In the news

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/13/london-council-relocation-benefits-cap

" Camden council plans to move 761 poor families from London
Council says welfare cuts force shift of 2,816 adults and children to areas up to 200 miles away with lower housing rents "

This'll get some hackles raised

I always have mixed feelings about these stories when I am lucky enough to have to pay full price London rent. But the general principle aside, I am curious to know what practical options are there for councils;

• own their own properties so they can charge a reduced rent;
  
• provide huge subsidies to pay private landlords;
  
• ?
  
• ?
  
  
  
  

A Labour government would seek to re-introduce the 10p starting rate of tax scrapped by Gordon Brown in 2008, Ed Miliband has announced in a speech.

Mr Miliband said it was a "very bad mistake" to get rid of it and the move would send a "clear signal" his party was on the "side of working people".

The move, worth about £2 a week for people, would be funded by a "mansion tax" on £2m properties, he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21453444

ugh... fucking mansion tax. What a load of BS. Asides from the fact that I disagree with asset taxes as a point of principle, I have never heard a sensible person put forward the figures for how much this would actually raise, or how you would implemented.