By NEIL SEARS and RYAN KISIEL A single mother with three children has been placed by her local council in a £1.5million mews house. The luxurious three-storey property, in the heart of London's exclusive Kensington, costs an astonishing £1,125 a week to rent - a cost being met by housing benefit, at taxpayers' expense. Appalled neighbours say the house concerned is the biggest on the central yet quiet street. Boston Ivy climbs its walls, and it features a juliet balcony and a large garage. The high life: The £1.5 million, four-bedroom mews house in Kensington, London, that houses a family on benefits News of this luxury home comes shortly after it was revealed that an Afghan woman and her seven children are living at public expense in a £1.2million house in west London. Yet that case and this latest housing scandal in Kensington are both authorised under Government rules which mean landlords are told the maximum a council is prepared to pay for a property even before negotiations begin. And these cases are just two examples of a widespread development, with councils across the country spending tens of thousands every week to rent expensive privately owned homes. Councils are increasingly having to turn to private landlords to house the homeless because of a shortage of suitable council and housing association properties. And soaring private sector rental prices in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea - home to numerous merchant bankers and wealthy foreigners - mean the maximum council rates, under the Government's Local Housing Allowance scheme, go particularly high. Landlords there can be paid up to £365 a week for a one bed flat, £540 for two beds, £795 for three beds, £1,125 for four beds - as in the current case - and a whopping £1,887.50 for a five-bed property. The single mother in the Kensington mews house yesterday slammed her door and refused to discuss her luxury accommodation. But her neighbours were more talkative. Neighbour John Franks, 57, said: 'It's unbelievable that our tax is paying for them to live in that house. 'I'm sure there a lot of other places they could live where the rent is a lot cheaper. 'People who live in this area will probably get quite upset if the council rents out more of these homes because the selling point is its exclusivity.' The seven-bedroom home in Acton, West London, where an Afghan family were placed at a cost of £2,875 a week to taxpayers And Ralph Silva, 40, who works from home as a financial analyst on the same road, said: 'We weren't aware that it was effectively being rented out by the council. 'It's a lot of money to pay to rent a house out for someone and I don't know whether it's money well spent. 'A lot of these houses are owned by Russians and lay vacant for a long time. Perhaps there could be more homes rented out by the council for people.' The £1.5million house concerned is owned by a cosmetic dentist and his wife, George and Sophie Druttman, who are receiving a total yearly rent for it of £58,500. They were reluctant to discuss their deal. But a spokesman for Foxtons estate agents confirmed the property was managed by them, and was one of a number let through London scheme for the homeless called LetStart. A Kensington and Chelsea spokeswoman said: 'The LetStart scheme was developed in 2005/06, and implemented in February 2006, as an option to households assessed as being in priority housing need. 'It operates as a homelessness prevention measure by offering assistance to those needing to access private rented properties as an alternative to being placed in temporary accommodation. 'All of those assisted through the scheme will be recipients of housing benefit.' Housing charity Shelter has questioned whether making huge payments to private landlords to house the homeless was the best use of public money. The charity's deputy director of policy, Caroline Davey, said: 'We are hearing a lot about landlords who are inflating their prices to whatever the maximum local housing allowance is in the area. 'At its best you could see it as a dramatic response to not having enough social housing to go around, but at its worst it is a way of taking people off the housing list and passing them into the private sector and that is an expensive way of getting them off the books. 'I am sure both estate agents and landlords are making a killing out of it.' A spokesman for campaign group Taxpayers' Alliance said: 'Local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions are being careless with taxpayers' money. 'If you publish the maximum rent that landlords can charge they are much more likely to charge those amounts.' Following the revelation of the Afghan family's expensive house in Acton, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced a review of the rents scheme - but it was not clear at that stage how widely it was being taken advantage of. A spokesman for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea last night confirmed that it is paying an astonishing £1,887.50 a week rent in housing benefit for a homeless family to live in a five bedroom flat elsewhere. The spokesman said: 'The maximum that Kensington and Chelsea Council is currently paying in housing benefit entitlement is £1,887.50 per week for any household via the LetStart scheme. 'This is only relevant in one case and relates to a five bedroom flat. 'All rent amounts are set by the Rent Service not by the Council.' Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below? That is what happens when you vote in a government to micromanage every aspect of your lives. - Annie, midwest, USA, 24/10/2008 18:01 Claire, Devon - - S Quinn, Duns, 24/10/2008 17:51
'Homeless' family move into £1.5m house - to help council keep down waiting lists
Last updated at 6:04 PM on 24th October 2008
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House are earned, not a right.
Well said!
Saturday, 25 October 2008
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absolutely rediculous. Amist a recession, we splash out on social housing. Selfish in my opinion. You could house 5 families on the same rent if they are willing to move to a new borough. I doubt it tough, i bet they enjoy the high life on welfare benefit. COME ON PEOPLE, welfare being abused, classic case.
- jake, london, 24/10/2008 18:08