Council tenants with too much room forced into smaller properties

bendix

silvercar wrote: »

So who gets the bigger properties, existing council tenants who are technically over occupied or those on the council waiting list?

illegal immigrants with 14 kids, 8 aunts and four cousin Farooks from Somalia.

ninky_2

bendix wrote: »

illegal immigrants with 14 kids, 8 aunts and four cousin Farooks from Somalia.

illegal immigrants do not get council houses.....next!

carolt

ninky wrote: »

According to official figures, a total of 234,000 households in the social tenant sector are overcrowded while 456,000 are under-occupied, meaning people have more than one extra spare room.
A further 1,159,000 households have more rooms than is standard for a family of their size.

isn't that crazy when there are people in the private rental sector having to use the 'lounge' as an extra bedroom to reduce the rent by having more sharers?

I suppose that huge number of under-occupied properties reflects the fact that many council tenants got their tenancies donkeys years ago when council properties were plentiful, and are therefore now older, with children who've moved out.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on how many in the privately rented sector are overcrowded.

But of course no-one cares less about that.

ninky_2

carolt wrote: »

It would be interesting to see the statistics on how many in the privately rented sector are overcrowded.

But of course no-one cares less about that.

all the private rental accommodation i lived in in the past would have been considered overcrowded since we used the sitting rooms as bedrooms to make the rent affordable. as a couple we lived in studio flats (tiny ones at that!) which is considered 'overcrowding'.

silvercar

carolt wrote: »

I suppose that huge number of under-occupied properties reflects the fact that many council tenants got their tenancies donkeys years ago when council properties were plentiful, and are therefore now older, with children who've moved out.

It would be interesting to see the statistics on how many in the privately rented sector are overcrowded.

But of course no-one cares less about that.

Those whose rent is paid by LHA/ HB won't be overcrowded as it gives enough to pay the average rent in the area...at the moment. Its those that choose to rent in the private sector and pay their own rent from income that could be overcrowded. I don't know what percentage of households they are.

bendix

ninky wrote: »

illegal immigrants do not get council houses.....next!

LOL . . .

You hippy dippy liberal do-gooders have no sense of irony.

Gorgeous_George

One answer is to build more council houses in sizes that people want/need. Another is to make properties more flexible - movable walls/doors would enable single parents to have a home with 3 or 4 x single bedrooms for example but the same house could be reconfigured for two double bedrooms or one double and two singles etc..

Unfortunately, decades of council tenants disrespecting their properties and failing to pay the rent gave Maggie the excuse that she needed to go ahead with her social engineering (gerrymandering) agenda.

GG

sjaypink

ninky wrote: »

....... as a couple we lived in studio flats (tiny ones at that!) which is considered 'overcrowding'.

No, its not. ........Next!

Malcolm.

sjaypink wrote: »

No, its not. ........Next!

You made me laugh.

Shakethedisease

One answer is to build more council houses in sizes that people want/need. Another is to make properties more flexible - movable walls/doors would enable single parents to have a home with 3 or 4 x single bedrooms for example but the same house could be reconfigured for two double bedrooms or one double and two singles etc..

Oh goodness no ! There are more than enough 'executive' and 'luxury' 1/2 bed 'flats' that have been conjured up through ruthlessly 'carving them up' ( lovely victorian houses etc).. cos they make more money in rental see ? It's pained me to see what people do to proper houses and gardens in the name of an 'investment vehicle'. Lets not do it to old council houses as well eh ?

Unfortunately, decades of council tenants disrespecting their properties and failing to pay the rent gave Maggie the excuse that she needed to go ahead with her social engineering (gerrymandering) agenda.

Nah.. they just bought them at an eye-wateringly huge discount, and continued doing what they liked. Then sold them on 5 years later for 70 grand more than they paid to an eager BTL investor on self-cert. The average bought price historically on my street is about £30k, they were all council housing 20 years ago. Most 3 bed semi's with large garden's. There have been 7 sales in the last 5 years. All above £100,000.

Oh lets face it. There's a bit of a volcano building up here. Little or no social housing, private rental rates being cut 20% ( to the bottom 30% local average).. and underoccupied social housing tenants between 18 and 65 being 'encouraged' to leave..

Oh and not forgetting mortages being harder to get, big deposits needed, further unemployment in the offing and once you've been unemployed for 12 months.. another 10% cut in housing benefits/lha...

Where the bleep are they all going to go ?

There will be a mass of private housing up for sale with ever decreasing numbers those who can afford to buy, a mass of private rentals with ever decreasing numbers who can afford to rent them.. and those in underoccupied social housing being made to 'leave' ( by law ?)...
The housing market is going to be sloooooooow ( yet the average of 100 'sold prices' eg will still dictate in the media that the market is 'bouyant' or 'soaring' ). Rentals are going be in complete chaos next year. Some landlords will take the hit, some won't, or can't afford to. It'll be one BIG mess.. and a LOT of families at the bottom of the pile, yes, those that work too,.. will have no chance of social housing, and no chance of private housing..will have nowhere to go ?

It's been a crisis just waiting to happen for years IMHO. The coalition policies are well intentioned.. but, they've been far too hard and far too fast. They ( and the media) have bought in, just a little too much to those few families getting rent paid in plush pads in Kensington... and not enough to the hosptial cleaner and her disabled husband in a bedsit costing 3/4's of her wages, even with an LHA top-up, a few miles away.