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Joshua Dansky – is Britain’s worst slum landlord following Rachman‘s business plan 50 years later? The difference is that his is a property empire funded largely through public money that he is paid from housing benefit for the poor, whilst Rachman was a child of free enterprise. Mr Dansky, who has 140 properties in Newcastle alone, has become wealthy by exploiting Britain’s critical shortage of affordable housing. He is just one of many landlords who are receiving up to £3.5bn a year of public money through housing benefits paid to private landlords.

He isn’t losing out by being Britain’s biggest slum landlord – his local authority have employed Castledene (a reputable local landlord) to manage his properties for him. The rents are used to pay his loans and if there is any surplus it is used to repair and refurbish his properties for him.

A good question might be – why is the local authority taking over responsibility for managing Dansky’s properties for him? Why not just serve Statutory Repair Orders? Compel him to repair the property and recover the costs? Why enter into an agreement which allows Dansky to reinvest his equity into property outside the Selective Licensing intended to control his activity?

The answer is of course politics – Housing Benefit is provided from Central Government funds and it is in the Local Authority financial interest to keep the Housing Benefit funds flowing, even if the majority of the payments end up in the bank account of the slum landlord. The scheme is presented as Win-Win – the tenants have their houses repaired at no cost to the tax payer.

I have to say that my own suspicion is that someone somewhere is paying, and we know that it is not the tenant, the local authority, or the landlord ……… might it be you?

Links:

If you don’t wish to watch the TV program with the iPlayer embedded in my blog here is the program on the BBC Panorama site.

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