Comments on: Give people the power to put an end to cold homes https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/give-people-the-power-to-put-an-end-to-cold-homes/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Mon, 23 Mar 2015 20:02:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 By: Guest https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/give-people-the-power-to-put-an-end-to-cold-homes/#comment-706542 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 20:02:00 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=100561#comment-706542 In reply to Mike Stallard.

Ah yes, prices are not going up fast enough for you, and it’s all too affordable. You want “decent” coal, priced to keep the peons out, and banning all discussion of the science of AGCC which you deny. You’re mega-rich, right, (as you confirm again for the record), and no doubt you took a grant for the insulation anyway.

All this in a discussion of something else entirely – rents.
And it’s Yiddish joke – the term is Chutzpah. You resemble it, for your little diverting rant there.

]]> By: Mike Stallard https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/give-people-the-power-to-put-an-end-to-cold-homes/#comment-706541 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 19:43:00 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=100561#comment-706541 Oh how very caring!
Oh how terribly outpouring and I bet you feel all warm inside.
I am 75.
We have had out house totally insulated, even the roof. We can afford to live (just). I am not (thank you Mr Wolfeson) rich.
What would set my mind at rest is a decent electricity policy, not dependent on windmills which do not work, or solar when there is very little sun. I would welcome some open discussion on climate change too.
Mr Miliband, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg all voted for the idiotic climate change bill. Turning round and blaming Big Oil actually made me laugh at the sheer effrontery; now you are blaming landlords!
You remind me of the Jewish joke: the boy who murdered his mother and father and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he was an orphan.

]]> By: Leon Wolfeson https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/give-people-the-power-to-put-an-end-to-cold-homes/#comment-706489 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 14:47:00 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=100561#comment-706489 “But this can’t all be one way. We can’t give landlords the stick without also introducing a carrot.”

Yes, yes, we can. Rent caps, with the maximum rent reduced for properties with worse than an A. Marginally down to a C, sharply below that. Landlords have made for years, off the back of tenants, and in an age where the poorest people are increasingly unable to afford heating at all…

(And breaching the rent cap willfully should be a *criminal* offence. If it’s inadvertent then a double refund of the excess, with interest…)

]]> By: Gary Scott https://leftfootforward.org/2015/03/give-people-the-power-to-put-an-end-to-cold-homes/#comment-706482 Mon, 23 Mar 2015 13:09:00 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=100561#comment-706482 The private rented sector has, itself, swollen due to the continuing sale of council housing stock to owners and developers. We used to have a large council house sector. They had standards to adhere to and a duty to house. Now we have ‘affordable housing’ that isn’t, privately rented ex council houses now owned by large scale slum landlords who don’t keep the properties in good order. Home ownership is less important than having decent and affordable housing especially in areas where costs are as punitive as London.

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