to think that elderly people living alone in 3/4 bed council houses should not have a choice about whether they want to stay there?

[BlessYouToo]

In fact, they should be moved into one bedroom accommodation as soon as the kids leave home (this should have happened years ago of course). Having a 'spare' bedroom in case the grandchildren come to stay should not be an option when they are in state owned properties.

I have today been to view a council property with a friend of mine who has been homeless for 3 years (in temp accommodation) after finally getting to the top of the bidding queue! She was called to see a 4 bedroom house and it was absolutely rank, the smell made me want to heave. Plaster was hanging off the wall and the whole place was damp as the previous tenant either, did not or could not, heat and ventilate it properly Apparently the house was in a much worse than the state we saw it in today but the council had done some remedial work on it to make it safe so it was a bit better. The garden was also just a sea of brambles.

We were told that an elderly person had been living there and had just been moved into a nursing home. T

I was shocked that the council could rent out a property in this state. I would have expected that they would have made sure the property was up to a decent, clean standard before renting it out as any other landlord would have to do (all my friend will get is a paint allowance if she is eligible) but I am even more shocked that this elderly tenant was allowed to let the property get into this condition. Why do councils not carry out inspections to ensure their properties don't get into this state? Obviously the house was too much for the previous tenant to cope with and surely they would have been better off with a smaller property that they could keep clean?

We were told that many of the properties coming available after elderly tenants have either died, or gone into alternative accommodation, are left in a similar state. How many families with young children are left crammed into tiny flats while elderly people are living in houses much too large for their needs, letting them decay around them? I find it unbelievable that this has been happening.

I feel gutted for my friend as she has been desperate to get a stable home for her DCs and will now be going into a total shithole without even carpets on the floor, just cement. It's a bloody disgrace! AIBU?

HuntyCat depends on where you live - I work in social housing in an area where a typical 3 bed terrace council house is rented out at about £125 per week and a 2 bed private flat is currently about £850 per month. It'll take a long time for social rents to catch up - the increases are rpi plus 0.5% plus £2 per week. And whilst HB is paid out by the council, the levels at which it is set are dictated by central govt who also reimburse the council for the cost. Payment of hb is revenue neutral for local authorities.

intresting enough do people realise that councils that ar not in debt have to pay 40% over to central government to susdise those that are.So it does affect how much social housing is built

This will be ending soon . but the grand debt will be split over all councils so even those that are debt free will have to take on a debt .

link here [http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/Dunmow-Stansted/Uttlesford-will-use-legislation-shake-up-to-boost-social-housing-18112011.htm]]

Hunty where i used to live not far from you Rent on a 3 bed was £106 and wher ei am now rent is £126 for a 3 bed .Which is defintley cheaper i admit

What ever happens no one is going to come out of this happy .Even those with secure tennacys are going to be subject to questions and yes jealoursy of people .
I thought some people close to me would be happy for me that i have got somewhere suitable due to my circumstances but no lot of bitterness becuase they have been on waitling list longer .Oh what would i give not to need a wheelchair adapted house

opps

www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/Dunmow-Stansted/Uttlesford-will-use-legislation-shake-up-to-boost-social-housing-18112011.htm

I also think the idea of an elderly person having to move to a 1 bedroom flat is truly nasty. My mum did the right think but moved into a 2 bed bungalow. 1 bedroom was not an option as all the family have dispersed. So she needed a spare room for them to visit.
And why shouldn't she. By the time of her death they had paid the equivelent of about 60 years rent. Even with the low rent of approx £100 per week enough to have some say in where she lives.

I would strongly advise against any old/eldery people moving into a bungalow. They can lose the use of their legs within weeks.

The horror of the housing shortage is that people who did not buy before some date this century are having to pay untold hundreds of thousands for what we picked up for a song in the early nineties. I don't know why people boast about house prices. I am embarassed about my own good fortune which is based on when I was born, no merit from me.

We had to do ski-ing excercises to restrengthen legs.

Also, older people rely on their long-term memory a lot more than younger people and get easily confused/unsettled in the new surroundings. Someone who can live independently in their own home often loose this ability once moved (bitter family experience, albeit not involving council property)

maybe all old people should be sent ski-ing, those who don't die from injury can have a house

'nty where i used to live not far from you Rent on a 3 bed was £106 and wher ei am now rent is £126 for a 3 bed .Which is defintley cheaper i admit

Interestingly more than we pay private rental on our cottage (3 bed plus dining room we use as 4th bed). Seems to me regional variations are such a key factor.

I don't have a link I am afriad but I was at nurse colege in the nineties, verye arly on, when we were completing the end stages of the local institutions closing. I remember some research even now that old people who were made to move (between care homes but there's a fair chance of extrapolation, surely) had a massively higher risk of death in the coming months.

I am all for building a clause in for new tenants. But it's a change over that needs to start from there.

And LMAO at inherited tenancies- my Mum's neighbour God rest his soul died last week; known him all my life. His Grandson moved in with him for his last fifteen years as Carer; he has until 7pm tonight to be out. Fifteen years saving the council megabucks with someone in a wheelchair who would need +++ social care and given seven days to be out and in to emergency B&B accomodation becuase of course as his Carer he could not work. But it's an easy life, yes? Being in a social house.

But. Anyway.

People need to talk to the older people to see what they want.

Mum and Dad lost their pension in a nasty administrative loophole. It went to pay for American asbestos claims.

They had more than enough set adside for a Bungalow. There are a few on the estate where they live, that was the ones they were after.

Now they say they would move if there was somewhere on their estate with at least a small garden (see paragraph below) as Mum is quite - well she says herself if she'd been born now she'd have a mild AS DX: I agree. Grdening is very much her raison d'etre.

Not acres, but something- even access to an allotment would do as they have grown their own all my life and is how they make ends meet after the Big Pension Nightmare.

Not that much to ask really- doable with sensible planning. Not on offer, however.

Sorry i havn't read the whole thread.

Just over a year ago we were on the council list (had been on it for 2.5 years), i was sleeping on the sofa with my autistic daughter (she could not share with her sister due to many reasons liked to her Autism), we were desperate (not as desperate as some) for a 3 bed house. Meenwhile my grandad was living alone in a 4 bed house and 3 bed houses rarely came up (4 beds were coming up maybe once a year), it did make me slightly angry knowing that people like my grandad were rattling around in a 4 bed house when there are so many famillies waiting to be housed and living in cramped conditions. My grandad has lived in his house for 50 +years, brought his children up there, my gran had passed away there so i understand how hard it would be for him to move but then again he would probably be better off living in a 1 bed flat nearer to town (his house is in the middle of nowhere).

We are now in a 3 bed house and we are very lucky, one day (if my children leave home) it will just be dh and i living here, i don't know how i would feel about moving somewhere smaller but if we have to we will. At the end of the day the house belongs to the council not us and if it no longer suits our needs then why shouldn't we move?

your neighbour should ring shelter peachy, and look into assigned tenancies - not alweays applicable depending on tenancy.

Peachy, do not 'share' but I am interested in the asbestos claim. (Was it in Dorset/Devon borders?) My ils were convinced that Lloyds would take the hit for the asbestos fiasco, but it didn't.)

Better ski-ing than a Stenna chair-lift. My parents chose the ski-ing option.

The consenus in 2005 was that Lloyds underwriters would have been sunk due to the asbestos cases. Which didn't appear to happen.

judyjudy Story is on here (MN) already- close by, bridgwater: a few companies were bought by big American companies so the pension funds then went to US law which allows for it to be counted as assets and not protected.

Custy thanks- Mum's neighbour, tehre's a rule where they are that it's ten eyars named on a tenancy to inherit it- I imagine that he enver got himself added? I will suggest Shleter though, good call.

Wrt private rent I googled and found that the cheapest current rent for a 3 bed house in this area is £395pcm. That's about £65, give or take a couple of quid, more per month than my 3 bed HA property, although mine is a 4 wkm.

Logically it does make sense to move someone who is in a property that is too big for them into a smaller property, assuming there is a suitable one available. However, emotionally to move an older person/couple who have been promised a 'house for life' it's an whole different ball game.

To introduce shorter tenancies that are renewed every x years is one possibility, at least then people will know that the house is not for life. I do agree with those who say the whole housing situation needs a good shake up and some tough questions being asked instead of just blaming council/HA tenants.

Plus the other problem for council tenants moving to sheltered housing is that they have to compete with those who own their own home but sell it as they are entitled to sheltered housing due to their age.

That's interesting judy. My mum was in some ways forced to move out of her house because of concerns for her climbing the stairs due to her being unsteady on her feet. A stair lift was not an option unless we paid for it.From memory 20 years ago when we needed a lift for dad we made it to the top of the list after he died!!!

However, emotionally to move an older person/couple who have been promised a 'house for life' it's an whole different ball game.

Politicians break promises all the time. Anyway I think they 'promise' a home for life which they would have, just a different one as their needs have changed.

All this talk of council tenants paying rent for 60+ years so they have paid the houses worth in rent and the improvements they make. Well private renters (and I was one for 5 years) do exactly the same when they pay their landlords mortgage and they don't get any special dispensation to stay there as long as they like.

Honestly any elderly person/couple taking up a 3/4 bedroom council house, which they cannot maintain and which they do not own (after all these properties were only 'lent' to them while they had children to bring up), who do not feel that they should move into something smaller to better suit their living requirements and free up the property for a family with children, is purely selfish and a bit horrible IMO. Especially in today's economic climate.

I will not apologise for having a 4 bedroom HA house, I did my fair share of private rents and they weren't pretty. One landlord wasnt paying his mortgage and the house was being repossesed. One landlord let himself in without prior warning.

When the time comes I will downsize to something smaller, but will probably do it through the homeswapper scheme. Which incidentally is how I ended up in a 4 bed house in the first place.

I really don't like the the assumption that elderly people do not care for their homes. That is simply not always the case. In fact mum's property was probably in better condition after she died than before she moved it. It had carpets for a start!

YABU
My nan lived in her 3 bed council house for nearly 50 years until she died last year,at home as was her wish.
IMO this was her right,why should she not deserve a home for life?

mrsshears Don't you think everyone deserves a home for life?

Icook no-one is saying you shouldn't have an HA house if you need it. The OPs point is that as your needs change, so should the local authority's duties towards you. No-one has said you wouldn't be housed, just that as a single OAP you wouldn't require a 4 bed house. No-one on this thread has implied that you should 'chastise' yourself. There is an awful lot of defensiveness in your post!

mrsshears even if you believe a subsidised home for life is your nan's 'right', surely a one/two bed would also fulfil this right?