‘FROM CAMERON downward there is policy coming from the top to deliberately drive working class families out of London and kettle them into certain areas of the country’, Jasmin Parsons from Our West Hendon told News Line.
Jasmin was responding to new figures released yesterday, which show that evictions have soared by 51% over the last five years, with a staggering 11,000 people being evicted from their homes in the first three months of the year.
Benefits sanctions and the Bedroom Tax are the main cause of evictions with entire families being thrown out of their homes and on to the street.
Figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government have shown that ‘rough sleeping’ in England grew by 55% between 2010 and 2014.
Data from the Ministry of Justice showed that 42,000 homes were repossessed by landlords in England and Wales during the year, a rate of 115 a day. This was the highest figure since the records began in 2000.
The Tory Government plans to cut a further £12bn from the welfare budget, much of which is spent helping tenants with housing costs.
The cost of renting a one-bedroom property has risen by 2.7% over the past 12 months, to an average of £688 a month.
A three-bedroom family home now costs an average of £875 a month. In Greater London rents have risen by 4.4% to an average of £1,137 a month.
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of Shelter, said: ‘These figures are a glaring reminder that sky-high housing costs and welfare cuts are leaving thousands of people battling to keep a roof over their heads.
‘Every day at Shelter we see the devastating impact of a housing market at boiling point, with the cost of renting so high that many families are living in fear that just one thing like losing their job or becoming ill could leave them with the bailiffs knocking at the door.
‘The new government must make sure people aren’t left to fall through the cracks and hurtling towards homelessness by preserving, if not strengthening, the frayed housing safety net to protect ordinary families desperately struggling to make ends meet.’
Jasmin Parsons from Our West Hendon added: ‘In our area which is Barnet they are selling off public land, council housing, and public buildings and putting them into private hands. These privateers are unseen, unmanaged and beholden to know one.
‘We are against the privatisation of council housing, but that is an understatement, all utilities, facilities and transport must be nationalised and placed into the public hands and the stock exchange must be closed down!’
