Creating more space for families (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Creating more space for families

8:32am Monday 14th May 2012 in Our View By Telegraph & Argus

The new housing benefit reforms highlighted today will no doubt cause lots of disruption to people’s lives, particularly elderly people who will find it difficult to change if they are ultimately forced to move.

But there cannot be any doubt that the Government’s motives are correct at a time when the economy is in such difficulty and the funding simply isn’t available for the social housing that is so desperately needed as more and more people struggle with mortgages and repossessions increase.

The pressure on social housing is building by the day and it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that if you are living off the state you should do that in the most economically viable way possible. It cannot be fair for single people to have large properties paid for when families are struggling in overcrowded temporary accommodation.

It is undoubtedly going to be very difficult for people who have attachments to houses, and may have lived there for many years, and no one wants to see them moved from their home. The problem is there are too many families who need more space, and it is difficult to justify why a large family should be crammed into a one or two bedroom house when someone on their own is rattling around in a bigger property.

Even though organisations like Incomm- unities refuse to talk in terms of waiting lists, citing complicated assessment systems, the truth is there are thousands of people without homes in the Bradford area.

If there are thousands of others hanging onto space they don’t really need then surely the only logical decision is to look to balance that equation better, and to ensure all social housing expenditure is used to its optimum benefit for everybody.