You probably haven’t heard of Pay To Stay. It’s part of the Housing & Planning Bill and of all the nasty, divisive policies the Tories have come up with this is one of the nastiest. If you have heard of it, you probably think it’s only going to affect a tiny number of ‘rich’ tenants. And those ‘rich’ tenants probably shouldn’t be living in social housing in the first place, should they? People like the late Bob Crow, like former MP Frank Dobson – oh, and people like nurses, teachers, tube and train drivers, social workers, electricians, carpenters, administrators, lorry drivers, cab drivers, paramedics, probation officers, opticians, police and prison officers – ordinary working families, in fact.
If your household income is more than £30,000 per year, then the social rent will increase to the market rent. In Bristol, this means from £440 per month to £845 – an increase of £4,860 p.a; in Brighton, from £480 to £1,220, £8,880 p.a more. And in London where the income level is set at £40,000, from £520 p.m to £2,200, £19,760 p.a more. Because household income will be based on gross earnings (including child benefit and child tax credits), a couple earning the London Living Wage will be hit. As will some housing benefit recipients.
And pensioners on fixed incomes are not excluded.
Rich? No. In work? Yes. Trade unionist? Probably. Public sector worker? Probably. Hard working family? Definitely!
The cuts to tax credits (an average loss of £1,300 p.a) pale into insignificance compared to Pay To Stay’s potential loss of a staggering £20,000 p.a!
There’ll be no escape into the private sector – the rent will be the same. Right To Buy? But, like market rents, market house prices are out of reach, even with discounts. You need to earn £77,000 to buy in London. For many, the only option will be to leave the city. Or go on the dole.
All sense of community will disappear as the only social renters will be those scrapping by on benefits. Only the rich and childless will be able to live in our great cities, especially London.
One of the factors fuelling soaring market rents is Right To Buy. More than a third of RTB properties in London are now private rentals, let by room, not by house/flat. £200 p.w per room is normal – a slumlord can rake in £800+ p.w for a 3 bed. Homes built for families are being turned into multi-occupied, childless, unrepaired slums.
Policies like the bedroom tax and benefit cap have already led to the beginning of social cleansing in our cities. Pay To Stay, the abolition of secure tenancies and s106 ‘affordable’ rentals, the forced sale of ‘high value’ council properties and cuts to housing benefit, will finish the job.
Council housing is one of the pillars of the welfare state. Along with Poverty, Disease, Ignorance and Idleness, Squalor is back.
(written for Labour Briefing www.labourbriefing.org)
18 November 2015
Joan Twelves 