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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

In thinking if you earn over £100,000 a year, you should not be allowed to stay in council house accomodation?

186 replies

Hammy02 · 06/06/2011 11:53

RMT union boss Bob Crow earns this and yet still lives in a council house. Surely he is using a property that should be housing someone that actually cannot afford to privately rent and needs subsidised property?

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 06/06/2011 12:45

how is it that social housing is subsidised by taxpayers? is this true?

serendipity16 · 06/06/2011 12:45

On the road where my mum lives i know of at least 10 families in 4 bedroom properties that don't need them, including my mum. This is out of around 20 houses.

Some have a fair amount coming in & some only need 1 - 2 bedrooms.
However i think that once you've lived in a property like my mums, you don't want something 'less' or 'not as good'.

One of my mums neighbours uses 2 of the single bedrooms as walk in wardrobes for him & her. They don't want to move because they don't want to live in a flat, don't want people living above them, want a garden etc.
They only need a 1 bedroom but you aren't going to find many if any 1 bedroom house in London. My mums expectations are just as bad. I've shown her some lovely 2 bedroom flats on the locate scheme but she find fault in every single one of them.

I live in a h/a flat, in a converted house. I have people living above me, its no big deal. If i was earning a lot of money i would give up this house and i'd look into buying my own home.

vickibee · 06/06/2011 12:46

Mt DH's ex wife has had to move three times in two years cos her private landlord gave her notice, this gives her no stability or incentive to make the place nice. She is on HB so the taxpayer is essentially payng the private LL to make a profit ? this can't be right can it. Why isn;t any new social housing being built?

lubberlich · 06/06/2011 12:46

Where do you suggest me, DH and my 3 settled children actually go then?

Why do council tenants think they are immune from the usual stresses and strains of life? And what has being "settled" got to do with anything? Why do people feel they are entitled to live down the road from their mum and nana and Aunty Beryl? Nobody is saying anyone should be deported or forced to relocate to another part of the country - just get out of the council property if you can afford to and let someone more deserving in.

I have been lobbed out of plenty of private rented accommodation and have struggled for years with finding places to live due to repossessions and whatnot. My relatives in council property meanwhile have had it all very cushy. Once they got a toehold that was it - they never budged.
My grandfather languished alone in a 3 bedroom house till his son bought it via RTB and made a fortune on it. And my aunt and uncle spent thousands on jewellery and exotic holidays over the 40 years they were council residents whilst paying sod all for an inner London property that a working family needed.

Thatcher ballsed everything up with RTB. We just don't have enough social housing for people to park their arses for a lifetime. I really think that if you can afford to move then you should.

Private landlords need a slap though - all these idiotic restrictions on no DSS/no HB are exacerbating the housing problem.

EricNorthmansMistress · 06/06/2011 12:46

Hammy - likewise if someone can't pay the rent they also lose their home. Don't try to say it's preferable to have a council tenancy than your own home Confused

If you lose your job and go on income support you can switch to an interest only mortgage and have it paid for you, BTW

noddyholder · 06/06/2011 12:47

I think renting needs to be regulated full stop. Council housing should be the same as private. It is totally unfair otherwise.

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:47

ilove i suppose that the council pay for all repairs upkeep etc from money collected via taxes.

knittedbreast · 06/06/2011 12:48

im not bitter at all. i just think its very unfair that people who can afford to rent privatly are taking up council housing stock, especially when there isnt much. i would not rent a council house becuase although not wealthy we can afford to rent privalty. i would have thought anyone with any sense of social justice would agree.

you may take my tone as bitter, its not i jsut dont use all this fluffy language many others on here do!

EricNorthmansMistress · 06/06/2011 12:48

Private rent can be shit

Social housing has its problems but is better in many ways

Why do we want people in social housing to have it as shit as we who are in private? Confused

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:49

ericnorth I agree that council housing wasn't created as a safety net it was created for quite different reasons and was a standard housing option.

However things have changed with property prices going through the roof, council properties being sold off etc etc there are more people who need these properties than there are properties.

So to revert to how it was we need a massive building program.
If that's not going to happen then the rules need to be amended to ensure that people who can live elsewhere do so and free it up.

Mowlem · 06/06/2011 12:50

I thought the idea was that if people earned 100K per year, they would be asked to leave their council property or to pay the full market rate.

I think this is fair. If it's someone's home, then it does seem harsh to kick them out, but at the same time I don't want to subsidise the housing of someone who earns a lot more than me /most people (Isn't it something like less than 5% of the population earn 100k or more??)

And no, I'm not jealous - I'm very happy with my mortgaged house, thank you very much. It is about a sense of justice and the people who these high earners are depriving from also having a home.

If they pay the full market rate, then the excess can be used to subsidise another family in another home. Surely that's only fair?

fifi25 · 06/06/2011 12:52

agree with lubberlich. I live on an estate with a mix of houses and flats. Theres familys of 3 or 4 in a 2 bed flat. A single elderly couple live next door in a 3 bed house and next but one is an elderly lady who lives in her living room. How is that right.

GypsyMoth · 06/06/2011 12:53

vicki....more social housing IS being built....i'm in a 3 bed,need a 4 so bifdding on new properties as they come up. 5 new build building sites locally and its moving fast.

not such a huge problem here getting housed.

i should get a new place this year sometime as i'm very near top and ending up high on bidding list

GypsyMoth · 06/06/2011 12:54

our HA pays for all repairs from rent collected....dont see how they use taxpayers?? they have budgets etc

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:54

The other thing they should do is mix the council housing in with the private housing. Around here there are rows of council houses (many of them ex unfortunately) dotted in with the other housing. I am sure that when housing is mixed it leads to more tolerance and understanding. Ghettos of rich and poor are a bad thing for society IMO, a very bad thing.

Of course current tory policy is working to remove unsightly council types from the sight of wealthy people Hmm

GypsyMoth · 06/06/2011 12:55

but they wont move the old lady on the end???

she's in a 3 bed on her own
or the druggie next dooe,3 bed,on her own

GypsyMoth · 06/06/2011 12:56

sardinequeen...they do mix it,new build estates have to have a percentage of each site for social housing,its the law!

duckdodgers · 06/06/2011 12:56

lubberlich - who said anything about me thinking I was "immune" from the stresses and strains of life just because I live in a council house? I still have to feed and clothe 5 of us and pay full rent and all my bills on my salary alone thanks, in a climate where the department I work in which is very specialised could be abanded any minute to save the NHS money.

And I repeat again - I cant afford to and there in nowhere in my area.

Thank you ericnorthman Smile

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:56

ilovetiffany

if the rents are below market rents then someone is subsidising it

If the same property were rented privately they would get more rent and the owner would pay for repairs
On a council scheme the council are charging less than market rents and paying for repairs

Not hard to see that it is being subsidised surely?

fluffy123 · 06/06/2011 12:57

So how much should you earn then to justify having a council house. 70, 60,50,40k? How can it be implemented that if your salary goes up you give up your home.

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:58

Do they not build any larger groupings of council houses any more?

No wonder there is a shortage.

SardineQueen · 06/06/2011 12:58

I thought a % of private new build estates had to be affordable housing. Not social / council housing.

No way are private developers having to build property and hand it over to the council Hmm

fifi25 · 06/06/2011 12:59

Yes the lady wont move. My mams a home help as well for the elderly and she visits loads of elderly people who havent been up te stairs for years. If she wanted to move she would get smaller accommodation £1000 and her moving cost. If they dont want to go the council cant force them. This is why they are trying to change the law in Newcastle.

fifi25 · 06/06/2011 13:01

They have built 5 new eco friendly houses on my estate. They are one of them shared ownership schemes

TheRhubarb · 06/06/2011 13:01

I do sympathise with elderly people being told to move out of their homes to make way for families. One elderly woman I spoke to in our old area had lived in her council house all her life, brought up her children there and took great care of her garden, which was her hobby. She's now on her own in a 3 bed house and in danger of being moved on which would break her heart as that house holds many memories for her and that garden is immaculate. She'd probably be moved to a flat with a shared communal garden.

There isn't any one easy answer. However I do agree that rents should reflect peoples circumstances. People might well move on if they find out that for the rent they are paying they could have a house of their own.

We were renting privately, we now own a house of our own and are £150 per month better off because of it. The private sector is getting very greedy.