Commissioner for Social Housing Residents

The Councils or Commissioners office if it happens, need to do a thorough AUDIT on social housing properties.

There is a corrupted issue that needs to be addressed:
It has become apparent that many social housing residents are illegally subletting their dwellings , either cash to illegal immigrants or peddling them on rental internet platforms for flats, rooms etc.

Many people genuinely in need of social housing are left out , as properties have been given to others who make a business out of it hoping they will not be found out. They should be found out and taken out of these properties who should them be given to other applicants

While broadly positive, my main concerns with the proposals are:

- How many affordable homes are planned to be built, and what is the baseline for "affordable"? I would hope it would be accessible to the 70% of Londoners who earn less than £30k, especially as a substantial amount can only afford properties with the aid of housing benefit, and those who have dependents also have to ensure they have money for childcare and/or carers.

- Also it's worrying if land ownership will go to developers rather than councils. It may prioritise profit over accessibility, as developers are running a business, not a public service.

- I feel the most important thing is to give residents a loud voice in this matter. It would be good if a small group of residents with housing know-how had a seat at the table when the proposals for the change in housing policy are finialised.

I was born in London
I joined the social housing register at the age of 16,27 years later I signed my first social housing tenancy.
So far all my adult life I am lucky to have been in paid employment this is down to me working hard.

Having had this social housing tenancy for five years now. I have reported to my social housing landlord within these five years. That mortar continues to fall off the roof of my home. My social housing landlord had put the plumbing for the washing machine in what was the old outside toilet every time I need to use the washing machine I have to get address go out into the outside garden and then open the door to what was the old outside toilet in order to use the washing machine. The kitchen is not fit for purpose; only one person can be in the kitchen at any one time, there is no food preparation workspace. When I try to open the door to the oven the oven door hits the base unit to the kitchen sink that is opposite to the oven/cooker. So the oven door cannot open safely, I have to lean sideways to take hot food out of the oven

If I hadn't taken this property as seen I was told in writing that I would loose my housing priority. All I want is for my landlord to address these issues. My housing provider just seems to drag tenants through complaints procedures stage1, stage 2 and so on just trying to wear tenants down, hopping us social housing tenants just given up and shut up.

Yes their needs to by some sort of social housing commissioning body/panel made up of people that have lived in social housing and that is independent of Government and Social housing providers.

If the lead person of this is a social tenant her/himself with relevant expertise, and there are plenty of other diverse tenants paid to contribute, and it is not another layer of comfortably-waged people kindly patronising the plebs with hideous engagement exercises, it is good.

This is just one more example of Sadiq trying to blame other people and create an impression of doing something for Londoners whilst actually doing nothing.
It is time our mayor got out from behind his desk, made his own decisions and actually did something useful. you cannot spend a full term in office trying to criticize central government and develop a position as an official opposition figure.

AS I was recently reminded, the purpose of social housing was to create properties that were available to ordinary working people at a controlled rent so that people could go to work and live in their own homes without being exploited by unscrupulous landlords. They would also have the dignity of not having to claim housing benefit in order to live. It also meant that ordinary people were protected from the consequences of unrestricted and uncontrolled market forces and were given a buffer against the kind of profiteering that is only too evident today in residential housing.
There is a clear need for someone to be accountable at the highest level particularly when social housing is under attack from central government policy. It is unsupportable that social housing rents should be in any way linked to the volatile and fictitious figure of "market rents" and should instead reamain linked to the salaries of the lowest paid workers who are those who are most likely to need them. People shouldn't have to become financial slaves just to have a roof over their heads.
There needs to be REAL affordability and not this current mockery of a system which has so distorted the word "affordable".

An independent Commissioner for Social Housing Residents! Another title another salary and I suspect they will have no power and will be ignored when policy is being developed. They would need to have some form of power to be able to do any good.

There is a large office block on the North Circular road that has been empty for at least fifteen years why can't this be knocked down and flats built? You could get a lot of properties on that footprint and house a lot of people but it seems it better to leave it empty and let it get vandalised.
There should be some sort of process that if any properties( both residential and commercial) have been empty for a considerable amount of time then they local authority should have the power to compulsory purchase and convert it to social or affordable housing

A Commissioner for Social Housing would be good but to be effective he would need to be supported by legislation and a large back-up team of qualified people to be able to enforce his decisions.
The biggest problem today is the Conservative Party mistakenly think that market forces will resolve the housing problem.
The Government must change their policies to actually help the community to resolve the Housing problem.
I believe that that Estate Agents should not be involved in letting residential properties unless they sign up to a code of practice.
I believe that all Houses and Flats to be let out should have minimum square footage sizes, and which must include a separate kitchen, bathroom, toilet and living room and be for a prior agreed number of residents.
All properties to be rented out must be licensed by the Local Council for a reasonable Licence fee. The Fee must include an inspection by Surveyors appointed to ensure to properties do not have any damp, all the electrics and gas are of a safe standard and the owners have bought an approved Property Maintenance Insurance Bond which is registered with the Local Authority.
All properties that do not meet the terms of the Rental licence should be compulsorily purchased by the Local Authority, refurbished to an acceptable standard and let out by the Local Authority as social housing.

i'd love to be able to get a social housing property

i'm disabled, live in an inappropriate property for me needs but cant get what i need especially as i occasionally need a second bedroom for a carer