How good is your council...

lemonjelly

robin_banks wrote: »

It's a highly controversial, but probably sensible in the long run, for the very reasons you state.

I was at a housing conference where a director of a large HA advocated that in certain cases paying tenants up to £50k to surrender a tenancy was cost effective.

Wow! £50k!:eek: Round here I'd feel that was too high, but I can see the point. There are so many additional benefits in freeing up additional properties within the social housing chain.

I can see why it is controversial, as these people may have lived in these homes for 30+ years. They see it as their home, & therefore their right to stay there (even long after they cannot maintain the property.) Indeed, many will stay as long as they can, as they are aware they can then use the 3 bed house as a bargaining tool to get a highly valued bungalow in the area/street they want.

robin_banks wrote: »

Generally they don't tend to be popular with older folk.

Quite. Expectations now are bordering on the excessive. Developers do seem to be focussing on 2 level sheltered complexes though, some of which, if well designed are quite nice. However you can have major issues with people who don't want to be on the 1st floor.

Mr_Matey wrote: »

Crazy. It's not their home, it's the state's. This is a welfare benefit.

The state should have the right to reassess their needs should their situation change, and should be able to evict and rehouse people accordingly.

Just as you have to inform unemployment benefits if you get a job, you should have to inform the HA if your situation changes. You should go to the head of the queue to be rehoused if you're to be downsized, and some grievance time allowed if someone has died.

Thing is, after living there for 30+ years, they do see it as their home. They will have invested in it, maintained it, decorated it, even carried out improvements. Their children were conceived there, born there, grew up there etc.

lemonjelly

Another one. The area I worked had a lot of nice looking bungalows, built in the 40's/50's/60's. Problem is, they're 50-60 yards away from the kerb. Policy states that you can only let a bungalow to a person with mobility issues. However, how are they supposed to get from the car to the bloomin front door when they're that far apart?

robin_banks

lemonjelly wrote: »

Wow! £50k!:eek: Round here I'd feel that was too high, but I can see the point. There are so many additional benefits in freeing up additional properties within the social housing chain.

Inner London and 3 bed properties, which there is an almighty shortage of.

But you're right it's not just a private house buy where 'chains' exist.

lemonjelly

robin_banks wrote: »

Inner London and 3 bed properties, which there is an almighty shortage of.

But you're right it's not just a private house buy where 'chains' exist.

I assume you work in the field. Financial incentives to get people to downsize in social housing does stick in the throat a bit. There would be all sorts of other issues too (eg how the payment would affect benefit entitlement for example). From experience, something has to be done to get folks to downsize. Aside from the financial incentives, are there any other viable options?

robin_banks

lemonjelly wrote: »

I assume you work in the field. Financial incentives to get people to downsize in social housing does stick in the throat a bit. There would be all sorts of other issues too (eg how the payment would affect benefit entitlement for example). From experience, something has to be done to get folks to downsize. Aside from the financial incentives, are there any other viable options?

You're right, I work for a HA.

Where possible help with partition walls creating extra bedrooms could be an option.

leveller2911

robin_banks wrote: »

You're right, I work for a HA.

Where possible help with partition walls creating extra bedrooms could be an option.

We are HA tenants, one family 5 doors down had a baby boy(already have 2 girls) in a 2 bedroom house.They didn't want to move so they asked the HA if they could partition one of the bedrooms.Permission was given and the work was carried out.

Before work commenced (by the tenant)I pointed out that the little boy would have a bedroom 8 feet long by 5 feet wide with NO WINDOW, no escape route in case of fire .The tenant said "Its the HA problem , they granted permission"....... I said "What would you do if there was a fire?"

He said "Sue the HA".............

The housing Association is Sanctuary Hereward...........The problem is housing officers are making decisions on subjects they are not qualified to do......Totally shocking really.Lives will be put at risk if this policy continues.......

vivatifosi

The Local Authority where I live actually did quite well on the charts, being in the top quartile. However my own experience of dealing with them on behalf of the local homeless was appalling (while looking for emergency shelter in terrible weather they questioned why rough sleepers didn't have mobile phones to contact them, answer from rough sleeper "where the f*ck do you expect me to plug it in"). Statistics, while shocking, can hide a multitude of sins.

dizzyblonde82

Thanks for the link was really interesting to see that the local council are building 30 new homes a year but really need to be building 600! Me and my husband were very fortunate with getting a house through the local housing association considering we only waited 18 months and it will take them 15.8 years to clear the current list.

Not really surprised that our LA was ranked 302 out of 322.

markharding557

Stoke on trent city council:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

nickmason

vivatifosi wrote: »

. Statistics, while shocking, can hide a multitude of sins.

Agreed. Not (primarily) in order to defend North Dorset District Council, but you might find this interesting, the response from our portfolio holder to the relatively low ranking given to North Dorset:

Cllr Graham Carr-Jones, portfolio holder for affordable housing at North Dorset District Council, said: “League tables like this from Shelter are not helpful in delivering affordable housing. North Dorset District Council has a programme of 700 affordable homes with planning permission and funding to be delivered over the next 5 years. It has this programme because Councillors have made affordable housing their number one priority and committed resources to it.

“Local councils in Dorset are not housing providers and do not deliver houses. We can only secure them, generally, through the planning system. Delivery is dependent on the market – if market housing is being built then we can negotiate for some affordable housing. We cannot control market activity.”

Dorset districts and boroughs score low in the league table because of well-known problems across the county – the environmental constraints (world heritage Jurassic Coast, areas of outstanding natural beauty, heathlands, sites of special scientific interest etc) and the high house prices resulting from in-migration. This means we have limited land on which to build houses but a higher demand from local people priced out of the market.

According to Shelter, councils at the bottom of the league are there because they aren’t working hard enough or giving sufficient priority to affordable housing. The truth is many councils in Dorset have the greatest demand (because of high house prices, low wages and in-migration) but least opportunity to meet that demand.

Cllr Carr-Jones added: “Another interesting aspect of Shelter’s league table is that it tells you how long, in theory, it would take to clear the waiting list. If you lived in South Norfolk, which is top of the league, it would take 7.74 years to clear the waiting list, whereas in North Dorset it would only take 4.76 years.”

Figures to clear the waiting list in other Dorset districts are:

East Dorset[FONT=&quot] [/FONT] 19 years



Christchurch[FONT=&quot] [/FONT] 15 years

Weymouth & Portland 14 years

Purbeck 11 years
West Dorset[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]7 years
North Dorset 4.76 years

You will get housed more quickly in North Dorset!