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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

OMG!! The Council House Giveaway!!

234 replies

HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 09:42

It's IDS again!!

So, if you live in a council house and come off benefits for a year the Tories will GIVE you your council house. Now even though I could benefit from this I still think it's a crazy idea......we need more CH not give them away!!

All for a few votes?? It's that damn Dame Porter all over again!

Anyone think this is a good idea?

OP posts:

taxi4ballet · 12/02/2015 09:48

I thought the whole point of council houses was to provide a home for people on low incomes who can't afford to buy somewhere or to rent privately...

How is a person on a low income supposed to increase their pay to the point where they don't need benefits any more when the national Minimum Wage is so low?

funnyossity · 12/02/2015 09:50

Do they not learn from the past?

SaucyJack · 12/02/2015 09:51

I think it's one of the stupidest things I've heard in a long time.

Does paying Housing Benefit to council tenants actually cost the country money anyway? Surely it's just moving numbers about electronically these days.

I wonder what the real motivation is. It's not in anybody's interests in the long-term- even the Tories- to start giving council properties away. Even selling them off was bad enough.

EbwyIsUpTheDuff · 12/02/2015 09:52

just when I thought they couldn't get any more idiotic...

Birdsgottafly · 12/02/2015 09:52

All of the recent reports into Benefit rates have shown that the cuts haven't saved the country any money, as Tory policy in the 80's didnt, it just plunged communities into poverty.

So this scheme would allow them to claim that under their Government people came off housing benefit and home ownership (Tory aim) increased.

Five years on, the effect will be devastating, in many regions.

QueQuesto · 12/02/2015 09:54

I wonder what the real motivation is

Call me cynical but perhaps to save the council money in the long term on property maintenance and repairs as presumably these would then become the expense of the resident?

Birdsgottafly · 12/02/2015 09:54

""How is a person on a low income supposed to increase their pay to the point where they don't need benefits any more when the national Minimum Wage is so low?""

They can't, but you can bet that there will be benefit changes that count owned property as an asset.

Original poster

HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 09:56

It sounds like the Tories want to abolish council homes all together doesn't it? We will all be living in this home-owning fully employed utopia - How the hell can they think that disaster can befall anyone at any time, illness, accidents, death can throw someone's life into turmoil - We need social housing -more social housing!

OP posts:

Trapper · 12/02/2015 09:57

I would be in favour if the scheme was coupled with a massive increase in social housing stock and house building in general, but I don't see any such proposal on the cards.

SaucyJack · 12/02/2015 09:58

Oh, good point Quequesto

funnyossity · 12/02/2015 09:59

Tories hate council housing. It's an ideological blind spot for them. Normal people understand the social benefit of having a well housed population.

LurkingHusband · 12/02/2015 09:59

All of the recent reports into Benefit rates have shown that the cuts haven't saved the country any money.

They were never meant to.

hampsterdam · 12/02/2015 10:07

What happens to all the people living in council housing that already have a job?
This is about peddling the myth that everyone in council houses are on full benefits not working and people claiming housing benefit don't work when in fact 80% of claimants do work just not for enough money to pay extortionate rents.

Original poster

HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 10:17

Exactly hampersterdam the other 20% are living with severe disabilities or chronic illness!

OP posts:

Original poster

HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 10:18

Lurking True!

OP posts:

Dawndonnaagain · 12/02/2015 10:19

We're back to deserving and non deserving poor, aren't we.
That man makes me feel venomous. Twat, twat and even bigger twat!

CaptainAnkles · 12/02/2015 10:19

For crying out loud. What a stupid idea. What makes him think that everybody living in a council house is some kind of feckless lazy person who refuses to get a job?

Original poster

HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 10:24

Councils buy back RTB at full market value

So they are already having to buy back homes purchased under the RTB costing the tax payer money.......so selling CH costs the tax payer, as most RTB (forget the percentage] are rented back by CH tenants on HB. Then it costs the tax payer to buy those homes back to put them back in to social use.......Just who the hell benefits from this??

OP posts:

DreamingOfAHotDrink · 12/02/2015 10:24

I think it is a dreadful idea, housing stock is in demand for low income households, especially with smaller bedroom numbers.

Theoretician · 12/02/2015 10:25

Normal people understand the social benefit of having a well housed population.

I want people to be well-housed, I also want social housing mostly abolished. (I don't mind housing associations, as long as they let at market rates. Any housing subsidies poor people get should be through housing benefit.) (I am up for better contracts for people renting privately, with more security of tenure.)

How many social housing estates are there which (based on architecture alone) would never be mistaken for a private estate? How many of those are places that people would rather live than the average private housing estate, assuming no difference in cost to them? Would a private developer have been given planning permission for many of the kinds of places local government in the past gave themselves permission to build? What was the ratio of private to public residential tower blocks built in the 60's and 70's, compared to figures for other kinds of housing? (I know social housing built nowadays tends to be better, but just because a communist government is temporarily competent is not a reason to be in favour of communism. A system riddled with conflicts of interest and with no systemic tendency towards competence.)

curlyweasel · 12/02/2015 10:29

There are not many people I really hate, but I will always make an exception for IDS.

Theoretician · 12/02/2015 10:30

I'm not in favour of IDS plan though. I'm not even in favour of the normal historical sell-off terms. (I thought these no longer happened, at least in London, but now know people who are currently buying.) I want the houses sold off, but to the highest bidder, which could be a housing association.

MuddhaOfSuburbia · 12/02/2015 10:30

oh Jesus CHRIST I knew I shouldn't click on this

fewmin

if Osborne is the Voice of Reason, you know it's something absolutely batshit crazy

yy. Tories hate council housing. They hate the people who occupy council housing, and they hate councils too

funnyossity · 12/02/2015 10:32

I have not seen the private housing sector in this country coming up with the goods; from Rachman to now.

Are we still prepared to believe (despite recent evidence to the contrary) that the free market is ideal? Adam Smith didn't even believe that.

Bananayellow · 12/02/2015 10:32

Madness. We need more social housing. Not less.

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