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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think segregation In new build estates needs to stop!

159 replies

FourFiveSecondsFromSmiling · 18/04/2015 14:29

I live on a new build estate built about a year ago, 15% of the 500 homes are social housing.

The biggest problem we have on the estate is parking, the parking spaces are not allocated, it is generally considered that you park in a space near your home. I could not find a space near my home (social housing) so I parked on the private part of the estate and walked.

So I go to take dc to school the other day and a women rushes out saying I stole her space. I explained that parking spaces were not allocated and that she as am I are free to park anywhere. She then started ranting about how she works to pay for my house and called me council estate scum (infront of dc). I stated crying after I dropped dc off.

The next issue is that the residents association is generally hostile to the social tennants. I went to a meeting and could feel the hostility after I said my road.

We are constantly blamed for any crime on the estate because many in social housing including me have teenagers when the private homes tend to be 50+ .

I don't want to live in a community that has segregation (we are pretty much separate to the other homes apart from by the road). I don't know why because you pay £250,000 plus for a house you deserve to be treated better (or look down on others)

Aibu?

OP posts:
Feminine · 18/04/2015 17:37

Elizabeth
You have seen that.
It doesn't mean that all HA residents will amuse themselves that way.
Some privately owned properties look a sight.
You just wouldn't know Wink

Original poster
FourFiveSecondsFromSmiling · 18/04/2015 17:37

No but you said their should be segregation between private owners and social housing.

OP posts:
ShouldIworryornothelp · 18/04/2015 17:38

Where I lived I paid exactly the same management fee as the privately owned properties. Those who didn't pay rent no doubt had their management fee paid for By housing benefit

SouthWestmom · 18/04/2015 17:38

I didn't realise re: management charge. Maybe it's the initial cost? Can be factored into the sale? No idea. I dislike council estates for the ghetto effect but this just seems the same thing on a smaller scale. Maybe have them totally mixed in.

ShouldIworryornothelp · 18/04/2015 17:40

It's nothing to do with initial cost. It's simply a way they can differentiate which block is the council block

ElizabethHoover · 18/04/2015 17:41

I don't think there should be segregation just presume it's s marketing decision
Mate works for barretts. Apparently there's a really tiny profit on each house. They throw up the HA ones first to bring in money from the council or whoever. Cash flow is a big issue in the big builds
I was really surprised.

shewept · 18/04/2015 17:42

There are some teens who live opposite us. Nothing horrendous but general nuisance. I can't imagine ever assuming their house must be HA. Its awful that there are people out there who think like this.

I own my home and parking space and would be pissy if someone parked in it. But this woman was awful and there is no excuse for it.

ElizabethHoover · 18/04/2015 17:42

Lol feminine. I dunno. A nice sofa on the lawn might be rather friendly!Wink

Feminine · 18/04/2015 17:44

Management fees are very rarely covered by the housing allowance.
sometimes
There are shared ownership properties within the 'pick n' mix '
How do those people cope?
Do they occasionally forget to put out their trash? Hmm...
Not a' full' owner and paying rent...
A disaster in the making l fear.

Feminine · 18/04/2015 17:45

Elizabeth :)

honeysucklejasmine · 18/04/2015 17:49

Part of my estate is social housing. One end of my road, I think. Couldn't tell you which though. Its not like they've got junk all over the yard and are sat out on deck chairs with hankies and a fag. (That's the stereotype, I believe. Hmm )

People are people, whether they can afford housing or not.

MrsBertMacklin · 18/04/2015 17:50

What Elizabeth Hoover said...

Developers have to comply with council planning requirements Section 106 before cracking on with the majority of the private housing construction, one of the typical requirements is that only a certain number of private plots can be constructed and sold, before providing the social housing element of the estate before a certain.

The standard of the RSL (social landlord) housing is primarily driven by the social landlords, not the developer. They will negotiate with the developers before agreeing to take the buildings, on what services they have to contribute to, the specification of the buildings etc. - anything they can do to ensure their own costs are stable.

There's been a lot of London press recently about social segregation which doesn't tell the full story and paints developers as evil bastards. Social tenants are (in my experience) not given the full extent of estate services such as parking, concierge, gym and access to the nice gardens, because their landlord has opted out of these services before the buildings are even constructed. I've managed estates where we'd love to have the tenants using the gym / concierge as it would create more stable running costs, but the RSL have decided on residents' behalf that they won't have an opt-in on the service.

I have a vested interested in this subject, as an ex social housing tenant, now a shared ownership leaseholder, who has worked as a managing agent for London developers...

Mrsjayy · 18/04/2015 17:55

People are weird about parking spaces in general my upstairs neighbour likes a certain parking spot she will wait till somebody has moved go out of her house and pull her car forward she will do this in her pyjamas at 11pm another neighbpur knocked on somebodies door asking when her visitors were going cos her dh was due home and needed to park do people havenothing else to worry about

Original poster
FourFiveSecondsFromSmiling · 18/04/2015 17:59

Again it's not allocated parking

OP posts:
UncertainSmile · 18/04/2015 18:13

Burn her house down.

Mrsjayy · 18/04/2015 18:20

Thats what i meant though we have no allocated parking either but people are obsessed with it

PeachyPants · 18/04/2015 18:20

That woman's behaviour was terrible but are you absolutely sure that you didn't park in an allocated space? To answer your question I don't think mixing up the housing stock would make any difference to attitudes like those you've experienced.

PeachyPants · 18/04/2015 18:21

Sorry just saw that you are certain it wasn't her allocated space.

Finbar · 18/04/2015 18:32

There are allocated parking spaces on the estate near us for the social housing. Except that nobody uses them. The tenants park outside their house, clogging up the road and making it dangerous for kids.
Why?

SouthWestmom · 18/04/2015 18:43

I can't believe they put carpet in private buys just to differentiate between blocks. I'm sure it must be a cost or maintenance issue.

blackheartsgirl · 18/04/2015 18:43

Mrsjayy I am one of those people who have nothing to worry about except parking Hmm we live on a very steep and busy hill with cars frequently doing 60 in a 30. its very dangerous as my four year old has no road sense, the council will not repair my fence and gate and my ds will have meltdowns if the car is not parked right outside the gate, as he is autistic. I will wait until eleven some nights and move the car down the hill if I have too. I wouldn't knock on someone's door though and ask them to move, that's weird.

Original poster
FourFiveSecondsFromSmiling · 18/04/2015 19:07

Yep certain about spaces. Similar situation with the carpet here, we have smaller gardens than the houses, no flowers or street trees.

OP posts:
tobysmum77 · 18/04/2015 19:18

I think the problem is that she's a vile old bag.

usualsuspect333 · 18/04/2015 19:21

Maybe they think those noisy, scruffy council tenants will just vandalise the trees.

The woman sounds like a twat. Just be thankful you don't live next door to her up the posh end.

kent43 · 18/04/2015 19:37

Well my mum lived in social housing. Her neighbours either side were owner occupiers. One side was lovely but the other treated her shared allryway like a rubbish tip. So op yanbu.

Although there is a new housing estate in the next town to us which is fronted by a busy road. They had a cheek to put all the social housing on the busy road to act as a sound block for the private homes. They admitted this on the plans.