Council housing in the seventies

[rattymol]

In the seventies one third of people in Britain lived in a council house. Council houses were built because of the terrible way private landlords behaved and the poor standard of housing many people lived in. We are returning to those days
4.5 million households privately rent with 23% of that housing deemed not to meet the decent homes standard. We need council housing again.

I don't think it works like that though. My sil has been in the same house 30 years her kids are now adults and still live there with partners too. So 4 earners in a three bed house. I assume the rent is mean tested as her UC changes all the time, one son moved out with a gf a few years ago and she had to pay more. As adults they are surely all assessed individually.

Rent isn't means tested as such. Rent is a fixed amount, if you earn under a set threshold then you can get help with your rent via the benefits system form a percentage right up to the whole amount (there are limits set on the maximum amount that will be covered based on how many bedrooms you're assessed as needing and local housing allowances).

Many social housing tenants are employed and pay full rent.

@Lightninginabox they realised it was an investment. It makes economic sense. At the moment, as in the past, the government is paying vast sums of money in housing benefit to modern slum landlords.
Borrow the money to build council housing and the cost of repaying the debt will soon be less than the cost of housing benefit taking into account rents paid to the. Council as well.

And there was never any desire to replace the sold off council houses. The money went to central government so local government did not have the money and central government had no political will to build.

Yes sorry, the level of help to pay the rent is means tested so if they are earning over 120k they will be paying full rent for the area like we do private renting.

Agree we need more council houses.

But I also think it’s outrageous than older people live in 3/4 bedroom council homes way after their children have grown up. They should be moved to size appropriate council properties.

Right to buy needs to be stopped, we are a very different country to the Britain of the late 1970's when it was introduced.

My local council is buying ex council houses back where it can to increase their stock. (They kept their houses, never passed them on to a housing association when that was a thing, which in hindsight has been helpful to them)

@SemperIdem then offer old people practical help to move and a new place close by. For many elderly people moving house, redecorating and carpeting is both too expensive and too overwhelming.
The council should offer to pay for movers that will pack up move belongings and unpack at the other end.

And make sure there are suitable smaller properties for them not just high rise flats with dodgy lifts. But yes clearly under occupation is a problem and when there’s limited housing it should be allocated by need not sentimentality.

It's often the children hoping to inherit the tenancy that encourage them to stay. Many councils changed the tenancy t&Cs a while back to prevent this under occupation of family houses in old age, tenants will be allocated a smaller property. No idea how it's going to work in practice when the time comes.

In many cases certainly ,in my housng association,children can't just inherit the tenancy ,when we got our house it was made very clear there can only be one succession of tenancy ,so I'm a joint tenant with my dh,if one ours dies,the other inherits the tenancy as a single tenant ,our kids can't then continue to inherit the tenancy

A lot of council housing was built after WW2 to house families and to deal with the baby boom. What has buggered it all up is the right to buy. What incentive does any council have to build new housing knowing that they can be forced to sell it at a pittance of the market price? There was scummy landlords before and after the war and there are scummy landlords now, there is nothing new in that.

My parents lived in a council house. I could not have inherited the tenancy. These rules were all changed a long time ago.

I agree. Should be fine limited

Some new towns sprung up in the 50's and 60's to ease overcrowding in London, eg Harlow and Stevenage. My parents moved from north London to a new town in the 50's, following my dad's job relocation. His employer moved from London to a new purpose-built factory in a new town. Tens of thousands of others moved for similar reasons, and most of us lived in council houses. I dare say that much the same happened in other parts of the country too.

I agree with you - we do need proper council houses again.

Yes maybe but right to buy finished all that - you will never get serious property development in this country without profit making builders being paid and charging market rate.

You buy a council house, you were part of the problem. Like all assets, they have pretty much enabled those who benefited to move on, but leave nothing behind. It's like privatizing your own advantages and then wondering why your kids have nowhere to live.

I think the right to buy scheme was a bad idea and compounded by the fact that the money raised could not be used to build replacement properties.

'Half the proceeds of the sales were paid to the local authorities, but the government restricted authorities' use of most of the money to reducing their debt until it was cleared rather than spending it on building more homes.'

I wonder what happened to the other 'half of the proceeds'? Absorbed by the Government I suppose.

Same in our area, x2boys.

A nearby neighbour lived in a council house with his wife. She died. He married again six months the later, but even his new wife would not have been able to stay in the property if he died before her.

Omfg!
You can't believe people in Northampton of all places can earn £120k between 2 people, so £60k each??
Do you think they even live in houses there? Perhaps they have caves?

Interestingly, my elderly mum has mentioned on various occasions that even a bank manager and a headmaster lived in the council houses built down the road from her in the 1940s (Yorkshire), so it seems that income was irrelevant back then!

Why should there be a time limit? That would make it as stressful as private renting.
There was a massive building plan after the 2nd world war, not only to give everyone who needed it a safe home to live in, but to also boost the economy. It worked until Thatcher came along with her right to buy scheme. That and her privatisation of essential services were the worst things to happen to this country apart from Brexit.

And where does the person go after their 2 years are up? If there are no affordable private rents in the area then what? Moving away from the area isn't much good if it means they have to give up their job....so they become unemployed and homeless. I guess that would mean that they qualify for a council property until they get back on their feet.

Not really thought that idea through have you?

I think as well as family homes we also need to have some council homes built that are adapted for elderly people and those with disabilities especially wheelchair users. Also there is a huge lack of one bedroom places so single adults and childless couples are ending up being homed in 2 bedroom flats which means less people can be homed and that they end up paying more rent or if on benefits they are paying under occupation penalties aka bedroom tax.

There are no "size appropriate " properties in the areas where they've lived for probably most of their lives, have roots and are part of the community.

Which is why we need more of them.

Building more social housing really makes a huge difference.

where I live there has been a big building project by two HA’s over the last few years. It’s had a brilliant impact on the local rents market. It’s given renters more freedom to be picky. As a LL who rents out decent places at fair prices it’s made zero impact on me (except with movement of tenants as both my properties have had adaptations). It’s completely forced the shittiest LL’s out of business though - which is brilliant.

I also think, in England, there needs to be a change of mindset on social housing. In the bit of Scotland my family comes from you can’t actually tell the social housing in the new area from the bought houses. You will in years to come if people change windows and the like, but atm there are fully bought, shared ownership, affordable rent and social housing all in the same area. Takes away any stigma as no one can really tell who is what.