So the high-earning techies of San Francisco are forcing up rents and pushing low earners out of their homes and their city (Report, 2 July)? Well, it’s about to happen here, and it will be government-induced. From next year, London council tenants with households earning £40k or more will be subject to market rates, having to pay an additional 15p in rent per week for every pound of income above £40k (£31k outside London). Some face rent increases of 350%. Tenancies will be fixed at a maximum of 10 years, and councils will have to pay a yearly levy on the value of their council housing, forcing them to sell properties; Camden will have to sell up to 300 per year to meet the cost. Zoe Williams forecast this travesty in these pages a year ago, since when there has been little media or political empathy; many Labour MPs limply abstained from any opposition to the housing bill. It would seem that we have our own high-earning empathy in this city, silently welcoming in George Osborne’s latest onslaught of social cleansing. Well, at least corporation tax is about to be cut from 20% to 15% for those poor suffering and hard-done-to companies, who can now move in and push up the rents.
Douglas Moffat
London
Government-mandated rent rises of 350% will lead to social cleansing
