that there is a huge problem with housing at the moment?

[superv1xen]

i have noticed loads of threads recently discussing council housing / social housing and who deserves it and who doesnt, and i think that all this arguing and debating is missing the point of the main issue here which is the massive problem with housing in the UK at present.

the problem is private rents are scandalously extortionate and also landlords are incredibly fussy about who they rent too (it should be illegal for them not to allow tenants with kids - wtf?). And no one on a modest income can afford to buy in the present climate and i dont think houses will ever come down to realistic prices. both private renting and paying a mortgage are vastly disproportionate to the average wage.

plus with private renting it is not secure at all, most tenancies are only for 6 months or so AFAIK. therefore a family with kids could potentialy be having to move every few months, what impact will that have on the kids, having to move schools all the time, leaving their friends behind, having next to no security in their lives. plus finding approx 2k every time a LL decides to turf you out, for deposits, admin fees, agency fees etc, who can afford that on the minimum wage? it makes me so

has no one noticed that it isnt that HA / council rents are cheap, they are just realistically affordable compared to private renting! in my area an average 3 bed HA home is £380 a month before council tax which if a family is on 15k or so they have still only got about £500 left after paying rent and council tax. not exactly a fortune!

and 15 years ago a person on £15k could buy a modest home (of similar standards to a HA / council home) for about 30-40k. therefore they would be only paying £300 a month or so mortgage. but now the same house would be about 120k which means that the price of buying a home has gone up to a disproportionately high level compared to the average wage. and it would only be a shitty tiny 2 - 3 bed terrace or something, who would want to bankrupt themselves for that?

in my opinion, EVERYONE should have the right to a secure home, not just those that are lucky enough to either afford to buy or are living in social housing. a lot of posts on the other threads just seem intent on casting aspersions against people who live in social housing! but they are not the issue, the lack of houses is.

no wonder people are so bloody angry and disillusioned at the moment!!

yanbu but I don't know what the answer is.

I seriously doubt, though, that you could have bought a house for £30 to £40k even fifteen years ago.

I really wish that the right to buy legislation had never come in. The idea was always that poorer sections of society could rent an affordable home while they needed to, and as things improved, they could buy privately. Now there are so few counci/HA houses around that people are forced, as you say, to rent tiny houses for ridiculous rents.

There should be much more building of cheap housing on brownfield sites, and compulsory purchase of properties which are left empty for more than 5 yrs imo.

YANBU ...how awful to think that you had to give up your home,when your kids leave home..most people on the other thread have no fucking idea about council estates..They just think they are all inhabited by dole scroungers,not by ordinary people who work and pay rent out of their wages

The private rental market needs a bigger shakeup imo ..longer lets, in stead of short term 6 month contracts

you could mumblechum - DP did. (he is a few years older than me, it was years before he met me)... think his was about 33k IIRC. it was a 3 bed terrace. his mum lent him the 1k for his deposit (shock at deposit being only 1k - not him borrowing off his mum!)

YANBU, you are absolutely right - lack of houses is the cause of the problem, although you could make a case that in the UK the real problem is the uneven distribution of people and prosperity. People already here and immigrants flow into the south east and it's hard to see how housing could realistically keep up with demand. The result is that there are huge number of households with two incomes and anybody with one modest income or none at all has no chance.

A former boss of mine used to say that the rise of the "working woman" (crap phrase I realise but I can't do better) had indirectly done nothing but push house prices up and create a situation where both partners in a couple are obliged to work rather than choosing to work. (I should stress he was all in favour of women working belt felt that this was an unfortunate unintended consequence.)

exactly usualsuspect i live on a HA estate and its lovely, lovely well kept houses, 2 lovely schools and lots of people in work and paying their own rent.

thing is - people take pride in their houses if they know they are not gonna be kicked out any minute. im in HA and have spent lots of time, effort and money making my house a lovely home. and i wouldnt bother if i was in private, no chance, fuck that.

Some councils do better than others with social housing. The housing department of our local council is pretty good, providing loans for HB tenants to cover rent in advance of HB being received and guarantee letters in place of deposits. The revenue and benefits department on the other hand seems to be hopeless disorganised.

We need a massive housebuilding programme - for some reason people think that Britain is 'carpeted' with concrete.

It's bullshit - only about 8% of land is built on.

We need to build more houses - it's quite simple.

Mumble- 12 years ago I paid £27k so quite possible

Blimey. 15 yrs ago we paid £120k for a 3 bed semi. Wrong area, obviously!

I disagree that rents are extortionate. I rented out my house when I moved to the US. The rent doesn't cover the mortgage, 10% agency fees, insurance and repairs. I am out of pocket every month. All the expats I know are in the same position. Lots of landlords have had to sell up because they cannot cover their costs.

The real problem is the cost of housing and borrowing - that gets passed on in rents.

I don't see why you are moving every six months. If a tenant pays, most landlords will do all they can to hang on to them and I have never 'banned' children.

Aren't/weren't councils prevented from using money made from the selling of council housing to build new housing stock?

YANBU BTW. Spot on, in fact.

I live in a housing association flat. The housing association (The Crown Estate) has sold is just about to sell all of its housing stock in London to 'a blue chip landlord'. It won't disclose who.

Building new affordable housing is undoubtedly necessary, but preventing the sale of the affordable housing we already have is essential.

15 years ago I bought my first house - a 2 bed terrace (not much smaller than the house I now have) for £32k.

Outside Bedford, so London-commutable.

'I don't see why you are moving every six months. If a tenant pays, most landlords will do all they can to hang on to them and I have never 'banned' children.'

Many do ban them. Many more won't take a tenant who is in receipt of any HB at all, even partial if they are working.

It's actually quite common to get turfed out after the 6 months, or maybe a year.

The LL sells up, decides to move a relative in, etc.

10 years ago I bought a 3 bed semi for £60k. I did nothing to it and sold it for an obscene profit only 3 years later. The market seemed to rise so sharply that if you were not on the housing ladder by 2000 you really got left behind. First time buyers today have to shoulder such large start out mortgages proportionate to the level of their salaries. It is an unfair situation for the young.

mumble - dp bought in the midlands somewhere, in some shit area lol :o

I think the tenancy laws have to be reformed. in other europan country renting a flat/house is the norm and the rental contracts are secure (for both sides). plus allowing tennants to stay long and really making their home makes them appreciate the place more (or at least usually it does).

'First time buyers today have to shoulder such large start out mortgages proportionate to the level of their salaries.'

Increasingly, they cannot get a mortgage at all.

Hence, continuing record low numbers of FTBs.

They are no longer able to save tens of thousands of pounds wanted by banks as a deposit, and banks have tightened up lending so they no longer qualify for mortgages at the prices many vendors want.

Personally, I'd rather keep renting than buy an ex-council house in a crap area.

Someone told me the other day that lenders want 25% to 50% deposits from first time buyers before they offer a reasonable rate of interest. That seems sick and must be impossible for so many people.

15 years ago ,my 2 bed house was also £32k,10 years ago my 3 bed house was £52k and this 3 bed house cost me £100k last year.[and it needed loads of work]its only luck we bought when we did and have been able to move up the ladder .my pet hate is people living in council houses,having the new kitchen,bathroom,gch and new windows and then saying they want to buy when its all done...ive had to pay a fortune to do all that in my new house....

halfterm i agree with you re people who didnt get "on the ladder" after about 2000. I am only 30 so was a bit young to be buying in the late 90's, early 00's, i was single and earning shit money, and pissing it up the wall on clothes, cars and nights out, I didnt want to commit to a mortgage. and i think lots of people around my age are in a similar situation.

its funny (well not really) how the only way i have been able to get a (semi) secure home (ie HA) is be in a horrible situation ie single mum about to get evicted from a private rental. (which is how i got my house)

i worry for my kids, i really do.

In 2001 I bought a house as a single parent for £63,500, I was earning £25k and everyone told me not to buy it as it was too expensive bunch of pillocks
I sold it 3 years later for £120k, nothing else in the immediate area has sold for more so that was the peak, you wonder if the only way is up again.

I am 3 years older than you super and tbh that three years made all the difference. I am lucky and grateful to have more wrinkles than you . Ikewym. I have several friends of your age and they literally missed out by a few years. They are still not on the ladder yet as both prices and deposits wanted are so high

What we need, is a huge programme of social housing construction/purchase. This will reduce pressure on the private rental market.

Rents go down, people's spending power rises. The economy benefits.

Won't happen though as we have a bunch of toffs in charge.