To be envious that my neighbour lives in a council house........

[EnviousEvie]

and pays £600 a month less than me for the exact same bloody house (her's is nicer inside) next door to mine?

Difference is hers is a council house, mine is a private rental. The owner of mine bought it from the council and now rents it out while he lives in a 4 bed detached house in a nicer part of town. We pay £950 a month, neighbour pays council £350 a month (3 bed terrace). We had to move here after selling our house last year because DH lost his job and we needed to release the small amount of equity we had to pay the bills we were behind on because we were terrified of being in debt. Our rent is now £150 a month higher than our mortgage was.

We struggle every bloody month and live on 'value' food. We are not entitled to housing benefit (DH now working again after a year, I work part time - 3DCs). Neighbour's DH is an accountant so she can afford not to work at all. That £600 would make a massive difference in our lives but we have not got a chance in hell of getting a council house. There are over 5000 people on the waiting list in my area. We are on the list but have been told that it could be over 5 years before we have a chance. Love my neighbour to bits but can't help feeling pissed off about it!

AIBU to think that this is bloody unfair?

Ah Evie, showing your true colours now.

We're in the same situation - we live in a private rented flat in a block of council houses. There's no point thinking what you'd do with the extra money - you are scraping by; it is tough, but that's how it goes. Just keep telling yourself you're coping and it'll get better - it will.

bottom line is she does not deserve a council house! no way, they are for poor people

the system is FUCKED

I dont know, its a mess and taxpayers fund it! a very sweet old lady on my street has a 3 bed house, on the council. my neighbours have a council house, and they are subletting it! my ex CM has a council house and they have a joint income of £50K plus

i cant think of anyone off the top of my head that seems to have the right house for their needs

Ah ... cross-posted. Mind you, my DH is one of those Eastern Europeans. Problem with that? He pays loads of taxes so you can have all sorts of nice things off the government. No need to say thanks.

east europeans dont tend to have council flats in general, they tend to work as opposed to benefit, no?

I don't think council housing should be just for the poor (although housing the homeless should be a priority) but I do think that council rents should be increased for those who are higher earners. I think that would be a better system than reducing the security of the tenancy and the extra rent it brings in could pay to build more properties.

daily mail sold out this morning love.

we can buy our council house but wont tho,we pay over £350 p/m and yes its nice we got a home but i cant afford to buy or to rent somewhere else,just because your in council housing doesnt mean you like it but are stuck to do anything else.

Well we own our ex-council flat and pay £1450 in mortgage PCM. Our neighbour pays £400 rent to the council. So we are in a similar situation although we do clearly own our place.

I'm actually wishing we'd decided to rent one of the nice Victorian terraces across the street and not bothered our backsides to 'buy'. We could only afford ex-council. The rent in the houses opposite would have been similar to our mortgage maybe a smidgen more but they are much bigger.

Something is seriously amiss and it does sadden me so YANBU for sure.

The old lady who bought this place from the council made nearly a quarter of a million on it so maybe she is the winner.

agree oddboots, 2 things that need to happen

create rent increases for people that earn over a certain level, NO way should they be paying £300

then start to really look at why old people, and people with families that have left the roost get to have a 2-3 bed house for life, harsh but it needs to be addressed

I remember in the late 80's a landlord in Southampton buying up whole swathes of council houses. He rented them to students at £30 a week per room. He even rented the living room out so four students could be squeezed into a three bed house.

The result?

Streets that were once a community with families were transformed within a very short period of time. Gardens were overgrown because the students were not interested in maintaining them and the houses fell into a terrible state of repair because the landlord took the money and ignored complaints about any repairs or upkeep.

Very, very sad.

There are very few concil houses left, most are HA, the tenents don't have the right to buy. The right to buy was laid down in law during the Thatcher years and was challenged and overturned. It costs councils more to go to court than building another house would.

Social housing was never meant 'just for poor people' that wasn't the plan.

The tory government put forward the idea of hjome ownership instaed of creating a good rental scheme, that isn't the fault of those that now live in council houses.

If social housing rents were higher then it would cost the country more in the services needed to counter act the effects of homelessness.

The situation in the south is very different to the one in the north, as most would rather buy privatly than rent HA houses, they just cannot afford to.

The OP sounds as though she gave her house up intentionally, that was very short sighted.

new tenants here only get a sercure tenancy after 2/3 yrs if they still need housing,i do think more should be downsizedonce kids have left home,which is 1 reason we wont buy this house,my nextdoor neighbour has a 3 bed and lives with her 38 yr old son and a neighbour over the road has 3 bed and only her living there yet the list is so long with people waiting

I have got myself back on my feet in a HA house after being widowed, tbh, if my rent increased i would move, i live here so that i can have disposible income.

If they increased the rents it would turn the estate that i live on into a getto, we need regional policies, not national, on housing.

I have relatives all over the country so know the situations vary immensely. I also work voluntarily for a welfare rights organisation and see the effect of bad/unstable housing on families, weekly.

OK, poor and low income

for example a family that both work but have low income, deserve a council house IMO

where do you draw the linew tho? whats too high, I thunk £40K plus is a contentious issue

YANBU at all. My personal gripe was the houses opposite my old work. beautiful massive red brick three storeys that were just handed out, whilst i was knackered from work trying to pay a mortgage on a house fillled with damp that i couldn't afford to fix! I knew the people in the houses through work (solicitors) and it angered me even more that these lovely houses were given to these people.

True colours? It's fact.

I think right to buy has been stopped or at least restricted in some areas including Scotland .OP YANBU.There is so little decent LA housing left,which is so unfair on people on low or insecure incomes.Lots of people in expensive private rented accommodation or totaly skint in houses they 'own' (with huge mortgage where house probably inferior to good LA housing)This is defo something theTories are to blame for

I agree.

Anyone who thinks council rents are too low hasn't a clue. If you are on a low wage they are about right. Private rents are grossly overinflated and bear no relation to low and average incomes. If you are on a low income you need housing benefit to pay the rent. People on average incomes are trappped in insecure private rentals as all their money goes on rent and they can't save.

Private renting is shit shit shit.

Your landlord can give you 2 months notice for no reason. This effectively leaves you with no rights. If your property is in severe disrepair that it puts your health at risk you could report them to environmental health. But you would get your notice.

This insecurity is unfair on families. Many are forced to make frequent moves disrupting their childrens education. They can't put down roots and be part of a community.

This country needs an emergency council house building programme. It's about time they ordinary working class families in this country got together and demanded it. Fight for your rights people. The out of touch Labour party won't provide it and the Tories are actively destroying it.

The RTB scheme wouldn't have been problematic in itself if the government had used some of the funds generated by it to replace the social housing that it had flogged. But why would Mrs Thatcher do that, eh?

I understand people questioning elderly couples still living in 2 or 3 bedroom council houses. But there is no alternative in many places.

My pareents live in a small 3 bedroom council house. It is a new town. All of the housing is 2 with nearly all being 3 bedroom. The only exception to this are a few blocks of maisonettes - which have lo lifts to flats in 2nd or 3rd floor, so unsuitable for many older people.

The reality is that the council there does not have enough 1 bedroom or even 2 bedroom places to move older people into. And I suspect this situation is pretty common. Most council housing was built as family housing.

Ugh Maighdlin, what a horrible attitude, that kind of person doesn't deserve such a lovely house, shove them all in tower blocks and prefabs.

True Opinion, Council. HA rent here is slightly lowe than private rent (but not a huge difference), the difference is a lot to us. A lot of people on our road get HB so their rent gets paid for, we don't claim HB and pay full rent.

There are also a lot of people (who bought at the rite time) who are paying less per month on their morgage than we do on rent.

We also have to pay an extra £5 a week for the grass to be cut out the front (sort of a green outside our house), i find this unfair as there are 10 houses on out road paying this extra £5 a week and the grass only gets cut once a month during the summer and half of the year its left un touched.

I do agree that the system is all wrong, there should be more housing available and there should not be as many on the housing list, its only going to get worse as house prices continue to go up and there are no opertuinities for first time buyers.

I think its unfair that people have to keep moving (which means moving schools, moveing away from family ect..). I feel so lucky to have been housed and have the security (not having to move again) which secures my dd's future. We had to take a house that was further out of our area which ment moving schools and moving away from friends and family but it has been worth it and we wont have to move again (unless we want to).

I also know of a lot of 3-4 bed council houses which only have 1-2 people living in them, my grandad lives in a 4 bed house on his own, he has lived there for 50+ years, brought his family up there (4 children), his wife has now passed away. I feel its unfare that he gets to live in a 4 bed house when there is such a shortage on 4 bed council houses, why dont the councli/HA move him to a 1 bed flat (sheltered housing or similar) and free up the 4 bed house?

There are not enough one beds to put these elderly people in.

They do not deserve a retirement in the private rented sector either. Give a frail elderly person two months notice? Believe me there are scumlords that would.

Also it would be wrong when they have lived in that house all their lives.

"Anyone who thinks council rents are too low hasn't a clue.
dont agree, its not right that families with 2 earners and some kids that have left home are only paying £400pm

"Private rents are grossly overinflated and bear no relation to low and average incomes.
I dont agree, its the market rate, and generally they just about cover what the owners are paying on mortgage payments! why shoukld someone rent a house for less that their mortgage payment

and lastly why should working class people automatically get subsidised housing?? I want to queston that as you are assuming that working class = poor, if a "working class" family has 3 people working their income is actually OK