Do you support social housing?

wymondham

Yes, but it has to be TRUE social housing, supplied by the Government and not other organisations. It also has to be means tested and it has to be basic - possibly maximum of two bedrooms.

jules888

Voted no on current system.

purch

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I certainly agree with affordable rented housing with secure tenancies for hard-working but low-paid folk. Whether that is social or private I don't really mind, but like others would like it to be mixed, not just given out to those who are considered to 'need' it.

That is the crux of the matter.

The social part of social housing doesn't mean that it has to be provided by the state or local authorities.

It's really the secure tenancies that are the most important thing that is needed, closely followed by affordable rents.

Jason74

purch wrote: »

That is the crux of the matter.

The social part of social housing doesn't mean that it has to be provided by the state or local authorities.

It's really the secure tenancies that are the most important thing that is needed, closely followed by affordable rents.

That's all true. The problem is, that the private rented sector in the UK currently fails to provide either of those things. That means that one way or another, intervention is required to make sure that there is at least some supply of affordable homes. You can do that by properly controlling the private rented sector in terms of rent levels and security of tenure, or you can do it by having a different sort of landlord / tenancy structure in order to deliver the type of tenancies needed. You could even argue that the scale of the problem is such that you need to do both.

The problem at the moment is that there are nowhere near enough of the secure low cost tenancies around, and far too many insecure, high rent ones (which are often topped up by HB, creating the worst of all worlds). One way or another, something needs to change.

globalds

I really think there was very little wrong with Social housing.
At the moment I see it mainly as a restocking problem.
I even kind of like the idea of people being able to buy a home they have rented for a long time and fallen in love with ..even if they have just fallen in love with how much it has or could rise in value.
I just can't agree with the policy over the last 30 years of just taking stock out the pool and not replacing it.
The scandal now of paying billions into HB and society getting no return on this huge cash transfer seems absolutely crazy and I really struggle to see how both political parties with such differing views on either social welfare or government spending could both happily carry on doing the same thing

Jason74

globalds wrote: »

I really think there was very little wrong with Social housing.
At the moment I see it mainly as a restocking problem.
I even kind of like the idea of people being able to buy a home they have rented for a long time and fallen in love with ..even if they have just fallen in love with how much it has or could rise in value.
I just can't agree with the policy over the last 30 years of just taking stock out the pool and not replacing it.
The scandal now of paying billions into HB and society getting no return on this huge cash transfer seems absolutely crazy and I really struggle to see how both political parties with such differing views on either social welfare or government spending could both happily carry on doing the same thing

This is also very true. I actually read a piece today, that suggested that something like 35% of all properties sold under RTB are now in the hands of private landlords. That is a shocking statistic, especially when you consider that in many cases, councils will now be paying full market value rent from HB to access an asset that they previously owned and sold off at a whacking great discount.

There's lots of talk on this and other threads about efficiency. It surely doesn't get much more inefficient than that!

tee_pee_2

I suppose it depends on which area you live in and each individual Council. In my area new affordable social housing is currently being built.

gazter

tee_pee wrote: »

I suppose it depends on which area you live in and each individual Council. In my area new affordable social housing is currently being built.

New affordable housing is being built everywhere, gigantic huge amounts of it.

globalds

gazter wrote: »

New affordable housing is being built everywhere, gigantic huge amounts of it.

But that is not Social housing.

MrsE_2

BigAunty wrote: »

Yes, I support social housing and there's nothing I would like more than for the UK to build millions of SH units and ensure that allocation wasn't just based on need so we have the mixed communities of the past and don't end up with ghettos of vulnerable and unemployed tenants.

Double bonus it might bring prices down so that a couple on a average wage could afford an average house in every part of the uk, not just the cheap areas.