Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
HeeHiles · 12/02/2015 22:24

How much shit would this cause if they gave houses away? , I actually dread to think, people will be furious and take it out on the wrong people

That's a really good point that hadn't occurred to me......wow! that could get really nasty Sad

OP posts:
bettyboop1970 · 12/02/2015 23:03

Hee, play nicely Grin

HelenaDove · 12/02/2015 23:05

Saw this on twitter earlier.

www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1skkpj6

keepitsimple0 · 13/02/2015 00:06

Nobody received 84% discounts on houses under RTB simple. (I believe the maximum discount was 50%.) Stop making things up. If you want something to get hoiky and hyperbolic about, the policy proposal under discussion is quite suitable.

how do they assess the value?

What you can do is project the cost of housing from a recent point of sale back in time, so if the price on average changed 4-5x then that's a good estimate.

I was indeed making up the multiplier 5x. But as people have stated you can get a massive discount on homes now, and it was almost certainly better 20 years ago.

It's monumentally unfair. Again, like much of the housing system, it seems to be a lottery. Some people get homes handed to them at a discount (sometimes huge), when that involves the sale of a public asset. Others have to pay full price

keepitsimple0 · 13/02/2015 00:12

According to this article

www.wharf.co.uk/2014/08/london-property-prices-have-in.html

it's six times. Thus, if a person paid 275 (the person above and it is in London) for a house now, it was worth 45,000 20 years ago.

BUT, if that house was not in London that multiplier is less, say 3-4, which makes that house worth MORE 20 years ago.

however you do it, it was a massive discount. of course RTB people support it since they land themselves a big asset for cheap. Who wouldn't support it if they are going to benefit?

Arsenic · 13/02/2015 01:38

What's a 'RTB person'?

I support the idea of RTB, despite not having benefited in any way, if that's what you mean. I'm sure I'm not alone.

What I am furious about is that the capital receipts weren't invested in replacement SH stock.

But then I think all manner of affordable home ownership schemes are very necessary. Clearly you think lower earners shouldn't buy.

TrevaronGirl · 13/02/2015 01:41

The concept of affordable housing provided by the state is now officially dead.

We have the worst housing crisis in decades.

No coincidence surely...

keepitsimple0 · 13/02/2015 02:11

I support the idea of RTB, despite not having benefited in any way, if that's what you mean. I'm sure I'm not alone.

so you support giving a small number of people a huge asset for cheap? interesting. on what basis do you decide who wins these lotteries?

But then I think all manner of affordable home ownership schemes are very necessary. Clearly you think lower earners shouldn't buy.

I most certainly do think low earners shouldn't buy anything they can't afford. I am happy to live in a country that feels the need to prevent homelessness. that's very different from making people into home owners.

bettyboop1970 · 13/02/2015 03:57

Please stop!l lots of you do not understand how we feel.

bettyboop1970 · 13/02/2015 04:02

Sorry I'm knackered!

Dawndonnaagain · 13/02/2015 08:34

RTB currently stands at 60% or up to 70% for a house.

HeeHiles · 13/02/2015 09:46

Helena That article Shock Why has no media picked up on that - it's horrible Sad

OP posts:
HelpMeGetOutOfHere · 13/02/2015 09:50

Rtb should be stopped as they aren't replacing the housing stock creating a real problem for those in need.

What is this countries obsession with ownership? That in itself has caused a huge problem, people severely over stretching themselves to get on the property ladder. I know it's Only anecdotal but I know several couples who literally have no money left after paying mortgage and essential bills. And at least two couples who's parents now pay their mortgages including my ndn.

I rent and whilst I'd love my rent to be cheaper at £1050 a month. I know for this area that it's at least £200 under what the landlord could get if she was to give me notice.

The issue needs to be looking at housing overall. So regulating private landlords, regulating rents, longer tenancy agreements.

House prices aren't in line with wages and I don't see how they can be? In this bubble that is the south east even wages above the national average don't really afford you a mortgage on a property.

I thought that lending companies had tightened up the multiplication ratio for lending, but yet they still seem to be lending 5/6 times and more. Although again only anecdotal. (Someone at work on £26k just secured a property of £260k with a £35k deposit)

SaucyJack · 13/02/2015 10:02

Help- if the average rent for your area is £1250 then I think you've answered your own question as to why people are so desperate to buy. If you're going to go out to work all week to pay £15,000 a year off of someone's mortgage, I think most people would rather it was their own.

Over a working lifetime of say forty-five? years you will pay nearly £700,000 in rent on a monthly rent of £1250. That's a lot of money to pay into someone else's pension plan or children's inheritance.

SaucyJack · 13/02/2015 10:09

Thinking about it, it's ironic that people are up in arms about the idea of council tenants being giving free houses because they happened to be in the right place at the right time.... yet we're all seemingly happy for taxpayers to buy other people's houses for them via paying HB to private landlords.

funnyossity · 13/02/2015 10:26

I agree Saucy that the HB situation is ludicrous too.

HeeHiles · 13/02/2015 10:30

Hi Saucy I'm up in arms about that too Angry I think it's shocking that HB is used to pay other people's mortgages - but that's a whole new thread!

OP posts:
PausingFlatly · 13/02/2015 10:32

Speak for yourself, Saucy.

I'm not at all happy for taxpayers to buy other people's houses for them via HB to private landlords.

And I'm not happy for more social housing to be lost by giveaways or RTB. No matter how much you squirm and try to claim black is white now that suddenly YOU'RE the one eyeing a carpet bag.

funnyossity · 13/02/2015 10:33

The current role of the private sector in UK housing is unjustifiable by logic.

PausingFlatly · 13/02/2015 10:37

And, fairly obviously, the lack of social housing is the main reason landlords can buy houses via HB.

Having even less social housing is the opposite of the cure.

brandy321 · 13/02/2015 10:38

Spot on Sandy

People are livid when the poor are given a helping hand, but its ok for BTL landlords to keep getting richer off benefit payments.

SaucyJack · 13/02/2015 10:39

I'm not eyeing a carpet bag. I'm eyeing a seafront flat

SaucyJack · 13/02/2015 10:40

3 miles out of Brighton for 60k.

I'm so busy doing the happy dance, I can't even type properly.

God bless Maggie.

brandy321 · 13/02/2015 10:41

*And, fairly obviously, the lack of social housing is the main reason landlords can buy houses via HB.

Having even less social housing is the opposite of the cure.*

The cure is to tax BTL landlords heavily. They would be forced to sell, lowering house prices, meaning working people like us that are stuck in soical housing are able to buy and leave our home for someone else in need.

funnyossity · 13/02/2015 10:41

And society go hang!