To think that there is a misunderstanding about social housing.

Not true- look up the housing budget. It’s about 15bn a year

yes there are some subsidized loans too but lots of grants. And rents are not set with reference to house building costs - apart from anything else housing was often built some time ago or transferred from other bodies

There are no grants or tax subsidies. Social housing accounts have legally to wash their own faces.

And when did you buy your house?

lol. Sure it doesn’t. Where are all those grants and tax subsidies going then?

that’s what social housing is- lower cost housing subsidized by the taxpayer

Building costs are paid with loans and rents are set with an element to cover repayment of these. Not for profit organisations are required to plough any surplus back into maintaining and administering the stock. It’s pretty obvious you’re making this up as you go along.

That’s fine but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim to be a taxpayer who pays your own way then take umbrage when challenged because you can’t afford to pay your own way!

and lots of people in their 50s have a mortgage. I do.

Housing associations do commonly make surpluses. And it is fiction that all social rents contain an element to pay for the house build (as I’ve said, these were often paid for in whole or in part by grants or other taxpayer schemes)

I'm in my 50's couldn't get a mortgage if I tried, or pay for private rent.

Nobody benefits from subsidised housing. It doesn’t exist.

A net contributor is someone who earns £40k+
Depending on where you live, that can be fuck all and can even be topped up with UC.

No one in SH has to move if they earn a certain amount. Would you give up a secure tenancy if you didn't need to?

Yes but ‘we’ taxpayers can and do live in Sh….so we are paying tax for SH as a whole

im fine with that tbh…

No. It stays the same. So there are a few very wealthy people benefiting from subsidized housing

Why would it? That does not happen in the private rental sector, or with people who have a mortgage.

Rents go up each year.

people living in subsidized housing may be net contributors but they don’t tend to be. And if they are, perhaps they should consider moving and leaving social housing for those who need it.

Does the rent go up as the occupants earn more money?

People who get benefits (with perhaps the exception of some pensioners) are very rarely net contributors of tax. Maybe some social housing tenants are but again, likely to be the minority.

Exactly 💯

It’s not subsidised.

My parents have been in their council house for over 35 years. They don't claim any benefits. How are they being subsidized?

social housing was funded by the taxpayer then too.

it’s not necessarily wrong to subsidize housing (although often lots of housing associations and councils are rubbish at getting value for money). But it’s nonsense to pretend it’s not subsidized. It is and it’s supposed to be.

"The Taxpayer". Who is this strange person who keeps being mentioned on any thread to do with social housing/benefits?

Many people in SH work and are taxpayers.

In the council I work for, the repairs done by our Building and Maintenance department are done to the best of their ability on a tiny budget which is spread across a few thousand houses and flats.

Yes you will get cheaper vinyl flooring than you would probably like, but you will be given a ( limited) choice and if you want to lay your own, you can. Our budget just doesn’t stretch to anything other than fairly basic materials. As it is we generally run out of money by the end of the year, meaning that anything other than emergency repairs end up being cancelled.

And we do work around school
pick ups, hospital appointments, holidays - hell, one woman I spoke to the other day cancelled the appointment to have her new windows fitted because “Oh no dear, I always go shopping on a Tuesday.” So despite having had the appointment confirmed with her ten days prior by text and email, and the contractors booked for a specific time, we cancelled it and rebooked for a time that she wasn’t out shopping. So that’s one day we had to pay for contractors who we couldn’t use. Multiply that sort of thing by a few times a month and you are racking up loss of time, manpower and resources.

We do not have keys for individual properties, we rely entirely on tenants being home to grant us access. So if they lose their keys ( and oh my GOD they lose them all the time - only the other day someone lost hers in a tree) they have to sort out a new set with a locksmith. At their own expense.

something I DO see in Social housing is that while plenty of people take good care of their properties and maintain them as much as they can and decorate and take pride in keeping them looking nice, the higher percentage of people in SH with mental health issues, chaotic dysfunctional families and anti social personalities means that a high percentage of the houses end up with windows smashed in, furniture trashed, rubbish in the front gardens etc because there’s no money to pay to have it taken away… all of this gets fixed - “for free” by the council.

Then you have heat poverty - and mould. People refusing to ventilate their properties because they don’t want to let precious warm air out resulting in mould. Completely understandable - but who has to fix the mould? The council. We can only do so much - the reasons why people are poor and living in poverty - that ship has sailed. Do I think they should be given more opportunities? Yes. Do I wish the education system hadn’t failed them ( and their parents, this shit is multi generational) Yes of course. Do I wish they would stop having so many children with useless fucking men and perpetuating the cycle of poverty? A hundred times yes. But that is not the fault of the council, it is interlinked and goes back generations now.

It can only be solved by rigorous cross party agreements made and upheld by successive governments with an eye watering amount of funding that tackles education, health, employment and benefits. Which just won’t happen.

My Ha house is already paid for, built 1990.

It’s not fiction, unlike your grants and tax breaks. And what would a not for profit pay corporation tax on? The clue’s in the name.