Expelling London's poor
The local council of Newham, east London (the main site of the 2012 Olympic Games), has written to a housing association in Stoke-on-Trent (160 miles away) in an attempt to re-house 500 families. It claims this is due to “overcrowding”, and the difficulty of finding private-rental homes for housing benefit claimants following the Tories’ introduction of a benefits cap. Gill Brown, the chief executive of Brighter Futures, the Stoke housing association approached by Newham, said they would decline the offer and denounced the plan as “social cleansing”. Waltham Forest borough council confirmed...