To think it's fucking unfair for people like me who bust our arses off to buy a property...

[DamnCrazyWorld]

And all the while people who have practically the same type/ size of house and who are on a similar income as me in the same area are paying just a quarter of what I paid for because its a council property bought through the Right to Buy Scheme.

Should I have just got myself onto benefits and into a council property to get onto the property ladder?

It's madness. It really is.

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

Heads up. You don't need to be on benefits to get a council property. You could have tried ANY time.

Social Housing is there for a reason. But you needn't worry....it won't be for much longer. The Tory government are selling it all of eh?

So instead we will have "workhouse-like" "centres" for the unwaged and unwell to live in.

That'll be nice eh? Something for us ALL to fear.

[GreatFuckability]

YABU. Not everyone in a council house is on benefits for a start.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

How do you get a mortgage if your sole income is benefits?

I have never agreed with RTB, though I understand why it's attractive to council tenants and don't resent that many made that choice. (My PIL included.)

But it was always inevitable that these properties would end up on the open market, at much higher prices.

It's up to you if you choose to buy an ex-LA property, there are plenty of others.

[futureme]

The house - in our area it is extremely difficult now to get a council house.

I understand where the op is coming from. I live in an ec council house that cost a fortune whereas most of the people around us brought under right to but for a fraction of the price (think 50 grand instead of 200). BUT part of that is indicative of buying 15 years ago anyway. They were probably 75 full price then anyway. Also council housing was more available then.

[Lj8893]

Um I live in social housing, I have never been on benefits. So for that YABU.

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

I don't understand the RTB scheme. Is that one of the reasons councils now have to build hundreds of thousands of new homes every year?

[ApricotSorbet99]

How ill informed you are.

Most people in council properties are not on benefits.

Should have gone on the list if you wanted a local authority house. Why didn't you? Too good to live alongside the riff raff?

[DamnCrazyWorld]

Im not saying everyone in a council house are on benefits. In my area it is almost impossible to get a council house right now even if you were on benefits actually.

[DamnCrazyWorld]

Theres a massive shortage of council housing and the government just sells alot of it off cheap to people who are financially OK .

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

YANBU: BUT YAB a bit ignorant.

Council housing is great. Its nor just for benefits claimants. It was always intended to be for everyone. It was meant to provide an alternative to shitty private rents that was of a decent standard, secure and at a fair rent. It was NOT meant to be only for the poorest.

The problem now, is that the supply of council housing is so low that it can be very hard to get housed unless your circumstances are very urgent. OP: if you live in an area of low supply being on benefits will not do it! Try homelessness, domestic abuse, severe medical problems. Expect to spend several years in "temporary accomodation" first. You are being very flippant to suggest this is a way onto "the property ladder"

You are right to critisise Right to Buy as this is a large reason why the supply of council housing has been depleted. You are correct to note the anomaly of ex council tenants getting to buy much more cheaply. The reason for this is that behind the retoric about helping people into home ownership, Right to Buy is not about helping people onto the property ladder- its about deliberately depleating council housing stock.

You are not far from the most significant loser in this. Spare a thought for families in bed and breakfasts whose potential new home was sold off in the 80's.

Im not sure why you expect the housing market to be fair. Some people are paying less than you because they bought before prices went crazy. Do you resent them as well?

Despite all this, you do have a genuine greivance somewhere underneath the layers of bollocks. In a functioning social housing system people like you and me on (im assuming) low to middle incomes would have had the option to live in council housing in socially mixed communities, at a fair rent. Now we can live in EX council housing, in socially mixed communities and pay market rates!!

Youd just be better off looking at the real reasons for that- instead of having a winge at your neighbours who got there via a different route.

[unlimiteddilutingjuice]

Cross post with OP. I can see you've addressed some of my points in your follow up posts

[sleepyelectricsheep]

YABVVU.

Yes the price if housing is crazy. YABU to blame it on council housing.

In fact if we had lots more council housing it would bring down the price of housing overall.

Your OP should have been:

AIBU to be annoyed there hasn't been a program of building social housing for decades as we're all being screwed over, as if there was a decent stock of council housing fewer people would be working themselves to the bone to pay extortionate private rents, and a bonus would be my house would be cheaper (because of simple supply and demand).

To indulge in this ridiculous jealousy of people on benefits is ludicrous, nonsensical, small minded and lacking in any basic understanding of economics, and smacks of classic divide and rule politics.

Do you work for the Tory PR machine?

If not, please educate yourself, you are being manipulated IMO.

[sleepyelectricsheep]

cross post!

[tomatodizzy]

What is madness is the property market. It makes people lose touch with reality and get jealous or envious of others. That's never very healthy.
My mums neighbour paid 14 times what she paid for her house in 1985. Based on inflation it should be 2 to 4 times, not 14!!

You have a house which you're paying for, many people cannot even get on the property ladder in the first place. I know many people that would give a kidney to be in your shoes, they can get neither their own place nor a council place. The property market is a mess.

[DamnCrazyWorld]

Yes you are right tomato. I do need to be grateful. When you are struggling like I am and barely making ends meet to feed my kids you can get a but fed up and fucked off with the whole thing and can't appreciate the struggles of people more worse off than me.

The whole financial system not just the housing market is messed up.

[sleepyelectricsheep]

"The whole financial system not just the housing market is messed up."

Yes and the media outlets which support those currently in power spent quite a bit if time indulging in manipulation PR which is designed to get you pointing the finger at others in society (eg "benefit scroungers" / "illegal immigrsnts" etc - under the last Tory government you may remember it was "single mothers") rather than laying blame where it is due.

There used to be a law that all new housing developments should include a percentage of affordable housing.

One of the very first things the Tories did wheb they got into office was get rid of this requirement.

They want to extend right to buy to housing association which will only make the situation worse.

They have no plans for a major social housing program, which us what is desperately needed. And in fact would not cost the tax payer any money in the long term - properly managed, a modern scheme of social housing could be an investment for the tax payer as it would bring in income via rents.

If you blame others rather than the policy makers then you are helping them get away with it.

Things aren't the way they are now by accident. If things continue like this, the middle class will shrink and we will end up with a massive gap between the super rich and all the rest of us, scrabbling round to survive and pay our massive mortgages or rents on tiny salaries, with no safety net.

[SharkBastard]

Fear not, us council house residents will have to pay market rate rent soon and then you can feel better

Don't hate the player, hate the game. Redirect your anger at the government

[YANAgurl1973]

Council house residents will only have to pay market rate if they earn over a certain amount.

[LeaveMyWingsBehindMe]

I REALLY REALLY disagree with the council right to buy scheme. It is so flawed in so many ways I don't know where to start.

[Seriouslyffs]

The commodification of social housing is the biggest and most successful exercise in social engineering ever. It's also a fucking disgrace.

[vaticancameos]

Stop being jealous. My life and my children's lives are an utter misery right now. I work full time and yet we are now homeless through no fault of my own. We have nowhere to go.

The council have told us to wait here until the bailiffs come because there is nowhere for us to go. I have spent hours every day trying to find another home. Now we spend the prospect of months of living in a hostel after being dumped on the street. My children don't deserve that.

You have no idea what tha stress and worry is like. Every morning I wake sick with worry. That's what social housing is for. Not to rub your fucking nose in it. Care to swap places?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

You're directing your anger in the wrong place OP. Be angry that there's no affordable housing for those of us who earn little.

[PrincessHairyMclary]

I am in the process of buying my council property. I am 29 with a 6 year old child, I will be living in that property until I am a very old women unless I meet someone else. I work 30 hours a week as a TA at a High School but I would never be able to afford a normal house on my own. However, I get some Housing Benefit paid to me £12per week and only earn enough to pay a small amount of tax etc.

I am very fortunate that due to my Grandparents dying my parents are lending me some of the inheritance money to buy outright with out needing a mortgage. Securing both mine and my daughters future.

However, I would have (just) been able to manage a mortgage to buy it too.

Whilst I would hope my earning potential will increase as my daughter gets older at the current rate for the next 50 years buying my Council property will save at a minimum £30,000 in Housing benefit, more if I find myself in a position where I am unable to work.

[lighteningirl]

Right to buy is wrong. Social housing should be there for those in need as long as they need it. RTB has not helped the housing market crisis it has just helped a selection t percentage unfairly capitalize on it. And OP yanbu. And Vatican I am sorry your life is in crisis that sounds absolutely awful but yavvvvbu to try to shut down the OP with your problems either address her concerns or start your own thread.