A remarkable Dispatches program on Channel 4 last night. It concerned substandard housing in the UK. We watch a morning BBC program called Homes under the Hammer which shows three properties that come up at auction. They are often semi-derelict but the new owners for the cost of a few thousand pounds can restore them to delightful residences that rent out at between £350 a month.
In the Dispatches program, a landlord was renting out derelict properties at £500 a month in unrestored states and the local authorities were allowing him to get away with it. There is sufficient legislation to send these unscrupulous landlords to prison but the local authorities will not act. The Chief Executive of the company that was investigated had a Muslim name and I'm sorry to say it but the the landlords who do the shoddiest work on Homes under the Hammer are usually Muslims too.
We have had examples of vote-rigging in many northern towns. I am beginning to suspect that graft is to blame for the outrageous state of our housing stock, but it is graft protected by racial and religious sensitivity.
In Southall, West London, another outrage was revealed. Indian landlords are letting out 'sheds' at the bottom of their gardens to illegal immigrants, at the same time breaking the law in trying to legitimize their status. This as well as letting their houses to multi-occupied overcrowding that breaks all health and safety legislation. When challenged by the TV reporter the landlords claimed to be fireproof. More graft?
The people from Shelter, the housing charity, claimed that the problem is due to our poor housing stock, harking back to Mrs Thatcher selling the council houses, but it seems to me that it is more likely due to a vast increase in the population through illegal immigration. May illegals, as we have seen, are paid much less than the minimum wage and consequently pay no tax. I have said that I have no objection to the free movement of labor, but these must be real jobs, not jobs in the 'black' economy.
Holland is reacting to the number of unemployed Poles that have now entered their country and is threatening to deport them, against EU law. It is also threatening to withhold benefits from all non-Dutch speaking residents (again against EU law.
Doc,
ReplyDeleteWhy should an employer pay an employee more than his services are worth? Aside from the fact that minimum wage laws just create unemployment, isn't it immoral to use force against people who are not using force against others?
If people can't afford standard housing, is it right to force landlords to provide it at a loss? Why should landlords even be in business if they can't make a profit?
Suppose govt just got out of the business of regulating peoples lives except for instances in which it's necessary to prevent the threat of irreparable harm, as with, say, bomb making.
I think there would be an explosion of wealth production that would lift everyone's standard of living. In fact, that is what all those "evil, greedy, profit-seeking" capitalists have been doing for some time now anyway.
With most others cursing and exploiting them as they do so.
These landlords are not making a loss. The taxpayer is paying these rents tyhrough housing benefit. They are profiteering. As well as breaking health and safety laws, they are defrauding the tenants, using bully-boy tactics for evictions, failing to maintain their properties as their contract says they should, bribing council officials and possibly the police. In short they are the worst type of criminals. But being Muslim they regard it as fair game to exploit people of different religion (that's what the Quran allows). One scam that they are into is buying up houses from old people at 30% below market rates with the promise that the old people would be allowed to live in the house at a cheap rent until they die. To save them expense they offer the use of their own lawyer and no realtor. Of course they find that the contract they sign has no protection for them and very shortly they are evicted. It is a matter of exploiting the poor and ignorant.
ReplyDeleteFraud is usually regarded as a kind of force.
ReplyDeleteWhat you see to be describing here is some gaming the welfare system. I would say that the whole idea of govt welfare is and always has been a scam.
During Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" welfare explosion here, someone wrote a book entitled "Poverty Is Where The Money Is."
Welfare programs attract scam artists like cupcakes attract ants. The whole idea of welfare and socialism is based on the exploitation of productive people.
I agree. But after 13 years of socialism, we are where we are. The conservative government is capping housing benefit. There are whole streets of boarded up houses in the north where you can buy the street for the price of one house in London. People could be unemployed there just as easily as being unemployed in London.
ReplyDelete