Panorama, housing benefits going to bad landlords (in Sunderland)

[LeadBelly86]

Reporter John Sweeney discovers that by one estimate housing benefit money totalling as much as £3.5bn a year is going to private landlords deemed bad or neglectful.

In his analysis, Sweeney says the result is that some of Britain's poor are now living in 21st century slums.

Joshua Dansky could well be Britain's worst slum landlord.

His is a property empire funded largely through public money that he is paid from housing benefit for the poor.

Mr Dansky, who has 140 properties in Newcastle alone, has become wealthy by exploiting Britain's critical shortage of affordable housing.

Perhaps more significant is that he is just one of a number of bad or neglectful landlords who are receiving perhaps as much as £3.5bn a year of public money through housing benefits paid to private landlords who accept poorer tenants.

While the coalition government has announced 150,000 new affordable homes will be build in Britain, cuts to social housing and the difficulty facing first time buyers when it comes to getting mortgages mean that more and more people are being forced to rent privately.

So what happens if the private landlords in question provide a terrible service? continued...http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/fr...00/9122529.stm

and http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...using_Rip_Off/

Shocking.

Saw Dansky the other day in Ashbrooke but didn't have a clue about him, but he stood out (skull cap, distinctive dress code etc) and he pops up on Panorama a couple of days later, unbelievable.

Makes you sick.

[weebil64]

Originally Posted by LeadBelly86

Shocking.

Saw Dansky the other day in Ashbrooke but didn't have a clue about him, but he stood out (skull cap, distinctive dress code etc) and he pops up on Panorama a couple of days later, unbelievable.

Makes you sick.

This is where the savings need to be made, limits on the amount of rent charged by private landlords.

[tiptoad]

Am watching this now and it's disgusting what that bloke is getting away with - and he's getting even richer at the tax-payers' expense.

According to someone on the programme, the current government is depending on people like this to provide what used to be regarded as 'social housing'.

Originally Posted by weebil64

This is where the savings need to be made, limits on the amount of rent charged by private landlords.

His rents are cheap, but the conditions are sub-human.

[LeadBelly86]

Originally Posted by tiptoad

His rents are cheap, but the conditions are sub-human.

I'd seriously rather live in a fucking prison tbh.

[duff_man]

He is by far the biggest private landlord in the west end of newcastle, never had any dealings with him personally but have done with people who work for him. The whole company is shit and based on the simple principle of acquiring/running as much as they can for as little as they can and letting it out for as much as they can. Some of his properties are verging on being death traps, even more are health hazards, but all of them are shit tips.

[tiptoad]

Originally Posted by LeadBelly86

I'd seriously rather live in a fucking prison tbh.

You'd be sent to prison if you kept a hen in some of those properties.

[Paddy O'Dors]

People on here would have you believe it's only the people at the bottom of the ladder that sponge off the state. There's plenty higher up who do it on a grander scale.

[zinedine]

Originally Posted by Paddy O'Dors

People on here would have you believe it's only the people at the bottom of the ladder that sponge off the state. There's plenty higher up who do it on a grander scale.

The previous government allowed the whole housing benefit system to get out of control & for some landlords to take advantage.
It was only tax payers money after all & new labour didn't give a toss about how they spent it. Hopefully the current incumbents will limit housing benefit & so force private landlords to lower their rents.

[tiptoad]

Originally Posted by zinedine

The previous government allowed the whole housing benefit system to get out of control & for some landlords to take advantage.
It was only tax payers money after all & new labour didn't give a toss about how they spent it. Hopefully the current incumbents will limit housing benefit & so force private landlords to lower their rents.

This programme wasn't about high rents, it was about slum landlords. The Private Sector people the Tories are relying on to provide housing for poor people.

[zinedine]

Originally Posted by tiptoad

This programme wasn't about high rents, it was about slum landlords. The Private Sector people the Tories are relying on to provide housing for poor people.

You blame the coalition for what has been going on all through the previous governments tenure?