Advice regarding council housing?

elsien

tunde10 said:

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One thing you need to know. Income and savings are irrelevant. I am a single male with a decent income and good amount of savings. So once on the list, don't let others put you off taking a flat after you've waited fairly according to the rules. You never know when it'll be you in a bad situation and looking for help. These same people will not be around to help you then. Especially with the high rent and house prices in London! It just gives you the peace of mind in London knowing your rent will always be cheap and you can't get kicked out unless you constantly break rules.

Saving can be relevant in some areas - different councils have different rules and there may be exclusions for anyone who can afford to rent or buy privately. Anyone wanting to apply should look at their local council's application and allocation policy and take it from there, 

Heres_the_deal

elsien said:

tunde10 said:

...........
One thing you need to know. Income and savings are irrelevant. I am a single male with a decent income and good amount of savings. So once on the list, don't let others put you off taking a flat after you've waited fairly according to the rules. You never know when it'll be you in a bad situation and looking for help. These same people will not be around to help you then. Especially with the high rent and house prices in London! It just gives you the peace of mind in London knowing your rent will always be cheap and you can't get kicked out unless you constantly break rules.

Saving can be relevant in some areas - different councils have different rules and there may be exclusions for anyone who can afford to rent or buy privately. Anyone wanting to apply should look at their local council's application and allocation policy and take it from there, 

The housing allocation policies should be available from each councils website. I very much doubt there is one single council that ignore savings with regards to housing. The amount varies, £6- 16k is the de-facto sliding scale amount cited by benefits agency's, and the council view that has enough to rent privately. I've seen some councils say that savings as low as £10k exclude you from applying as - in their- opinion that's enough for a deposit on the open market if you could secure a mortgage, or enough for private rent.

The only time these rules are overlooked is if you already have a very large council house and wish to downsize but still wish to be a social housing tenant, even then there is a limit to the amount of savings they cannot ignore.

wavefunction

ElephantBoy57 said:

wavefunction said:

Does it take a long time to get a council apartment or a house? I asked someone and was told he waited for 2 years to move into a council place that he liked - that’s ridiculous?

Isn’t council accommodation equivalent to the projects in the US? Bad neighbourhoods for low income families... kind of like a ghetto, no? Some of the council houses that I’ve seen looked quite decent

You seem to think council housing is equivalent to a "ghetto", yet you want one and in a short space of time. I waited around 5 years, it is a nice house.

You might get a flat that no one wants quicker than the popular housing.

I did not say that I want one, I was just asking questions.

 I watched an interview with Dorian Yates a while ago where he talked about his beginnings, and he mentioned how he has won the British Bodybuilding Championship and came back with a trophy to his council flat in Birmingham, still poor. He said that council accommodation is comparable to the projects in the US, and that stuck with me. He was talking about the 90s though, I wondered if maybe things have changed.

NameUnavailable

I grew up on a council estate, we had a 3 bed semi with large gardens and I remember it very fondly. My parents moved due to work and had to rent via a housing association, it was a new house on a 'private' development but none of us liked it the same and the neighbours were horrible! The estate I grew up on is now described as 'highly desirable' by estate agents and a lot of the houses were bought by the tenants and it's now more of a private estate than an council estate.

Yes there are bad estates but just as there are bad areas of most towns where I wouldn't buy a house regardless of price.

I just think it's very very wrong to think of council homes/estates as 'bad' or for 'poor' people and insulting to those who live there.

elsien

wavefunction said:

ElephantBoy57 said:

wavefunction said:

Does it take a long time to get a council apartment or a house? I asked someone and was told he waited for 2 years to move into a council place that he liked - that’s ridiculous?

Isn’t council accommodation equivalent to the projects in the US? Bad neighbourhoods for low income families... kind of like a ghetto, no? Some of the council houses that I’ve seen looked quite decent

You seem to think council housing is equivalent to a "ghetto", yet you want one and in a short space of time. I waited around 5 years, it is a nice house.

You might get a flat that no one wants quicker than the popular housing.

I did not say that I want one, I was just asking questions.

 I watched an interview with Dorian Yates a while ago where he talked about his beginnings, and he mentioned how he has won the British Bodybuilding Championship and came back with a trophy to his council flat in Birmingham, still poor. He said that council accommodation is comparable to the projects in the US, and that stuck with me. He was talking about the 90s though, I wondered if maybe things have changed.

That is far too sweeping a generalisation. There are some inner city areas where I wouldn’t want to live from choice, whether it was private rental or council. Particularly if we’re talking high rises. 

However my road (mainly Victorian terraces) is a mix of council, private rental  and homeowners and you couldn’t get anything much less like the projects. If it was lifted up and stuck in Notting Hill I’d have a highly desirable town house. As it is, I have a terrace in a area that I’m perfectly happy with and feel safe in. 

[Deleted User]

He may have been being bitter, he may have lived in one of the worst estates.  There are 'nice' council estates, there are bad ones, and there the worse, streets you wouldn't go down on your own. But this is true of bad areas in general, they are not just seen in council estates. So I think that thinking 'council estates' and putting the phrase 'like the projects in the US' in there is generalising way too much.  This is not the US.., we have our unique social mores and situations you wouldn't see in the US, some you would.  Some are better, some aren't.  They're mostly just different.

Thank god, whatever its insufficiencies we do have a mostly free health care system, we do have some provision for special needs even if you have to fight for it.  Its not quite the same as the Projects.