Jackie Long
No fairytale ending for Osborne’s welfare reforms
This is the moment when we get George Osborne’s famed fairytale scrounger, idling in bed with the curtains drawn all day, up and off his backside and into work. Or do we?
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Jackie Long
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Easterhouse: harsh reality behind benefits ‘revolution’
When Iain Duncan Smith came to Easterhouse in Glasgow more than a decade ago, he pledged to change the system to help some of Britain’s poorest. But the change has not been what residents hoped for.
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Govt offers ‘bedroom tax’ concessions
Welfare Secretary Ian Duncan Smith announces changes to controversial cuts in housing benefit, dubbed the “bedroom tax” by opponents. Ciaran Jenkins reports.
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‘Bedroom tax’ will cost taxpayers more
The government’s controversial new “bedroom tax” will cost rather than save money in parts of the country, it has been claimed. Reporter Ciaran Jenkins explains.
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Councils demand crackdown on ‘rip-off’ letting agents
As MPs carry out an inquiry into the private rented sector, councils say “extortionate fees” charged by some letting agents are making it harder for people to find a home.
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‘Dramatic’ rise in people at risk from homelessness
Housing charity Shelter reports an 92 per cent rise in families with children seeking advice on how to avoid homelessness.
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FactCheck: The truth about the child benefits cap
DWP figures show that some 160 claimants out of more than 3 million were getting the equivalent of £50,000 a year or more in 2010. That’s 0.0004 per cent of cases.
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Jackie Long
Is it common sense to sell off our social housing?
It is a blindingly obvious idea, according to the housing minister, Grant Schapps. What’s not to like?
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Expensive social housing ‘should be sold off’: report
Expensive social housing should be sold off to fund a wave of new building across the UK, a report by the right-leaning Policy Exchange think tank has said.
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Cameron unveils plans for new welfare crackdown
Prime minister David Cameron signals a new welfare crackdown which could see thousands of young people stripped of housing benefit and forced to live with their parents.
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Derby fire: sixth child unlikely to survive, say police
Derbyshire police say 13-year-old Duwayne Philpott, five of whose siblings died in a house fire on Friday, is unlikely to survive.
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Spain rescues bank as spectre of Irish property crash looms
Spain partially nationalised banking giant Bankia SA after concerns about its real estate exposure in a scenario reminiscent of the Irish crisis following the 2008 implosion of Lehman Bros.
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Olympics council accused of ‘social cleansing’
A London council is criticised after contacting housing associations in other parts of the country to see if they will take private tenants whose high rents are not covered by housing benefit.
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Government wins three welfare votes so far
The government has overturned three of the seven amendments to its welfare bill proposed by the House of Lords last week. Further votes, including one on a benefits cap, are due later today.
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An Occupy movement with a difference?
As a disused bank in Belfast is occupied in protest against the area’s housing problems, Channel 4 News asks whether an Occupy movement can bring about change – and why housing is of such concern.
