Council housing - move tenants subject to decreasing family size?

[whatever17]

Do you think that tenants in social housing should be moved after their family's have grown?

For instance, a family gets a 3 bed house then the kids grow up and leave. Should the parents be forced into a 1 bed property? SHould they have to leave their family home after 40 years?

If so, surely no one would have any pride in the property. If they feel they have "a home for life" they will beautify the garden and keep everything respectable.

Should the solution be that there is enough social housing for everyone in need?

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

Yeah but yeah but no but yeah but she knows someone who got pregnant to get a huge house innit.

So it must be true.

[LineRunner]

Yeah, right, Latootle, and they had a gang of albanians living next door in a mansion with free gold bars for their hoards of pregnant teenagers claiming disability scrounging allowance whilst millions of decent hardworking daily mail readers starved in bat-infested attics.

[GypsyMoth]

the human catapult....did you post before,under a diff name,about getting the bungalow?? i think you had not long split with an ex?? and had been at your parents. was that you??

[LDNmummy]

Really Latootle, I beg to differ with the serious dent I took to my bank balance recently helping my mother decorate and take care of her HA place.

Bloody cheek.

[LDNmummy]

And I also find it shocking that there is no information on what will happen after the two year period, people getting their places now who genuinely need it must be feeling very worried. I think uncertainty is worse than knowing the worst in this case.

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

I live in an area where the houses were pretty much built with 10 years of each other, before WW2. Its all council or ex council housing. The council houses round my way had a refurb last year. Their first in 25 years.

The only way you could tell who owned their house and who didnt was from who had scaffolding outside.

The 'fridge in the front garden' test didnt seem to work

[smokinaces]

The only way of telling round here MrsDeVere is by the roof - those in council had their roof tiles replaced 10 years ago.

In fact the "worst looking" 2 houses on my street are privately owned by elderly people - not been updated with any form of new windows or doors and the gardens are very overgrown.

[hormonesnomore]

Ex-mil lives alone in the 3 bed house in north London that she was born in.

Imo Social housing is not for life - it isn't fair she is occupying a family sized house (with front & back gardens) when families are waiting for accommodation.

She has been given the opportunity to buy which her children have offered to do on her behalf but she doesn't see the need when everything is done for her - she doesn't pay any rent or council tax, all repairs carried out, even decorating, heating put in & new windows.

She's in her 80s now and I can understand it would be traumatic for her to move now but she should have been told to downsize thirty years ago when her last child left home.

[TheHumanCatapult]

dam you got a good memory i love tiffany and yes that wa sme and the bungalow ( private rented ) is the one I am in now at the time it was perfect for ds needs as his chair smaller etc .name change reflest the fact i seem to hit the odd pebble and catapult myself out my wheelchair

But I had a serious accident not that long ago and damged my spinal/spinal cord and am now in a wheelchair and it just does not work for adult in wheelchair as obviously my chair is bigger etc .Ds i used to just live into a bath and his chair is a lot smaller

[Serenitysutton]

Of course there are houses with fridges and sofas outside. They might not be common but they exist

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

There are loads. Doesnt mean they are council or HA houses though.

Infact when I was a council tenant i used to get my furniture from outside the posher housed down the road. They were always dumping stuff outside.

One of the benefits of the poverty gap.

[Tortington]

good properly resourced housing officers should stamp it out. and other residents should report it

[smokinaces]

good properly resourced housing officers should stamp it out. and other residents should report it

Report what? underoccupancy? or dumped fridges?!

[thefirstMrsDeVere]

If you leave anything with any kind of value in your garden round here it will be gone by the morning.

Men in vans come and have a scope around every day.

I darent leave the baby out in his pram for a bit of fresh

[TheFrogs]

We've had a fair few appliances die recently. I play a game with the dc. We put the appliance outside the gate, note the time and take a bet. I won last time: 45 minutes. No chance of anything ever going rusty outside this house .

[CocoPopsAddict]

Should council tenants 'be moved'? No, council tenants are not inanimate objects to be carted around.

[crazynanna]

thefirstMrsDeVere I think you must live on my street!

[crazynanna]

thefirstMrsDeVere I think you must live on my street!

[crazynanna]

Sorry about that....stupid bleeding laptop

[porcamiseria]

its a very very emotional area as its peoples home we are talking about. I see an 80 year old last living opposute us, in the same house that houses our family of 4 (I own mine). Is it right that she should be booted out? NO. Is it right that she stays on, funded by the tax payer, NO

they definately need to change the policies so that its clear from the outset that in XX years there will be a review, and that council housing is only allocated to the very needy

I wonder how much money they would actually save....

[knittedbreast]

its far crueler to make a family with children grow up in hostels just to preserve the memories of an old couple. they have had their time in that home its time to let another family raise their children in a stable home.

[onagar]

There are not enough houses private or council to give everyone what they need. Though there might be if we do something about home-owners who are taking up space they don't need.

After all I don't see anyone asking if the council tenant can afford to pay more. The argument is simply that they are taking up needed space. Well so are home-owners with spare rooms, so it's time to do something about the selfish bastards.

We can assign homeless single people to those homes with a spare room and homeless families to those larger private homes. It would be far crueller to make a family with children grow up in hostels just to preserve the comfort of a home-owner.

[wikolite]

I think its a no brainer, council tenents should not live in houses that are bigger than they need. The comparison with homeowners is ludicrous as they own the property, council tenents do not.

[DillyDaydreaming]

Given all the changes being proposed, I consider myself and DS so absolutely fortunate to have been allocated the peoperty we are in. It's a 2 bed, end terrace house with a smallish garden (but big enough for DS's outside needs - he is autistic and it's safe).

I can never see a point at which I will be able to have another mortgage as I am now 45. I cannot buy the home I am in and rightly so - someone may need this in the future. I hope to stay here for life and support DS for as long as he needs it which may be considerable in time.

I think the worst thing ever to happen in this country was the selling off of social housing without making provision (in terms of new building) for those who would need it in the future. This is why we have the current situation.

[onagar]

wikolite, but homeowners with spare rooms are taking up space that others need - wasting it. Most of those saying evict them are saying so because they can't bear the thought of those poor homeless families with nowhere to go because the council tenants are using up the space. So of course you'd be eager to give up your spare rooms for them wouldn't you?

Oh but wait. That's the point isn't it. You don't actually give a shit about anyone else. You just want to be sure that other people are worse off than you.