Why do people look down on council houses

[Easystuff]

Just that really why do others look down on council/social houses. I don't understand. There's no special treatment. It's not unusual, it's been about for many years. It's now pretty hard to get social housing. There are thousands of family waiting lists, being made homeless. Through no fault of their own. It's pretty awful out there.

But are you really? Compare the rental price of a similar home which is privately rented against the rent you are paying. Yours will almost certainly be cheaper. And you may argue that that is because private landlords are charging too much, but others will argue that you are being subsidised.

Urgh, can all the people who have quoted me stop, I understand it's not free, hence why I used tools to highlight that part...

Thank you

It only seems to be in the UK. In Singapore about 75% of the country live in government or ex government housing. The astonishing programme of government housing that the Sing government created years ago should be looked at by other governments around the world.

Sorry lol

I don’t look down on anyone’s situation whether they rent or buy, most people are beholden to someone in terms of paying something every month to keep the roof over their head.

however, at least around here, the council houses tend to be the uglier, poorer built houses in the village. My grandad owns his ex council house and it’s just so poorly constructed - massive windows, poorly insulated.

what annoys me more is that affordable housing being built even now is much less aesthetically pleasing than the more expensive exec homes on the same development. It’s a social order which shouldn’t exist anymore but for some reason it does - those who can’t afford as much rent/mortgage have to live in the ugliest houses on the block.

In our area the houses are not kept very tidy - messy front gardens etc so overall the area isn’t smart

im sure that isn’t true of all of course but it is on the roads near us

We are in a council HA property in an affluent market town, pay rent, council tax, HUGE service charges! all electric, lack of privacy, outside and stairwell lights on all night,
people here have tales to tell as do we, but not saying.
Last month I was assured by someone I just met that we were ‘lucky’ to have our apartment as, if we were rnting privately, we would pay twice as much, said as though somehow I would not know this.
Knowing how she came by her dismal dark tiny flat I did wonder why she didn’t keep this opinion to herself.
Perhaps its warped and twisted jealousy, who knows, why even comment?

Anyone with their wits about them could tell by our manner, dress, speech, demeanour that we have not lived most of our lives in a cardboard box under the railway arches ?!?

All those people turning their noses up at decent law abiding citizens paying rent, so putting into the town/county,
the women who shunned me at WI and other clique driven clubs soon as they learned where I lived,
cos they think, in this civilised, quiet enclave, which has been here for longer than many of them have lived, that somehow we are despoiling their hometown which they believe is their own private Shangri La.

I’m in London and a lot of people who aren’t entitled to SH resent those that are. As they often have to move miles out to find somewhere affordable to rent or buy. So they often come out with how “unfair” it is that people on benefits can live in zones 1 and 2 and they can’t! I’ve heard that from a few people. They know that I’m in SH and I work so why they assume all SH tenants are unemployed I don’t know! Or maybe they just resent the unemployed ones more.

I know someone who was too “proud” to get SH when they would have been eligible. Long story short they’re now in a house share in their 50s. So if people look down on me so what? I’m happy in my lovely spacious home that’s mine until I die.

It’s the actions of some people in social housing that make it so. I live in an average village in a fairly nice area and the new estate has a percentage of social housing. It is rough, you wouldn’t go there at night, it stinks of weed and the kids are lawless round there. This is obviously not a majority but it’s the thing that people think of when they think of social housing. I grew up in a council house so I certainly don’t think less of people in them but my mum worked hard to save a deposit to buy a house so we didn’t use our council house for longer than necessary. This is clearly not possible for most with the house prices now but I think some people think social housing should be a short term measure not a life long benefit due to the extreme shortage now. I also would have loved to be able to have one short term whilst we were financially on our knees a few years ago but we never would have qualified

It’s funny you mention the affordable houses looking different because I have also noticed this. New build estates (at least where I am, not sure if it is everywhere) have to allocate a small % of their houses to affordable housing. We live on a new build estate, all of our homes look near enough the same and the site looks lovely, but the affordable housing homes that have been build on our site are right round the side and don’t look the same as our houses despite being all being built together by the same builder

In several villages round here, they built a street of council houses in the 1960/70’s
And then proceeded to move problem families out of the nearest city. Memories in villages are long!

Private landlords and social landlords get their loans from different sources.

Oh and back in the day my mum's mortgage was with the LA. I've heard of other people in different LA's who had the same.

In addition my mum and other people with different mortgage providers (so building societies) got grants for improvement works on their homes.

I lived next door to a council house - our houses were identical as were all the neighbouring one.
As an owner our mortgage was £800 pcm vs £480 pcm rent for the council tenants. We had to pay for repairs, new kitchen, windows etc and they didn’t.
Basically our houses were the same but we were paying substantially more.

I see can the above situation causing jealousy issues particularly if the homeowners are struggling the tenants are living a more lavish lifestyle.

Does the area have the abbreviation P.P, per chance?

Free is a random parameter - churned out in the hatefest against pensioners,
low income families, disabled and long term sick, for having free spectacles, dentistry, travel, which is untrue and not without its limitations.
In life no one has everything, those living in squalor are avoided by decent right thinking citizens, no one is about to voluntarily move next door to a mattress in the front filthy household.
There are some invalid, entrenched views on here : a little cerebral expansion would not go amiss.

short term benefit against long term gain -

Lots of people are lacking things in their own lives, some people act in an unpleasant manner to make themselves feel better (like school bullies), some of those people pick HA tenants to bully. They could do something and tackle that missing thing, but instead they pick on others, its a bit of a sad existence really.

I have a HA house, 4 bedroom with an extension, 80ft garden lots of storage outside with brick sheds, garage and drive for two cars. My rents £520 a month love it. I think those that look down on SH/council property's are somewhat jealous because they paying more than half their wage on a mortgage that they are one bad month from losing and falling on their arse.

They aren't though they pay rent and they also have to work for it

Rent should be cheaper than a mortgage. It should be substantially cheaper. Paying a mortgage is like putting your money into savings with a very high interest rate. Renting is putting your money into someone else's savings account with a high interest rate. Owners can pay off their mortgages and live in their property for free for the rest of their lives. Then they can sell their properties and get all their money back and typically a huge profit on top of it. They will essentially have lived in their house for free. Long term renters will pay each month until they die and will not see a penny of it back. Why would anyone think rent should be the same as a mortgage?

I think Flam was being ironic

People are jealous of the new kitchen etc until you see it or open a cupboard.

Knowing people in council housing you don't have up put up with the shoddy kitchens and workmanship they have to deal with. If the tenants are builders/good at DIY they can minimise how much the council appointed workmen do on their homes.

We should have more SH. Really private renting should be rare.

Housing associations are generally not for profit so all rent is reinvested into the housing after wages for staff. This creates wealth as companies are employed to keep homes in good condition.

Private landlords have been raking it in for decades (if they weren't they wouldn't have numerous let's) but let's blame poor people for having something shall we?

They don't get it for "free" though;rent has to be paid.