UK spends £2bn housing homeless in B&Bs, hostels and shelters

Rising private rents, lack of affordable housing, benefit cuts and low levels of home-building force costly short-term solution, investigation finds

A homeless mother drying her child with a towel in a hostel bathroom. The UK is spending £2bn housing homeless families in short-term accommodation. Photograph: Mike Abrahams/Alamy

The UK has spent almost £2bn housing vulnerable homeless families in short-term temporary accommodation, according to figures that demonstrate the scale of Britain's housing crisis.
Rising private rents, a shortage of affordable housing and benefit cuts have forced local authorities, particularly in London, to place increasing numbers of households in bed and breakfast accommodation, hostels and shelters.
With the number of houses built in Britain falling to new lows, according to figures released last week, a four-month study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, has revealed that £1.88bn has been spent on renting temporary accommodation in 12 of Britain's biggest cities over the past four years.
Campaigners have said welfare changes will exacerbate the problem. Official figures show that in London alone 7,000 families dependent on benefits stand to lose more than £100 a week under the benefit cap, and many are expected to become homeless as a result.
Leslie Morphy, chief executive of the homelessness charity Crisis, said: "For the sake of cutting just a few pounds a week from their benefits, families and individuals are being forced out of their homes, to be put up in B&Bs or temporary accommodation that costs us all far more."
A separate investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that London councils are rapidly accelerating the rehousing of homeless households outside their home boroughs. Some 32,643 homeless households have been rehoused out of their borough since 2009.
In the year to April, 10,832 households were rehoused in this way – a 16% rise on the previous 12 months. Most left the more affluent districts of inner London for the cheaper outer suburbs, although an increasing number of London's homeless are being moved to towns outside the capital, such as Dartford in Kent, Slough in Berkshire and Spelthorne in Surrey.
The "destination" boroughs have said the influx of households has put a significant strain on local services. Councillors in Enfield in outer London, where more properties and B&B rooms are secured by London authorities than anywhere else, have said the demand from inner London authorities is pushing up private rents and placing untenable pressure on school places.
"The pressure will not abate," said Edward Smith, a Conservative councillor in Enfield. "Before long we will have to build more secondary schools."
The Labour leader of Slough council, Robert Anderson, said: "If authorities put people in our area with complex needs, or even just families; they need to inform us. If we know where they have come from we can make sure the borough does not shirk responsibilities and just pass on their more difficult clients. You can't just pitch up halfway through a year and expect to get a school place. It's not McDonald's."
The housing minister, Mark Prisk, insisted on Sunday night that councils should be careful about placing families in B&Bs far from their home borough. "There is absolutely no excuse for families to be sent miles away without proper regard for their circumstances, or to be placed in unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation for long periods of time," he said. "The law is clear: councils have a responsibility to take into account people's jobs and schools when securing homes for those in need."
But Prisk also defended the policy of removing families on benefit from central London. "Nor is it right that those living on benefits should be able to live in parts of the capital that those who aren't reliant on this support couldn't afford to," he said.
Households accepted as homeless by their local council will often be placed in temporary accommodation until a more permanent home can be found for them.
As latest government figures show there were 53,130 households living in temporary accommodation at the end of 2012 – 9% higher than the previous year – a leading law firm is preparing a class action against councils that keep families in B&B for longer than the statutory maximum of six weeks. It is believed a third of British local authorities are in breach of the limit, largely because of a shortage of suitable temporary accommodation.
Official guidance says B&B accommodation should be avoided wherever possible. Lack of privacy and amenities for cooking and laundry means it is "not suitable" for families with children or pregnant women "unless there is no alternative accommodation available and then only for a maximum of six weeks".
Bureau data shows the amount spent on temporary accommodation across 12 of Britain's biggest cities was up 5.7% to £464m last year. And London councils have budgeted for further significant overall rises this financial year.
Since 2009, London councils have secured 5,827 properties and B&B rooms in the three London boroughs of Enfield, Waltham Forest and Haringey alone.
The borough suffering the worst homelessness crisis in the country appears to be Newham, in east London which has spent £185.2m placing people in temporary accommodation since 2009.

MACC panel wants ministers, MBs, banned from government projects

BY CLARA CHOOI
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 – The MACC’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel (CCPP) proposed today that all government administrators and their family members at both federal and state levels be barred from bidding for government projects.
The panel also suggested a mandatory declaration of assets by all MPs and state assemblymen at least once in every three years to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and a one-year “cooling-off” period before retired civil servants are allowed to hold posts in professional practices or the corporate sector.
“At present, there is no specific cooling off period in allowing civil servants who have retired from holding appointments in the corporate sector or professional practice,” CCPP chairman Datuk Johan Jaaffar said in a statement here.
“The risks of corruption could arise when retiring officers could make use of their public positions to lobby for posts and certain personal benefits when they retire,” he added.
CCPP, which is one of the MACC’s five oversight advisory bodies, made the suggestions today after noting that the call to combat corruption had been among the key issues raised during the just-concluded 13th general election.
Johan said it was “imperative” for the government to take into account all views, criticisms and allegations on the issue from the public, regardless the authenticity of the claims.
“Although a section of these views, criticisms and allegations did not have a strong basis or were merely perceptions, these were used as grounds to allege that the government is not transparent, clean and does not have integrity,” he said in the statement on behalf of the nine-member panel.
He added the panel was of the view that to allay public perception on cronyism in the government, all Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers, mentris besar, chief ministers, state executive councillors and their immediate family members should be barred from bidding for government projects.
“This proposal is aimed at preventing acts of conflict of interest and to plug loopholes and opportunities that could lead to corruption,” Johan said.
He added that the previous practice whereby any minister, mentri besar or chief minister is absolved from liability by merely leaving a meeting related to an application by a company where his or her family members have an interest in, should not longer be made applicable.
“The panel proposes that this be implemented with immediate effect at the federal, state, local government levels and government agencies,” he suggested.
On the proposal to declare assets to the MACC, Johan said this would help boost the commitment of elected representatives to fight corruption.
“By the same token, the panel fully supports the declaration of assets by members of the Cabinet and Administration only to MACC.
“Such a move shows transparency on the part of the government over assets of ministers and their immediate family members.
“It would also protect the interest of other parties in the event of allegations related to their respective positions and ‘wealth’ during their tenure with the government,” he said.
Prior to Election 2013, all BN candidates were made to undergo a strict vetting process, which included checks on their background by the MACC.
Johan had at the time suggested that the anti-graft body makes it compulsory for all political parties to submit their list of candidates for vetting but this was criticised by the Election Commission (EC) as inappropriate as it would purportedly restrict an individual’s right to contest in the polls.
The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) emerged triumphant for the 13th time running in the just-concluded May 5 polls but bled a significant amount of support from an electorate that voted against what they believed was an over 50-year-old political system entrenched in excesses, cronyism and corruption.
With all the results in, BN polled just under 48 per cent of the popular votes cast and was beaten by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties of PKR, DAP and PAS, who collectively snapped up 51 per cent of votes.
But thanks to what the opposition has labelled unfair gerrymandering and a disproportionate distribution of voters across the country’s 222 federal constituencies, BN still emerged the victor of the day with 133 seats to PR’s 89 seats.
The last time an Umno-led coalition lost the popular vote was in 1969, then contested by BN’s predecessor, the Alliance Party.
Disorientated from the results, the Najib government has been scrambling to keep its house in order to face the next five years with smaller representation in the august House, and a loud and robust opposition bloc.
Now in his second term as prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak will roll out a 100-day programme designed to win over doubters and persuade Umno that he is the best to lead the party and the country, according to sources.
The Malaysian Insider understands that borrowing some ideas from the Abdullah administration, the Najib government will also work to improve the public delivery system, cut crime and corruption, enhance transparency and strengthen inter-ethnic harmony.

Gold & Silver Price Subject To Greediness Of Traders

Earlier today, Bloomberg announced that bearish bets on Gold are reaching record highs (source). While that is completely true it is exactly 50% of the story. Based on the weekly Commitment of Traders reports it appears that the spread between the short positions of speculators and the long positions of commercials have reached a historic high as well. The divergence started in November 2012, as one could clearly see in the following chart indicated in the red area (our emphasis). For the writers at Bloomberg it was apparently the most convenient thing to highlight the short positions instead of talking about the divergence. It would have taken only the following chart to bring the full story and truth. John Rubino rightfully points to the abuse of mainstream media to paint a desired picture.

The above chart shows the open interest in gold on the cutoff on Tuesday May 14th. What we know for sure is that the short bets have become too crowded, making inverse reactions not only likely but also violent. Just moments ago the gold and silver price moved vertically up. That’s the inverse of the movements we have been used to see starting December 2012, i.e. since the announcement of QE4 (read more about the mysteries in the gold market).
Zerohedge points to rumours of a potential US downgrade from Moody’s. Bloomberg indeed announced that “US policy makers must address debt loads projected to rise later this decade to avoid a 2013 downgrade according to Moody’s Investors Service”. RT adds to it that America’s ticking debt bomb has been reset. “Washington has suspended the debt ceiling, setting a date, and not a concrete dollar sum as a deadline, an unprecedented first in US history.”
While that could have been the trigger it is clear that “under the hood” the dynamics of short covering are at play. Too many bets were made on the short side; the trade became overcrowded.
The move higher comes after a very suspicious spike this night in which the silver price was pushed 10% lower within the first hour of Asian trading (with a bank holiday in Europe). Gold and silver did recover quite fast and remained somehow flat … until some minutes ago. The following charts show the price action in today’s trading sessions. In our own words: folly of the highest degree, or the metals being subject to greediness of traders. Readers can judge themselves.
Only today, the highs and lows for each of the metal:

• The gold price briefly touched $1,336 and peaked at $1,400, which is almost 5% from low to high
• The silver price briefly touched $20.20 and peaked at $23.20, which is 15% from low to high

Looking at what is happening in the precious metals markets lately we can only underline the importance of holding the metal in physical form. We wrote about that in great detail in Gold – You better hold it. The forces that are driving the paper market (i.e. derivatives and the fractional metals market) and the physical market are simply too diverse. People seeking monetary safety in the metal have really different motives than traders or speculators. At least, bullion owners should be aware of that. It should help them understand the price spectacle on days like these.

Let us repeat the fundamental idea of the precious metals again: you hold them because of their monetary protection!

Corporations Are Stealing Billions in Tax Breaks, While the Confused, Screwed Citizenry Turn On Each Other

As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find. Major advanced countries — and their citizens — need a comprehensive tax agreement that won’t allow global corporations to get away with this.
Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. “competitive.”
Baloney. The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible — and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up, thereby shifting more of the tax burden to ordinary people whose wages are already shrinking because companies are playing workers off against each other.
I’m in London for a few days, and all the talk here is about how Goldman Sachs just negotiated a sweetheart deal to settle a tax dispute with the British government; Google is manipulating its British sales to pay almost no taxes here by using its low-tax Ireland subsidiary (the chair of the Parliamentary committee investigating this has just called the do-no-evil firm “devious, calculating, and unethical”); Amazon has been found to route its British sales through a subsidiary in low-tax Luxembourg, and now receives more in subsidies from the British government than it pays here in taxes; Starbucks’ tax-avoidance strategy was so blatant British consumers began boycotting the firm until it reversed course.
Meanwhile, At a time when you’d expect nations to band together to gain bargaining power against global capital, the opposite is occurring: Xenophobia is breaking out all over.

Here in Britain, the UK Independence Party — which wants to get out of the European Union — is rapidly gaining ground, becoming the third most popular party in the country, according to a new poll for The Independent on Sunday. Almost one in five people plan to vote for it in the next general election. Ukip’s overall ratings have risen four points to 19 per cent in the past month, despite Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to wrest back control of the crucial debate over Britain’s relationship with the European Union.
Right-wing nationalist parties are gaining ground elsewhere in Europe as well. In the U.S., not only are Republicans sounding more nationalistic of late (anti-immigrant, anti-trade), but they continue to push “states rights” — as states increasingly battle against one another to give global companies ever larger tax breaks and subsidies.
Nothing could strengthen the hand of global capital more than such breakups.

Robert B. Reich has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He also served on President Obama’s transition advisory board. His latest book is Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future. His homepage is www.robertreich.org.

This article originally appeared on : AlterNet

Shocking: 12 Year-Old Kid Exposes Criminal Banking System On TV

A 12 year-old kid has taken the Internet by storm, as she easily explains and describes to the general public how the criminal banking system actually works in Canada.

Flashback: WASHINGTON – APRIL 11: (L-R) G-7 central bank Governors Mark Carney, of Canada, Ben Bernanke, of the United States, Mario Draghi, of Italy, Christian Noyer, of France, and Alex Weber, of Germany, arrive for a photo outside the U.S. Treasury April 11, 2008 in Washington, DC. The finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7 nations met at the U.S. Treasury today during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

by Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub.com
May 20, 2013
CANADA — A lot of 12 year-old kids would say economics are boring. In fact, a lot of adults would agree.
However, some kids have an overwhelming urge to learn all they can at a young age.
Victoria, 12, has done just that. She says that her and her father watch documentary films together on various subjects. This could pay off as most kids are busy playing first-person shooter video games, watching TV programs bases on senseless subjects, and sucking down high fructose corn syrup by the gallon.
What bothers this 12 year-old girl the most is what should be bothering us all. “What’s been bothering me is that our government has been borrowing money from private banks and not paying it back”, she stated during an RT interview.
Victoria speaks well for her age, and is likely to become a future leader in my opinion.
When asked if she has any solutions for world economic problems, she replied, “We need to stop borrowing from private banks, and start borrowing from the Bank of Canada at little to no interest.” Really hitting the nail on the head, explaining to the viewers of the broadcast what is really going on behind the curtain, summing it up for the sleeping zombies.
Victoria later went on to say, “What I have discovered is that the banks and governments have colluded to enslave the people of Canada. When a bank gives you a mortgage, which actually means a death pledge or loan. They don’t actually give you money. They click a key on a computer and generate fake money out of thin air”.

Rumors Spark Bank Run, Break-Ins in Brazil

Source: CNBC
Rumors that Brazil’s social security fund called Bolsa Familia was to be cancelled led thousands of people to rush to withdraw money from a Brazilian bank over the weekend.
Customers lined up at ATMs at dozens of bank branches of Caixa Economica Federal, a government-owned bank, which pays the social security subsidy on Saturday and Sunday.
“The bank branches themselves aren’t open on Saturdays. What happened is that once the rumor gained momentum, people flocked down to their local branches to try to withdraw money from the ATMs,” Rafael Carregal, a journalist at Brazil’s main TV network Globo told CNBC.
Brazilian newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported that at five branches in the northeastern city of Sao Luiz and four others in the state of Maranhao, depositors broke into branches. Most of the branches that were affected were in the poorer northeast region of the country.
In all, branches in 12 states were affected as the government tried to quell the rumors.
“Police had to intervene in many states, trying to keep the masses in order. The minister of national development had to make a speech (on Sunday) reassuring the people that nothing was to be changed in their benefits program,” Carregal said.
Read More...

Moody's: US Faces Downgrade Without Budget Deal

U.S. policymakers must address debt loads projected to rise later this decade to avoid a 2013 downgrade, even as the latest budget projections are “credit positive,” according to Moody’s Investors Service.
The U.S. budget deficit will drop to $378 billion in 2015 from a record $1.4 trillion in 2009, according to Congressional Budget Office data. The federal government will post a $642 billion deficit this year, the first time in five years that the shortfall has been less than $1 trillion. Moody’s said Sept. 11 that the U.S.’s top Aaa rating would likely be cut to Aa1 if an agreement on the debt ratio isn’t reached.
“The fact that it showed much lower debt levels going forward, we view as a positive development,” Steven Hess, senior vice-president at Moody’s and based in New York, said in a telephone interview of the CBO forecast. “More needs to be done on the policy front to address this rising debt ratio.”
While projections from the non-partisan budget office forecast the ratio of U.S. debt to gross-domestic-product declining to less than 71 percent by fiscal year 2018, the CBO forecasts the measure will increase “thereafter, pointing to the uncertain long-term outlook if reform of entitlement programs does not take place at some point,” Moody’s said in a report.
Budget Proposals
President Barack Obama sent a $3.8 trillion budget to Congress in April calling for more tax revenue and slower growth for Social Security benefits. The House passed a plan that balances the U.S. budget by fiscal 2023 without raising taxes.
“All of the proposals that are out there, including the budget by the Republicans in the House, and also the administration’s Obama budget that was proposed, all of those show a lower debt ratio in the second half of the decade,” Hess said. “We will wait and see the outcome of all of those negotiations.”
Downgrades don’t necessarily correspond to higher borrowing costs.
Yields on sovereign securities moved in the opposite direction from what ratings suggested in 53 percent of 32 upgrades, downgrades and changes in credit outlook last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg published in December on Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s grades.
Debt Ceiling
S&P, the world’s largest credit rater, cut the U.S. ranking to AA+ from AAA in August 2011, contributing to a global stock-market rout and sending yields on Treasury bonds to record lows rather than driving up rates. Yields on 10-year Treasurys dropped 0.74 percentage point in the seven weeks following the downgrade to a then-record 1.67 percent. The yield stood at 1.97 percent. Moody’s is the second-biggest credit rater.
Political wrangling over raising the U.S. debt limit was among the reasons S&P downgraded the U.S. in 2011. Hess said the debt ceiling will likely be raised to avoid a default.
“It always has been, and we think always will be” increased and default avoided, he said.
The date the nation hits the ceiling on borrowing could be pushed back as far as mid-September to Sept. 30 from a previous estimate of late August to mid-September, Steve Bell, senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said in an interview. The date has moved as changes in tax policy and an economic rebound boost federal revenue.
There are “big differences between the parties still,” Hess said. “On the positive side, the economy is doing a bit better than one might have expected.”
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