nor is the rise due to people who are unemployed. Less than £4 bilion of the £24.8 bilion total Housing Benefit spend pays for accommodation for people on unemployment benefits. Much of the rise is due to new claimants who are in work, which shows the true picture of the UK’s labour market.

Housing Benefit provides a good indicator of how many people in the UK are poor. It is available to those in or out of work, as well as pensioners. The only criteria for help with rent payments is an income low enough to qualify and less than £16,000 in assets. The Tories may claim that the recovery is in full swing, and thousands of pretend jobs have been created, but that doesn’t change the harsh fact that there are now more people poor than at any point since the Housing Benefit system began.

This is reflected in the number of people actually claiming the benefit, which hit a record 5.05 million in 2012/13. This figure has fallen slightly since last year – by around 25 thousand – but is forecast to rise again and is still almost half a million people higher than in 2009/10.

Surprisingly, another factor that may be driving up the Housing Benefit bill could well be the bungled attempts at cost-cutting reforms – the most notorious being the Bedroom Tax. There has been no better gift to the landlord class than this nasty policy which is driving people out of secure homes at low, social rents and into the out of control and hugely expensive private sector. Even the Benefit Cap might be increasing spending on Housing Benefits as families evicted due to no longer being able to afford the rent are rehoused by local authorities in emergency temorary accommodation which can be eye-wateringly expenisve. Last year the BBC reported on families being placed in £3000 a week hotels after being made homeless due to caps on housing benefits. The most recent homelessness figures showed the number of families living in B&Bs is at a five year high.

Many tenants are struggling with desperate poverty after cuts to Housing Benefits. Some Bedroom Tax victims are now paying up to a third of their meagre benefit payments towards the rent. Yet the cost of Housing Benefit is soaring. All Iain Duncan Smith has created is more poverty at more cost to the tax payer. Whatever your political persuasion that is nothing to be fucking cheering about.

You can download the most recent Benefit Expenditure tables at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2014

Housing Benefit (or Local Housing Allowance) makes up one of the largest parts of social security spending and every last penny of it goes to landlords


wish it did!
though it doesn't affect me as my "benefits tenant" is honest and pays by S/O, i believe the council now pays the tenant who is then meant to pay the landlord
if it hasn't already, this will inevitably lead to a large increase in landlords' bad debt, and thus even more reluctance to rent to those on benefits

Wonder how the Mansion Tax will effect landlords, just past the costs onto the tennant !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Must be quite a few in the South of England.

leaving aside how any mansion tax is worded, it would probably depend on how the landlord has his rental property set up

if it's his home but he is renting it out while he's abroad (for example), then I guess it would be hit, but if the property is part of a business, then surely a different kettle of fish

or, as the tenant is already responsible for council tax etc, it may well fall into his lap

anyway, no point at all in guessing, but at the end of the day, a property will only fetch as much as the market will allow, be that when selling or renting

GF,

If you have time have a read of this.

Been a little slow this week and only just caught up with week end papers.

Would have C+P it, but it is a little long.


Manuel, needn't bother to. Probably wouldn't be able to concentrate for long enough.

"Tory wreckers out to destroy their own human rights
The Conservatives’ threat to scrap the Human Rights Act emphasises how extreme the party has become""

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/04/tory-wreckers-out-destroy-human-rights



PS,

Good speech by Clegg.

In his speech, Mr Clegg revealed the contents of a private conversation he had with Mr Osborne during discussions about the possibility of announcing an increase in the personal allowance in the 2012 Budget.

The Conservatives will be left furious that Mr Clegg has chosen to breach protocol by revealing the contents of a private Cabinet discussion.

Telegraph