Social housing - unfair reputation

It’s not just social housing that you can find pests. I remember going for a coffee at the home of a school mum friend. Beautiful house in a lovely cul de sac. We sat in the garden listening to the people next door screaming “cuuuunt” at each other. Another example are neighbours of a relative. Rows and plate smashing that goes on for hours. Lots of people don’t give a fuck wherever they live and it’s getting worse.

The arsehole on my road (badly parked cars all over the place but complains about other people's visitors or carers parking on the street, goes out and leaves teenage daughters to have noisy parties and is generally a rude argumentative arsehole) owns the most expensive house.

I think new build social housing has higher rent. Saw one ( 2 bed)advertised at £230 a week which isn't that cheap ( not London )

That's fair enough I've had people online say similar to me before and I'm not calling anyone a liar but I've never experienced it a new estate has been built in my town and quite a few of my friends have moved there some housing association and some with mortgages and some regular renter's and theres no difference in the houses other than the housing association houses are way way cheaper.

My mother's flat was built in the sixties or seventies I think, her rent is straight up a third of what some of her privately renting neighbours pay. I find it hard to buy it when people insist their council rent is almost as much as private rent mainly because my mother tries saying the same thing 😂

Don’t live in social housing or near social housing. In both our houses we’ve had some very problematic neighbours indeed. Idiots come in all income brackets!

It wouldn't work though. Think of the saying that it only takes one bad apple in a bag to ruin the other good ones

I live in a small gated close once. There were about 22. houses and flats . 2 of gem were social housing but they weren't identical to the private ones. The rooms were smaller and the interiors were more basic plus they didn't have drives. A friend of mine lived in one and her rent was about £20 a month less than my mortgage

What do you mean how you pay? I'm just saying with these new estates I'd be pissed if my rent or mortgage cost two or three times as much for the same house as someone across the street especially if neighbour across the street is engaging in constant irritating behaviour.

Not saying all council/housing association tenants are irritating before you accuse me of being a snob like I said I grew up in one and mother still lives there complaining when her rent goes up by peanuts each year. She did not believe me when I told her I know someone private renting an identical flat to hers across the road for three times as much.

@UnderratedCabbage Its a similar story in an estate the next town over it used to be nice lots of people / their families lived there since it was new 50+ years ago. Then the council moved in drug addicts there were lots of issues and complaints but slowly the older tenants have moved out to sheltered housing. The families moved out to new build HA accommodation and now it’s like the badlands. I think the idea was mixing tenants needing support into an established community would lift them up rather than housing everyone needing support in one place. maybe it is successful in some places but not there.

how you pay for where you live should not make a difference.
and paying a mortgage will give you capital that those who rent will not have as well as Security

There was an interesting history of one council estate near where I lived for a bit.
At that time it was known as an absolute shithole, I believe most were now demolished. But when it was originally built and allocated by council it was lovely. The old timers had amazing stories and pictures of how everyone cared for the estate. Then the mandatory housing rules came and council had to house everyone (can't remember details, that's what they said) and that brought issues. Alcohol, drugs, anti social behaviour, crime. One by one old timers left because they couldn't deal with breakins, the mess and the assaults, were replaced by more problem people and it ended up as notorious "don't walk there even during daylight" area type.

We had lots of SH on our street. Mix of owned and SH. All were lovely, cared, worked etc. One family was moved in and all hell broke loose. Many owners and most SH tenants went after the HA like there was no tomorrow. Peace was restored. The SH tenants were actually the most vocal about this (i think it had bit of a "stop giving us bad name in it too).

It's the few who ruin it. The big issue comes when the HA etc move more than one or two of "the few" into one place.

I live in a street with a mixture of council houses and private houses, was previously all council but people have bought them over the years. We’ve been here 2.5 years, both neighbours either side of me bought. I’m a council tenant. I was fortunate to be given a home after a very traumatic marriage breakdown and me and my two kids moved into a shell of a house and slowly made it a home. I work, always have, albeit part time. I’ve poured my heart into this home and had nothing but problems. One neighbour has pretty much bullied me into replacing the garden fencing, objected and reported me to the council when I put a shed up even though I’d had written permission to do so and is generally an absolute arse. I’m seen as scum, how can I have nice things? Even questioned me when I bought a bbq and garden furniture last summer! Their house is bloody awful, she asked for my net curtains when I put up blinds and insisted on taking the old fence panels (which were apparently falling apart according to her) and used them at the back end of her garden! CF doesn’t come close 🤨 Oh and we now have a gutter issue out the back on her side adjoining my gutter which is leaking and will need replacing. She’s made it clear she’s not doing it.. I need to get the council to sort it out 😤 the other side is an elderly couple who’s garden is completely overgrown with 8ft weeds and the fence is caving in - I’m saving to replace that as well now. Just thought I’d share the other side of the story. I just want to be able to live a quite life.. never been in trouble with the police, have two amazing teens and we love our home but sadly our neighbours are less than favourable.

These new estates 😩I would be pissed off too if my mortgage/rent cost three times as much as the rent of someone in an identical house on the other side of the street.

no I am not a "snob" before someone starts I grew up in one, mother still lives in it today and complains every year about the rent going up (she genuinely has no idea that some of her neighbours pay three or even four times as much rent for the same thing)

We had a new build next to us with social housing. The antisocial behaviour is appalling. Even if 80% are perfectly nice people you got the 20% who ruin everything : music blasting, honking horns, dogs running loose, a lot of yelling and screaming swear words. I know one mother who lives there who is greatful to have a nice newbuilt appartment for her family (pays 200/month) but even her says she's sick of her neighbours and would like to move (but good luck finding a 3 room appt for 200/month).

I live in a development with social housing and the SH tenants are my favourite neighbours by far. What I would say though is that the large number of residents who privately own and have a big financial stake in their homes create an atmosphere of extreme care in the estate. I am a huge fan of mixed developments.

I’m glad it’s been nice for you. I’ve known other people have a terrible experience with it. And it can be very hard to sell up and escape from, as PP said.

Society is different now imo. Times have changed.

A family moved in next door to my mum's council house who were pretty awful-swearing over the fence, stealing bikes, causing damage, throwing stones and often being brought home by the police. This was in the 60s-I think there have always been some families like this.

My estate of over 100 houses has a handful of SH scattered around it.
The selection criteria was that you had to be working but on a very low income.
Most of the houses on my estate range from £260-£400K. You genuinely can't tell whose SH and whose not. Unless they've changed their front door then you know they own 😂

I really like our estate, it's got lovely views, it's quiet, the kids do normal things like play outside, the parking can be a pain at times but that's a problem everywhere.

i remember a colleague complaining about social housing being built in estates.
i was not impressed with her complaints
i think it is a great idea

Just because you had a lucky escape doesn't mean everyone has.

There are stories upon stories of people who have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds and then struggled to sell because of social housing occupiers or had to live in fear with nightmare neighbours.

I live in an area where there's no social housing and believe when I say inconsiderate neighbours come from all walks of life.

There's good, bad and extremely entitled people in a majority of areas.

Not sure. We were looking to buy a gorgeous house,put an offer in as there was a lot of interest,then checked the crime stats and it had an obscene amount of robberies and burglaries for the area,which had council housing close by. We pulled out.

New builds have to provide a certain number of affordable properties. This isn't the same as what we think of as 'council housing'

There are lots of loopholes among housing association properties that exclude those who are most likely to cause problems.

For mine the stipulation was that tenants had to be in paid work & have no 'support needs' so that excluded anyone from applying that was in any kind of supported hostel, shelter etc, anyone with drug, alcohol or complex disability or mental health needs.

Affordable housing can also be 'keyworker' housing so only eligible to people employed as doctors, nurses, teachers, police - so actually middle class groups rather than typical social housing tenants.

Obviously makes these estates 'nicer' & more marketable whilst getting around the 'sicial housing' stipulation for the development.

It also raises the problem of where will the most deprived 'problem' people be housed.

I've lived on a council estate for 52 years. I loved it when I was a kid. My parents worked. There were many Good people. Good neighbours who you knew. Good schools. Good friends. My husband was from the same kind of upbringing. We bought our house and still live there but when the youngest goes to uni we will be looking to downsize to a private estate. Society is different now imo. Times have changed. Speaking about my estate only as i cant speak for all obvs...there are still some amazing lovely people here but there are less people who care about where they live and more who dont. Less people working. Less people who care about their house and take pride in it. Less people caring about their street. Less people being neighbourly. We have had serious issues with one family. 3 x 15 and 16yo who don't give a flying fk about schooling or manners or anyone . Kicking footballs off our windows and doors. Giving cheek when passing their door. They think they're untouchable. In the old days we'd go out and say be careful with the ball kids and they'd say sorry. Now they say I live here and will kick it wtf I want so fk off. They lit a bbq 3 foot from our front door and sat there with sausages lol. Needless to say this has resulted in lotttttts of arguments. We reported them to the council 2 months ago after they said theyd smash our daughters face in and called my husband a fat cnt after smashing the ball off the window and giving the vs to the ring doorbell. That went down well 🤣. Theyve been quiet since. But we dread the summer holidays. We just had the front garden fenced in last week because of this. They're just vile tbh. Windows are smashed. Council won't fix them. School and social workers there wvery week. They've been moved 3 times already round the estate. It's these people that spoil it for everyone else.

waits for the SH haters.