Council homes for life ‘to be scrapped’

KimYeovil

robin_banks wrote: »

To rent privately is not an option as a 2 bed flat with limited security is over £1000 a month in London (over 50% of my salary) , so what choice does an individual have other than stay in council housing ?

? I'm confused. I'm not in favour of throwing people out but I can not see why you claim a rent of only 50% of your salary is not affordable or you do not have that choice. A ONE bedroom flat costs 80% of my salary and I'm nowhere near London.

moggylover

KimYeovil wrote: »

? I'm confused. I'm not in favour of throwing people out but I can not see why you claim a rent of only 50% of your salary is not affordable or you do not have that choice. A ONE bedroom flat costs 80% of my salary and I'm nowhere near London.

http://www.findaproperty.com/areadetails.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1&areaid=2540

Does that mean that you are on less than minimum wage then KY? As minimum wage for a 40 hour week would be around £230 - or £920/month (although that is before stoppages I admit) and £420 does not add upto 80% of salary, even after stoppages.

carolt

robin_banks wrote: »

Private renting for the majority of poeple is prohibitively expensive especially for family housing, the example I used earlier is a classic example a 2 bed flat rented privately in London is over £1000 a month, based on affordibilty you need to be earning over £30,000 a year before a letting agent will consider you for such a property.

Housing has to be based on affordability, if not more not less money will be spent shunting people in an out of temporary accomodation and B&B's -this costs a fortune by the way, housing a family of 4 in 'temporary accomodation' (love that phrase) for a year in central london costs in the region of £30,000 as councils are hit with the 'double whammy' or paying the owner of the property rent for the building and then paying them housing benefit for the individual as well .

Surely the answer is not to move people out of council or housing associating accomodation but to build more of it ?.

The target for affordable housing nationally is 200,000 less than half of that has been completed, and those that are aren't really that affordable.

Absolutely agree that private rental prices are too high and more councl accommodation should be built - but you can definitely get a rent of cheaper than £1000/month in London!

Where are you looking? NDG rents a 3 bed flat in central London zone 1 for that, I believe - you should be able to get a 2 bed in acceptable bits of zone 3 for somewhat less than that.

robin_banks

TBH that worries me immensely and no letting agent should have offered you a lease, you should have been considered too high a risk.

Only 20% to cover bills, food, travel is simply not sustainable in the long term.

moggylover

neas wrote: »

Do both... double whammy we be knee deep in 50" plasmas by then and we'd all own 5 houses!

And hopefully there would be the kind of social uprising that would result in your ilk being sent to the guillotine:D

moggylover

robin_banks wrote: »

TBH that worries me immensely and no letting agent should have offered you a lease, you should have been considered too high a risk.

Only 20% to cover bills, food, travel is simply not sustainable in the long term.

I shouldn't worry to much RB - I suspect her 80% may be a bit of an exaggeration unless she is a student or working very short hours;)

carolt

I think forcing people already in council accommodation to pay more would if they can afford it would heavily mediate against people getting jobs - agree with previous poster re this.

But the simple way, surely, is to put 'being in work' as a priority when getting council accomodation - currently, there is no incentive for those in council housing to get a job, as their rent is paid anyway, and they only stand to lose housing enefit if they earn too much.

Those who don't work should come bottom of the list for council accommodation.

Also, I foresee, sadly, a massive increase in teenage pregnancies just prior to whenever this is implemented, to get them a place quick.

Unless the previous poster is correct and it is all just spin. Quite possible.

bubblesmoney

all intermediaries (like housing associations / govt / councils / shared housing) do is to artificially inflate house prices by buying them at higher prices and increase demand and then add their administration costs +/- profits and then let the same house to tenants who because of the artificially inflated prices are unable to buy places of their own.

if how ever the market was allowed to price itself then prices would come down to more sensible levels based on affordability of the local population.

if the govt was not encouraging councils to buy up the new builds glutting the market presently at inflated prices then the prices would crash a lot more to more affordable levels and people who opt for shared housing would actually be able to buy the same houses for sensible prices without the need for any shared equity scheme

the only people who benefit from shared equity schemes are the developers who sell the land at inflated prices to councils and the individuals who buy the otherhouses for full price get shafted in the bargain and so do the ones who get the same house under shared equity and get to own a portion of the property which if not for the presence of such schemes they very well might have been able to own in full for a similar amount of money they paid for part ownership.

also people dont look after a property well if they dont own a property and rent. just ask howmany people who rent properties which have dishwashers builtin or provided by the landlord and ask them how many actually topup the salt compartment. tenants just dump a dishwashing tablet even if the extra salt costs only a few pennies. later when the machine gets spoilt the owner gets the bill. however the same tenants would use the same machine with more care if they owned the house. i myself know quite a few tenants who dont bother filling in the salt compartment in dishwashers and openly say its the landlords problem if it gets spoilt but the same people do say that when they buy their own then they will buy the salt. there is no lack of such cheapos who have no civic sense as long as they dont have to spend a few pennies more

robin_banks

Also, I foresee, sadly, a massive increase in teenage pregnancies just prior to whenever this is implemented, to get them a place quick.

---

This is increasingly not the case, a pregnancy may get you priority and you may get a flat just in time for when the child starts at a comprehensive - I kid you not when I say an individual may have to wait 10 years.

SingleSue

Not all council tenants claim housing benefit or are out of work....but their salaries may not be enough to actually get a mortgage to afford a property in their area (or even one close by!).

Also a good proportion of HA/council tenants take care of their properties.... we have a keeping up with the Joneses competition on my little estate with landscaped gardens (done by the tenants not companies) etc.