Ben Reeve Lewis Friday newsround #77

[Ben Reeve Lewis is angry. People are applying for food handouts   …]

You know when people say “Right, that’s it. I’m going to complain to my MP”? It’s usually an empty gesture and what MP is really interested anyway?

Speaking as a council worker I can confirm it works, but only on one level.

Not another one …

If a member’s enquiry comes in it makes everyone groan. The complaints team of the council leans on your managers who lean on you.

You have to dig out old files and write letters justifying what is going on, taking time away from people who really need your assistance to rake over work you have already done, to justify it to people who don’t really care, they just pass your answer on to the complainant.

MP’s earning their money – or not?

The MP hasn’t done anything at all, other than get their secretary to fire off a letter that pisses everyone off, but the constituent feels that someone in authority has listened to them and acted against the evil, incompetent council, only to get a response that merely re-iterates the original decision.

So the complaint annoys the council but nothing actually changes.

Like anyone is going to review their case work and say “Do you know what? They are right. I’m really crap at my job”.

Today I got a doozy. Bear in mind that as a South London TRO I deal with shootings, stabbings, death threats, hot-wired properties and 20 people crammed into 3 bedroom houses, every single day.

Topiary crisis

This complaint was from a local MP querying whether a landlord could stop obeying the terms of the tenancy agreement, because one of their constituents expressed concern that her’s had stopped mowing the lawn, in flagrant breach of the contract.

I was asked if the council had any powers to deal with these “Terrible property conditions”.

My reply went,

“I’m sorry but we don’t have such powers. This is a growing trend I’m afraid. Worrying rumours are reaching our office that tenants are increasingly being expected to carry out their own topiary”.

Now I know there is going to be a comeback for me from this sarcastic offering. A slapped wrist, maybe even a disciplinary, but for God’s sake, what planet are these people on? Planet Cameron that’s what.

Getting angry

What’s the reason for my ire? A conversation I had in the pub with the excellent but very mad Liam of our local Credit Union. A man whose enthusiasm and commitment is only equalled by his eccentricity.

He advised me that our local borough’s food bank was expanding.

Good news on one level but why in the name of Beelzebub, in the 21st century, are food banks even necessary?

Cameron’s Britain

Promoting investment, boosting confidence in the economy? I can get all that but food banks? Doesn’t that tell you where we are really at? This is depression era stuff people. In your local area people are running food banks because local residents can’t afford food.

That’s Cameron’s Britain, not an inspiring little bit of belt tightening.

Ben takes off his gloves

Which is why I turn my jaundiced, world weary and sarcastic eye on the This Is Money’s article on spiralling rent levels.  Make no mistake about it, the gloves are off for me this week on the matter of rent increases. Those of a feint heart, look away, coz I’m in no mood to be nice.

In August rent levels showed a consistent rise of 5 unbroken months. While people are reduced to falling on assistance from food banks.

While landlords rub their hands together rent arrears are rising along with repossessions and people are literally starving to make ends meet.

Rent madness

This is Money, a website devoted to finances, so hardly bleeding heart liberals, state:-

“people are worried about keeping their families in a settled home should landlords raise their rent”

The article goes on to say:-

“people will continue to come under pressure as rent rises are outstripping wage growth”

This is not Militant or the SWP saying this but a financial website. And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.

Spare room anyone?

Over on Mark Alexander’s increasingly essential Property 118 it is reported that Spare Room.com, are reporting a business growth in people looking for a room to rent, anywhere.

Good news for mortgage borrowers facing a difficult time and also good news for homelessness units looking to match defaulting mortgagors up with tenants on benefits under 35, effectively killing 2 birds with one stone in homelessness prevention terms.

A point not lost on Tweet mate Adam from Wales  who has also seen a rise in interest west of the Marches.

More and more people are looking to cram themselves in with strangers just to be able to keep a roof over their heads. And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.

HMOs on the increase

Matt Hutchinson of Spare Room.com says:-

The average monthly rent for a room in a two-bedroom flat share is £809, but in a house share with six bedrooms or more, tenants will pay just £710, a sizeable saving of £99 per month or £1,188 per year.

So we are looking at a growing trend of house shares and HMOs because tenants can’t afford the rents being charged.

And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.

Landlord websites continue to celebrate the bun fest of high rents. And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.

Boris on the case

The Guardian reported on a Boris Johnson initiative that is going to be rolling out over the next 3 moths, interviewing tenants about their experiences in the PRS

This is a pre-survey that will feed in to Boris’s plans for a blue badge/Kite Mark/Licensing scheme, call it what you will, for London’s landlords and agents planned for next year.

London Assembly Member Len Duvall, who authored the article said:-

“London boroughs are the most expensive in England with the average rent for a two-bedroom home in the capital topping £1,360 – almost two-and-a-half times the average in the rest of the country.

This is adding to the cost-of-living crisis affecting Londoners, with gas, electricity and transport fares all rising well above inflation. In addition, more than £400m of public subsidy is now paid to London’s private landlords by local authorities every year to house often vulnerable households.

Unfortunately these huge sums are no guarantee of decent conditions for private tenants, with property conditions in the private rented sector worse than in either social housing or owner occupation.”

And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.

I normally end on a light-hearted not but this week I can only say

“And meanwhile people are applying for food hand-outs.”

Ben Reeve Lewis

Oliver Twist picture from Wikipedia