The Big Issue 4/18/2022

Elon Musk’s big plans for Twitter might yet include turning the social media giant’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter – and it’s got the backing of the man he usurped as the world’s richest. Musk, who is estimated to be worth around £216 billion, revealed earlier this month that he had become Twitter’s biggest individual shareholder when he bought a 9.2 per cent stake in the social media platform, but he later U-turned on plans to join the board. Musk still discussed bringing in big changes. He tweeted a poll asking his 81 million followers whether he should “convert Twitter SF HQ to a homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway”. The idea struck a chord with one of his most high-profile followers. Former world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, worth…

Deathtrap homes that pose “a serious threat to the health and safety of renters” are costing the NHS an estimated £340 million a year, MPs have warned. Around 13 per cent of privately rented properties in England currently cause a threat to health – amounting to 589,000 homes, according to the Public Accounts Committee’s report released last week. In areas like Yorkshire that proportion is as high as 20 per cent, with tenants facing a postcode lottery. “Unsafe conditions, overcrowding, harassment, discrimination and dodgy evictions are still a huge issue in the private rented sector,” said Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “And yet the sector is a growing provider of homes and rents keep rising meaning that safe, suitable housing is too often out of reach for renters.…

A London council has brought the management of more than 4,000 social homes back in-house after a 16-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract ended. Introduced by John Major and championed by Tony Blair, PFI deals were a means of raising cash for capital investments by having private companies front the costs. Islington Council struck a reported £420 million deal with private sector consortium Partners for Improvement in Islington (Partners) in 2006 through the controversial and much-criticised PFI policy. But in 2018 the council indicated it wanted to bring the services back in-house following complaints from tenants and leaseholders, who accused Partners of not carrying out repairs and a lack of accountability. Partners is now managing a smaller portfolio of 2,000 properties until 2033. Islington’s deputy leader and housing chief Cllr Diarmaid Ward told The…

Last week benefits increased by 3.1 per cent. It may look good on paper but in reality it was swallowed up by surging inflation and the cost of living crisis. This stark Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) graph shows what that slight increase means: it’s actually the single biggest cut in the value of basic unemployment payments for 50 years. Benefits have dropped in real terms in eight of the last 10 years. Despite warnings from pretty much every organisation with an interest in poverty, Chancellor Rishi Sunak chose not to act in last month’s spring statement. It is “difficult to comprehend the logic” behind the Chancellor’s choice not to protect the value of benefits, said Peter Matejic, deputy director for evidence and impact at JRF. “The government has chosen to weaken the…

The government has put together a strategy outlining how Britain will boost domestic production, end reliance on Russian gas and move towards cleaner energy. It comes hot on the heels of millions of households being hit by energy bill increases of up to £700 following the raising of the energy price cap. Boris Johnson called it “bold”, but environmental groups have labelled the strategy a failure because it includes no measures for reducing energy demand and insulating homes. So what do we know about the strategy so far, and how will it affect you? Read on for all you need to know. 1 NUCLEAR ENERGY IS THE STAR OF THE SHOW The plan is to ramp up capacity to 24 gigawatts (GW) by 2050. This would represent around 25 per cent of total electricity…

Tackling street homelessness is a complex issue that has a long history of being entwined with police enforcement – but New York mayor Eric Adams’s controversial strategy to dismantle homeless encampments has divided the city. Adams has worked with police to dismantle more than 300 homelessness encampments in the city since taking over from Bill de Blasio on January 1. Speaking of his hardline approach last week, he said, “We are on the wrong road as a city. We have tolerated homelessness, walked past our brothers and sisters who are living in tents on the street, and we’ve normalised it. I can’t help but to believe that if Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were here today, he would be on the streets with me, helping people get out of encampments.” There has been…