Jenny Pennington

Social policy researcher. Tweets personal, and mainly on housing and homelessness.

[Daniel Hewitt @DanielHewittITV]

NEW: The number of homeless children living in temporary accommodation in England has risen AGAIN to 159,380 - up 15% in a year.

Transient lives in temporary homes, defined by uncertainly, doing untold damage.

It is a scandal. But it’s not new. And it’s not going away.

[Municipal Dreams @MunicipalDreams]

Angela Rayner speaks for millions.

[Aydin Dikerdem @AydinDikerdem]

This is why we do what we do 💖🏘️

[Vicky Spratt @Victoria_Spratt]

The final report from the Grenfell public inquiry is damning. It cites “decades of failure” by the Government and "dishonesty" from cladding manufacturers. This is the story of how the state not only failed to regulate the building industry but actively encouraged deregulation

[Sam Freedman @Samfr]

Wonder if every right wing paper and think-tank demanding constant cuts to administrative spending and slamming Whitehall "fat cats" might have something to do with this?

[Peter Apps @PeteApps]

Ok, a few bits and pieces from the Conservative manifesto on housing. Tl;dr - it's not very exciting, probably don't bother.

First: 1m homes was actually one of two concrete targets in the last manifesto. The other was 300,000 a year by the mid-2020s. Which will be badly missed

[Jack Surfleet @jacksurfleet]

Tuesday's METRO: Tiny kids dying in housing crisis
#TomorrowsPapersToday

[Peter Apps @PeteApps]

There's no more damning indictment of the last 14 years of housing policy (less social housing, tighter welfare, unlimited rent rises, no fault evictions) than this.

Imagine what housing policy would look like if governments saw 'preventing homelessness' as their primary aim...

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

Yes @NoreenMasud! Why have hills, when you can have SKY 💙🤎https://t.co/HQISTYEyEH

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

Its also just unethical. If you cant conclude anything meaningful from the results, youre wasting the time of the people who took part.

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

Its a *research crime*!!!!!!!

[Matt Goodwin @GoodwinMJ]

NEW. "Figures show the rate of net migration in the UK in the year ending June 2023 was 672,000, meaning 672,000 more people came into the country than left. This compares to net migration of 212,000 a decade ago. In your view, is the rate of net migration today:

ALL VOTERS
Too high 56%
About right 12%
Too low 2%
Don’t know 30%

People Polling/Migration Watch
November 23 2023
https://t.co/xawYBQaQAZ

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

I know this isnt an original obs. But it would have been so easy to make this into a good question that would make an interesting/ useful piece of polling.

[Peter Apps @PeteApps]

Remember, the state built social housing, the NHS, the education system and the infrastructure for heating, electricity and much more when it was much poorer. The thing that has changed is ecomomic theory. A democracy should offer the choice to vote for a different one.

[Peter Apps @PeteApps]

You can either:

- Implement rent control
- Rapidly provide social housing
- Allow LHA to rise with private rents

But do none and rents rise above what tenants can pay, the same crisis will emerge again for the same reasons and more people will suffer homeless needlessly

[Big Issue @BigIssue]

Thousands of newly recognised refugees are being evicted into homelessness across the country, an exclusive investigation by The Big Issue has found. 🚨

@GregBarradale reports on the wave of mass homelessness set to impact over 50,00 asylum seekers in the coming weeks.
(🧵1/6)

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

@antoniabance Also https://t.co/4KAldlobSB

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

@ruthpatrick0 @Keir_Starmer @UKLabour It would be so nice to hear a politician just celebrate 'people'! I liked it when he talked about the importance of leisure, as it felt like that came from a spirit of generosity and acknowledgement of humanity. 'Working people' grates against this.

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

Tldr: the government are struggling to cut welfare spending, and/or introduce punitive conditions because the system its already beyond the imagination of a right wing think tank.

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

This happens! Families can be denied access to *homelessness accommodation* after having their bank statements scrutinised - and not for frivolous spending, but just failing to feed their kids on bulk bought lentils.

[Cara Lisette @CaraLisette]

Just seen somebody say women should have their bank statements checked for frivolous spending before being given access to baby formula at a food bank. What a grim population we have become. We’d rather see babies starve than poor people have any semblance of a quality of life.

[Jenny Pennington @PennyJennington]

Our investigation found that the maj of councils provided no training for officers making these decisions, and no guidance on reasonable expenditure. Those that did commonly used figures that bore little relation to actual costs, and that were unsustainable long term.