Tories ‘Peoples Crisis’

 

Is your housing provider preparing to put your rent up just in case?

Don’t bother to listen to Putin's nuclear threats, with current predictions from consultancy Auxilione that the energy price cap will move upwards from its current massively inflated £1,971 caused through an ignorant Government in power and no interest whatsoever in anything but money grabbing, to an eye watering £6,089 in April 2023 in order to claw back the triple lock pension rises from millions of elderly people. When coupled with the Howarth Housing Groups predictions that 6M people will become homeless this winter Putin doesn’t need to spend a ruble or leave his warm rooms in the Kremlin to see doomsday roll out across England.

The ‘People Crisis’ caused by factors that the Government seems to change on a regular and ongoing business is instigating huge concerns among families and pensioners who, because of demographics, area history, offshoring of manual and manufacturing jobs to maximise profit, the need to have low cost labour to call on when required and lack of investment in travel corridors for goods and services: People find themselves in an unenviable position now that uncontrolled inflation is stripping them of their dignity.

As cashflow dries up in households through the incompetence of the Governement of the day, comments that haven't been heard by us here at ‘Murky’ for at least three decades have risen from the grave are being repeated openly, particularly the sniping about Council tenants and how those who have or are purchasing their homes struggle while Council tenants live off their backs and spend the Council Tax they have to pay.

We know how ignorant those statements are but we aren’t aren’t sure if tenants are aware that isn’t true but it hasn’t been true since 1985 when the then Housing Act created ring fenced Housing Revenue Accounts to ensure Council’s couldn't spend the rents accrued from tenants and those accounts work both ways as the housing revenue account must be self sufficient that self sufficiency was locked in through the 2011 localism bill.

The separate account was tested in Northumberland in the winter of 1985 when many homes across the County were still heated with solid fuel, a severe frost caught the County during the Christmas period. With lots of people staying with relatives, burst pipes were unbelievably numerous and the damage to homes was catastrophic and took some months to correct, stressing the housing revenue accounts to the hilt. At that time housing authorities could still borrow through their Council’s and repayments were staged to ensure the Housing Revenue Accounts could cope and they eventually recovered.

The doomsday scenario predicted by experts, ‘Energy Caps’ tripling and companies selling in that industry instead of making £16M profit a second as they do today will boost cash for their shareholders upwards of £48M a second with no sign of a tulipmania' speculative bubble burst as energy stock is held for a long time and carpetbaggers don’t get the opportunity to step over the threshold very often, they are already locked in to this industry.

So we here at Murky need to ask, with Northumberland County Council being borrowed up the hilt, taking on massive debt this year to stretch capital cash acquired to a mind boggling £1Bn+, do they still have enough scope or is the right word ‘gap’ in their accounts to assist its Council housing tenants with its prudential borrowing needs* when their tenants are forced to turn off their heating in order to eat and ‘Jack Frost’ himself begins to knock on Northumberland’s Council house doors?.

Prudential =

*Cost effective, practical, efficient, prudent, best value

Of course we almost forgot, that Northumberland County Council hasn’t achieved Best Value on behalf of its residents since 2017.