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.

LHA here is for both private and council/HA properties. It's going to be like that for all areas, eventually.

That's why tenants are having difficulties paying rent in this area. Every new claim now is LHA everywhere not housing benefit (hence the bedroom tax) and housing benefit will be changed over at some point. Our council changed everyone this April so no one in this county gets housing benefit anymore.

If the rent is being paid from benefits, then it's not the landlords fault. The person renting either is unemployed or living beyond their means

Most housing benefit is paid to people who work. it wouldn't be 100% of the amount, but a proportion.

Living beyond their means? really?

I wouldn't call needing somewhere to live 'living beyond your means'

If your wages are low enough to be eligible for housing ben, but you are not eligible for social housing, then you have little choice other than to rent privately and get help with the, mostly, extortionate rent.

Haha!!!! Love this thread.

HB is frequently paid out to compensate for the consequences of overspending. Oh yes, I'm sure it happens all the time. The CAB have a special calculator for it.

Please tell me you typed that without thinking.

I know that my husband and I are entitled to both. I don't know why someone would choose to live in a council house vs. a private house (assuming you would be entitled to both benefits).
As an example in my area you can rent a 1 bed council flat for £70 per week. The lowest similar property on the private market would be £180 per week. My nephew, under 35 and unemployed is entitled to £80 per week LHA. His brother, also unemployed and under 35 is entitled to the same help with rent but has a 1 bed council flat so all rent is paid. If one gets a job he will have to pay more towards his rent the more he earns rent the more he earns, if he earns enough he will pay the full rent. The others rent will stay the same no matter how much he earns. Just one reason of many why people would choose a council tenancy.
And they are not all shit properties on sink estates, many are very desirable housing on mixed developments of social housing and private ownership.

Depends, there are many people that want to live in an expensive area that their salary doesn't stretch too. Likewise their are those that don't want to work, want a SAHP, work part time or believe one salary should cover four people. There's a huge difference between a roof of your head and the lifestyle people believe they are entitled too.

It's not a mistake many people would make for long.

I live in a HA flat.

I was able to bid for it as I lived in the borough, was living in an 'overcrowded' 2 bed house (Dd and DS shared a bedroom) and earned under £30k.

My rent is 'affordable' at 60% of the market rate (but more like 80%).

I accepted a smaller 2 bedroom flat even though I would still be 'overcrowded' as I was due to go up the pay scale at work which would have taken my earnings over £30k.

I think I can say that I played the system. I read the housing allocations policy from front to back and sent lots of emails highlighting which part of their policies applied to my situation.

I now have a HA flat which I can decorate and know that I can stay here for at least 5 years. I am also £150 a month better off than my private rent before.

I did it to improve my family's situation. Some people are envious, most people look down on me.

I am far more envious of the majority of my peers (and even a sibling) who are in similar paying jobs as mine but were given hefty deposits and now own 3 bedroom houses in desirable areas, paying less mortgage than my rent. I will never be in that situation and so had to provide security the best way I could.

there are many people that want to live in an expensive area that their salary doesn't stretch to

I live in London, I am from London, I have always lived here.

I haven't chosen to live in an expensive area, it is just where I am from is by default expensive.

I am not alone in that. If you are from somewhere and that is where your support network [that enables you to work-particularly if you are a single parent] is, why should you not live there, or more to the point, not be able to afford to live there?

It's not so much an issue of choice really.

^^ Exactly!

I live in expensive London(grew up here) even though on my salary I can't 'afford' to.

But I also work in London providing a necessary service. It would be nice if London jobs paid London living wages.

Where else do you expect London nurses, teachers, shop workers, cleaners and others earning less thank £100k with no family on hand to donate deposits, to live ? If your answer is to rent privately then even more of the governments money will be spent on housing benefit.

Did you know that since January 2012, New tenants moving into a Housing Assosiation or Council properties have to pay rent at 80% market rates. So they are not actually that cheap anymore.

I am jealous. I live in a half house with no garden while my parents live in a massive 4 bedroom house with a garden and they pay half the rent I do.

It absolutely infuriates me to think of people in a council house when they can well afford to buy their own house. So this tenancy for life should be stopped. There are not enough houses to go round so those in need should get priority.

Purple, right to buy wasn't invented 39 years ago...?

It infuriates? Gawd

It's like people want the media garbage to come true... so they can truly slag people off for being benefit scroungers with their free house. Most odd.

Anyway I don't think there are tenancys for life anymore for new tenants. I have a tenancy for life though and am most thankful for it.

VivienneMary the problem with turfing people out when their pay gets too high is a disensentive to work. Perhaps the way it is in Ireland which is rougjly a third of household income.

I agree about the people who live in them who earn more than adequate salaries and not really needing to be there.

I remember working with people in the early 90s who boasted about buying their council house and reselling and what alot of money they made.

When council housing was built en masse, mainly in the 30's and 50's it was actually intended to afford ordinary working class people a lifestyle to be aspired to. They were built with indoor bathrooms, and large gardens, because at the time there was this idea that everyone should have a decent quality of life and somewhere for children to run around.
Nowadays it's considered oh so entitled if us uppity low waged folk won't settle for a cramped, damp smelly high rise shithole.
Daisy, the people who came up with the idea of social housing nearly 100 years ago would be horrified by your Victorian values.

Did you know that since January 2012, New tenants moving into a Housing Assosiation or Council properties have to pay rent at 80% market rates. So they are not actually that cheap anymore.

Is that in all regions?

Purple, right to buy wasn't invented 39 years ago...?

Lots of areas did (apparently) run their own local RTB-type schemes long (decades) before Thatcher gave all tenants the formal 'Right' nationally.

Oh the horror of people working in our supermarkets, call centres and factories wanting to live in decent accommodation. How very dare they.

I wonder if we'll ever see a return to philanthropy and a desire to provide decent housing for all, rather than a system where a small number of people see property as a cash machine?

I would like to think so crisp.

I live in a council house. Its my 3rd council place, the first was a hostel on a temporary basis. Me, DH and DS. We then moved to a shithole in a rough area of a nice city (which a lot of people would love to move to on MN). It was awful and we stuck it out for 7 years. The house was falling down and the neighbours were horrible. We would get abuse and I lived in constant fear about what was going to be thrown at our house next. We applied to move and were on the list for a while. Then the bidding system came in and because we wanted 1 less bedroom (no idea how on earth we managed to be offered a 4 bedroom house in the first place with just 3 of us) we were in Silver. We had to move out of our home town to get somewhere and now we live in the middle of nowhere 50 miles away. Much better area, but not perfect for us, but its either here or look to move to the really rough areas again.

I actually have envy of those who have bought a place. I (Probably wrongly) assume that they have more choice over where they live than what I do. I have considered renting privately near to where I live, but the security is not there. If I could be offered a 5 year tennancy to rent privately Id do it in a heartbeat (after all the private rents here are not much more than what I pay now and with a bit of tweaking my financial outgoings I could probably afford it)

Oh the horror of people working in our supermarkets, call centres and factories wanting to live in decent accommodation.

I suspect automated self-checkouts, india-based call handling and constant headlines about the demise of UK manufacturing has fooled some idiots people into thinking we no longer need such valuable workers crisp.

Goodness alone knows who they imagine empties the bins, cleans the hospitals and feeds the elderly