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?

Full council tax would encourage people to downsize, whether they are in their own homes or council properties.

I also think that second-home owners should pay full council tax. In fact let them pay quadruple council tax!

In Italy people routinely hand over their larger homes to their children when they get married and have children. Obviously this plan works better if you only have one child!

There's none of this business where the oldies are all hogging big family houses "because it's our home " and younger people increasingly feel they've been shafted.

I wouldn't even mind them staying in the big houses if we could say have the west wing
Some of the houses where we live have 3 floors, 6 bedrooms and 2 pensioners in them.
Our entire 6 person family could fit on their top floor and they'd never need to see us

It's not her house usualsuspect - it belongs to the council.

Its her home

Easy for others to say kick her out ..not so easy if it was them though

maybe build more houses

i hate all this chuck em out. maybe sort out how may kids you can have before you expect to be housed

But nikkershaw - that's what these people all did. Moved in, had their families and then won't move out again. The system is fucked. I don't blame your mum for not wanting to move usualsuspect but it's housing provided by the State for people in need. They should never be treated as homes for life IMO - that's why there are so few of them left!

How come it's her home, but for private renters, it's just tough shit?

because for older people it is their home. too many young people know full well the more kids they have the bigger the house so play the system.

older people didn't have that sense of entitlement.

I have just bidded on a 3 bed house, it would be 100% perfect and our family could live comfortably, im noyl in band B so probably wont get it but my year would be made if we did.

I'd like to live in a community with a complete and total ban on all loud music, sing-a-long games and parties. Full stop. Want to party, hold it elsewhere. Want to blast music, get some wireless headphones.

That's right nikkershaw, that's why there are so many families squashed into one bedroom flats

Did the old people not have a sense of entitlement when they moved in? Or was that alright in their day?

Its not council house tenants fault that private rents are shit or thatcher introduced the right to buy or that house prices are extortionate..maybe address that?

My dad worked all his life and paid all the rent..now shes a widow..chuck her out

'because for older people it is their home. too many young people know full well the more kids they have the bigger the house so play the system.

older people didn't have that sense of entitlement.'

Yet these old people were housed on the basis of the number of children they had living at home. They used the number of kids as entitlement to a large/larger home.

And a property doesn't belong to you until you've got deeds in your hand with your name printed on them.

Otherwise, it belongs to someone else.

Private renters can rent a home for years and years, and guess what? It's not their home. LL can serve them their two months and that's just tough.

But it's somehow different for social tenants?

Private renters pay rent and council tax and go to work, too.

She was given a council house back in the day..because she bought 5 of us up for years in a rented house with no bathroom and an outside toilet ,so yes she was entitled to it

I have been told by someone that my local council will keep bugging those in larger properties to either downgrade or swap with someone who needs more space.

They can't force you but they are persistant apparently.

This is how it should be imo. Why does a single person or even a couple, need 2 or 3 bedrooms if all their kids have moved out?

No of course it isn't. But right to live in a property for life should never have been part of the deal. We do need more houses built and right to buy was a dreadful initiative. But that doesn't mean people aren't in dire need right now.

I gave up my council flat because I didn't think it was right that I was earning a reasonable salary and living there when someone in greater need could benefit from it.

but maybe it was part of the deal to the older generation.

turfing pensioners out of their homes, safety zones and communities isn't a sign of a caring society.

some right hard posters on here, wonder how they would feel if it were their own parents.

it just seems like one rule for those lucky enough to be in social housing, and another for private renters.

also we need to build better stronger homes, council houses round here really are on their last legs unfortunately.

'but maybe it was part of the deal to the older generation.

turfing pensioners out of their homes, safety zones and communities isn't a sign of a caring society.

some right hard posters on here, wonder how they would feel if it were their own parents.'

There was no deal. There's no such guarantees in life.

Hard? We're working poor. We're looking at another blue-lipped winter whilst thousands of people on very comfortable pensions pocket £260+ in Winter Fuel Allowance they don't need.

If it were my own parents, they'd rather live in a smaller flat than children crammed into a hostel full of drug-addicts.

because caring society works both ways. you could easily ask why these older people don't care enough about children of the poor and working poor living in deplorable conditions whilst they stay in a house that's too big for them.

I agree that private renters should have longer more secure tenancies, and more social housing should be built

In addition, private renters face 'No children. No DSS (even partial)' all the time.