To turn down council property?

Oh your no beggar lovely
You deserve safe, warm, secure housing like everyone does.

how old are your children? I’m wondering whether there’s a compelling case from the school to support you being nearer? Completely long shot. And you never know if number 2 home will be worse than number 1.

remember where ever it will be. It will be your front door, your sanctuary, where the memories are made for your children. Where they can be free, decorate their rooms and play.

What do you mean you are No 2 now - have you not actually been offered the property by a Housing Officer ?

were you showing as No 1 on the bidding system and now someone else with a ' higher ' need is now No 1.

As for who decides, the computer does it until the time of closing date, then Housing Officers will look at say the top 3 bids.

However it is possible that the current No 1 is also No 1 on 2 other properties ? as down here in Devon you can bid on up to 3 properties each week.
so No 1 may get offered one or other if s/he has bid on 3 properties, s/he may even be offered all 3 properties.

If you can’t afford to private rent then you don’t have a choice.

If you refuse it, you’re intentionally homeless and the council will not help you.

From someone who privately rents. Please please please take the council home. The insecurity of private renting is no way for children to grow up.
I wish you good luck op

You'll have to choose what's more important won't you? Do you want affordable housing or free childcare? Plenty get neither.
Some councils do give you a refusal or two, you'd have to check.

Why turn it down? It's got to be better than living with your parents and your children

Have a little think about why that would be ridiculous.

People are going to work just below whatever threshold there would be so they have secure housing, so they won't be paying as much tax.

Or

People would be kicked out of their secure housing, into the private rental market, and then likely need social housing again at some point.

The whole point in social housing is so families have secure homes.

I’m just replying to your comment about otherwise having to be at the mercy of rents

isn’t that just normal living?

isn’t support supposed to be for those in most need? Shouldn’t we stand aside once we’ve had support and now got to a point of financial stability and security and pass the mantle on to those in greater need? Isn’t this what a compassionate and selfless society should promote?

Why isn't being in a council property being self reliant and managing by yourself?

What a weird take on social housing.

no. Just if you get on your feet with this assistance then it’s time for you to move on to self reliance and let someone else who now needs the leg up to have the assistance
people who don’t qualify are managing. Isn’t this the goal? To self manage? To have help to get you up to the point that other people are on where they can manage themselves without support and then use the housing stock to help those who are now below the line of self managing

This really depends on location. I know someone who got a house in an area where there’s a bus twice a day, she relied on her grandfather but it became impossible once he was too old to drive.

Unfortunately a lot factors into it, it’s difficult to have a simplistic view when it comes to housing.

Getting taxis everywhere soon becomes unaffordable, how else is OP meant to manage working? if their parents are their only support bubble and neither of them drive? Teleport? Just not work? get another job...

plenty of people manage employment without having a car. even with children. There are buses etc.

Keep going and treat it like a full
time mission. Good luck!

The problem with that is that even relatively high earners who are council tenants may still not earn enough to get a mortgage on a similar property (£350k+ for a bog standard 3 bed terrace in my area) and not have a £35k+ deposit, therefore they are shunted back into private renting at the mercy of unscrupulous landlords, insecure tenancy terms and paying 3-4 times more rent! That’s not fair either.

More social housing is the only answer as house prices are never going back to being relative to average salaries, so the rent and the millions spent in housing benefit top ups goes back to councils, not providing private landlords with free pension pots at the expense of families who have to live in terror of a Section 21 and shitty landlords not maintaining properties.

Thank you, I had a friend say the same recently as we live within walking distance of a very good high school!

To be fair the whole area is good, it’s just that most people seem to want to be swapping between houses, no one is looking for a flat :(

You're talking way too much sense Blubbyblub.

IME having worked for my local council some years ago, if the council bid on it for you rather than you bidding on properties you are interested in, that generally means you have been allocated it through the homelessness policy. With my council, if you turn it down the council will discharge their duty to you unless you can prove it is not suitable on medical grounds. Distance from support networks/not having transport won’t count.

Are you not on the general council housing waiting list? That can take many years though.

I’d advise you to check your council’s allocation policy for homelessness OP, and you should seriously think about taking it as private renting with children is very insecure and obviously a lot more rent.

You could try it and then go into private renting if it really is awful. You have nothing to lose at this point.

How old are your DC? If you work, would you be better off on benefits if under school age for a few years so you don’t need childcare? Retrain for a better job in the meantime or study (with childcare grants if studying) so you are in a better position to have more housing choices later on? Could you learn to drive now you can save money for cheaper rent if DC are pre-school etc. Even on benefits with maintenance loan for a Uni course, you may be better off.

This offer may well change your life, if you use it cleverly to improve your prospects, within the safety net of a secure home.

Could you say it’s too far from your current job?

What a load of bitter nonsense being spouted on this thread.

In most areas, you can say no at least once and still stay where you are on the list.

Awful to see how much some begrudge getting any help whatsoever.

Get on Homeswap and Facebook howe swapping sites- and start talking to people. People swap all the time no matter what the area or standard of accommodation for a
multitude of reasons

No, you just get to keep it. I have a coworker who was a single parent, eventually married someone who earns very well and they’re on about 80 to 100k/year on a rent for a whole house that’s less than my shitty flat.

I’m very supportive of social housing but I do think that after a certain threshold it should be made vacant for the next family in need.

Accept it so that you’re in the system but start building up the case to move out of there straight away. Contact CAB if needed.

I didn’t know this was a “thing” so I accepted a flat in a crack den building and have been trying to make the best of it while I’ve seen other neighbours with children come and go. I’m trying to set up the paperwork now, but if I knew I could request being on a moving list I would have done it years ago. I just didn’t know it existed.

Or considered to meet the bar for homelessness based on occupying accommodation its unreasonable to expect her to occupy. LAs have different interpretations. That's why the OP needs impartial advice from Shelter.