Offered council house in a not very good area?

No. I am saying council houses always used to be for low wage decent hard working people.

Now they are taken by the entitled and lazy. People who have kids they blatantly can't afford. Women who choose loser partners. No planning and foresight and understanding that everyone experiences their 'rainy day' Throw in DV, MH and 'working around' benefit rules and kerching!! Shameless and grabby.

These people have ruined it for those who genuinely need council housing not to mention the legalised theft from the taxpayer.

I privately rent. I’ve paid out over £300,000 in rent so far. By the time I “retire” I expect to have paid close to a million.
we can afford the mortgage. We just don’t have the loan to wage borrowing power.

You’ve got your mortgage. You’re not in the “system”. Tenancies are for life. Plus you need people to pick on and look down on. I don’t know why you’re butting in.

I would just take it.
People move for all sorts of reasons, the house we rented in our mid 20s was lovely, still has the same neighbours who were ideal friendly neighbours, but it has had a very high turnover since we moved other than one tenant for a few years. It's just down to circumstance. For all you know the tenant could've had to move for work or caring responsibilities or relationship breakdown or inherited a house or needing a larger or smaller property. People don't only move because the house or neighbours are bad.

People with pride? Who don't want to rely on the system! People who don't want to live in a rough area! Personally, I'd rather have my mortgage but whatever. But nobody should complain about lack of housing when people are taking it all out of greed rather than need. As I said on another post, sit back & think who that greed impacts, homeless, people facing homelessness due to job loss, people fleeing domestic violence with no one to turn to etc.

Are you saying there are no decent people who can’t afford a mortgage?? What skewed thinking.

Who in their right mind would strive to rent privately?

To the OP if she is still here, you may want to ask your housing officer if you can be bypassed for the property if it's in a really bad area and you feel unsafe, some councils let you turn down one or two offers, not all councils do this. Good luck 🤞

I always find these threads hilarious.. if you want a council house so much, give up your owned property and move into temporary accommodation (much the same as where migrants stay, hotels etc) live there for months or years, until you finally get an offer - and you can't turn this down or you'll be on the streets, even if it is in the roughest part of town..!

If you have a mortgage you have an asset, you have choice, you have something to leave your children. People in social housing do not have that.

So they are to save you money are they? This is why homeless people are screwed even if they are motivated to get off the street because these properties are occupied by people like you who are doing it out of greed! You can afford to private rent but abuse the system just to save money! There are many people that can't get a roof over their head any other way than by council housing and there's waiting lists of tens of thousands in every area because people who can afford private rent are too greedy to do so! Where else did you think people in genuine shit situations were meant to live! Shameful!

Buy my guess is that NHS worker is a full time worker, probably doesn't have a husband on a full time wage didn't have several kids in the space of less than 4 years! I'm sure even the NHS worker strives to have a home of their own one day. There isn't the housing stock for people to get one and hang on to it for life.

Completely disagree….council houses provide a secure tenancy for as long as people want them and that’s how it should be……why would someone want to move from paying 450 for a 3 bed to pay in excess of 1100? ( that’s the difference in my area) ….l.council ones were never solely intended for people ‘in dire need’ ….don’t know where you got that idea from?

People complain about lack of available council housing yet so many on here are advocating getting a council house and keeping it for life just to avoid having the responsibility & cost of private renting? What happened to these houses being for people in dire need? These houses should be help people who are in a real struggle to get into a situation where they can strive to improve their lives and move on and hand it to someone else that needs it!

Maybe use the opportunity to move somewhere where you can get a full time job and then strive to have a mortgage or private rent and hand the council house back for people that need a help up. You don't want to be raising kids in a crap area either, we've enough feral kids in society.

She also listed high rates of drug use and dealing in the area, issues with theft and inadequate rubbish disposal, high rates of asb in the area and high rates of tenant turnover despite the property itself looking nice suggests issues with neighbours and stated it is right on a busy main road which is an issue when you've a few kids under 4. But sure... focus only on the lamppost.

But then again the lamppost could also attract young people to gather outside creating noise etc or could also create issues for small kids sleeping . So I'd say that's a fair concern.

The op has listed a lamp post as a reason for potentially turning it down. I wouldn't say that's a particular hardship.

Our council also has a company that builds homes..these are priced at market rent or sometimes a smidge below. The council also builds council homes ( a few a year I think).

But if you had the entitlements and knew someone was going to offer you an alternative that might have been safer for your kids would you have waited/ held out? Or do you think anyone claiming benefits should just be stuck wherever even though that means they're much less likely to actually sustain the tenancy they are given? Irregardless of support/ kids schools/ vulnerability/ previous trauma etc etc.

Honestly it's like some people are so fixated on feeling aggrieved about how taxes are spent that they forget there are actual human beings in challenging circumstances who are on the other end of this. If you want someone to be mad at be cross at government for not capping rent prices/purchase of multiple homes/ under cutting all our public services for years even before covid. It's not the person just doing their best to put a roof over their kids heads you need to be looking at.

HA have to either buy or build their property in order to increase their portfolio of available properties. In many areas building new is not easy or possible so they have no choice but to pay market value to purchase private properties to then rent them out. Then they need to recoup that cost by inflating rent prices for tenants. It's driven by multi-private landlord/ second home owner greed in part.

"Sick of these people who aren't prepared to pay the market rate and waste money whilst decent people save"

Which people are 'these' people?? The ones claiming the benefits they're entitled to? Most benefits claimants also work. You also cannot have savings over a certain amount without losing your benefits so if you have the means to save then you're unlikely to be on benefits long term. Who's saying that benefits claimants are wasting their money? Who wants to be living hand to mouth in order to get a few pound off the bru ffs.

Affordable housing is a massive issue because people's wages have not increased at the same rate the cost of living and the cost of accommodation has increased creating a huge discrepancy in cost vs salary.

"Karma awaits." Appropriate and affordable housing contributes to better health outcomes, better education outcomes, better child development outcomes, reduction in crime and disorder, improved mental health and overall a better economy. If you really think everyone should pay the same rate irregardless of their situation, means or circumstances then you will absolutely experience karma when you see the impact on the society you have to live in. You don't get to live in a nice civilised society without taking care of the most vulnerable and the less well off, that's just the way societies work.

I'd also question what you class as 'decent' because I wouldn't class the recommendations made in your post as remotely decent.

Im confused. How is it a council house if it was only purchased a few years ago? Are councils buying pr for rent now? (If so I had no idea!) if they are renting them out for almost the same as private rental value… you may as well rent privately and have more choice in where to live! Or is it an ex council house that is now being rented out privately by a landlord?

Yes, lots of people do save for a long time to buy their own home. However not many leave themselves homeless or in unsafe/suitable accommodation while they do it. If you have the means to buy then you presumably have savings well beyond the threshold for housing related benefits and could afford private rental so I'm not sure what your point is there? Also part of the reason why we struggle with social housing now is because so many social tenants bought their home.

I'm not clear on your point about rent though? Ops entitlement will be the same irregardless?

Shockingly, I had to rent a flat in a high crime area with a lamp post AND a bus route outside when I had nowhere else to live. I had to pay for it myself too.

With the news of imminent tax rises this thread is either a wind up or wins the most tone deaf award.

Yes ive never understood why ppl are happy to leave the children they claim to love to be looked after by people they have nothing but contempt for.

Me too 😂

Take it.