To think lottery winners should not be able to stay in a council house?

[Hammy02]

It was in the news today that a couple that won £4 million in the lottery a year ago won't move out of their council house! Surely council houses are to be used in times of need? With thousands of people on the waiting list, it incenses me that they are allowed to stay there. I know there will be thousands of other cases where people are in council accomodation that shouldn't be but this is the most extreme example I've heard of.

MillyR, at what point in my post did I say that the old people should be moved into fleapit hotels ? If we had more housing stock then they could be moved into smaller houses, flats or bungalows
In an ideal world everyone would be entitled to stay in the same council house until they died. Unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world. Housing prices are high, the price of lan is astronomical and people are living increasingly longer lives. It makes no sense whatsoever to allow a couple or 1 person to live on their own in a house designed for families long after their children have left home - when there are families having to put up with cramped conditions. For what, so Mrs Bloggs can keep her memories ? It's ridiculous. Housing is allocated according to need - and should be reallocated according to need.

People in the private sector generally have to downsize in later life, they can't afford to run the house. Nobody thinks about their memories. My parents in law couldn't afford to stay in their large family home when SIL and DH moved out, they had to move. Sentiment didn't come into it.

Council housing needs should be reviewed every 10 years; this gives far more security of tenure than any private sector landlord. And when your children leave home you should be reallocated housing appropriate to the size of your family within 5 years. This woul only mean moving once - which is much less than lots of people have to do. This would mean most people would be downsizing in their 60s - hardly an age where people are so frail they can't be moved from their homes for fear of them dying

price of land, not lan

What is your problem ? I have a different viewpoint to you, there is no need to make personal attacks. I have not attacked you in this personal way

If there is no money available to build new social housing, we need to encourage landlords to let their property directly to councils and Housing Associations for allocation to people on the waiting lists, which would guarantee their rent while handing over responsibility for maintenance and rent-collection etc.

We need to offer big incentives to private landlords to accept HB claimants as long-term tenants and stop mortgage companies preventing this. Give landlords tax breaks for:

• minimum 5 years-lets;
• taking on tenants currently on housing waiting lists;
• accepting rents within the new HB limits;

- renewal of long-term tenancies;

• letting to elderly and/or disabled tenants

Increase the current tax-free allowance for renting out spare rooms.

Offer incentives to parents and students to study at local universities whilst still living at home. Most of the (theoretically) affordable small 3-bed houses for rent around here are let out to students.

Fib - people who own their own homes have freedom to choose what to do with that asset. Whether they want to stay put (which many elderly people do, inc. my MIL and about 20 people in my street) or whether they want to covert part of that asset into cash by moving and buying somewhere cheaper. Homeowners have also made oodles of free money through rampant house price inflation, encouraged by successive governments. Dh and I included.

It is not at all comparable to forcing someone out of their home. Not until the government brings in a law that you have to downsize once your youngest child leaves home.

Just had a thought - might this proposal not breach the Human Rights Act wrt the right to respect for private and family life?

IF your youngest elaves home Edam
Blimey, BIL is still at home and he's 37 without any SN at all! So even though most people don;t have the guaranteed kidults we have, who knows?

ds claims he is never ever going to leave home. But then, he's only just seven.

Yep, 7 year old ds3 wants to marry me as well LOL_ my experience is they grow out of that quickly though (sadly)