Couple with child near me, offered a 2-bed bungalow in social housing!

I_have_spoken

Shenanigans going on here, no question.

seven-day-weekend

In reply to Lou 67, yes each to their own.

I have lived in the middle of nowhere in Spain, it was great for a while and I'm glad I did it, but after a while I really missed my house in the UK, 10-15 minutes walk from the city centre. I don't want to have to drive everywhere. I can get anything I want (shops, restaurants, bars,takeaways, bank, doctors, dentist, pharmacy) within five minutes walk of my house, even a hardware shop, a car mechanic's yard, double glazing company and the Samaritans (:) ). Choice of three bus routes into the city and we can even get to the countryside of Staffordshire and Shropshire on the bus.

I class somewhere where you have to drive to get even the simplest thing as being in the middle of nowhere (if it's rural) and nowheresville if it's a suburb. Don't want it, especially when I get older.

I don't need social housing though. But that is on the whole not near the city centre,in my city.

But it would not do for us to be all the same, would it?

Lord_Baltimore

SingleSue wrote: »

I wasn't guessing, I was giving another perspective.

In which case, you provided 'another perspective' on the basis of nothing other than guesswork. It's the same thing.

bitsandpieces wrote: »

No - I think the legislation is important and should be widely used, but submitting misinformed requests which have no chance of getting the information they ask for is a waste of time and money. Asking a HA (not covered by the legislation) for confidential personal data (likely exempted from release under FOI, and covered by data protection law) is not going to work.

If you want to use FOI find out more about how social housing is allocated you might, for example, ask your council about what proportion of - say - bungalows go to people with different points scores or different amounts of time on the housing list. No guarantee this type of request would get any info, but much more likely than asking an organisation not bound by the legislation!

And you are the arbiter of 'misinformed requests' are you? How can you know what information will be forthcoming? Perhaps you just prefer that the questions are not asked?

As for learning more about social housing, I, like the OP have learned from this thread and it has tweaked my interest. So much so I will use FOI to fill in the gaps as I think fit. You may think this a waste of time but, well, so what?

Enquiries have to start somewhere.

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

A very small part of the funding for a very small part of their business comes from Government grants (and getting smaller all the time). However, the majority of their activities are funded, directly or indirectly, by rental revenue.

The Chancellor announced as part of the 2013 Budget that the available grant funding will be doubled to £450 million. Define 'small'.

starbarboy

Lol - thought for a moment I clicked onto the Daily Mail by mistake... :rotfl:

Lord_Baltimore

starbarboy wrote: »

Lol - thought or a moment I clicked onto the Daily Mail by mistake... :rotfl:

Don't you have homework to to do? :rotfl:

lighting_up_the_chalice

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

The Chancellor announced as part of the 2013 Budget that the available grant funding will be doubled to £450 million. Define 'small'.

Still less than is being offered to the private sector to try and promote housebuilding. Looks like all those owner/occs who bang on about "subsidised housing" need to look at their own front door, before pointing fingers at anyone elses.

Lou67

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

In reply to Lou 67, yes each to their own.

I have lived in the middle of nowhere in Spain, it was great for a while and I'm glad I did it, but after a while I really missed my house in the UK, 10-15 minutes walk from the city centre. I don't want to have to drive everywhere. I can get anything I want (shops, restaurants, bars,takeaways, bank, doctors, dentist, pharmacy) within five minutes walk of my house, even a hardware shop, a car mechanic's yard, double glazing company and the Samaritans (:) ). Choice of three bus routes into the city and we can even get to the countryside of Staffordshire and Shropshire on the bus.

I class somewhere where you have to drive to get even the simplest thing as being in the middle of nowhere (if it's rural) and nowheresville if it's a suburb. Don't want it, especially when I get older.

I don't need social housing though. But that is on the whole not near the city centre,in my city.

But it would not do for us to be all the same, would it?

No you're right, it wouldn't do for us all to be the same, but what you describe: having the shopping precinct or centre, the mechanics yard and takeaways and pubs and bars etc, within five minutes from your house, sounds like my worst nightmare! :eek: I have lived in that kind of set-up in my 20s, (at the bottom of the high street in town in a flat,) and quite honestly, I hated it. The convenience of everything was vastly outweighed by how noisy and smelly it was, with yobs hanging about and the traffic whizzing by, rubbish chucked all over the place, and oads of people roaming around late at night, drunk and noisy and chucking stuff at windows.

It may be OK for someone who is single maybe and certainly better for someone who cannot drive, but if you have a car, you're definately not isolated at only 4 miles from a main town. Most villages have a bus into town or even a train station nearby to take you into the cities. And most of the villages around my area are only 4 to 10 miles to a main town or city with a mainline train station, where you can get virtually anywhere in the country within one to two hours.

Obviously we have completely different views to what 'isolated' and 'the middle of nowhere' is. Being half hours drive to the nearest A road or B road, and being an hour's drive from a main town, with no mains gas or electricity is quite isolated, but in many counties, especially in Shropshire, Staffs, Cheshire, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Worcestershire etc, most villages are not far from cities and large towns. And four miles from a big town is not isolated: rural yes, but 'isolated' and 'in the middle of nowhere?' No.

As I said, we obviously have different views as to what isolated is, especially as you regard town suburbs as 'nowheresville.' I am guessing that you don't drive, as even suburbs seem out of the way t someone who has no car. It's people who don't drive and have to 'bus it' everywhere who are usually desperate to be walking distance from amenities.

I just wondered why you have such a longing to be five minutes walk from the pubs, bars, mechanics yard, takeaways, bus station and everything, because as I said, that would be my worst nightmare: living right in the town centre!

bitsandpieces

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

And you are the arbiter of 'misinformed requests' are you? How can you know what information will be forthcoming? Perhaps you just prefer that the questions are not asked?

As for learning more about social housing, I, like the OP have learned from this thread and it has tweaked my interest. So much so I will use FOI to fill in the gaps as I think fit. You may think this a waste of time but, well, so what?

You're right - I suggested a way you might use the FOIA to fill in some gaps in what you know because I think it's a waste of time. Of course, though, if you'd rather spend your time submitting FOIA requests to housing associations (which aren't covered by the Act) asking for personal data of tenants (which it would be a breach of the DPA to release, even if the housing associations were bound by the FOIA) you're quite free to do so.

Please do report your results back here. Though bear in mind that it's public money being used to produce the 'please go away' e-mails/letters you'll receive :rotfl:

Lord_Baltimore

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

Still less than is being offered to the private sector to try and promote housebuilding. Looks like all those owner/occs who bang on about "subsidised housing" need to look at their own front door, before pointing fingers at anyone elses.

'Still less' is not a definition of 'small' though is it? £450 million is not 'small' either. Your reference to the private sector isn't relevant.

bitsandpieces wrote: »

You're right - I suggested a way you might use the FOIA to fill in some gaps in what you know because I think it's a waste of time. Of course, though, if you'd rather spend your time submitting FOIA requests to housing associations (which aren't covered by the Act) asking for personal data of tenants (which it would be a breach of the DPA to release, even if the housing associations were bound by the FOIA) you're quite free to do so.

Please do report your results back here. Though bear in mind that it's public money being used to produce the 'please go away' e-mails/letters you'll receive :rotfl:

You're very kind to offer your opinion (you're not a school teacher are you?) but the presumptions you make aren't very helpful. I know what is available under FOI; I know about its exemption criteria in relation to personal information (section 40) and I know about redaction; I know too that it applies to public departments. I'm also familiar with DPA.

There's always a route to obtaining information. :rotfl:

seven-day-weekend

Lou67 wrote: »

No you're right, it wouldn't do for us all to be the same, but what you describe: having the shopping precinct or centre, the mechanics yard and takeaways and pubs and bars etc, within five minutes from your house, sounds like my worst nightmare! :eek: I have lived in that kind of set-up in my 20s, (at the bottom of the high street in town in a flat,) and quite honestly, I hated it. The convenience of everything was vastly outweighed by how noisy and smelly it was, with yobs hanging about and the traffic whizzing by, rubbish chucked all over the place, and oads of people roaming around late at night, drunk and noisy and chucking stuff at windows.

It may be OK for someone who is single maybe and certainly better for someone who cannot drive, but if you have a car, you're definately not isolated at only 4 miles from a main town. Most villages have a bus into town or even a train station nearby to take you into the cities. And most of the villages around my area are only 4 to 10 miles to a main town or city with a mainline train station, where you can get virtually anywhere in the country within one to two hours.

Obviously we have completely different views to what 'isolated' and 'the middle of nowhere' is. Being half hours drive to the nearest A road or B road, and being an hour's drive from a main town, with no mains gas or electricity is quite isolated, but in many counties, especially in Shropshire, Staffs, Cheshire, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Worcestershire etc, most villages are not far from cities and large towns. And four miles from a big town is not isolated: rural yes, but 'isolated' and 'in the middle of nowhere?' No.

As I said, we obviously have different views as to what isolated is, especially as you regard town suburbs as 'nowheresville.' I am guessing that you don't drive, as even suburbs seem out of the way t someone who has no car. It's people who don't drive and have to 'bus it' everywhere who are usually desperate to be walking distance from amenities.

I just wondered why you have such a longing to be five minutes walk from the pubs, bars, mechanics yard, takeaways, bus station and everything, because as I said, that would be my worst nightmare: living right in the town centre!

I do drive, and have a husband, and we are active pensioners . I just don't want to have to get the car out if I just need to buy a loaf of bread and if I want to go for a drink I can walk there.

When we lived in Spain, the village we lived in was tiny and although there was a 'Spar' type shop for everyday things, I got stir crazy after a while and rapidly got fed up of having to drive everywhere for anything other than basics.

I'll tell you something, having lived in rural Spain for eight years, we found out that the Spanish dream is not a country cottage with roses round the door, it's an apartment in central Madrid.

People are just different and want different things, it doesn't mean one is right or wrong, just different.