Saturday, May 26, 2007

Standing Room Only


There are times when the entire political arena seems to be completely confused these days. New Labour has blurred the dividing lines so much that it can be hard to know who is who. Surely, after her statements, Margaret Hodge cannot be labour. There has to be something wrong when the BNP are saying that a Labour ministers views echo their own.

Housing has to be allocated on need. As long as someone is legally in this country then we need to look after them. And length of residence should not enter into the equation. I am wondering how you even start to add in length of residence. Does 5 years in the UK equal one child? 10 years negates an extra one more adult than you have bedrooms? 15 years overides terminal illness and 20 for disability? And do you lose points for how far away your country of origin is. -2 points for Holland, -5 for Germany, -8 for Serbia and -23 for Korea (and, of course 100 points docked for being from France).

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Housing waiting lists are tricky things. I'd possibly give people points for each year they'd been on the list, so people have some hope of getting housing at some point.

If someone is adequately housed, they are unlikely to be offered anything they want. Apparently, you can usually get some housing in a low-demand area. But there are reasons why the area is low-demand...