EXCL: The Times Welfare Inquiry goes undercover on the courses promising prospective landlords huge profits by exploiting “desperate” demand to house vulnerable tenants, with @katieotoolee Shaun Davis lives in Dubai, drives a Lamborghini Urus SUV and says that he made £2.5m last year alone. His line of business is housing Britain’s homeless, addicts and domestic abuse victims He now co-runs the High Performance Academy, a mentorship scheme charging up to £6,000 a year for classes on how to build a social housing empire At one session, attended by The Times Welfare Inquiry undercover, his colleague Luigi Newton appeals to prospective entrepreneurs by showing “what property has done for us” — alongside pictures of skyscrapers, expensive meals and white sandy beaches He has just returned from six weeks in Brazil when he explains to his students how he lets his properties out to social housing providers, who care for the tenants and manage the properties. Then they charge the council vast sums and he takes his healthy cut “We’ve got zero management costs and zero management headaches,” Newton says. “They [the council] just pay me every month, and that’s exactly what I want. Hands off. I want to be on the beach sipping cocktails whilst getting paid.” OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SESSION *** One six-bedroom house Davis leases in Wolverhampton would earn him £1,250 from private tenants — but as supported rooms, he says it actually earns him £4,080 *** Davis tells would-be landlords he regrets starting out housing “drug and alcohol tenants”, who he says are a “nightmare” and weren’t “worth it” because of the stress. His “little gem” of advice is to focus on women fleeing domestic abuse. “Here’s the thing, guys: because the domestic violence victim is so grateful for the opportunity. Guess what? They ain’t gonna cause you any issues. They’re gonna keep themselves to themselves. They’re gonna be happy for the opportunity” *** The main appeal - social housing is “a government-backed strategy” that is “recession-proof”. The support of the state makes it both an attractive venture and, critically, low-risk. “It’s not reliant on the economy being strong either,” he said. “So it’s a game-changer for me. I wanted a financially stable strategy, and this is what [social housing] gives me.” *** The government has since said they are “urgently looking into” Erban Homes, the social housing provider in question Full investigation in @thetimes 👇 - The speculators getting rich from the £1.9bn social housing spend thetimes.com/article/7a0dc0d…

I wrote this: geraldcmin6.substack.com/p/i…

Ski Sunday to end after nearly 50 years bbc.in/4gEUIaZ

Trans-identified men in Edinburgh are fortunate enough to be welcome at the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, which was headed for a while by a trans-identified man who believed, and said publicly, that women who wanted a female-only service were bigots. That same rape centre admitted a male as a client because he called himself non-binary. The man was subsequently convicted for rape. Beira’s Place was set up by me to provide women in Edinburgh and the Lothians with the female-only service they were being denied. Internal emails between ERRC staff were revealed during an unrelated court case, which showed them to be angry and dismayed that there was now an alternative service for women. One might have thought, reading those emails, that ERRC staff’s priority was the ideological conversion of rape survivors rather than the provision of a service that traumatised women required to feel safe after rape. Beira’s Place has been exceptionally busy since it opened. We’ve taken on more staff and are currently looking for larger premises. We’ve helped women who’ve admitted that they didn’t want to use the alternative rape centre because of its very loud and public ‘trans women are women’ stance. We are also open to any and all trans-identified women who need support after rape. In short, you’ll be relieved to hear that the trans-identified men for whom you feel such empathy and compassion aren’t losing out. It was biological women who were being shamed for their entirely legitimate desire for a male-free space. Apparently you’d have preferred that situation to continue, but I think you’ll find that most people, whether male or female, will see that as evidence of your cruelty, not mine.