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

jedsonack2

That is something unexpected i think.....

bitsandpieces

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

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.

Glad to hear it - do post back here if you find out anything interesting. It might have been helpful had you used this knowledge when making suggestions about how the OP could get more information using the FOIA.

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

That's obviously correct. Though some information can't be obtained ethically or legally.

POPPYOSCAR

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

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.

Very true.

I would find it very difficult to live in an urban area. I love being isolated.

Lord_Baltimore

bitsandpieces wrote: »

It might have been helpful had you used this knowledge when making suggestions about how the OP could get more information using the FOIA.

FOIA can often be the key to opening Pandora's box. It's a good place to start. Of course, once Pandora's box is open...

bitsandpieces wrote: »

That's obviously correct.

I know .

lighting_up_the_chalice

Lord_Baltimore wrote: »

FOIA can often be the key to opening Pandora's box. It's a good place to start. Of course, once Pandora's box is open...

But the FOI key doesn't work in the HA lock, so it's not going to open anything.

kingstreet

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

preferable to a one off payment of 50% of the property value. But governments love home-owners.

Don't forget the 2.75% rent on the share and service charges/ground rent on top. I'm working on a case now and the rent on the share is £229 and the service charges and fees an other £47 on top and that's for a house.

kingstreet

Lou67 wrote: »

in many counties, especially in Shropshire, Staffs, Cheshire, Gloucester, Herefordshire, Worcestershire etc, most villages are not far from cities and large towns.

I live about five miles from Stafford General and my wife is involved in arranging care for those being discharged from SGH and there is no care to be had nearby. Despite the LA offering higher hourly rates to the providers who commissioning has found will accept the amount being offered in the more built-up areas.

Going back to my original point, if you live in a rural area, quite close to a major town, you will struggle to get care, particularly if you need "double-ups" and multiple daily calls.

You can't separate social care and social housing to any great degree, that's why in our area, it's difficult to get the usual occupant of social housing to accept a (very desirable to the rest of us) property in a more outlying area.

lighting_up_the_chalice

kingstreet wrote: »

You can't separate social care and social housing to any great degree, that's why in our area, it's difficult to get the usual occupant of social housing to accept a (very desirable to the rest of us) property in a more outlying area.

I have to disagree. In most cases, the reason is that so many have been misinformed about the qualification for, allocation of and demand for SH. Many feel there is no point even applying unless they are homeless and/or workless.

POPPYOSCAR

lighting_up_the_chalice wrote: »

I have to disagree. In most cases, the reason is that so many have been misinformed about the qualification for, allocation of and demand for SH. Many feel there is no point even applying unless they are homeless and/or workless.

Yes, I feel that way from what I have seen from family and friends that have been overcrowded/ in poor housing for years.

One example I know told them that her marriage was about to break up and that she felt near suicidal and it worked, they were moved from a one bed flat to a 2 bed house within a couple of weeks.

In another example the husband argued with them constantly telling them that he would go to the papers saying that the damp was making the children ill, they were moved to a 3 bed house not long after.

redskyatnight_2

kingstreet wrote: »

I live about five miles from Stafford General and my wife is involved in arranging care for those being discharged from SGH and there is no care to be had nearby. Despite the LA offering higher hourly rates to the providers who commissioning has found will accept the amount being offered in the more built-up areas.

Going back to my original point, if you live in a rural area, quite close to a major town, you will struggle to get care, particularly if you need "double-ups" and multiple daily calls.

You can't separate social care and social housing to any great degree, that's why in our area, it's difficult to get the usual occupant of social housing to accept a (very desirable to the rest of us) property in a more outlying area.

I disagree with you here. My cousin works for a housing association and they have properties in 5 or 6 'rural' villages that are between 5 and 15 miles from a main large town (where the housing association is based.) They have about 2000 properties altogether and about 300 of them are in these rural villages. Around 100 of these 300 rural properties have people who are elderly and disabled. And most of them need care, half of them daily....

The HA works with social services, and there has never been the slightest issue with care for people. The villages are only 10 to 30 minutes drive from the large town where the HA is based; they're not on the moon! I can understand that there may be issues if they were very remote, but 'rural' is not the same as remote.

Also am with Lou and Poppyoscar here. I LOVE the rural areas and the lovely communities that the villages offer, and though it suited me greatly to be in a big town or city when I was young, and when the kids were younger, I would never want to be back there now. I think urban areas suit younger folk, but once you reach middle age, I find many prefer rural areas: not necessarily 'isolated,' but rural.

I 'also' agree that 4 miles from a town is actually quite ideal, and is not at all remote or out of the way. Many counties have lots of these villages that have no problems with transport and services and getting from A to B. We live in a village with about 900 people and there is a small shop that's open 5 hours a day, a doctor's surgery, one bus stop, one post box, 3 pubs and a huge church. It also has mains electricity and mains gas.

It's some 7 miles from a large town, and I absolutely love it here: You get friendly communities in these villages that you flat-out don't get in the cities or large towns. I have lived in cities and in big towns, and have often not known the names of anyone in the road or close where I lived, except the immediate neighbours either side. I was in one close for 5 years, and out of 33 houses, only the people from 3 houses ever spoke. In the village I live in now; from the onset people have been welcoming and friendly: when we moved in, we got ELEVEN 'welcome to your home' cards from the neighbours in the first week, and even now, every single person you meet stops and chats and I know dozens and dozens and dozens of people by name.

We have bingo nights, karaoke nights, street parties, walks in the local woodland and around the general areas, and it's the friendliest community I have ever known. Nobody is alone, and my only regret is that I only moved here 2 years ago! I look forward to spending the rest of my life here though!

Not so sure I would like to be totally 'remote,' (like a mile from the nearest road with no mains gas or electric and 2 miles to the nearest store,) but being 'rural' as the OP says about her neighbour, is not the same as being remote. In fact it's ideal.

No 'way' would I move back to a town or city: not for all the tea in China