why are some people entitled to a council house but others are not?

paulineb_2

The gap between buying and renting can be massive

The point is, even when people have a decent combined income, getting a foot on the property ladder can be really tough

So its not as simple as, do well for yourself and move into your own home

It depends on there being said homes that you can actually afford to buy

Its getting harder for lots of people to be able to buy a house/flat

carefullycautious

ostrichnomore wrote: »

What I have a problem with is people getting a council house they need but being able to stay in it in future years when they are better off financially or it's too big as the children all left home.

It's not that easy. I had a 3 bed council flat and several years later only needed and wanted a 1 bed flat. I approached the council to see if there was any scheme to help me downsize and free up family size accomodation, only for the woman to have a right go at me for 'wanting to queue jump' to a one bed and that I'd have to join the waiting list like everyone else. The waiting list for a one bed? 11 years. So sod em. Just felt sorry for the crowded families who would have loved my place!

Why could you have not done a mutual exchange? Surely this would have solved this dilemma

Kayalana99

Imp wrote: »

So what you are saying is that people should be housed when they are in need, but when they pull themselves up and are no longer needy, they should be evicted from their home and community?

If you are going to remove people from their homes as a reward for getting a job/being promoted/successfully running their own business, then why would they make an effort to do these things?

In my opinion thats exactly what should happen. If your now in a postion not to need the 'cheap' rent of a council house/flat then you should move out for the people that do need it.

No wonder people are living in hostels etc when accountants are living in council houses! (Know someone.)

con1888

what does it matter so long as they pay the rent ?
Some people may be able to afford mortgage payments but perhaps wouldn't be accepted for a number of reasons, bad credit etc.

Perhaps they are too worried to buy a house incase things mess up and they are left homeless as in this day and age no job has real security.

I'd rather the people working and living in council properties and at least contributing to society than those who live in them and pay F all.

Ps. I don't live in a council house, it is an ex council house though.

paulineb_2

Kayalana99 wrote: »

In my opinion thats exactly what should happen. If your now in a postion not to need the 'cheap' rent of a council house/flat then you should move out for the people that do need it.

No wonder people are living in hostels etc when accountants are living in council houses! (Know someone.)

So where should people go?

Also in some council housing rent is far from cheap

And having worked in homeless units for almost 20 years I saw a lot of young people who had been offered up to 5 homes and who hadnt managed to make a go of it. Some people got offered fantastic housing but didnt have the skills to make it work or were lonely and felt more secure in a hostel environment, it happens

People who live in council housing arent to blame for the fact there arent enough housing to go round, that would be the fault of the Govts who allowed people to buy their homes and didnt build enough to replace them

There are houses a ten min walk away from me, bog standard housing, 2 bedrooms, back and front door for £185 000 plus and I live in scotland where you get a bigger house for your money, but no way could I ever afford to live there

If people get offered a council house, why should they be pushed out if they do something with their life?

You are damned if you do and damned if you dont, because the last time I looked, council housing wasnt just for people on benefits, why should it be?

I live in a council housing scheme where the majority of people do not work and believe me at times it has been horrendous, because all some people and I mean some, all they do is drink, sleep, party etc

Id welcome a better mix of people who worked, because the people who live near me who work, tend to get on with it quietly, the most anti social neighbours Ive had in my life are people who have never worked

Creating ghettos of people who dont work and are on benefits seriously isnt a good thing and Im speaking as someone who has lived for almost 20 years in that sort of area.

paulineb_2

con1888 wrote: »

what does it matter so long as they pay the rent ?
Some people may be able to afford mortgage payments but perhaps wouldn't be accepted for a number of reasons, bad credit etc.

Perhaps they are too worried to buy a house incase things mess up and they are left homeless as in this day and age no job has real security.

I'd rather the people working and living in council properties and at least contributing to society than those who live in them and pay F all.

Ps. I don't live in a council house, it is an ex council house though.

Quite

I spenty 15 years working in a line of work where I was very well qualified and at times reasonably well paid, but the work wasnt secure. At times I didnt know if I would have a job beyond the next year and the year after I got made redundant 4 years ago, a lot of other people did and theres more to come from that employer, theyve been cutting staff year after year

If I had taken out a mortgage, Id have struggled badly

Council housing shouldnt just be for people who are on the breadline, it should be available to people who work as well

Its not a competition. If someone won the lottery, fair enough, Id say you have the means to buy somewhere and move, but apart from that, how much people earn is their business.

Its the shortage of homes that leads to people not getting a council house without a ten year wait, not what the people already in those homes earn

Because if you do push people to give up a tenancy when they earn more and they get a mortgage that they later cant pay, someone is going to have to house them.

con1888

The government made their own monster with the right to buy scheme, many ( including myself I guess) have benefitted from that but it has caused the shortage as typical government wanted ££££ but didn't spend any on other houses.

The government/media love what they have created though, everyone looking down on everyone and blaming each other for the problems created by those high up.

thorsoak

In 1950, when my parents were allocated a council house, on new development of 2 and 3 bedroomed homes, our neighbours included teachers (3 families) police (2 families) civil servants (3) factory workers (7 families) shop workers (4 families) bus drivers (3) "the man from the Pru" (1) 2 army families and 3 elderly families.

A fairly well-mixed group of people with families who needed homes after the war. I've lately discovered that a couple of the families were rehomed from "squats" in redundant army camps.

My parents bought their home back in the 1960s, in the first round of allowing tenants to purchase their homes - and at that time, the money received from the purchases was utilised by the local council to build more homes. Had that ethos been carried through by the Thatcher government, we might not be in the pickle that we are now in.

Soleil_lune

Lurked here for a while, but decided to join as I really wanted to comment on this. I agree with con1888. I disagree with the people saying that someone should give up their social housing, when they start to do reasonably well in their life, and are earning a reasonable wage. People should not be made to leave their social housing: more cheap affordable rented housing needs to be built. Making people leave the homes they know and love is not the answer.

Moreover, what if someone gives up their long term tenancy on the basis that they now have a reasonably well paid job, and goes into buying a house somewhere, and then a year or two later, they suddenly hit hard times? This does happen a lot: there is no longer a job for life, or a guarantee that someone is always going to be able to pay the mortgage, (and benefits do not help out with mortgage payments, but they do help with rent.)

So what happens when that person has given up their cheaply rented secure home for life, and they lose their mortgaged home, and end up in 'need' again? I'll tell you. They go back to the housing need people and get told they 'made themselves homeless' and receive no help, and end up in some grotty private let with an extortionate rent owned by some money grabbing-landlord/landlady who does nothing to the property unless it's causing and health and safety issue (and sometimes not even then!)

Everyone should be entitled to affordable rented homes for life, and nobody should feel forced or coerced into buying, as there is no longer a guaranteed job or income for life. It's not the 1990s anymore; people are not under achievers if they rent and never buy a house, and anyone with a social housing tenancy should cling onto it for dear life, and not be bullied into leaving, because they have had a job for a few years. What's more, if this happens, we will end up with only the unemployed, and down on their luck people in social housing; turning them into ghettos!

paulineb_2

con1888 wrote: »

The government made their own monster with the right to buy scheme, many ( including myself I guess) have benefitted from that but it has caused the shortage as typical government wanted ££££ but didn't spend any on other houses.

The government/media love what they have created though, everyone looking down on everyone and blaming each other for the problems created by those high up.

Isnt that the truth

If there are people in my area who work and believe me, its a minority, I wouldnt go asking questions about how much they were earning and whether they should be here, Id just let them get on with their lives

Because for me, its similar to claiming JSA, HB etc, as soon as you take something from the system, people question what you are doing, but people in council housing who are working?

Ive paid over £25 000 in rent in my time living in this house, Ive put rather a lot back into the system, for people to sit and say, well if you work and earn this amount you shouldnt have a council house, would they rather it laid empty?

Because the reality is in some places that there arent people in hostels battering down the doors to get the housing, there are some areas with a lot of void properties

And some of the young people I worked with, by the time they came into the project I was working in, they had already been in more than one flat and couldnt manage it.

Not everyone has the skills to manage a tenancy without a lot of support and some of the people I worked with were offered better flats in better areas than Id ever be offered in my lifetime

Theres so much wrong with the system as it is, people being criticised for having spare bedrooms because this Govt has brought out this ridiculous HB surcharge and we were all told, just swap and downsize and thats the end of it

When it came to reality, it didnt work like that. But as has been said, as long as people are arguing with one another about who is to blame, these people who have a council house and work and shock horror a spare bedroom

No one is going to be standing up and saying, why arent there more low cost housing builds for people who need it, whether they are on benefit or not?

Its the bigger picture. If I seriously thought that someone like me who worked full time and had a council house was the reason for someone else being denied rather than the Govt just not investing in low cost housing, then Im afraid its time to give up