Are DSS people now a protected group?

[vetran]

Well, a high tax on properties that are kept empty as investments would be a start.
Then a ban (or high tax) on foreign ownership - and by “foreign” I mean not tax resident in the UK.

And maybe some long-term thinking from councils, etc, to realise that a council owned property can be a source of income over a longer period of time. (Until someone comes along and sells them off at a fraction of their value to make the numbers up)

We could also free up a lot of property if old folk didn’t live as long (or insist on living on their own, rather than with family or in care homes).
How many properties are single occupancy, or owned by those who pay little or no tax?
It’s interesting (though not surprising) to read back through this thread. Some of the implications are that it’s all the fault of foreigners. All the fault of people on any form of benefits. All the fault of whoever. But most definitely not the fault of rich investors keen to shirk responsibility and humanity in the name of profit, while paying next to no tax.

OK thanks mr Marx

If we are to have a broadly capitalist society so we can't really go round banning everyone owning stuff or forcibly evicting grannies from the family home they bought because they lived too long.

If we build enough houses foreign investors will sell theirs as the prices drop.

We are looking for causes and solutions not blame.

No reason council tax can not be applied aggressively to empty homes and maybe a whole world taxation if you own property here?

Here are some figures
Who lives in the 4.1m social homes in England and Wales? | Housing Network | The Guardian

How many tenants are in work?

Only 8% of social renters are unemployed, similar to the number found in private renting (6%). But in terms of economic activity, the difference in employment status between owner-occupiers with mortgages and social renters is stark.

• 92% of owner-occupiers with mortgages are in employment
• 41% of social renters are employed

But the reasons for the disparity aren’t immediately obvious:

• Half of economically inactive social renters are retired
• The remaining renters are full-time carers, or long-term sick or disabled

How old are they?

People in social housing are considerably older than the people in the private rented sector:

• 28% of social tenants are over 65, compared with 8% of private renters
• Only 25% of social renters are under 45, in contrast to 70% of private tenants
• Five times as many people over the age of 75 rent in the social, rather than private, sector

Are they coupled up or single?

People living in social housing are more likely to live alone, and more likely to be single parents:

• 33% of people in social housing are married or cohabiting, compared to 48% in private lets
• 17% of households in the social sector are headed by lone parents, compared with 14% comprising couples with children
• Five times as many social tenants are widowed as private tenants, reflecting the older age of most council and housing association households

Home ownership and renting in England and Wales – Detailed Characteristics - ONS

Key Points:

• Of the 23.4 million homes (or households) in England and Wales on census day in March 2011, 15 million (64 per cent) were owner occupied and 8.3 million (36 per cent) were rented.
  
• The majority (91 per cent) of owner occupied households lived in a whole house or bungalow, while for those renting, 56 per cent lived in houses while the remaining 44 per cent lived in other accommodation such as flats.
  
• The most common number of bedrooms in a home was three. However, there were twice as many owner occupied households with three or more bedrooms (74 per cent) when compared with rented households (37 per cent).
  
• Overall, two person households were the most common household size across England and Wales. However, looking only at rented accommodation, one person households were more frequent at 38 per cent.
  
• Among owner occupied households containing one person, 90 per cent lived in homes with two or more bedrooms, compared with 49 per cent of one person households in rented homes.
  
• Focusing on the household reference person (HRP) who is the oldest full-time worker in most households or a person chosen from the household based on their age and economic activity status, 76 per cent of those aged 65-74 owned their own homes - the highest across all age groups. The proportion of owner occupiers among those aged 25 to 34 has declined from 58 per cent in 2001 to 40 per cent in 2011.
  
• Looking at the employment status of HRPs, owner occupiers were more likely to be in work than those renting, at 68 per cent and 57 per cent respectively.

So social housing supports considerably more struggling people than private renting. Owner occupiers do tend to have more singles in multi room accommodation. This was before the single occupancy charge really hit so I expect the figures single occupancy with spare bedrooms to be lower in social rents now.

Note a third (8.3 million) of households rent and 3 million of those have housing benefit 4 million are social renters. so roughly 1 in 6 households are subsidised in some way. As tax take goes down and the cost goes up we can afford it less. We need to move to a model where we don't routinely subsidise the poorly paid (and their employers) or those that failed to save for retirement.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47623277