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.

I agree that older people should not be in large rented homes subsidised by housing benefit-but is that really happening?

In the case of owned homes are you really expecting people to give them away. If they moved to a smaller home the current situation means that not many young families would be able to afford to buy the large house.

What a ludicrous post.

If I were a pensioner in my own 5 bed roomed house I would think it entirely my own business and nobody else's .

And protected ? I think not.

How many H/A 5 beds are there?

For goodness sake.

I sympathise with your generation and I have a son who will be in the same boat. But many pensioners hang on to their homes because they know the only chance their kids will have to get on the housing ladder will be if they inherit.

Your anger is understandable but you're directing it at the wrong people.

My dads neighbours were saying how hard their dd had it in a small two bedroom council flat with 2 older dds and husband, I did suggest that if they were that concerned about her and the children getting into good schools perhaps they could swop their large 3 bed council house with her....

They no longer talk to me :-)

Pensioners do not pay bedroom tax. It doesn't apply to pensioners.

That's why most people refer to it as a tax. It was a putative measure that was never designed to 'free up' bigger houses.

The bedroom tax doesn't apply to people in their 60s

Izzy, there are lots of 3/4/5 bed council/HA property's. And lots of them ARE under occupied.

Regardless of if they are family homes or people have lived there for years, they are OWNED by the council.

Do people really know of pensioners hogging 5 bedroomed council and HA properties? Three-bedroomed perhaps-but five?

YABVVVU

Who are you to play God and displace some people from their homes for others?

There are lots of pensioners living in 3 bed council homes near where I liveamd even if they wanted a 1bed flat there is nowhere for them to move into so they can't!

I suspect in the future there will be more renting out of rooms by pensioners who need to top up their pensions and don't want to let go of their appreciating assets.
That's assuming prices will go on rising for ever...

I do not know a single pensioner who is rattling round in a large council house, actually owned by the council. The ones that I know, bought their council house and have every right to remain in it until the day they die and pass it on to their nearest and dearest.

Where I live I could point our half a dozen people in their 70s and 80s rattling around alone in 4 bed houses.

Bedroom tax doesn't affect them so they have no reason to move.

Imo these are the biggest reason for the family sized housing shortage but they have no reason or incentive to move.

That's what needs to be addressed

its easy to say move into a flat but a lot older people may have mobility issues so anything higher than a ground floor flat they may struggle with, and then you have some of the issues that come with living in a flat

I think we are talking a crossed purposes here.

Bedroom tax is paid by people under occupying their homes and claiming housing benefit. Not people who own their houses.

Lots of pensioners are living in under occupied council/HA properties where they have lived for years and often raised their families. They are entitled to still live there and cannot be forced to downsize. If they should be is another thing. And yes there are a huge shortage of 1 bedrooms properties to move them to.

I'm not taking about taking peoples homes of them, just pointing out the unfairness of the system that keeps on getting more unfair.

Maybe you would like my 88 year old housebound father to take in a few single parent families to fill up his empty rooms?

If we are talking about pensioners who own their homes, then it's nobody's business what they do with them!

So there is talk of ending 'council tenancies for life', and a new poster pops up with this? Ever feel like mnet is being stalked by people planting outrage?

The right to buy scheme will be an unmittigated disaster - mostly for those who don't already have a home

There is no talk of ending council homes for life, that guardian article is from 2010.

What do you suggest forced selling or forced eviction from their homes what would you like to happen ?

Yes I think you're right but they will still be encouraged to move although not be subject to the so called bedroom tax. And I don't think there are that many five bedroomed council houses around.

Sub prime loans, really?

Tonberry there are quite a few. Article from Telegraph here
Bedroom tax doesn't apply to pensioners. If it did councils would be richer or free up the housing stock. But it doesn't apply because old people tend to vote conservative.

The imbalance between the generations- how our generation's experience is likely to be very different from our parents' is the focus of this Charity