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?

FCO services are already in some places very very poor.

FCO has been selling off its premises already, the ambassador's residence in Moscow was handed back to the Russians, the beautiful dacha was sold off to pay for the new embassy (ok simple explanation). I know someone FCO's estate agents "asked" a family with her 3 young children to leave so they could stick the house up for sale for a million in this financial year just to hit its "targets", it will go up for sale finally when the family move on, so it should, but it's a pity the money saved is not going back into the FCO for better services, instead of into the Treasury. FCO staff are being sacked and replaced by local staff with crap salaries, you really cannot squeeze too much more out of FCO budget.

Totally wrong suggestion about selling off FCO premises. 62 in Russia? So what. This number alone is meaningless. Do you realize that in a city with population of over 10million like Moscow there are several buildings in the complex that serve demands of the Foreign office and British nationals abroad. Apart from the embassy itself, visa office, residences of the ambassador and the staff, British Council etc. Russia spans 9 time zones it is a massive country you know (not Denmark ).

When my dd was accidentally born in Russia and I had to arrange her (re)patriation to the UK it was the British Embassy, my MP and the UK Foreign Office who pulled all the strings and arranged all the necessary paperwork in just over 24 hours. My husband is Dutch and we first appealed to the Dutch Embassy. They were totally useless - bureaucratic, inefficient, most of the time not answering the phones, insisting that I would bring my 24 week baby from the intensive care to them to be photographed and fingerprinted. Neither tears, no threats made them change their "procedures". I am proud of the service FCO gave my family in our hour of need!

bemybebe - if you lowered or abolished the tax free amount on earnings - it would disproportionally affect the lowest paid, those on NMW. Who only earn £11.8k pa for a FT working week BEFORE tax. If they were taxed at 20% on their WHOLE earnings, they would take home just £791.70 pcm, or £182.70 a week. WHaaaaaaaaaatt?! Are you serious? Considering my rent on a mid-terrace 2-bed house (HA property, not even private rented) is £120.63 a week - and the general opinion, at least on MN, is that Tax Credits and Housing Benefit should be stopped, How exactly do you think that anyone can survive on that?!

go back and read my message properly
i referred to inheritance tax

Has the OP been back?

I'm in a three bed house and want to downsize to a one bed (Bungalow or Top floor high raise) by the coast you would think the council would help me with open arms but no I spend hours on the council homeswapper website never finding what I want....Any advice won't go amiss.

This thread is from 2011.
HTH

but there is a shortage of one bed social housing properties too......

julie, get you're local mp involved.

If you're willing to downsize and getting nowhere if it's to do with a points/priority system there's a chance getting an mp on side would help you.

I'm basing this off someone I know wanting to downsize from a four bed after the kids left home and never getting a sniff at anything on offer. This was before the bedroom tax though so I don't know how you'd fare now. Worth a shot .

*your

Everyone should be told when they get a council house that it will be means tested every few years and when they no longer need it they will be charged the going rate (e.g. in line with private rentals- the gov could use the profits from this to build more council housing)

When someone no longer needs council housing (e.g. wage dependant) or the number of rooms they need change (e.g. kids move out) then they are given 12 months notice and have to downsize / pay market rate / go private.

This shouldn't be applied retrospectively but when people take council housing these days they should understand that they are receiving appropriate level of help for as long as they need it.

People shouldn't take more than they need and should be happy that help is available

YABVU, the poor old dear had probably lived there with the family, for many years.
It isn't their fault that Thatcher sold all the social housing, they deserve to be settled in older age and in some cases a move like that could kill them.

I think that no individual should be living in a 3/4 bed council house which will probably have 2 bathrooms. Also, why should some people who are under-occupying be given heating grants to heat empty rooms?

These homes no longer suit their needs & they should be provided with more suitable accommodation. As well as family homes, more accommodation needs to be built to house single people, then these homes that were built to house families can be released back into the housing stock.

Yanbu.

I know some people don't want to move but if you aren't providing your own accommodation then you don't always get what you want. A household of one should not have larger accommodation provided for them by the government than a household of 5. It is selfish and wasteful and unfair.

People who rent privately or buy move when they have to. It's not something council tenants alone face.
Councils have a duty to house everyone they can. 1 or 2 person households do not need massive houses.

I don't see why the elderly are exempt from the bedroom tax. there is a severe housing shortage in London and other places. if you are on the state's dime, you shouldn't be allowed to under occupy.

looking at articles like this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23122369

it would seem that even when family homes are available people don't want them, what would be the point of turfing old people out of their homes to free up homes that would just lie empty.

Not to mention that fact that you would then be adding 100s of people to the waiting list of scarce 1 and 2 bed properties and not only that but for properties that would also be needed for the disabled, single stories/ground floor , near bus routes etc.

Who dug this up?

Man, jigsawlady there's so much wrong with that I don't know where to start

You are aware that council housing is nothing to do with welfare or the government don't you?

Written - actually my Grandad lives alone in a housing association 3 bed house, at age 85 he still works and pays TAX he gets no benefits ( I don't includes his contribution based state pension entitlement as a bloody benefit) pays full rent with no HB so wouldn't be affected by the bedroom tax if older people had to pay it anyway.

So he is not on the states 'dime' (are you American per chance?) and he is not moving ANYWHERE even if that means that when he does give up his job his family including me will ensure he has enough to live on without claiming anything

Mrsdavid - i am an american, but not from the US ;)

Your grandad is not being supported by the state so my comment doesn't apply.

Here's my more complete view. The govt is cutting left and right and the only people that aren't affected are the old. While the young have no hope of finding a house and have to pay 9000 in tuition, the elderly can keep their bus passes and houses.

I am not saying put them out on the street, i am saying that if there is a family waiting for a house in the queue, than i just don't think "i've lived XX years" is a valid reason for keeping another family in an overcrowded house.

Right first of all its total rubbish to say that pensioners are not affected by the cuts, care home fees have rocketed especially for those forced to sell their homes to pay for them, meals on wheels 121 care have all been cut day centres are closing down, Hospital care for the elderly is a disgrace, pensioners are routinely being denied medical care and operations due to their age (although its never admitted by the NHS it happens my Nan was affected by it)

Pensioners are now having to wait longer for their 'benefits' my Dad 65 last week was able to get his bus pass and apply for pension credit from age 60 my Mum who is 59 cannot get her pension until she is 66 and cannot get her bus pass and apply for pension credit until she is 66 (by that time she would have worked and paid into the system for 51 years.

Working class people like my Grandparents and Parents never even got the chance to go to university free or otherwise, in fact my Sister was the first of our family to actually do so don't blame pensioners for young people having to pay for something that they never even had the chance of getting when they were young.

As for housing me and DH would never have got the chance to buy our own property ( or at least the one we got) without the help of my DHs parents and grandparents who themselves never had a chance to own their own homes.

I am of the generation that may not get the same 'benefits' that older people get so what? I doesn't mean that have the right to blame older people, it doesn't give me the right to complain about my own situation and look on in envy at people who are 'supposed' to have had a better life then I one that I will/may have.

YABU
My GPs moved to a flat in their DS's new house. Both were dead in 18 months.

They didn't have to move, they weren't in particularly bad health even if ~90 years old.

They're house was a pain without a car, but they could afford taxis.

My lovely aunt couldn't have taken better care of the whole business (my uncle, their DS was a bit of an twat, he always is. However, my Nan thought the sun shine out of his arse so he's only a problem to everyone else)

But despite the whole thing being a million times nicer than forcibly moving a old person from a council house, it killed them

I agree with you OP.

Not just elderly people though, I feel anyone who has the luxury of spare bedrooms when whole families may be homeless or overcrowded should be helped to move to smaller accommodation.

Private tenants also pay money to live in their homes but don't have the same tenancy for life agreements. It isn't that awful.

Those who need a 'spare room' for carers are entitled to have one. Having more space than is required on a daily basis is a luxury the country can ill affford with the current housing crisis.

Of course they should be moved. There's no room for sentimentality when the housing situation is as bad as it is at the moment.

I agree with you OP. My grandma lived in a three bedroom house alone for many years on her own. My dad and his two brothers had left home approx 25 years previously and she had been widowed approx 10 years when she died. I always thought it was disgraceful that she could have a house that size when there were families of 4/5 in tiny flats.