THE recent success of Operation Sandpiper in which 100 benefit claims have been withdrawn needs to be put into a proper context. Savings to the taxpayer, whilst to be applauded, vary according to which newspaper report one reads. Is it £2,500 or £250,000? It would seem that in order to justify the cost of the operation, in which thousands of letters have been delivered to hundreds of homes in the West End of Morecambe, an extra nought has been added during the course of a week. Coincidentally, a similar operation in the west end of Newcastle has saved the taxpayer £250,000. Operation Wilt, however, was directed against unscrupulous landlords rather than unsuspecting tenants and those vulnerable homeless upon whom the crooked landlords prey mercilessly.
This gives decent landlords a bad name. Is it, therefore, beyond the bounds of probability, for the system of registration to be extended to those landlords who neglect their tenants? This particularly applies to absentee landlords of whom we read about so vividly earlier. If the profit from rents is not being reinvested in Morecambe, then suitable financial penalties should be visited upon the agents of these absent friends. Perhaps then the West End might be liberated from unnecessary mayhem.
Peter Robinson
Westminster Road
Morecambe
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