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No-one who watches TV News could have missed the intrepid Housing and Immigration Ministers in Ealing going on raids of ‘beds in sheds’, outbuildings being used illegally as accommodation.
On the same day they published guidance on dealing with rogue landlords.
The issue of rogue landlords is a serious one that we have drawn attention to on many occasions.  ‘Beds in Sheds’ is just one manifestation of the problem of landlords exploiting poor and vulnerable people by providing substandard or hazardous accommodation. 

By Cllr Marc Francis, Tower Hamlets Labour Party
Nowhere did the last Labour Government’s stock transfer policy arouse more controversy than in Tower Hamlets.  The East End is the birth place of council housing and tenants understandably have a strong emotional attachment to it.  Many of the individual estate transfer ballots were won, but others were lost.  And in 2007, Labour councillors decided to set up an Arms Length Management Organisation for our remaining estates.

A reported sighting of a new house being built in Essex set off a frenzied search, a torrent of rumours, and a string of features on the BBC news.
Photoshopped pictures that have been traced back to the Campaign for the Protection of Rich bits of England caused panic across the Shires as millions of people began to believe that new houses were popping up in almost every field.

When Grant Shapps comments that a new report is the ‘blueprint’ for the future it should raise suspicions.  And when the Telegraph reports that the Housing Minister has said that rules forcing property developments to include cheap housing for the poor should be relaxed, it should raise hackles as well.
Sir Adrian Montague’s review of the barriers to institutional investment in private rented homes, published yesterday, highlights the potential for large scale build-to-let developments. 

Today’s Policy Exchange report advocating the sale of social housing in valuable areas so that more homes can be built in poorer areas is a boring old retread but of course got lots of coverage.
‘Blindingly obvious’ said Grant Shapps ominously.
The BBC focused on Notting Hill and its wonderfully mixed community – so mixed, open and tolerant they even allow David Cameron to live there. 

Monimbo
Conservative Home, the Tories’ blog with its own local government section, has been getting into a froth about councils’ failure to follow government advice on allocations.  In particular, they object to councils not favouring ex-members of the armed forces and other categories of applicant like people who are in work or ‘volunteering’.  These changes, readers will recall, were a result of the Localism Act, which gave councils more discretion over issues like who goes on their waiting list and how allocations are made.

The growth in the mobile homes sector over the past few years is a reflection of the pressure in the housing market.  Many residents like the lifestyle that comes with it and the normally rural or seaside location.  For people who are priced out of buying in the housing market, a mobile home can represent an affordable option better than paying rent.

The contrast between the euphoria of the Olympics and the riots that were in full swing exactly one year ago could not be greater.  It’s hard to believe this is the same London and the same Britain.