To think if all your children have grown up and left you should give up your 5 bed council house?

[dilemma456]

The housing list are so long and especially for bigger properties.

I met someone who lives by herself in a 5 bed council house last night. Her children have all moved out. There are people who really need that house crammed into much smaller properties.

AIBU to think that if you're massively under occupying social housing you should be under an obligation to move out into something smaller and that the council should offer you support and encouragement to do so?

The MP's that all claimed 2nd home allowances ? I doubt they give a flying fuck too be honest, until we starting rioting protesting in the streets and then we'll be held without charge under the anti terrorist legislation or killed by the riot police without any repercussions.

Prettyfly, I think we are agreeing and saying the same thing. I am saying the situation should be changed because families with an income/wanting to start a family don't stand a chance.

My parents live in a 4 bedroom council house and would happily downsize but my Dad is disabled and the house has been adapted over the years to enable him to live at home. It's not always so simple as just moving out into a smaller place. Sometimes it's just not practical.

My Dad would love to be fit and healthy and living in a smaller house that is more manageable for my parents but as it stands he will have to stay in a larger house that is suited to his physical disability. FWIW he hasn't been able to leave his home in several years so yes he has a big home, but in many ways it has become his prison.

i know people who have been allocated homes bigger than their needs because there are no 2 bed properties around here. A friend who has 3 dc's has just (today in fact) been offered a 4 bedroom rural property because that is all they have available after her scroat of a landlord stopped paying the mortgage with the rent she had been paying him from her wages and therefore the house has been repossessed. Different areas have different needs for housing and each authority should be given a target and a budget to sort it out.

My late MIL lived in a tied cottage and when she had to leave the job unexpectedly due to her health (chapel caretaker) the council had real problems finding her a 'retirement' property.

What i am trying to say is... its not always the bigger properties which are causing the problems (well not in every area anyway).

Tits, what an awful situation to be in. Does anyone in your family have a SW? Could thy write to your council and state why you need moved, and that you get put on Band A as a medical priority? Until recently we lived in a fat with no accessible garden and were placed on band A due to DS2 needing a secure outside garden (he has autism and we were virtually housebound without DH). I hope you get somewhere soon.

Our MP backed a plan to build 23 shared-equity houses in a village nearby.

The village residents, however, successfully lobbied against it.

The plans have been re-submitted with only 18 houses.

I can assure you I am not "sh*t stirring". There certainly are 5 bed council houses and in some cases larger ones. Perhaps this page and this page are a figment of my over active imagination?

I really do believe that it is unfair that some people are taking up huge houses they don't need while others are crammed into tiny little places. I am not jealous - I have enough space for our little family but see people living in terrible conditions in my job and it makes me angry that there are others rattling about in houses which are far too big for them.

Agree about it being a home which is why I said the council should offer support in the process and not just chuck people out willy nilly.

I won't even start on right to buy. IMHO it is responsible for a large part of the social housing shortage we are now sufferinng

A lot of the older generation were given their council houses under the slum clearance schemes ,thats what council houses were originally built for...a lot had lived in terrible housing for years..They should never have been sold off

unfortunately though usual they have been and now slum living is again on the increase because like you mention an idiot government sold off all the decent housing leaving next to nothing for an ever expanding next generation.

I watched whole communities destroyed in the 60s... Rows of terraces houses bulldozed, peoples houses compulsory purchased to make way for the housing of the future..didn't quite work out like that though

I think people in council houses should have their needs re-assessed every 2 years. If they still meet the requirements, then fine, if they don't then things need to change.

If all council housing tennants were re-assessed on a more regular basis then we wouldn't have such a grid-lock.

People who are currently over 65 should be exempt.

People would then go into council housing knowing that this isn't a 'cradle to grave' house, but simply the house that currently suits their requirements.

You can't expect the same rights in a council house as you would have in a house you own. If you want those rights, you need to buy a house.

The idea of restricting people buying or letting privately is ridiculous.

Because everyone can afford to buy a house

For those who asked earlier, i have DS1's local consultant, physio, community nurse, and his team in London all write letters.
I have had my Ocupational Therapist and Consultant Rhumatologist write letters, they have all written and hponed on our behalf over and over again, the coucil medical officor came out and were still only B.
I have fallen down the stairs again today and grazed my arm up, hit my jaw and hurt my neck.
It a miserable existance here at the moment.

"she gave so much back into the community and deserved to live in her home for all of her days,which is what she did."

The trouble is plenty give nothing back at all, do they deserve lesser treatment, no, because that's not the deal.
You have to look at it as black and white simply because it is.

What gets me about this debate on mn is council estates are bad places we wouldn't want to live there oh no ..but kick the fuckers out so we can ..make your minds up

but vegas - chances are if your nan had a big house and knew that there were a family of five struggling in a one bed flat, if she was that sort of woman, she would give it up and swap. It isnt just the government that needs to change, societies attitudes do too.

It isnt right that in RENTED ACCOMODATION for SOCIAL purposes, people can stay in houses massively too big for them, whilst young families live in squalid, cramped conditions. And as I have already said, VERY few families with young children can afford to get onto the property ladder. I dont feel over sixty fives now should be moved either - its too much strain for most of them but those with youngest children approaching 18 should be assessed annually and made to prove they are still living there.

If not they should be put on the transfer list with the option to refuse properties ridiculously out of the area.

The age of affording a deposit has risen to 39 for the first time buyer without parental help - house prices need to come down and the best way to do that is squeeze the buggery out of second home owners and buy to let landlords, and tax significantly bigger homes with low occupancy.

My Dps lived in a four bed house and raised four DCs.

When the DCs had left home they were asked to move, and offerred a one bed bungalow. The windows were draughty and the decor was poor

The council fitted new windows and gave them an allowance for redecorating.

They moved out and a family had their larger house, I think it was the right thing to do.

lol usual - you are right. In fact most council areas have high ownership now so arent really "council" in the same way.

'just because my nan couldnt afford to buy her own house she cannot have a home for life?'

But that's not a given for anyone. People have to sell their homes if they become disabled and can't access the home anymore, or to pay for care, or because they can't afford it anymore for whatever reason. People's homes get repossessed.

And plenty of these people do loads for the community, work, raise a family.

We can never afford our own home.

But I don't expect to be able to keep a large home that's government property after my needs change and some other family is in desperate need of the space because that's not fair, either.

"no one said to her "oh and by the way when all you children are grown up you will have to leave!"

Well the consensus is that they should have and should from now onwards, hindsight is of course a wonderful thing.

As for council estates being undesirable not sure about that these days, they seem to be full of young professionals and families who never in their wildest dreams thought they'd end up there but have had to buy off the people who got a 40% discount from the council ten years ago and have buggered off to Spain with their ill gotten gains profits

Thats funny .seems to me most on here think council estates are full of benefit scroungers

Oh no the benefit scroungers tend to live in the 6 bed detached in Mayfair they wouldn't put up with a council estate house.

easy to say

when you own your own houses

unlike myself whom hasa severly disabled child and have not been able to afford my own house after my husband dided

wouldn't be soo smug or quick to have definate op if it was you

now maybe you can rent one of YOUR spare rooms out to people that have been chucked out on the streets because of this stupid ruling that may come into force

ivory tower mumsnet jeez