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The End of Social Housing for Life

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  • vivatifosi
    vivatifosi Posts: 18,746 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! PPI Party Pooper
    I think this is the right move, though as Hamish says, it will take a long time to shake out.

    Rather than seeing this as being families being put out on the street and stupid, as jamespir said, I can see the logic in someone no longer having a large family house. Now people will be able to rent family houses when they need them (subject to availability which is going to continue to be an issue), then have to give that family home back when their children leave. What is wrong with that?
    Please stay safe in the sun and learn the A-E of melanoma: A = asymmetry, B = irregular borders, C= different colours, D= diameter, larger than 6mm, E = evolving, is your mole changing? Most moles are not cancerous, any doubts, please check next time you visit your GP.
  • Triker
    Triker Posts: 7,247 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    The situation could be eased straight away with a requirement that those couples or singles living in their 3 bedroomed council houses (because their children have grown up and moved away) be relocated to more suitable sized council housing. The village where I lived of the 4 council houses, which were huge, 2 were occupied by tenants such as these who flat out refused to budge.

    This is not the time for sentiment, its about practical solutions.
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  • Rikki
    Rikki Posts: 21,625 Forumite
    My concern is ~ you are in a council house your children are settled in the local schools, you come to the end of your two year tenancy and are asked to move out. If you can't afford to rent privately in that area and need to move, how unsettling could that be for the children, especially leaving friends and changing schools. Also it wouldn't allow families to put down roots.
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  • Rikki wrote: »
    My concern is ~ you are in a council house your children are settled in the local schools, you come to the end of your two year tenancy and are asked to move out. If you can't afford to rent privately in that area and need to move, how unsettling could that be for the children, especially leaving friends and changing schools. Also it wouldn't allow families to put down roots.

    So how unsettling do you think it is for the hundreds of thousands of genuinely poor people stuck in B&B's because working folks that could afford to live elsewhere are getting cheap subsidised council accomodation?
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • Triker
    Triker Posts: 7,247 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    The thing is that its for new tenants only so the majority will now have no incentive to ever move on and out...
    DFW Nerd 267. DEBT FREE 11.06.08
    Stick to It by R.B. Stanfield
    It matters not if you try and fail,
    And fail, and try again; But it matters much if you try and fail, And fail to try again.
  • zappahey
    zappahey Posts: 2,252 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11802378

    Applies to new tenants only, but a good idea overall IMO.

    Force them out and you free up places for people who genuinely can't afford the private market.

    Sounds like a strong disincentive to finding work, to me.

    "Hey, I found a job, but I'm losing my house and subjecting my family to the vagaries of shorthold tenancies"
    What goes around - comes around
  • zappahey wrote: »
    Sounds like a strong disincentive to finding work, to me.

    "Hey, I found a job, but I'm losing my house and subjecting my family to the vagaries of shorthold tenancies"

    The new changes to the benefits system will make that an awful lot harder to pull off....
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • cootambear
    cootambear Posts: 1,474 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    how about building some more houses?

    I know its crazy, but it might just work.
    Freedom is the freedom to say that 2+2 = 4 (George Orwell, 1984).

    (I desire) ‘a great production that will supply all, and more than all the people can consume’,

    (Sylvia Pankhurst).
  • suburbanwifey
    suburbanwifey Posts: 1,642 Forumite
    edited 20 November 2010 at 1:38PM
    I don't agree with this at all. I don't have kids and I don't live in a council house by the way, I live in a private house that I bought!

    Private rentals are vastly over-charged, when I look at rental prices I cringe. I would not pay the prices landlords charge to live in their houses, lining his pocket, paying his mortgage, investing for him.

    True, many cannot get onto the property ladder nowadays, houses are way too expensive (gone the same way as rents, they both outstrip average incomes) and mortgages are are incredibly hard to get nowadays, I KNOW this, before you all start on me...

    For this very reason, tenancies in council or housing association houses should remain secure! It should be a tenancy for life. Let's be frank, they are the only people who are secure in our country. People with mortgages can lose their job, then they now don't get enough mortgage benefit to even cover the interest, they lose their home....to end up having to rent in a house that probably costs more to rent than their mortgage was - so they get a portion of their rent paid by the council - but NOW, they are reducing that benefit too....even unemployed people on job seekers will not get enough to pay their full rent.

    Private rentals are usually for 6 month tenancies, you can be kicked out with 2 months notice at any time during that 6 months - if the Govt. wants everyone in private rentals, maybe they should make it law that landlords offer 2 year tenancies?

    Imagine the costs of moving every 6 months, you can't settle, you can't build a life, you can't make friends. You may not get a house near to your job so more of your income would go on travel.

    I think council house tenancies should be for life. Those people who have lived there all their lives, their kids have left home etc, should not be forced onto an over-priced private rental market offering no security of tenancy and looming poverty.

    I just think a lot of people in private rentals would give their right arms (figuratively speaking) for a council tenancy and are jealous, period.

    Leave council tenants alone, they have paid their rent for years (a lot do work and don't claim benefits) and if their standard of living increases over the years due to lower rents, security and working hard, they have earned that right.

    You and the Govt. want to take away what little security these people have and leave them like the majority, stuffed. Cannot afford to buy a house yet they are expected to pay the same as a mortgage would cost or even more to rent from a private landlord.

    Private landlords must be rubbing their hands in glee, they'll be running this country soon! everybody is putting all the cards in their hands.

    I feel deeply sorry for council tenants and the low paid, they are being stuffed from every direction.
  • ceridwen
    ceridwen Posts: 11,547 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I do think people who can afford to buy their own houses should do so - rather than stay in Council housing.

    However - there are certainly some safeguards that would need putting in place with these proposals. It looks as if social landlords will have the ability to check at two year intervals - but could check less frequently if they choose. Well - my instant first thought was that if someone is sitting there in the offices of a social landlord with not enough work to do - then that person will decide to keep themselves occupied by deliberately checking at those minimum possible intervals (ie rather than say at more reasonable one of - say - every 10 years).

    The other thing is that a safeguard will be necessary to prevent anyone else getting access to this information - ie the information would need destroying the second it had been "checked over". I would be willing to bet that the information will be available in actual fact for anyone else that can plead an interest in looking at it.

    Phew - must say my very first thought of all was "Thank goodness I own my own home - no-one has an excuse to invade my privacy at intervals by checking my finances <sigh of relief smilie>". NB: Thats not because I have anything to hide - because I dont - but because my finances are MY business alone and I hate people snooping around on any aspect of my life.

    In fairness too - it does have to be pointed out that probably darn nearly everyone on Council waiting lists had the child/children that "needs" social housing provided AFTER it had already become very clear in our Society that there are severe shortages of social housing available. I cant quite get my head round why anyone would put themselves in the position of "needing" social housing AFTER it became so clear that the chances are very low of getting it...

    <ducks before someone who has done just that throws something at me...:cool:>
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