to think it cant carry on young families living in cramped flats while protected pensioners rattle around in 5 bed houses

[generationrentsucks]

I just think with the Tories in now, nothing will change with housing, they will keep prices high by carrying on with these help to buy that just allow sub prime loans.

Also I think hardly anyone actually ever downsizes, everyone says they do but not many can actually bring themselves to do it.

Have you heard of the bedroom tax?

Bedroom tax doesn't apply to owned homes though.

As long as house prices are rising it makes sense to stay put in your massive empty house, unfortunately.

Bedroom tax doesn't apply to anyone claiming pension credit. So lots of older people rattling around in multi roomed homes.

I've never heard of any pensioners living in five bedroomed rented accommodation for which they are claiming housing benefit. And if such pensioners exist, there can't be many of them, surely?

I also can't imagine there are many five bedroomed council/HA houses either.

with public sector housing its much more likely that people will downsize - thats clearly what all the 'bedroom tax' is about.

in a few years time i will be a pensioner in a 5 bed house - i have slogged my guts out for the whole of my life in a job whilst bringing up a family. i dont feel like moving house - i like where i live and also want room to enable my family to visit.

why should i move because there are too many single parent families now and so much imigration? I'm sorry that its affecting you, but dont blame people like me - its not just down to us

They have no incentive to leave their family homes (some of which will have lived their for years and raised their families there).

Why would they leave? Some might say they should but I doubt many people would up sticks from a family home outnof a sense of moral obligation.

If you're talking about people who own their own homes, the government can't do anything to make people sell and downsize. If the house has been someone's home for years I don't think anyone is wrong in not wanting to sell up and move somewhere smaller.

My parents are rattling around in a 5-bed house as are most of their friends, but as they own them outright, what can be done about it?

If someone has bought a 5 bedroomed house should they not be allowed to live in it? Terrible that families are in cramped sub-standard accommodation though.
I can't imagine many pensioners living in % bedroomed rented houses on housing benefit.

dreaming, is your house rented though? And, if it is, do you pay full rent?

dreamingof, so your house is council/HA?

I don't think we are talking about owned homes? Bedroom tax predominantly affects renters

In my street there are 2 families. All the other houses are larger than ours and lived in by single pensioners.

I'm not sure what the answer is although I definitely don't think there is enough retirement or sheltered housing being built. We are building the wrong sort of houses - rabbit hutches for families primarily but there is less money to be made in bungalows.

Just wait until one of your parents has a serious ailment or dementia and you'll see just how "protected" these pensioners are. Not at all. What A stupid thing to say.

Well I guess nothing can be done if they own it, just seems unfair that a whole generation will be un able to ever afford a family home. Yet the older generation have all the family homes and empty space.

My Dad rattles around on his own in a large 4 bed semi, but as he owns it I doubt he will sell. he likes his neighbours and wants to stay put ! Likewise my fil lives in London in his 3 bed semi, he has no plans to mobe either .

If you're talking about homes that people actually own, then yes, YABVVU! If you're talking about council tenancies, then surely the bedroom tax applies and they'll be paying for those extra rooms? But I do think that council tenants should be accommodated according to their actual needs - so bigger property when they have a family, smaller again once its just one or two of them.

Councils and housing associations need to build more one and two bed properties. There is no point telling people to move if there is nowhere to move them to. FIL is in a two bed house and claims HB. He has to pay 'bedroom tax'. There are no one bed council properties available and the one bed privately rented properties are more expensive per month than the two bed house plus bedroom tax.

Probably what she means is that is sad that many children are living in tiny cramped flats where there are many family houses with empty bedrooms, all because housing has become a speculative asset. It seems the future is going to be much worse for families than the past. Either that or they will be shackled to extremely large mortgages taking up all of their money for smaller and smaller places. I wonder how long before studio flats will be the norm for most families and I mean that seriously, especially in London. Still as long as the rich get richer, that's all the matters.

we own our house or we will do in a few years after we['ve paid off mortgage.

i do agree with council/HA retirees being encouraged to downsize. I also do sympathise with families in cramped accommodation - i'm sorry if my post seemed a bit abrupt.

but we love our house and its in an ideal location for old age. if i did downsize it would be to free up some money for my kids to buy.

I am not sure whether the OP was talking about rented or owned homes. He/she wasn't the one who mentioned bedroom tax. Also I very much doubt there are that many 5 bedroomed council houses are there - much less ones occupied by pensioners?

Therefore I conclude we are talking about owned homes and, again. Why should you expect someone to move out of the house they own outright and have probably lived in for many years?

Are pensioners exempt from bedroom tax?

Claps opheliaria, that's it exactly. Just pointing out the unfairness and how bad dthe situation is. God knows how it will ever improve

I think it would help, if there were rules in new developments, that new streets and estates of housing had to include a mix of housing sizes - including bungalows and 2 bed flats, so that when people do start to think about downsizing, they can still live in the area they are familiar with and their support network is.
I have lovely neighbours really struggling to maintain their 4 bed detached, spacious house, but their lives are completely intertwined with this street and these neighbours - the idea of moving away would really isolate them, but if a bungalow were available in the road, it would be ideal.
It's another long term planning thing though.
Bit like the whole uproar over the "bedroom tax" - the thinking behind it is logical, but it was just presented disastrously. You often get local news reporting the story of some elderly person being made to move out of their large family home after they've been there 60 years, but, if they had been taken off the housing list in the first place, on the understanding that their position would be looked at every 5 years, and they would have to downsize once no longer had dependent children, then it wouldn't get to this state in the first place. Of course, that could only work if there were enough 1 and 2 bed homes available to downsize in to...... we get back to the long term planning thing.....