But fecking Preston. I live 25 mins away from the place and if I lived in social housing that had burnt down, I'd fecking refuse it.
Grenfell Tower Fire | 14th June 2017
- Thread starter Cheesy
- Start date
I have no idea. But it's obvious that no one should be forced out of the borough because of this fire, there are enough houses and enough money available to see to that.
Congratulations, you are now voluntarily homeless and have to wait 2 years before getting social housing. Welcome to conservative Britain.
It seems as though they're still more interested in the cost than the actual human beings.
Interesting read, cheers. Even if they did double the council tax on these properties, as suggested, I doubt it would matter a jot to the super-rich.
Better to have a heavier windfall tax on them to build an affordable/social housing fund.
Doubt that would buy many of the empty houses in Cadogan Square.
They don't have to buy them, rent as many houses and flats as needed until the council can offer permanent social housing.
100% capital gains tax on any properties left unoccupied for 6 months or more? That's probably not practical (and doesn't account for genuine reasons properties may be unoccupied, such as renovations or ill health), but there needs to be a way to discourage just buying properties and leaving them to appreciate in value. It's a cancer on this city.
Presumably you could impose massive annual ownership taxes on any properties held by offshore companies? I'd have thought that would be relatively straight-forward to implement and wouldn't end up hitting any genuine Londoners or people we should care about inconveniencing.
There still might not be enough rentals available. In one sense, if it is such a shitty ward, wouldn't some (those with less firm local roots) be happier to be upgraded to a nicer borough?
Thanks. Says 941 of these "buy to leave" houses, a purchasing investment which I don't think should be allowed. Nor do I agree with us selling so much property for investment purposes to the Saudis, Russians and Chinese.
However we've allowed them to be sold so there isn't much we can do about it but I would love to see this practice stopped.
The other houses would need some degree of renovation for them to be lived in (so not available now) but the council will no doubt need to spend that money on building a new tower block or purchasing some properties for rent.
I've only seen 1 story about what they've done with survivors I'd regard as vaguely positive.
Someone, somewhere reckoned they had put 140 families into temporary accommodation. Also, a little bit hopeful on the numbers front - I was wondering where they were to a quite an extent.
''these are the queues of people who have lost everything...'' stories seem pretty thin on the ground, if you know what I mean.
Also, these stories from KC Council about the superb assistance they claim has been dished out are short of facts - it's all the ''we are doing all we can'' generalities & platitudes.
If I was being really cynical, I'd be starting to think they were hoping the escapees would kinda naturally disperse if they were not totally legit occupants of the block.
And this Paget-Brown is a stone cold 110% cnut.
Someone, somewhere reckoned they had put 140 families into temporary accommodation. Also, a little bit hopeful on the numbers front - I was wondering where they were to a quite an extent.
''these are the queues of people who have lost everything...'' stories seem pretty thin on the ground, if you know what I mean.
Also, these stories from KC Council about the superb assistance they claim has been dished out are short of facts - it's all the ''we are doing all we can'' generalities & platitudes.
If I was being really cynical, I'd be starting to think they were hoping the escapees would kinda naturally disperse if they were not totally legit occupants of the block.
And this Paget-Brown is a stone cold 110% cnut.
Corbyn's idea of requisition seems possible if CPOs can be served on you or I at any time.
Not just this city, where it's arguably slightly less of an issue it's focused on super-expensive areas like South Ken and Knightsbridge, but it's a massive problem in the likes of Cornwall, exacerbating locals' lower wages.
I thought something was brought in to hit offshore company-owned homes tbh. Not sure capital gains tax would work, but maybe you pay the annual rental value as a tax if it's uninhabited for over 18 months, for no good reason.
Undestandably but there might be some who would be happy to accept. Depends where their family and friends are and whether or not they like living in London.
One realistic consideration is Brexit though. One thing that attracts the likes of Chinese, Russian and Saudi money to the UK is the strong rule of law and property ownership rights. We need every friend we can get post-Brexit, so not a great idea to piss loads of super-rich folk who bring in loads of investment, creating jobs.
Plus with a CPO, from what I understand, the council still has to pay market rate for the properties, so it's not really realistic.
How about if a property has been unoccupied for longer than 2 years, the state can either compulsory purchase it for the original purchase price (i.e. no profiting from empty homes), or the state can sell it on your behalf and keep any proceeds over and above what you paid.
The main flaw is the massive cost of purchasing these properties but Corbyn doesn't care about that. What are you looking at £2m at the bottom end round there or more?
Could work, but see my post above yours. Maybe five years and we could still claim to be the above.
Tbh, just charging the annual rental value on some of these homes would rake in shedloads.
Maybe anything from £1-20m+ in Kensington. Isn't that where 'billionaire's row' is?
EDIT: This was on the market for £85m two years ago
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ion-London-s-Billionaires-Row-market-85m.html
The trouble is, the very wealthy would probably be willing to just pay the rent to keep the property unoccupied. The goal here isn't to raise money for the exchequer, it's to get more people into empty homes.
Corbyn won't care about a lot of things. It's easy to say so much when you're not in power but if he was in power he would be more careful, because a lot of his more "radical ideas"would be unlikely to get voted through parliament.
That's why ideally the legislation would dictate that all proceeds from this had to go into a ring-fenced social housing fund- in a perfect world, the government would also match whatever is raised to top it up further.
Fund independently-run with a trustee board containing plenty of charities, housing associations etc...not just some government lackey.
Government just press released deets of how the £5m emergency fund will be distributed.
Press release
Details of Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund
From:Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, Department for Communities and Local Government, and The Rt Hon Theresa May MP Part of:Support for families Published:18 June 2017
Further details of how the £5 million emergency Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund will be distributed, has been confirmed by the Prime Minister.
placeholder
every household whose home has been destroyed as a result of the fire will receive a guaranteed £5,500 minimum down payment from the fund. This will be made up of a £500 cash payment and £5,000 delivered through the Department of Work and Pensions into bank accounts or similar in a single payment
the £500 cash payment has already begun to be made available to those affected and further payments are available immediately from the Council at the Westway Centre or from Monday through the Post Office in Portobello Road, as and when families need it
the £5,000 payment will be available from Monday and support workers will assist households in accessing it - including those who do not have bank accounts
the discretionary fund is also being made available to meet funeral costs, and to top up payments for those households with complex or additional needs. The fund under be kept review and will increase if necessary
Access to the fund is one element of the support being made available, and comes on top of:
support for the council through the Bellwin scheme to meet the immediate and uninsurable costs of responding to the disaster
a guarantee of funding for temporary accommodation for those whose homes have been destroyed as a result of the fire while permanent homes are found
funding for legal representation for residents to ensure their voices are heard during the inquiry An additional £1.5 million to pay for mental health support to the Emergency Services through Mind’s Blue Light Programme
Prime Minister Theresa May said:
As we continue to respond to the needs of the community, our focus is on ensuring that all of those affected by this unimaginable tragedy get the right support as quickly as possible.
My government will continue to do absolutely everything possible to help all of those affected through the difficult days, weeks, months and years ahead.
Press release
Details of Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund
From:Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street, Department for Communities and Local Government, and The Rt Hon Theresa May MP Part of:Support for families Published:18 June 2017
Further details of how the £5 million emergency Grenfell Tower Residents’ Discretionary Fund will be distributed, has been confirmed by the Prime Minister.
placeholder
every household whose home has been destroyed as a result of the fire will receive a guaranteed £5,500 minimum down payment from the fund. This will be made up of a £500 cash payment and £5,000 delivered through the Department of Work and Pensions into bank accounts or similar in a single payment
the £500 cash payment has already begun to be made available to those affected and further payments are available immediately from the Council at the Westway Centre or from Monday through the Post Office in Portobello Road, as and when families need it
the £5,000 payment will be available from Monday and support workers will assist households in accessing it - including those who do not have bank accounts
the discretionary fund is also being made available to meet funeral costs, and to top up payments for those households with complex or additional needs. The fund under be kept review and will increase if necessary
Access to the fund is one element of the support being made available, and comes on top of:
support for the council through the Bellwin scheme to meet the immediate and uninsurable costs of responding to the disaster
a guarantee of funding for temporary accommodation for those whose homes have been destroyed as a result of the fire while permanent homes are found
funding for legal representation for residents to ensure their voices are heard during the inquiry An additional £1.5 million to pay for mental health support to the Emergency Services through Mind’s Blue Light Programme
Prime Minister Theresa May said:
As we continue to respond to the needs of the community, our focus is on ensuring that all of those affected by this unimaginable tragedy get the right support as quickly as possible.
My government will continue to do absolutely everything possible to help all of those affected through the difficult days, weeks, months and years ahead.
Excuse formatting, the bullet points don't copy well, the way they do it. Here's the link, if it's easier.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/details-of-grenfell-tower-residents-discretionary-fund
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/details-of-grenfell-tower-residents-discretionary-fund
There has to be a way for the government to at least rent housings for those people while they build new ones?
Of course they could, the idea that the government of the United Kingdom couldn't find decent housing in London for a few hundred people is fecking laughable.
Hmm, glad I do have some memory left and there is something treating these properties differently. It's not really proving a deterrent though.
Shouldn't that be 2 years before getting on the waiting list for social housing?
Yes, if there are rentings available. They do go pretty quickly though.
Does anyone know what Sadiq Khans powers are? All he does is come on TV blaming everyone else.
According to this he has a say in fire saftey and housing so am not sure he keeps blaming everyone else
https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/mayor-london/mayor-and-his-team/role-mayor-london
According to this he has a say in fire saftey and housing so am not sure he keeps blaming everyone else
https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/mayor-london/mayor-and-his-team/role-mayor-london
Wasn't any better under Labour you know.
There was a documentary on recently about the housing department somewhere in East London, Dagenham I think. They didn't have anywhere near the number of properties to meet demand and they followed a few individuals that were homeless, one young couple with a child had been homeless for something like two years!
That is council stock mind.
Not really sure but even the fire marshalls and everyone associated with that dept kept going back to cuts by the conservative govt. It seems that he has very little say
I think it brings in a fair yield, but yea it's more a revenue generator than a deterrent. At the end of the day the people who own these things can afford to pay an extra few hundred grand a year in tax.
All those charges should be multiplied by 10.
So many lies being spread on social media that people are getting fooled by.
But the government can out price anyone without making a terrible deal. For example they could offer 3 or 4 hundreds pounds above the asked price?
Or they can offer a complete renovation at the end of the renting period?
10x is probably a bit high, a inhabited block of flats worth a million probably brings between £45-65K a year, you can't charge it £35K in such fees.