Not content with stealing their savings via inflation and ultra low interest rates, the government now has pensioner's homes in their sights!
Under the guise of the coalition's plans to ease the nation's housing shortage, elderly homeowners will be "encouraged" to downsize to smaller more suitable properties and allow councils to rent their homes to local families.
The housing minister Grant Shapps, said councils should offer to help pensioners move to more suitable accommodation to create space for families.
"Older people who should be enjoying their homes have watched helplessly as their properties have become prisons, and many have been forced to sell their homes and move into residential care." Under the plan local authorities would take over responsibility for maintaining and renting the vacated properties at affordable rates, transferring any profit from the rental income back to the elderly person or their estate.
The Government believes the proposal would provide support for the elderly to move without having to sell their homes.
Make no mistake, the government and councils are not doing elderly homeowners any favours.
Selling will always be the best option and the government could and should make it easier for the elderly to sell their homes by allowing zero
Stamp Duty for everyone over 60 for example.
This is the ridiculous and ill thought out plan any government has come up with and is not in any older homeowner's interest.
If their home has become unsuitable or too large to heat and maintain, why aren't local authorities buying homes from the elderly at current market rates? They can then rent them to who they want at whatever reduced rent they wish to charge.
If anyone fell for this they could find that any "profit" from renting their home at the "reduced rates" would be lost in council administration, management and maintenance fees.
Furthermore any profit would be potentially taxable. It could be difficult to sell the home with sitting tenants and again any rise in value could incur capital gains tax.
It is claimed that 25 million bedrooms in England are empty, mainly because elderly couples do not move out of family homes to smaller properties.
At the same time, it is suggested that young families be increasingly being squeezed into small homes and overcrowded flats as a result of the country's high property prices.
This is due to a shortage of land with planning permission and the cost and charges associated with gaining planning permission.
If more land was available at lower prices, and no
Planning Levies, new homes could be built larger and at a lower density.
A government-backed pilot scheme called "FreeSpace" is being trialed by Redbridge council, in east London.
Under the scheme, the council helps elderly people move into a new property such as sheltered accommodation.
The local authority foots the bill for
moving costs, renovations and financial advice. In return, the council is able to rent the house to families in need and manage that tenancy directly.
A four-bedroom house managed by the council would be rented at a typical rate of £1,300 per month, £300 less than the average market rate for a privately rented home.
Why should the elderly homeowner be expected to subsidise council tenants' rents?
Pensioners who take up the council's offer use the rental income from their former home to pay for their new accommodation.
Reductions in household bills and the income from their former home, it is alleged, could save more than £7,000 a year.
A report from Cambridge University said
"There is also scope for the council to charge a rate of interest on its investment as the margins would allow this." - the scheme could be funded using "social impact bonds", the Coalition's new method for attracting private-sector investment in public projects which provide a social benefit.
It may sound like councils and the government are doing the elderly a favour but they are potentially taking advantage of some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
