Keeping a UK Council property for life even though you no longer live in the UK

[Vintlet]

This story has just been released
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyxkeny8x6o
It seems so unfair given the lack of social housing in the uk that the First Lady of Sierra Leone expected to be allowed to keep her London social housing property as a pied a terre. Surely we cannot be expected to house the world. No one in authority would have realised given that she was still paying the rent if she hadn’t boasted about keeping it on a radio interview. I wonder how many people keep and sublet uk council properties when they no longer have a right to keep it.

Quite right they have removed it from her. The President of Sierra Leone ( who by the way supports FGM on young girls) does not need a social council property in the UK.

I think it happens on a regular basis but councils seem very good at catching it now

Also as mentioned by a PP, I think people thin you have to be destitute to be offered social housing. It really isn't the case.

I don't know if anyone remembers, about 15 years ago; the General Secretary of TUC got heavily criticized for living in his council house. He was on £60,000 and it was totally legal.

I am pretty sure the white first lady of Britain moved into a government owned house when her husband became King (and probably owns quite a few properties in her own right)

No, they get checks yearly, but that is to check the property... pretty much the same as inspections in private rentals.
My mum had one recently. My dad died a few months ago, and she was terrified she would be evicted for under occupying.
I sent her links from Shelter about how that would not be the case, but she wanted to hear it direct. They said if she wanted to move then she could look to do a swap, or she can leave in a box.

They did not remove her. She chose to give up the property. I imagine the local authority paid to persuade her to give up her tenancy

She obviously learned from the best.

A third of Britain lived in social housing in 1980 . It was not just the poorest and the decline in availability of social housing is behind all the problems of housing affordability of today

This is outrageous. You and your family are thieves.

eventually social housing will be means tested and time limited.

That was quite big news.

Social rent also isn't the default. For example you could inherit a house and not pay anything at all in housing costs.

In this case I'm calculating the value of the asset as being the "use value" to the tenant, i.e. the value of the saved rent compared to the next available option (private rent). If buying is too expensive then it's not an available alternative option.

I'm not making an argument about how much councils should charge, I'm making an argument about the value to the family living there.

These two scenarios are equivalent:

Family 1 has social rent of £700pm

Family 2 has private rent of £1500pm, but through a special investment trust they receive £800pm which they use to offset the rent so they only have to pay £700pm out of their salary

Second time you have said this.

You can imagine it all you want. Doesn't make it true.

Also news because she announced it on a radio station

Don’t be daft. That would never work. You would end up having to evict people after 15 years and they would become homeless and cost even more to house in temporary accommodation. I wonder what you think makes people entitled to council housing? There are plenty of working people living in them who could never afford a house on the open market and plenty more who will never earn enough. The whole point of it is to provide stability in low cost housing which should be eligible to anyone who wants or needs it. The fact that council properties have been sold off and not enough built means that the criteria has become very difficult to meet and the waits are long but kicking people out isn’t the answer.

I am not right wing more middle but it does seem true and the poorest and richest are benefiting from the state of affairs and then there is the rest of us the squeezed middle who finance people's benefits.

I pay taxes, my husband pays taxes, we don't get child benefit not a penny but other of course get for their 3 kiddos, those who never pay into the system

Fuck that shit.

Sure sure…the one that isn’t sent illegally hundreds of miles away and dumped with another council??

Asylum seekers are ineligible to receive council housing or benefits. They are given no choice basic housing - shared houses, rooms etc...

People are not “given” a council house they rent them.

This is exactly how career criminals justify burgling houses of working class people. You and your family are no different than common criminals.

IKR, I hope it's rage baiting, it surely has got to be some reform rage baiting.

How fucking arrogant would one have to be to treat social housing as yours to gift or pass on to family. It's theft.

Not possible to just add someone to a secure council tenancy as a tenant. Not possible to just remove someone from a joint tenancy either so if you saw it all the time, your authority was acting unlawfully.

Succession isn't possible unless the tenant has died.

Ever think if you don’t invest in early years and children …you’ll be paying in police and crime & justice budgets? Austerity doesn’t save money it creates societal problems

Don't be patronising.

@MyAutumnCrowand @Lowandhandhold
absolutely true. At one time Albanian was responsible for most of the asylum seekers entering the UK. A few years ago, the UK government refused to accept that Albanian asylum seekers were in danger of returning/living in Albania. This Albanian man was educated and middle class. I taught alongside him. He was a TA in an inner city comp with responsibility for helping Albanian students who did not speak English. He was given a council flat in Covent Garden. He and his wife lived in the UK for a number of years before they returned to Albania where they have a large house. He passed his council tenancy to his son. What is not to believe?

Absolutely

Sorry, I thought I had posted the above earlier. All of this ‘Aye’ nonsense