Council tenants - you might not be so safe after all...

A comment in a Guardian article this weekend which could frighten any council tenants who think they are protected from the new localism bill which will end life time tenancies for new tenants (ie me, if I ever get a fecking council flat which is so unlikely...) It's likely to end life time tenancies for them too. Be warned....

skepticscott
3 July 2011 6:22PM
Pickles Hypocrisy Smoke & Mirrors
THE END OF SOCIAL HOUSING
Pickles claims his new Social Housing Charter will not effect existing tenants read the small print and it says it will not effect those with "secure or assured tenancies"
However Pickles is only too aware that the vast majority of secure or assured tenancies are now being declared void due to "uncertainty of term". The precedent is a 1992 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Prudential v London Residuary Body over a piece of pavement which was let until "required for road widening purposes". The Supreme Court declared the lease to be void for uncertainty of term.
More recently in the case of Mexfield v Berrisford Mexfield a fully mutual housing cooperative successfully argued that the tenancy was void due to uncertainty of term and had been replaced by a weekly tenancy.
So unless these exempted secure or assured tenancies have an end date which they do not then the are all void and replaced by a weekly tenancy. So Pickles new social housing charter is a charter to evict all existing social housing tenants.
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You may think oh it's said by a commenter so not true but I'm a commenter and I write what I know.

There's so much to challenge with this new bill, so much as the word 'security' is not written out of the dictionary, but its meaning totally changed.

Anyway, here's the full article about the rise in homelessness

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/03/homelessness-communities?commentpage=all#start-of-comments

This was my comment:

stigmum
3 July 2011 9:53PM
Some local authorities are getting rid of their temporary accommodation because it's too expensive and people are being encouraged to accept tenancies in the private sector, which is cheaper for them (the local authorities, not the people) When they are evicted due to these cuts, therefore, there is no temporary accommodation for them, so where then do they go? The coalition doesn't care, as long as it's not on their doorstep.

Another commenter left a link that she was on last night's news. It could be me, it could be you tomorrow:

http://www.channel4.com/news/benefits-cap-could-make-40-000-families-homeless

Oh happy days await the country....