make do and mend for tougher times

SpikyHedgehog

shegar wrote: »

SHH. I cant get that link to work..........

Nor could I! I've fixed it now and checked it like I should have yesterday, but here it is again for good luck! http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ipswich/

I was talking about it last night at church harvest supper, and someone there used to work in that building till she retired recently (not in it's workhouse capacity ).

kidcat wrote: »

Sorry I cant remember who is was but it was said earlier that the housing sell off has caused alot of issues and IMHO it has caused the whole housing chaos, HA and councils just do not have the stock any more to allow people to be more fluid in their needs. If they had a good sized stock it would be considerably easier to expect people to move into appropriate sized accomodation.
The fact remains that in my area I know that if anyone is under occupying its tough there is no small houses, three beds are the smallest. With the exception of a very small set of retirement bungalows. All the two bed houses were sold and there is only one small set of flats that are all no lift, filled with drug users and visited by police at least twice a week.
Before implementing this sort of policy surely the common sense answer would be to look at where we would expect people to move to, but I cannot see any common sense in any of these policies.

I would suggest building lovely new smaller properties, making them attractive, offering incentives to move and then it will all fall into place in a large proportion of places.

That was me! Round here there are lots of flats being built, but not with sensible access - sometimes fine if you get a ground floor flat, but there's enough new ground floor flats with 4 or 5 steps up the front door for me to walk past them asking what the architects were on. (Also bungalows with several steps up the front door but long enough gardens slopes could have been used instead, but these do date back 50 years or so when I guess awareness of making housing suitable for easy access was less thought about.)

But the 1st floor or above flats have no lifts to them, just stairs. And no gardens you can garden in, just shared grass areas for the local children to ruin by playing football in.

To be fair to HAs round here, most of the new houses they are building are 2 bedroom ones - but that still won't help a single person/married or otherwise cohabiting couple when it comes to bedroom tax. Or a family with 2 or more children of different genders.

mardatha wrote: »

I must be the only person in this entire forum who has never owned a house or never wanted to - When I was at school the few people in my class who came from bought homes were the ones who had no money, no holidays, no clothes. All the money must've gone on the house. I had a nice big 3 bedroom council house all to myself as I'm an only one. I had 2 holidays a year every year, and I had everything I wanted.
So probably because of that, I grew up never wanting to buy a house. I got my first council flat at 17 and loved it, and since then must have paid the price of a house twice over in rent - but when my husband was out of work/on strike in the bad times, then I didn't have to worry. I can see that things have changed an awful lot now & that people don't always have any option but to pay stupid rents or risk buying.
The system worked until Thatcher arrived - god that woman has so much to answer for! There will be 4 million very ratty miners queued up on the other side to get hold of her when she finally falls off her perch

I'd rather buy (not that it's an option) than rent privately - you have little or no security in private renting, and it can be jolly hard to get work done (as Fuddle has recently experienced and I & others of us know from past experience). Because then I'd know I could live there as long as I wanted without risk of being made homeless, and could get my dad in to tell me how to fix taps, and could get an electrician in to look at a lighting system that tripped out if you tried switching 2 lights on the same time.

But I'd rather have affordable housing that meets my needs and desires (for a space to garden in and near public transport and amenities such as shops, park, school, library, church) than buy. Because I can't afford a huge rent.

I'm in a position at the moment where I work enough to be able to be there for the boys in the school holidays and before & after school - I do get WFTC, some CTB and HB (though not according to the letter I had from the council yesterday!) and free prescriptions. But I also pay for my children's school meals, music lessons, school trips, camping with my parents. And about 2/3s of my rent & 3/4 of my council tax.

If I rented a 2 bedroom house round here, I wouldn't be able to afford the music lessons or holiday. I couldn't afford a 3 bedroom house unless I was getting a lot of HB, so it wouldn't be financially worth by doing more hours at work until both the boys have left home (based on the assumption they will do this when they've finished uni) - by which time I'd be looking to downsize anyway.

SpikyHedgehog

VJsmum wrote: »

Gosh, smiley - aren't you tiny?? Like someone in the borrowers.

As a 5ft 2 in person... Some people are giants! :rotfl:

Molly41 wrote: »

Brilliant idea and one I have often thought of but never had the nerve......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/08/jessica-stilwell-mom-on-strike_n_1948603.html

Look at the stills.....

Ooh, very tempting! I'm really trying with DS1's washing not to remind him to put it in the basket...

kidcat

Oh wow its here already party tonight and its looking like a disaster, loads of people have pulled out so we have a big function room, and loads of food for less than 30 people - why do people do that? Oh sorry forgot I am working that day, oops have a driving lesson next day Grrrrr!!

D&DD

lol Molly that link made me smile My lot can't survive the day without me!
I had a lazy day yesterday and boy it shows this morning...off to catch up with the news then get scrubbing

XXX

[Deleted User]

SMILEY - the photo is priceless, thank you it will keep me giggling through today as well!!!!!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

shegar

mardatha wrote: »

I must be the only person in this entire forum who has never owned a house or never wanted to - When I was at school the few people in my class who came from bought homes were the ones who had no money, no holidays, no clothes. All the money must've gone on the house. I had a nice big 3 bedroom council house all to myself as I'm an only one. I had 2 holidays a year every year, and I had everything I wanted.
So probably because of that, I grew up never wanting to buy a house. I got my first council flat at 17 and loved it, and since then must have paid the price of a house twice over in rent - but when my husband was out of work/on strike in the bad times, then I didn't have to worry. I can see that things have changed an awful lot now & that people don't always have any option but to pay stupid rents or risk buying.
The system worked until Thatcher arrived - god that woman has so much to answer for! There will be 4 million very ratty miners queued up on the other side to get hold of her when she finally falls off her perch

Well I never thought that we would ever own our own place, I spent years in social housing raising a family like most of us have.....

But like I said once the children had left home we didnt need a 3 bed huge council house just the two of us........Hubby and myself worked dam long hours to save , plus he had a small family inheritance to come so we bought a small 2 bed bungalow with only a courtyard concrete garden, but it done us............Bought it for silly money £27.0000:eek:Kept that for 7 yrs, value went up to £176.0000, so we moved again to a little bit bigger bungalow on the edge of village.......

We got here and 17 months later hubby had the devasting stroke which finished him ever working again, and also I cant work F/T either , so im dam glad we have this place paid for otherwise if had had been mortgaged we now wouldnt be able to pay the payments..........Thats just how things happen in life, you really cant plan too far ahead.......

The trouble with renting is that its thousands of £ s given away each month, and with someones property you cant even paint a wall without asking....Social housing is quite secure, but private LL you never know when you are going to get notice, he just wants you to pay his mortgage so that he can retire in the house youve paid for ........ So I know what its like renting privately and social housing side..........

danetastic

I was worried that I sounded smug in my previous post . I didn't mean to . If i hadn't bought my first place when I did I would not be able to now as I don't earn enough. I was lucky in buying in the right area at the right time. I'm still a staff nurse thru choice and love my job most of the time .
Now I'm concentrating on getting rid of the debt tho sometimes I do get a bit overwhelmed by it all . I have to remind myself it's all worth it

mardatha

Dont anybody feel you have to apologise !! We all come to MSE by different paths and have different lives xxx Please let's all feel free and among friends and able to tell our different stories ok? I think the private renting is a truly terrible idea - like going back in time to the Victorian days when people had very little security for very high rents. It's bad.

valk_scot

kidcat wrote: »

Oh wow its here already party tonight and its looking like a disaster, loads of people have pulled out so we have a big function room, and loads of food for less than 30 people - why do people do that? Oh sorry forgot I am working that day, oops have a driving lesson next day Grrrrr!!

I hate it when people do that...if I accept an invitation I stick to it even if I get a "better" offer. Once accepted then the only acceptable reasons to cancel an invitation are genuine illnesses and emergencies/family crisis. I don't think people realise how utterly rude they're being, either that or they don't care. It's all about "me", you know?

Possession

As a nation we're a bit peculiar in Europe for our love of property owning (and lots of other things too, LOL!). Much more common to rent.
In Japan it's a still different situation in that second houses are rarely sold. It may change but people still generally look after elderly relatives in the home and if people do own a house it is passed down the line. New apartments are not made to last (but are made for earthquakes). And new apartments cost an eye-watering amount of money.
We were very lucky that we got into the housing market in about 1996 at just the right time. My sister couldn't buy until 5 years ago and I suspect she is stuck in negative equity for a while. I have stayed in some horrible places in my university days though.
Inset day here and the children are already squabbling!
Kidcat good luck with the party tonight!