High joint income and in social housing with no plans to buy. Celebrate or selfish?

[SocialHousedNHappy]

I’ve been wondering about for some time and completely understand the dire and desperate situation that many people and families find themselves in. But… I hate the way that social housing is seen as only for the most desperate, when it was introduced as a housing option for all.

My household brings in a healthy income and we pay less than 10% to our monthly rent. This means we get enjoy a modest lifestyle and put some money aside for adult DC for when they’re older - they can then choose to buy whatever they fancy, car, house deposit, uni, whatever as will be their choice.

I hate that people seem to think that I should give up my secure tenancy and move into private rent. Looking on rightmove, a comparable house would be around 3x what I’m currently paying in rent, and to be honest, I wouldn’t move to private rented ever again. But why do people react as thought I’m doing something wrong, in the same way as they think of benefit cheats? I think the govt should be put under pressure to build more social housing - proper social housing, rather than the current situation where people are pit against each other and blaming each other for what is clearly a government failing.

I don’t want to sound like I’m gloating, because I’m not, but I don’t see why I should feel bad and not celebrate the life and comfort that my social housing has allowed me to enjoy.

I’m genuinely interested to hear if anyone agrees and feels the same.

That's interesting to know as where I live the same HA manages the whole lot but the rents and charges are different for different types of tenant (all within the same buildings). As you can imagine, this leads to all sorts of tensions and resentments.

The only 'benefit' the people who have the right to fully buy their flats have is they are the ones on the highest levels of the building with the amazing views. However, that comes with downsides such as when the lifts are broken its a long walk!
It turned out after the building was completed that we don't fully comply with the best practice fire health and safety legislation re exit stairwells - not great if you're up on the 15th floor. Also there's major issues with the temperatures of the high up flats in sunny weather. So... I dunno, nobody gets an easy ride.

There's a housing crisis all over the UK.

I already said I don't know about remote areas and also places like Wales / Scotland

So you KNOW that there is a housing crisis all over the UK, aka in every last bit, despite knowing nothing about 2 out of the 4 countries (and I'm guess you probably know nothing about Northern Ireland you just didn't even think of mentioning them) or large chunks of remote areas of the country...

It must be fascinating to be the kind of person who thinks they can make strong pronouncements on the state of the whole UK whilst paying absolutely to attention to most of the countries that make up the UK.

@LittleMissSunshiner
There's a housing crisis all over the UK then you say you know nothing about Scotland or Wales, they're sort of the UK.
Tbh I'm quite concerned you work in housing with the utter crap you've come out with.

I'll let you guess where I'm from by my user name 🤣🤣

Posted too soon, where I am from is irrelevant, you should learn not to make sweeping statements on topics you know nothing of. I always forget there are people who think England IS the U.K.

You know when you can tell a poster probably lives in London and presumes London issues must be the same in Denbigh or Oban or Derry because London = UK 🙄

I'm not in a remote area and there is no housing crisis here.

Of course there's a housing crisis all over the UK when the Government are talking of putting lawful refugees and immigrants on cruise liners and sending them to live in Rwanda etc. When there's countless families living in one room emergency accommodation and there's countless people living in charitable hostel places.

Where are the places that there's no housing crisis and a person can easily get allocated a home is my question?

I have helped people in all sorts of locations from the north and south of the UK with their housing cases.

How I do this is by checking legislation and the allocations policies of the relevant local authorities, which is easy enough to do and keeping myself abreast of changes in UK central govt legislation.

I have clearly stated that I don't know the whole of UK or remote areas. I'm not claiming to be some crazy know it all and even if I did seem to, then I apologise, I am not.

So moving on from your mocking me and deriding me, why don't you try to be helpful to those people who might be on this thread and are desperate to know how and where they can get a safe social housing tenancy over their head - some of them have been on this thread and shared their stories. If you help me out here, I can share my knowledge and help vulnerable and frightened people.

I am directly asking you - what areas is there no housing crisis? In these areas can people from 'out of area' join the housing registers?

What area roughly please?

I have helped people in all sorts of locations from the north and south of the UK with their housing cases.

England. You help people from the North and South of England. If you don't know Scotland then you don't help people in the north of the UK because that is Scotland.

If you are asking for help it would be useful if you stopped with the UK=England. Because if you don't deal with Scotland and Wales then me telling you areas in Wales will be of no help to you whatsoever and a colossal waste of my time. And completely irrelevant to the thread.

But she is asking to benefit people and out of spite presumably noone is answering. Where can you get on the list with no priority need or local connection? As some people reading might be willing to move anywhere in England say if they could get a permanent lease and would find that info very helpful. As would little miss in her voluntary? Work.

You're correct, I would be best served using the word 'England' with regard to people I have actually helped insofar as they were located in England and wished to be housed within England at the time - not to say they weren't originally from Scotland or Ireland or Wales as some were, in these cases all hoping to find homes in or around Greater London / the SE.

I'm not sure how things work in Scotland at all because there's talk of them separating and having totally separate rules from the rest of the UK but I've known plenty of people say they'd like to retire to Scotland if possible.

I've never known anyone want to move to Wales or N. Ireland but the fact of the matter is if I knew that there's no housing shortage in Wales or N Ireland or Scotland and people are saying they can't stand living in one room hostel a minute longer, then for sure I'd be challenging why aren't you looking at areas where there's no housing shortage.

Also for my own health issues (I am ASD and have other health problems) if I knew for sure there's areas more suited to my needs that housing wait lists or eligibility is not a problem, I'd be looking at them for my own personal reasons, even tho I already have social housing.

Notable nobody's actually answered my question tho.

I posted up the thread. I'm with Thirteen Group, they have properties around the Teesside/Durham area. Anyone can apply for a house with them regardless of income or local area connections. It's worth checking other areas close by too, obviously Durham, Newcastle, and Sunderland all have Unis and big businesses and will have waiting lists and probably stricter policies but the likes of New Marske, Haverton Hill, Eaglescliffe, etc will probably be more like Teesside.

Public transport is pretty shit around here and there's not much in the way of employment opportunities unless you can drive to places further out. That's the downside. There are houses available because no one wants to live here due to lack of opportunity. People in the smaller towns also tend towards being very narrowminded (read racist, homophobic nitwits) but if you can force yourself to overlook that we're a friendly bunch, on the whole.

Yeah the spite is coming over live and direct don't worry used to it on MN - some people would rather tear a person down and concentrate the most on picking holes in anything they say than actually being helpful.

I'm not even sure there are any areas that there isn't a housing crisis / shortage of social housing / no huge wait lists as if there are, I've never heard of them.

The government changed legislation a long time ago to force people to migrate to different areas if they're truly desperate for a home (or discharge their responsibility to assist them) so I'm struggling with the idea that there's people being offered alternate areas and decent homes and refusing them because this also means that same refusal, under most local authority rules, could then have them kicked out of their temporary accommodation / hostel and left 'intentionally homeless' which is the worst possible situation a person can be in in terms of housing.

Thank you for this, this is very helpful to know about.

I guess if some places are these run down areas where there's all boarded up shops, no employment, extreme poverty, etc, people wouldn't want to move them or their family there for fear of going into decline and suffering, never getting a job and being victim of crime?

I saw a documentary about Grimsby recently and it looked indeed grim - maybe it is or isn't true - but I'd have thought even so there's no social housing going.

But it's a shame the government (or some entrepreneurial organisations) cannot work on these areas and regenerate / repopulate them, open schools and GP practices, and fill them with families who would otherwise be homeless.

But it's a shame the government (or some entrepreneurial organisations) cannot work on these areas and regenerate / repopulate them, open schools and GP practices, and fill them with families who would otherwise be homeless

There was a regeneration scheme in place for the NE especially areas like Redcar and Cleveland and the former mining towns, however, it was funded by the EU. I very much doubt central government will pick it up. Like most others to central government UK = London. The NE does not exist to them until it comes to GE time.

I don't know about crime in the rest of Teesside but around Redcar where I live there are a lot of addiction issues and the usual crimes that come with that i.e shoplifting, people breaking into sheds and stealing bikes but violent crime isn't as bad here as busier areas. Our heroin addicts are a peaceful bunch for the most part. They can be a PITA to live next door when they're having screaming arguments with their dealer at 2am on a Monday morning but they are not likely to stab you in the street or anything.

I think county lines are a thing in Boro and the NE cities but I've never come across anything like that in Redcar and I have teenagers.

@Frequency the area you live is stunning. I know I would rather be housed there than sitting on a waiting list for ten years in London.

@stomachameleon I always get so confused when people say that and then I remember that places like Cleveland Hills exist. There are some stunning areas, especially around North Yorks, and some lovely little market towns and beaches too but as I said public transport is woefully lacking so unless you can drive you don't really get to appreciate them as much as you should.

To get to Cleveland Hills from Redcar by public transport would take the better part of a day. It would be quicker to get to London, even though it is only a 30-minute drive away.

Improving public transport would do so much to improve the area. We recently got a good transport link to London via train which is frustrating when I can't even get to Peterlee where there are jobs available without having to take 3 different buses, again, it is quicker to get to London.

I'm in Central Scotland, between Edinburgh and Stirling, yes if you wish to live in a city, you will wait, smaller towns not so much, my LA it's about a year if no urgent needs.
Scottish Govt build approx 10,000 new homes per year, quarter of homes in Scotland are SH.

@Frequency will dm you.

https://x.com/Channel4News/status/1732099898386919538?s=20

@Frequency 'If you'd read the thread you would have noticed it has been explained eleventy million times that OP pays her own rent. The cost to the "taxpayer" for OP's housing is precisely fuckall.'

Can we stop this disingenuous nonsense please...

Social housing as a whole is financed every year in a way that includes government, ie taxpayers, money.

End of.

The fact that the OP pays a rent (which is much lower by the way than the general market and there is a reason for that...) does not mean that taxpayer money is not use to currently keep her in her home.

Taxpayers' money goes into maintaining, building and administrating social housing, whether it is managed by by councils or housing association.

The money from taxpayers is also used to keep the OP's rent artificially low.

I am perfectly happy as a taxpayer to see my money go towards social housing. That is not the issue.

But I am not happy to see it go to someone who is not in need whatsoever and has an income big enough to afford to keep a roof over her head...

Every else (most benefits) is usually means tested and review regularly when people's circumstances change. I don't see why they OP should get away with having a cheap home for life and depriving someone who is really in desperate need of accommodation in the process.

I was actually quite enjoying the turn this thread had taken, and I found it interesting to learn about differential waiting lists and availability of social housing. And how one’s own circumstances are not necessarily reflected elsewhere in the UK.

Then… it’s like another coin in the slot and the merry-go-round starts again. So hoping to avoid that, here’s a summary -

I am in HA property
Not a new build
I pay my rent in full
I do not claim any benefits
I am not a scrounger
I have not cheated to remain in the property
I did not lie to qualify for the property
I don’t want to buy a property
My rent is not artificially low
Private rented housing is artificially high
I don’t want to live in private rented housing anyway
Social housing should be available for life for those who don’t want to buy or rent privately
Social housing tenants shouldn’t be subject to financial reassessment and evicted if earn ‘too much’
The awful circumstances people are facing, with ridiculously long waiting lists, unsafe housing and adverse health impacts is a political choice
… and everything else explained repeatedly as nauseum…

Seriously, some people really do need to wake up and educate themselves, as despite the extensive time and efforts of others, they have seemingly or wilfully not learned much at all!