Council House Envy - it's a real thing

[LuisSuarezTeeth]

To be fair, I thought I'd only seen it on MN. I've now experienced it in three different scenarios and it's depressing.

Never mind all the misconceptions about "free housing", "subsidised rents" and all that. People who live in council houses seem to be the envy of the rental community with an automatic black mark against them because of the way they might have secured their tenancy.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

Eviledna- DONT move from your current privately rented house. Landlords wants aside, you have rights. Contact CAB, and shelter for advice. You are threatened with homelessness. Register as such with the council. They will try and talk you out of it, and into another private rent, but stand your ground. The landlord has to go thru proper legal channels, which can be very time consuming, and could give you time to get housed. Also, get a comprehensive list of all housing associations, once you are registered with council. We got kicked out too, and that's what I did, as I couldn't face another insecure tenancy. PM me if you like.

[ArsenicyOldFace]

Tee I spent time as an HA tenant and I felt stigmatised too.

Not least by the HA staff. I have never been spoken to with such an apparent presumption of my arch-stupidity by the employees of any other organisation.

I was really confused when council house envy was first mentioned here, but of course 10 years has made an enormous difference to the profile of private tenants. It did not used to be such a long term tenure for most.

[HelpMeGetOutOfHere]

In my opinion there is a difference between envy and jealousy. Jealousy is a more angry feeling whereby the person might be lore vindictive or spiteful toward those they are jealous of but envy is thinking lucky sods wish I only paid xyz or wish I could afford xyz.

Yes I fully agree that there needs to be a change to private rental in the uk. This doesn't mean raising social housing rents but lowering and securing private rents. Letting people have longer tenancies and security. I really don't know how this can be fine but something really does need to happen

I read some horrific figures estimating that my 8yr old will need to be able to get a mortgage of almost £1.5 million!!! For an average house. I mean wtaf? Salaries are not going to increase by that much, average salary would need to be a few hundred k as a basic that's not going to happen.

Are we going to return to families living in multiple occupancy homes. So 4/5/6 people to one room? With shared bathroom and kitchen?
It's a pretty scary thought.

[Tee1984]

This is so funny! I live in a HA property and can't wait to save a deposit to buy. I was kicked out of my family home at 20 and 3months pregnant. I had to defer my degree for a year to have my baby. I lived in a shirty bedsit fit 2 months then a temporary flag for 8months before my flat. I went back to uni, made a go if it with my DD's dad (now my husband) and really feel the snobbery of others that I live in a HA maisonette now. I look at some if my neighbours who don't work slightly snobbishly but feel like I wouldn't have 'made it' until I own.

I think it was said well above, you envy what you don't have. I want to live in a nice house on a suburban street as opposed to an estate (although it's not bad). It's a part of the human condition to want more. People who privately rent want more cash in their pockets but wouldn't like to have no choice to live where they won't or to have chavy neighbours!

[gamerchick]

Ah but council housing isn't like it is down south all over the country though. They still give them out here to working family's who are overcrowded in private place.

[StripyBanana]

Gamer - my instinctivr reaction is that someone in a high income shouldn't be entitled to council housing. It's become a scarce resource so the families struggling/in bnbs/v low income should get them. It gebuinely doesnt seem fair to have people on a higher income paying a lot less rent than someone on a low income.

the reality of a policy like that is a completely different story though.

[FloatIsRechargedNow]

to Edna from an HA/Council tenant who can understand the 'envy' having privately rented (inc ex-council at loads more rent than NDNs were paying). BTW I didn't get my first LA place until I was 44 - so that was a lotta years privately renting.

Not quite related but to upthread posters - if you've bought an ex-council house but feel the need to complain about the 'lucky' neighbours, please remember your house was a cheaper price than a similar elsewhere because of your 'lucky' NDNs.

[KneeQuestion]

Ev1lEdna That's a very honest post.

I think it is illustrative of the state of mind, that can lead to the sort of opinions/rants, that many of us hear and read about social housing tenants.

It is seemingly human nature, to focus on and lash out at others due to our own circumstances. I have a friend who has said a similar thing to you, but based on her struggle to get/stay pregnant and have a baby. She knew she was being unreasonable when she got angry about the teen daughter of someone she knew being pregnant, but the way she felt about her own problems, made her head go to places she never thought it would and it made her bitter.

I wish you and your family all the best and hope things change for the better soon.

[Ev1lEdna]

It's not at all that people living in council housing have done anything wrong - its just that people are envious of the cheaper living for the SAME houses that they can't afford to sustain (and in private rent may get moved every six months etc...

That. With bells on. It isn't hard to work out how envy arises. We can't get council housing, we moved not long ago and have to move again due to the whimsy of our lying bastard landlords who assured us the let was long term. Now we are having to move our children to another school for the second time in a year and one of those children finds all this really challenging and upsetting and has been severely affected by it. Meanwhile I know of a few people with large houses courtesy of the council all brand new. Funnily enough they all seem to have Sky TV and go on holiday. We can't afford Sky and haven't been on holiday for 7 years - we both work. One of the people above has a really big house and actually manages to look down on other people's houses, regardless of whether they pay rent privately and work while she and her husband (with their 4 kids) do not. Do I feel envious of those people - well right now in the position I'm in I bloody do actually. I'm feeling all bitter and twisted about the world in general though as this isn't the only crap thing going on in my world right now. So I understand where this envy comes from.

Only, that is my emotional response; rationally I know those people above are lucky and probably the minority and there are far more people in less pleasant housing. It isn't all rosy in the council housing market either. I'd like to think I wasn't a 'benefit basher' - I don't think it helps me or them. I think some people are struggling and need the help. I also think that there are people who seem to do very well on it and those are the ones which stand out to us and in weaker moments give the 'Daily Mail' effect. Right now in my tenuous position with very unhappy children I am susceptible to the envy. I'm trying hard to let it go but it keeps creeping in every time I have an anxiety attack or cry. My rational side battles with my emotions on this one if I'm totally honest.

[gamerchick]

Well it's the long ingrained thinking that social housing is for people 'beneath' them... especially the frothers about the whole thing.

So if they are paying over the odds and having it tough then people 'beneath' them should be much worse off... rather than the proper way of thinking that there is something wrong in the private part of it.

and not all council estates are rubbish. I live in a mixed owned and council houses with a brand new estate that's half built not a kick in the arse away from me There are still people in the street who own their houses who think that us council are scum though.. one lady who lords it over the rest of the street and brags about her time share house in spain or whatever was mightily surprised that i'm not entitled to any tax credits when she gets them. The fact we have more income than she did just didn't compute.

She hasn't bragged to me since though.. the thinking is really sad.

[GaryShitpeas]

Exactly queen Tilly

If these "envious" people got off their arses and campaigned, wrote to mps etc there'd be a chance of the system being changed

What annoys me is that it seems that some (not all) would rather council housing be
Made LESS secure and MORE expensive than private renting be improved. I don't get that thinking at all.

[HesterShaw]

Irregular verb:
I propose policies which the electorate supports.
You buy votes.
She is Margaret Thatcher!

Perfect :o

[Pipbin]

Have these people, who are jealous, actually seen a council estate?

The houses next-door either side to me and opposite are council houses. I paid £164,000 for my house. A house down the road sold for £200,000 recently. Any house that goes on the market here is sold within a week.

That said, this is not a 'council estate'. The 6 council houses on my street are the only ones on the estate. Similar size houses on a traditional council estate sell for much less.

[StripyBanana]

windchime - yes, lots of the people who are envious live on the Very Same Estate. In the Very Same Houses. That's why the "it's not fair" feeling emerges. I think this has been stated over and over again on the thread.

Many many people who have entered the housing "market" after 2007 that previously would have bought, can't. As several posters upthread have said they earn over 30 grand and have a reasonable house with a garden. Similar in my area. Yet couples earning 30 grand couldn't dream of living in a similar situation!

It's not at all that people living in council housing have done anything wrong - its just that people are envious of the cheaper living for the SAME houses that they can't afford to sustain (and in private rent may get moved every six months etc...

Council /HA housing is mainly mixed amongst the "regular" housing in our town. Many many houses were sold off so its part private rented part HA/council.

[capant]

Yes my parents live in a council house. It is in a nicer street and better maintained than the one my brother's family live in that is not council, fairly nearby.

Research done by Government actually showed that the worst housing is cheaper private rented housing. Often in worst areas, and more poorly maintained.

[QueenTilly]

The envy would be better focused in letter-writing to MPs demanding that more social housing is built, and an end to the right-to-buy scheme.

But, hey, divide-and-rule is super-effective, isn't it?

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

The other irony is that , on the whole council estates could be nice, if the demand wasn't so high, and the criteria so narrow. With greater social diversity on estates, rather than only the neediest, they would be fine. I know several elderly people who moved onto council estates in the 1950 s and we're made up to be living somewhere so lovely.

[IfNotNowThenWhen]

Well, yes, because those have mostly been sold to private landlords. Who rent them to the very families who would have got a nice council house before the sell off, for twice the rent and zero security. Which the local council then has to pay for thru housing benefit, because most people's wages won't cover the rent. And then those families are vilified for being scroungers. Clever old Thatcher eh?

[rainbowinmyroom]

Very lovely council estates are very few and far between.

I love the generalisation of all these large council houses with gardens and rooms in desirable areas.

[GaryShitpeas]

Windchime exactly

Mine for one is mostly an absolute shit hole and it's not even the worst one around

And tbh I worry about the future for my dcs mixing with kids that are trouble and how shit the secondary schools are

[Babyroobs]

Some council estates are dire, but there is a lovely new housing estate which has just been built near me and many of the properties are Housing Association. They are 3 storey, brand new everythng, really nice and I can totally understand why people are envious. The rent that people pay for these homes is way less than private sector rents.

[windchime]

Have these people, who are jealous, actually seen a council estate? To be told where I am going to live would be my worst nightmare.

[ArsenicyOldFace]

Andrew!

[alemci]

also the demand for social housing has grown due to more people coming into UK who have a need.

[Andrewofgg]

Irregular verb:


I propose policies which the electorate supports.

You buy votes.

She is Margaret Thatcher!