Well, gosh, aren’t I surprised at this. And Newham, of all places. /s
Let’s be honest here guys. Newham was an experiment. It failed. Let’s nuke the borough and start again.
I think Newham Council likely gave more homes to ineligible people, than eligible. Fraud is the norm here.
Who will be going to jail or losing their job for this?
When I worked at newham, it was known at my workplace that there was an individual who could fast track your housing application and put you as the highest priority for council housing. All for the low cost of £5,000.
I’ll fix the headline to keep up with current headlines: “Serious fraud found at labour-run Newham Council as ‘ineligible people given homes’.
Corruption in the country goes from local council to the very top. Rot through, every level in the system.
Those who receive homes by fraud should have them taken away. Otherwise things like this will simply continue.
Living in a rent-controlled flat in London is equivalent to receiving a £10-25K yearly cash benefit. No wonder that this system incentivises corruption.
As an example of how lucrative this can be:
A typical free market weekly rent for a 2-bedroom flat in London Westminster is around £600, or £31,200 per year. The average council rent for a 2-bedroom flat in London Westminster is around £140 per week or £7,280 per year. So less than a quarter of the market value rent.
That is a net annual loss of £23,920 per council flat in terms of potential income left on the table.
It is, of course, a little more complicated than that. The open rental market in Westminster will include lots of 2-bedroom flats that are very spacious & luxurious. Their correspondingly very high rent will inflate the average. But many will also be tiny and squalid which will drag it back down.
So, a Council Flat in London is, effectively, a very large lifelong subsidy. It is allocated within a system that is very tempting – and quite easy? – to be abused if a housing official is corrupt.
Council flat allocation needs to be much more tightly controlled to prevent abuse.
And ‘Right to Buy’ should be scrapped in its current form. Instead, you can only buy your council flat at its full market price, no discounts. And all income from the sale is ring-fenced to build replacement council housing. It cannot be used for any other purpose.
Being awarded council housing in London is equivalent to winning the lottery. It is a lifetime sinecure awarded essentially at random.
The idea that corruption isn’t absolutely rife is hopelessly naive.
A friend of mine worked in planning at Newham. He was looking at an approved planning application to help him with a case he was working on. He noticed the application had been approved even though the allocated parking spots were below the required dimensions, which should have meant an automatic fail.
He spoke to the case officer to ask if he had misunderstood something and referred to the rules saying parking spaces should be a minimum size. The case officer asked my friend to join him in a meeting room, and went on to tell him there is a lot of money to be made. So he was taking bungs.
My friend reported it, and whilst Newham were investigating my friend was seconded to another Council, whereas the accused continued to work at Newham…which was an inconvenience for my friend but you can argue innocent until proven guilty.
This was at least 10 years ago, makes it seem this is absolutely rife.
This happens in all London councils, I’m in Hillingdon and remember some bragging about giving a grand to the right person and it immediately resulting in an available property.
They were a single male 25-29 and using the fact they had kids (who lived separately) as the justification for needing housing.
From what I’ve been told, this isn’t exclusive to Newham council only.
It really should be looked into nation wide
Newham Council are pure scum.
Hopefully they identify the ones who were given these houses due to corruption and they are removed and go back on the list.
[removed]
Of course it’s newham
They have serious nerve putting up council tax AGAIN after pulling off this shit
[removed]
What no one has actually said with this is how you a) identify the worker to tap up and b) actually speak to them.
I’ve been dealing with Islington about a parking permit, emails… calls… it’s IMPOSSIBLE to actually speak to anyone who seems to have the vaguest crumb of power to actually deal (and resolve) my issue.
Corruption in Westminster, Corruption in local Government, WE lecture other powers for corruption but lets face it our politics has become very corrupt.
When the social contract is broken, you can drive a coach and horse through our laws. It’s one of those things which is quite clearly being exploited (see also nearly every vape and mini-mart in the country and the motabilty scheme).
Extends beyond just this. They can’t even hire whistleblowers because only people of the same community, culture, caste or whatever will make it through the interview process.
This is widespread. I suspect most local authorities across the UK have hundreds if not tens of thousands of similar cases each, yet to be uncovered. It’s basically impossible to get a council home unless you bribe someone the waiting list is 10 years+
Get Apsana Begum MP on the case……
What a wonderful low trust society we’re building
This is 25 or so year old personal story but shows how long this kinda crap has been going on – working a crappy office job in London back then, the layabout brother of the boss came in to work part time the odd day or two.
Single English guy, nothing wrong with him far as I could tell, nice enough but got talking and turns out he had 2 two bed council flat in Elephant and Castle, rented out the other room that paid the entire rent of £100 a week or so. So free flat for him in zone 1.
Being new to London and not been involved in council places I had no idea then how unbelievably “lucky” this was, he kind of (didn’t) explain it with a nod and a wink, no idea what that meant but obviously he had somehow gained the system. Must have known someone in the council, he was a born and bred Londoner.
I imagine he bought the place under right to buy soon after for a pittance and is now sitting on a half million pound flat paid off by his tenant and the odd job here and there.
I sometimes wish I was that kind of morally blinkered, life would be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper.
28 comments
Well, gosh, aren’t I surprised at this. And Newham, of all places. /s
Let’s be honest here guys. Newham was an experiment. It failed. Let’s nuke the borough and start again.
I think Newham Council likely gave more homes to ineligible people, than eligible. Fraud is the norm here.
Who will be going to jail or losing their job for this?
When I worked at newham, it was known at my workplace that there was an individual who could fast track your housing application and put you as the highest priority for council housing. All for the low cost of £5,000.
I’ll fix the headline to keep up with current headlines: “Serious fraud found at labour-run Newham Council as ‘ineligible people given homes’.
Corruption in the country goes from local council to the very top. Rot through, every level in the system.
Those who receive homes by fraud should have them taken away. Otherwise things like this will simply continue.
Living in a rent-controlled flat in London is equivalent to receiving a £10-25K yearly cash benefit. No wonder that this system incentivises corruption.
As an example of how lucrative this can be:
A typical free market weekly rent for a 2-bedroom flat in London Westminster is around £600, or £31,200 per year. The average council rent for a 2-bedroom flat in London Westminster is around £140 per week or £7,280 per year. So less than a quarter of the market value rent.
That is a net annual loss of £23,920 per council flat in terms of potential income left on the table.
It is, of course, a little more complicated than that. The open rental market in Westminster will include lots of 2-bedroom flats that are very spacious & luxurious. Their correspondingly very high rent will inflate the average. But many will also be tiny and squalid which will drag it back down.
So, a Council Flat in London is, effectively, a very large lifelong subsidy. It is allocated within a system that is very tempting – and quite easy? – to be abused if a housing official is corrupt.
Council flat allocation needs to be much more tightly controlled to prevent abuse.
And ‘Right to Buy’ should be scrapped in its current form. Instead, you can only buy your council flat at its full market price, no discounts. And all income from the sale is ring-fenced to build replacement council housing. It cannot be used for any other purpose.
Being awarded council housing in London is equivalent to winning the lottery. It is a lifetime sinecure awarded essentially at random.
The idea that corruption isn’t absolutely rife is hopelessly naive.
A friend of mine worked in planning at Newham. He was looking at an approved planning application to help him with a case he was working on. He noticed the application had been approved even though the allocated parking spots were below the required dimensions, which should have meant an automatic fail.
He spoke to the case officer to ask if he had misunderstood something and referred to the rules saying parking spaces should be a minimum size. The case officer asked my friend to join him in a meeting room, and went on to tell him there is a lot of money to be made. So he was taking bungs.
My friend reported it, and whilst Newham were investigating my friend was seconded to another Council, whereas the accused continued to work at Newham…which was an inconvenience for my friend but you can argue innocent until proven guilty.
This was at least 10 years ago, makes it seem this is absolutely rife.
This happens in all London councils, I’m in Hillingdon and remember some bragging about giving a grand to the right person and it immediately resulting in an available property.
They were a single male 25-29 and using the fact they had kids (who lived separately) as the justification for needing housing.
From what I’ve been told, this isn’t exclusive to Newham council only.
It really should be looked into nation wide
Newham Council are pure scum.
Hopefully they identify the ones who were given these houses due to corruption and they are removed and go back on the list.
[removed]
Of course it’s newham
They have serious nerve putting up council tax AGAIN after pulling off this shit
[removed]
What no one has actually said with this is how you a) identify the worker to tap up and b) actually speak to them.
I’ve been dealing with Islington about a parking permit, emails… calls… it’s IMPOSSIBLE to actually speak to anyone who seems to have the vaguest crumb of power to actually deal (and resolve) my issue.
Corruption in Westminster, Corruption in local Government, WE lecture other powers for corruption but lets face it our politics has become very corrupt.
When the social contract is broken, you can drive a coach and horse through our laws. It’s one of those things which is quite clearly being exploited (see also nearly every vape and mini-mart in the country and the motabilty scheme).
Extends beyond just this. They can’t even hire whistleblowers because only people of the same community, culture, caste or whatever will make it through the interview process.
This is widespread. I suspect most local authorities across the UK have hundreds if not tens of thousands of similar cases each, yet to be uncovered. It’s basically impossible to get a council home unless you bribe someone the waiting list is 10 years+
Get Apsana Begum MP on the case……
What a wonderful low trust society we’re building
This is 25 or so year old personal story but shows how long this kinda crap has been going on – working a crappy office job in London back then, the layabout brother of the boss came in to work part time the odd day or two.
Single English guy, nothing wrong with him far as I could tell, nice enough but got talking and turns out he had 2 two bed council flat in Elephant and Castle, rented out the other room that paid the entire rent of £100 a week or so. So free flat for him in zone 1.
Being new to London and not been involved in council places I had no idea then how unbelievably “lucky” this was, he kind of (didn’t) explain it with a nod and a wink, no idea what that meant but obviously he had somehow gained the system. Must have known someone in the council, he was a born and bred Londoner.
I imagine he bought the place under right to buy soon after for a pittance and is now sitting on a half million pound flat paid off by his tenant and the odd job here and there.
I sometimes wish I was that kind of morally blinkered, life would be a hell of a lot easier and cheaper.
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