To be sick of hearing about 'the housing crisis'?

I live in a similar area to the OP. The part I don't understand is why everything built here is 4/5 bedroom homes at £700K +. This is not addressing the housing crisis. Just lining developers pockets.

Oh my stars those are fabulous. Not cheap but if you're in the south east and have a family sized home affordable I would think.

Living in a cul de sac of 10 homes. I've just calculated that we have 17 spare bedrooms. Only two properties are fully occupied. Four of them are occupied by single people. One occupied by a family of six. The other five are couples. I've never thought just how much space we take up.

@justasking111 we have this type of environment as I mentioned earlier in the thread near us but it comes at a price - and no rentals on these developments .!! They do resell quite well though at the right price.

Here's two both within 10 miles of us -

https://rangefordvillages.co.uk/villages/wadswick-green/?utmsource=gmb&utmmmedium=organic&utmcampaign=wadswick-green

https://www.retirementvillages.co.uk/our-villages/avonpark/?utmsource=local&utmmmedium=organic&utmcampaign=gmb

I live in East Anglia, on the edge of the Fens, in a fairly poor area.

There are very few private rentals coming up, a large amount of council stock but you need to have basically no prospects in life of ever being able to afford private rent to access it.

A few years ago a room as a lodger would be £400 a month, now people would have to pay £600 for a room. Tiny houses are about £1300 a month to rent and they are like gold dust. Flats £900-£1000 and they tend to be old and damp.

It's an absolute disgrace. My son lost his job last year and universal credit left him £300 a month short of being able to pay his rent for a cheap mouldy 2 room flat, because the local housing allowance is unrealistic - there is such a shortage that there is nothing available that matches the local housing allowance. Possibly there might have been something right out in the Fens, but then without a car how would he get back into work?

If he hadn't had me financially supporting him he would have been evicted, street homeless - as a young man he would have had no housing help - and then unable to rent again for years due to having rent arrears.

If there was a lot more housing prices would fall to a reasonable level and people would stand a chance of making progress in life.

@JenniferBooth
Campaign has meticulously documented, a succession of promises to Heygate residents were broken to arrive at a situation where 1,214 council homes were demolished, to be replaced with 2,704 new homes, of which only 82 (3%) are for social rent.

Why did the council allow all the promises to be broken?

How to say you're privileged without saying you're privileged.

In one of the local towns to me we have had a significant amount of new 'affordable' homes built. There has been no new doctors or schools or other essential infrastructure put in place. The affordable homes are all over £250K and/or shared housing. This doesn't help any of the local new adult children who are probably in min wage jobs in this particular area.

The new homes need to be social housing homes which will then be truly affordable for those on normal, full time incomes in the UK.

I'm also in a rural area and it is shocking how many housing developments have gone up but none of the housing is actually affordable for the local youngsters.

The trouble with downsizing are the costs. The stamp duty is onerous. Add in estate agent, solicitors, removals. Any windfall is eaten away.

Retirement homes in the UK are in the main shocking. Long corridors with front doors. service charges for what. 50 flats £4k per annum. It's highway robbery.

Other countries have villages, with gyms, swimming pool, a shop, restaurant. A manager on site, GP/nurse available. A social life if you want one.

We do.... my town has changed more in the past 18 months that it did in 15 years before that

Ah I'm glad you said that. It's certainly logical that they've been considering it. Like second home 200% council tax in parts of Wales now.

I should add this think tank was formed under a conservative government to tax people living in homes with empty rooms.

This is one example (although im sure there are other similar ones), there are thousands of under occupied council homes

Both are issues, along with lots of others.

Land costs alot, building costs a lot. There should be no profit in social housing construction and rental, but it needs to cover its costs long term for the system to be sustainable, which is really difficult, especially in high cost areas.

I work with disabled and life limited children, with parents carrying teenagers up several flights of stairs on their backs to cramped flats where no one gets any sleep because this child's cries and has seizures through the night, and mould on the walls outside them in hospital at least 3 times each winter. As a country we need to do better for our most vunerable.

It would be a bigger vote loser than winter fuel payment removal.

Cannot see that being popular. Nearly everyone we know has spare rooms! Me downsizing won’t really help anyone but I’m sure taking aim at the better off is what makes this country tick. It’s why we cannot get the economy moving. The politics of envy. It’s a big vote loser and won’t happen.

Well if you're happy to pay the extra tax for empty rooms they'll not actually throw you out just tax you on it.

What % of Britain is built on?

No government is nudging me out? Where to? I might need my spare rooms for visitors. I’m not going anywhere. If the state houses people there’s a conversation to be had. Should well off people keep their council housing? A family member has. That deprives far more needy people than me keeping my paid for house. My relative could have bought several houses 25 years ago but didn’t move out. Maybe means testing is needed?

Yet certain MPs and society always used to bang on about ppl not having kids that they couldnt afford....lol

I’m pretty sure it’s less than 10% of the uk that is actually built on. So YABU, massively

Fuck sake im going to have to post the Elephant and Castle example yet a fucking gain,

The Elephant and Castle neighbourhood is being physically, socially and ethnically transformed. This started with the demolition of the Heygate estate, a classic for stigmatised perceptions of council housing and the people who live in it. As the local 35% Campaign has meticulously documented, a succession of promises to Heygate residents were broken to arrive at a situation where 1,214 council homes were demolished, to be replaced with 2,704 new homes, of which only 82 (3%) are for social rent. The HA partner was London and Quadrant. To be eligible for the cheapest one-bedroom home built by them on the Heygate site, people needed a minimum household income of £57,500. The average household income in that part of Southwark is £24,324

1,214 council homes replaced with 82. its not ppl hogging social housing FFS!

This is what I'm struggling with. I also live in a fairly expensive part of the SE and while there are some 1 and 2 bedroom flats mixed in, so many of the new build housing estates are huge and very expensive executive homes.

In the press and from local politicians there is so much touted about the building of affordable housing, but the numbers on housing registers, and homeless households, are ever increasing.

In fact to the contrary, surely all of these lovely 4 bed detached new builds and swanky by to let central flats are just pushing the average housing prices up, with local landlords increasing their own prices on regular houses accordingly.

It's a really unfair situation. People shouldn't have to leave their local areas with family and work ties just to be able to make a start in life and have a secure home. And also, people literally can't just do that, it's obvs not as simple as just moving, you need employment and that's often a reason for areas being cheap to move to - there's less opportunity.

You're right op.
I went to a presentation of an academic study about the housing situation in England. Apparently we have enough housing in the UK to meet needs (although not all in the right place). We have enough bedrooms, it's just massively under occupied with single people in three or four bed houses and families in hotel rooms. Even within council owned accommodation, just under 50% of properties are being under occupied.

A government think tank are looking at all properties. Eg. A couple retired hanging on to four bedroom house. The thinking is to increase council tax because of those wasted rooms. Remove 25% rebates for those living alone. In other words nudge them out by penalising them.

The problem is that if it's only for people in need, it is politically difficult to ensure that there is always adequate funding to maintain the properties or build new social housing.

No one thinks they will be in need. Many people assume they will all be living in 4 bed detached houses they own..the reality is that most people in the uk don't live in 4 bed detached houses. In fact only 63% of households own their home and a big chunk of that are older people.

You need a real mix of people living in social housing. Young people who maybe can't afford private rent and have a life, essential workers living in expensive areas