[Bluey]

Nigerian woman bought a baby for £150 to qualify for a council house in Britain

A housing support worker, who smuggled a baby from Nigeria in a "callous" bid to get a free flat, was jailed for 26 months today.

Sandberg's five-day trial heard that in May, 2006, she had been renting a private property in Twyford Avenue, Acton, when a combination of rent arrears and disputes with neighbours forced her to leave.

She contacted the local council for help only for them to decided she had made herself "intentionally homeless".

Officials explained, however, they could provide temporary accommodation, but only because she had a 12-year-old daughter.

Sometime later police and social services learnt the young girl had returned to her father in Sweden, and told Sandberg she faced eviction.

Shortly afterwards the defendant bought return tickets to Nigeria for herself and the child, returning weeks later with the little boy.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=566751&in_page_id=1770&ct=5

[Bluey]

1 million more on housing waiting list

One million more people in England could be on the waiting list for social housing within two years, council leaders are warning - estimates are that one in 10 people in England and Wales could be on the waiting list for social housing by 2010.

According to a study for the Local Government Association (LGA), a lobby group for English and Welsh local authorities, this was possibly the highest total on the social housing waiting list since the 1940s, when a country ravaged by the bombing campaigns of World War II embarked on a comprehensive urban reconstruction

About 4m people are now waiting for a council or housing association home, and the Local Government Association expects this to reach 5m by 2010.

Factors driving demand include high house prices, the credit crunch, and fewer new homes being built, it says.

Ministers say they want to build 70,000 affordable homes each year by 2011.

This would include 45,000 social homes for rent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7403896.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7520680

[frannor]

the local council in my area are using all their 3 to 4 bedroomed houses as half buy, half rent. this is forcing people who are on the waiting list to consider this option of housing as if the waited for a council house to rent we are being told to wait upto 5years. with the financial problems getting bigger, why are the council putting more people in debt that they know the cant afford to repay without problems.