Do Council Houses lower the tone?

Poppy9

I lived for the first 18 years of my life on a Council estate that now has one of the worst reputations in the area.

As a child I loved living there. All the mums were SAHM and collected weekly to take us on trips in the school holidays. We went to Butlins to see the fireworks every year, had parties for the POW investiture, Silver Jubliee, Royal Wedding and a street bonfire night with hotdogs. The downside was we were burgled once, attempted burglary twice and windows smashed once. We noticed the area changing, firstly by just one family - Father in prison, daughter ran off with a Gypsey at 15 and son implicated in murder at 16!! Then in moved the family where everyone's name ended in a y. Tracey, Shauny, Cliffy, Suzy we heard called daily.

Enough was enough and my parents bought a house well away from a Council estate - as did nearly all our old neighbours. Those who couldn't afford to move had to endure. I recently drove down my old road (after 20 years away) and was horrified. Garden walls knocked down, gardens overgrown, sofas and mattresses dumped - horrific. I feel they should have a sign on the estate like at Longleat saying - ~Do not get out of the car, do not stop, do not keep your windows open etc~

As regard to the quality of the house - rubbish. Quite spacious but poor layout. Windows were those awful metal frame ones that warped and let in drafts (I remember the annual fixing of draft excluder around all the frames). CH when installed was coal and didn't work properly. Gas CH put in at parents expense. These were better though that the other houses on the estate which were concrete built(?) - about 10 years ago they all had to be knocked down as the concrete had failed and they were in danger of collapse. The residents who had bought their houses though were left to meet the cost of demolition or repair themselves as they should have had a survey done when they purchased.

My MIL lives in an ex LA house which we helped her buy 15 years ago. Hers is a very small estate which is mostly private. Crucially its in top school catchment area. Prices are high for ex LA houses here - about £150k. A house on a very poor estate is less than £50k. If my MIL house was a mile down the road though it would be worth £250k!

I wouldn't buy ex LA or live too near one after my experience in my locality.

pedders_2

i'm in the process of trying to buy a 3 bed mid terrace, i reckon its probably and ex council house many occupants ago.
Its a steal at the accepted offer price, and its blooming huge!
Yes its true that on currnt and even ex council estates you get your fair share of tenants lowering the tone, but also ven on the posh estates you get the same.
I just hope the survey on what i hope i my house comes back ok. fingers crossed!
:cool:

chloebug

As many people have suggested its the people not the houses. We currently are in the middle of RTB on our council house. We have an above average income but could not afford to buy at todays prices without the discount. We have lived in social housing for 10 years due to my disability. Am i worried about being able to sell the house again....yes because many people are council house snobs (my mum included!!). However not everyone on coucil estates are scum, benefit scroungers etc as is suggested. My husband and i are well educated and have a good income. I previously worked as a housing planner for Devon County Council and council estate snobs will be even more pleased (i don't think!) to know that in the South West from 2008 all developments over 2 houses must consist of a mixture of 50% private and 50% 'affordable' rented and SO homes. This policy has also been adopted by councils in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Kent, Bristol, Manchester and parts of London to name a few.

sportbeth

Pinklepurr wrote:

I looked at a lovely 4 bed detatched house recently for 340K, but when I looked out of the upstairs windows I could see that the garden backed onto what was clearly housing association homes. Each garden was unkempt and strewn with toys and rubbish and that completely put me off. Snobbish? probably - but I am not ashamed to admit it. The house is still unsold 2 months later and probably for the same reasons as I rejected it for.

We recently spent £300k on a lovely house in a peaceful, desirable location where we don't hear a sniff out of the neighbours and the kids are all very polite, even to the point of hopping off their bicycles and standing patiently to let me past when I was on a narrow part of the road the other day.

A mile down the road on my way to the station I walk past a number of council houses . Some are beautifully kept, others have washing machines, fridges and rubbish dumped in the road outside, there are two dumped delapidated cars in the drive and the other day at 7:30am I witnessed a shocking screaming match coming from a house that ended up in the front drive.

When I got off the train the other night at 7pm there were 4 hooded kids sitting on the train platform. One Vicky pollard lookalike sneered at me and then spat on the ground as I walked past her.

I could live in that place a mile away for £75,000 less. I'd rather not. We're talking about a place where my OH doesn't want me walking alone at night.

TNG

We bought our house in 93. EA said 'I have to tell you that it is ex LA'.
'And?' we asked.
'Some people are a bit funny about it, that's all'

We live in a beautiful cottage style house that was built for returning WW1 soldiers (Hero's Houses) and it was an absolute bargain. God bless snobbery!

whambamboo

chloebug wrote:

As many people have suggested its the people not the houses. We currently are in the middle of RTB on our council house. We have an above average income but could not afford to buy at todays prices without the discount. We have lived in social housing for 10 years due to my disability. Am i worried about being able to sell the house again....yes because many people are council house snobs (my mum included!!). However not everyone on coucil estates are scum, benefit scroungers etc as is suggested. My husband and i are well educated and have a good income. I previously worked as a housing planner for Devon County Council and council estate snobs will be even more pleased (i don't think!) to know that in the South West from 2008 all developments over 2 houses must consist of a mixture of 50% private and 50% 'affordable' rented and SO homes. This policy has also been adopted by councils in Staffordshire, Shropshire, Kent, Bristol, Manchester and parts of London to name a few.

'Affordable' homes are fine, as usually they are just being rented out to low-paid public sector workers: i.e. nurses, police, the kind of people you would be happy to have as neighbours. The problem is when they are given to non-working council scum.

barnaby-bear

whambamboo wrote:

low-paid public sector workers: i.e. nurses, police

!!!!!!! policemen and nurses are damn well paid - why the hell am I subsidising them in "key-worker" housing

clutton_2

policemen get huge salaries !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mrs_pbradley936

Nurses don't. Lots of nurses cannot even get a job, same for young doctors. All to do with NHS budgeting. My neighbour's daughter has just quailified and is currently working in Tesco because no NHS jobs available.

barnaby-bear

pbradley936 wrote:

Nurses don't. Lots of nurses cannot even get a job, same for young doctors. All to do with NHS budgeting. My neighbour's daughter has just quailified and is currently working in Tesco because no NHS jobs available.

Compared to most people they do - higher than average - plus lots of overtime, subsisdised health clubs/gyms/canteens, fantastic pensions...
is working in Tescos - not a nurse bit like saying I'm not a lecturer (although qualified) and therefore not well paid as a lecturer, as she's not a nurse not eligible for the subsidised housing either.