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?

littlemisssarcastic yes i do,so if a couple with 2 children were given a council house and raised their children there for decades why should they then have to move out once their dc have grown up and left home?
That just does not sit right with me.

toddlerama it was a 3 bedroom house which she lived in as she had 5 children so she would never have been in a 1/2 bed iyswim.

Interesting, isn't it, to consider why in Western society, living with the elderly is regarded as just... EWWWW!!! After all, if these greedy selfish feckless coffin-dodgers OLD POOR people were sharing their homes with members of their extended families who were also in housing need, there wouldn't be such a big problem, would there?

Except - I think about all the appalling comments and thoroughly horrible sneering judgemental garbage I've read on this forum over the years about adults (especially men) who CHOOSE to live with their elderly parents.

So many women here have stated they would never consider of having a relationship with someone who "still lived at home" - as if this is automatically evidence of childish immaturity and dependancy on parents. It's never ever interpreted as as mature and pragamatic decision to pool resources with and take active responsiblity for elderly family members. Oh sorry. I forgot we are all ENTITLED to our own little ticky-tacky boxes, as proof of how much we are worth. Talk about tragic victims of the capitalist fucking dream.

toddlerama I will point you in the direction of A1980's post in which she said I don't know I'm born.

I get defensive because I hear it over and over and over again. And it does feel like I'm being 'bashed' for being in a council/HA house.

All this talk about the elderly being tides out of their homes... As council tenants, surely they are just that: tenants. With no absolute rights to a particular house. Harsh, but true. It's an emotive subject, but so is that of small children living in overcrowded bedsits whilst their parent/s wait for adequate council housing.

As far as I can see, on this thread there is one rule/set of rights for those in the council housing/HA system and another for everyone else. What about the rights of people, of any age, who are denied the chance of a home for life?

People who have a mortgage and fall on hard times might very much like to stay in their own home - they can't. They get repossessed and go to the bottom of the housing list.

Unless we are going to requisition all the larger houses in this country, and divide them up into council flats/maisonettes, I would like to know how the housing need is ever going to match demand if people are allowed to stay in houses they no longer need just because they happen to want to?

Has anyone mentioned yet the elderly homeowners who are forced to sell their family home to pay for nursing home care? As they wouldn't get free personal care at home from the state, presumably that compulsion to move into a home comes somewhat earlier that it otherwise would.

YABU.

My grandmother died in August and my grandfather is still living in their biggish house - we're worried it can't go on forever and it's a concern, but moving out would, I think, be the end of him - packing up the life they had together and moving somewhere else for his last years would just be the last thing. And probably not by much.

Luckily for him it's his own house and he did alright earlier in life and can stay there and not having his heart broken a second and last time - and that shouldn't be an option only for the wealthy.

Icooksocks - believe me, if were earning £40k a year and taking up a council house while running two cars and having a foreign holiday every year I would personally be bashing you. If not, then no one is bashing you and never would.

Why is it always the poorer section of society thats expected to solve all this countries problems?

Why do they get the blame for everything?

It is only the poorer section of society who are allowed to be poor who get any sympathy of that anyone is defending. Most council house tenants on this thread have stated that they would be perfectly happy for them or their parents to sit on a house they don't need while another family lives in a bedsit and/or starves.

My elderly mum lives in a 3 bedroomed council house , when my dad was alive they could have bought it for peanuts but the didn't,so don't worry I'm sure she won't be around for much longer then you can have it

18k a year, 1 car, 1 holiday to N France a year-which is actually cheaper than some English hols. £450 for a caravan for a week including ferry.

Usualsuspect - is that aimed at me? The only selfishness on this thread is from the council house occupants not the ones pointing out the hardship on the other side of the fence.

Icooksocks - what's your point then exactly?

My mum was given her council house after bringing up 5 kids in a house with no bathroom and an outside toilet

so yes she deserved her house for life

Thats a bit competitive pooring ,sorry

Same as my nan usual,i completely agree.

Fine, but so do the family down the road bringing up a family in a bedsit, or the family who can't afford to eat while they live in a shitty private rental (probably a sub-let coundil house) with no functional heating. Why can't you and others see this?

If only council estates had a good mix of houses of all sizes then people could be moved every 5 or 10 years, if necessary, and keep the community more or less intact.

I can see it ,on paper it looks like a good idea but you are talking about real people here

people like your mum or nan ,not a different species

I understand that, but as I say my MIL is rattling around in a big house that she cannot look after. She can barely climb the stairs, she can barely feed herself and she never gets dressed.

She is still around because of family shopping and cooking for her, and because she has a home help in to bath her, etc. She has a panic button, but she's already fallen down the stairs and broken her hip. None of us can go and stay with her for any length of time because the house is in such a state, plus we live hundreds of miles away and DH's sister, although closer, has a full time job and a family of her own.

She should be in sheltered accommodation for her own safety and if someone was to "incentivise" her to do this, were she in the state sector, our whole family would breathe a sigh of relief.

Before anyone says we're selfish for living so far away, we have tried to encourage her to move to a small place close to us but she point blank refuses.

Not all the Council / HA tenants on the thread have a selfish 'I'm alright Jack' attitude. I certainly don't.

And, at the risk of sounding like a politician - They may have been promised a home for life - but that doesn't mean the same HOUSE for life, just that they are guaranteed a home for life. Nothing about the size or location of it.

My Granny can see that downsizing was the right thing to do, watching first her son (my dad) having to go through temporary accommodation in the 80's waiting for a council place after getting custody of me, convinced her of that (she downsized for the first time after that), then she has watched me waiting for a larger Council / HA property.

I can see that downsizing when I no longer need my large Council / HA property is the right thing to do - when I no longer need it, I will be glad to have got another family out of their previous overcrowded accommodation. WTF is wrong with moving to a smaller house as your dc leave home? Your memories are IN YOUR HEAD not in a pile of bricks.

Some of the posters here seem to base their opinions for the whole of the UK as if we all lived in London or a few big cities. My parents live in a 3 bedroom council house. They want a 1 or 2 bedroom place all on the same level. They can't get one. Where they live - a small town - council housing is almost exclusively 3 bedroom family homes. There is very little else.

In the city I live nearly all the council housing is also houses - some terraced, some 1960's/70's family housing. There used to be moreflats, but these have over the years been demolished as the council couldn't afford their upkeep. A few blocks were alos sold off to private developers.

Where my FIL lives in the country there is very little council housing - which he doesn't live in. But ALL there is is 3 bedroom 1970's houses. The council does not own any flats or 1 bedroon places. In all 3 of these places elderly people living in 3 bedroom houses would have no option but to be evicted. There is not enough smaller alternative council housing available.

People leaving voluntarily = nothing is wrong with it.
People being forced to leave, especially very elderly, who are used to the layout of their homes, who know how the boiler/cooker works, who know their GPs, neighbours and shopkeepers, those people being forced out = very very wrong.

But I seriously don't think anyone here is suggesting that people be forced to move out of their immediate area. But I think there is a case for compulsion to move to smaller accommodation - where that accommodation exists.

To make a purely economic point, which I know will not be popular, is anyone considering the extra burden on the taxpayer of providing personal care for elderly people who cannot cope in their home, set against the reduced cost if they were to move to a ground floor flat more suited to their needs? Also, what about the cost of heating these large houses for elderly people who can ill afford it?