HOMELESS FAMILIES TO BE KICKED OUT OF LONDON AND SENT AS FAR AWAY AS WALES AS COUNCILS BUY UP CHEAP PROPERTIES TO HOUSE THEM

• Local authorities say sky-high rental costs in the capital, combined with the incoming benefits cap has forced them to send people miles away from home
• Areas as far away as Manchester, Merthr Tydfil and Hull, as well as the Home Counties are all earmarked for families
• 'It is going to be practically impossible to provide affordable accommodation to meet our homelessness duties in London,' Dagenham Council say

By Martin Robinson
PUBLISHED: 12:12 GMT, 5 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:18 GMT, 5 November 2012
Homeless families could be sent hundreds of miles away from the areas of London they hail from because councils are desperately trying to save money. 
As the Government prepares to cap housing benefit allowances at £400 per week from April, local authorities in the capital are buying or renting houses in places like Manchester, Merthr Tydfil and Hull, it has been revealed.
Council bosses say rising rental costs in their areas coupled with Coalition cuts are forcing them to send the homeless to places nowhere near their own neighbourhoods.

Dispossessed: Families from London are being sent all over Britain because their councils will not house them nearby (file picture)

So instead they are acquiring properties in counties around London like Kent, Essex, Sussex and Berkshire as well as much further afield.
But the Government has said clearly that 'as far as is reasonably practicable' they must offer housing in their own area.
This was because it was discovered that Newham Council, one of the Olympic boroughs, had decided to relocate people to Stoke-on-Trent, to the fury of then housing minister Grant Shapps.
But critics have said London councils have no choice.

Angry: Former Housing Minister Grant Shapps was furious when it was revealed that councils were considering sending families across the country

Alison Garnham, chief executive, of the Child Poverty Action Group told the Guardian: 'Families are facing the impossible situation of being told to move to cheaper accommodation that just doesn't exist with London's rising rents. London boroughs are staring at a black hole in their budgets as a result, with costs transferred from central to local government.
'There's still time for government to do the sensible thing and think again when these reforms are debated in parliament before thousands of London's families find themselves uprooted, overcrowded and thrown into turmoil.'
London councils have acquired rental properties in Luton, Northampton, Broxbourne, Gravesend, Dartford, Slough, Windsor, Margate, Hastings, Epping Forest, Thurrock and Basildon in preparation for welfare cuts, the Guardian has found.
'It is going to be practically impossible to provide affordable accommodation to meet our homelessness duties in London,' Ken Jones, director of housing and strategy at Barking and Dagenham council in east London told the paper.
'As the pressures increase we will be looking to procure well out of London, and even out of the home counties.'
One cabinet member for housing in an inner city borough added: 'Let's face it, a lot of people with more than two or three children, and who are dependent on benefits in this borough are not going to be here for very much longer.'

Olympic borough: Newham, the home of the Olympic Park, was accused of trying to send people to Stoke-on-Trent

The 33 London councils were asked if they were already placing people outside of London and more than half said told the Guardian they already were.
But the Coalition insists that councils do not need to do this.
'It is neither acceptable, fair nor necessary for local authorities to place families far away from their area. The law is already clear that local authorities must secure accommodation within their own borough so far as reasonably practicable, and new rules will reinforce this,' a housing spokesman said.
'Our reforms restore fairness to a system that was allowed to spiral out of control under the previous government. It's not right that some families living on benefits should be able to live in areas of London that hard-working families could simply never afford to stay in.'
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