Well it seems that the Prime Ministers recent statement that he will "reform social housing allocation - enabling local authorities to give more priority to local people whose names have been on waiting lists for far too long" is a knee jerk reaction to the recent local and European elections. By the Prime Minister saying that local people need greater preference merely feeds into the urban myth that somehow certain people are able to jump to the head of the housing list.
Having worked in housing for many years I have found that what people consider to be council housing is actually accommodation that is temporary accommodation given to homeless people. Of course many of the population at large fail to realise that people may be in temporary accommodation for many many years. I know of a few families who have been in temporary accommodation for over ten years!
Whilst I'm mentioning this issue I do need to point out the Equality and Human Rights Commission report that migrants do not get council housing ahead of anyone else.So where is the Prime Ministers evidence that local people are somehow being treated poorly?
So it looks like the truth no longer matters. So what if the public have a misconception about something, rather than challenge it it would appear that policy will guided by what the masses believe rather that the truth.
2 comments:
Mr Brown's statement is nothing more than smoke, it had no substance - he's not intending to change the reasonable preference for homeless households under part 6 so this just potentially re-arranges the part of the housing register from which people are never housed (apart from elderly people going into no demand sheltered accommodation). No change then - another daft kneejerk - wait for the flip flop quietly announced by John Healy (or his successor) in say about 6 weeks?
Hello,
I'm a journalist doing some work on gatekeeping and homelessness. I'm very interested in speaking to any housing officers about your experiences of this. Any conversation would be entirely confidential and off the record.
For more details please email me on sam@evolvetelevision.co.uk.
Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.
Sam
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