Angela Rayner’s ‘authoritarian plot’ to send snoops to Brits’ homes exposed – ‘outrageous’.TA
EXCLUSIVE: The Government has been heavily criticised over the policy as it seeks to meet local housing need.
Angela Rayner was re-appointed to the Cabinet by Andy Burnham (Image: Getty)
Angela Rayner has been slammed over a plot to more easily seize Brits’ empty houses. Labour is giving councils the power to grab properties after six months, down from two years. The home will still be privately owned, but local authorities can take control through an Empty Dwelling Management Order. This allows officials to take over the property’s management and rent it out for up to seven years. In addition, councils will no longer have to show evidence of problems like anti-social behavior.
It is reported that the Government is also weighing up more tweaks designed to make councils more likely to use the powers, such as changes to guard authorities against the costs of taking on empty properties. Conservative MP Esther McVey tore into the plans during the latest episode of our podcast, the Daily Expresso.
She told host Steph Spyro that Labour are subjecting Brits to a mansion tax and an inheritance tax — “they’re taking everything off you”. “The Conservative Party are going to help you get on the ladder, getting rid of the stamp duty, not having the inheritance tax on the home, getting rid of that mansion tax,” Ms McVey added.
“But I think there was one of the worst things that came out at the Labour Party conference, and it sort of went by without people really getting up in arms, and that was Angela Rayner’s policy for the Empty Dwelling Management Order. And I can tell you that that is one of the most outrageous, authoritarian overreaches ever of a British government.
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“It is about confiscating your home. They will take it if they don’t think anybody has been there for six months, and they will keep a hold of it for seven years. They can rent it out, get a new tenant in there. They will take the money from what they need and you might not get anything. They are going to send snoops round to see if your house has been empty.
“They are going to monitor it. They are going to take photographs of it, and they’re going to see about your water and electricity usage. It is absolutely outrageous.”
Ms McVey also said: “Look, people’s lives are messy. People’s lives are complicated. It could be that you’re going through a divorce. It could be that a member of your family has died and handed over a house to you.
“It could be that you thought, ‘Oh, I’ll buy a house from auction. I’ll do it up.’ You fell on hard times. So life is complicated.” She added: “People’s The state should not be taking somebody’s property. It is absolutely outrageous.”
Ms Rayner said in September: “With so many children and families still in need of a safe and secure home, we can’t sit by and allow 300,000 long-term empty dwellings to be left unused. That’s why Labour in power is putting the tools in local leaders’ hands to take over desperately needed derelict homes and put them back into use. We’re reversing the Tories’ damaging changes by supporting councils to intervene and use untapped powers to meet local housing need.
“These changes will ensure councils can intervene earlier to prevent properties from falling into serious disrepair by accelerating their return to use and simplify the process to empower local authorities to act more decisively and with greater speed. But we won’t stop there, and we’ll explore further changes to protect local authorities from absorbing the costs they face in taking over empty homes.”
Andy Burnham is accused of inciting disorder after a record 781 migrants crossed the Channel in one day, while Reform UK warns numbers are accelerating.
Andy Burnham accused of ‘inciting disorder’ over migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has been accused of inciting disorder across the country because of the way his Government is handling the migration crisis.
It comes after his administration suffered its worst day on record, with 781 illegal migrants breaking into the country in unlawful Channel crossings in a single day.
The record-breaking influx also saw two boats arrive on UK shores undetected, sparking fury in Westminster and triggering threats of protests at migrant sites.
Horrendous footage and pictures, seen in Thursday’s Daily Express, also show what appears to be a man abandoning a child in the water so he can climb aboard a crowded dinghy.
Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf warned that numbers were “accelerating” despite Home Office claims that the overall total had reduced.
He told Good Morning Britain that the UK has had “north of 210,000 people turn up on our beaches illegally in the past eight years” and warned “people’s lives are being turned upside down”.
Those comments were in relation to the village of Piddington, which recently hosted a symbolic referendum to leave the UK in protest against the housing of migrants at a nearby base.
Mr Yusuf said residents “are terrified that they are about to be outnumbered 10 to 1 by illegal migrant men”.
Home Office data shows a decline in the number of crossings this year, but critics say the overall figure remains far too high, with an insufficient number of people being sent back to their countries of origin.
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf accuses Andy Burnham of inciting disorder (Image: Getty)
In a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, Mr Yusuf said: “Andy Burnham is inciting disorder in Britain by wielding the state’s monopoly on violence to impose unvetted men from countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Eritrea into local communities.”
He added: “This is unprecedented. I am worried the country is heading to a dark place.”
His remarks refer to footage showing coaches used to transfer migrants from the coast to immigration centres being accompanied by a police escort.
There have been mounting protests by masked men near locations used to hold migrants, though police support for security reasons is not uncommon.
