to think it is fair enough that High earners, earning £30000 pa have to pay market rates for social housing.

[NoahVale]

www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/04/david-cameron-ally-rohan-silva-firms-must-be-forced-raise-low-pay

I spose there has to be a cut off somewhere, and I spose it helps that I dont earn £30,000,
no doubt if it was just in the bracket I might feel a bit peeved.

If that's the case I want the standard of my home to match those at market rent- dishwasher please... Replace my 25 yr old not fit for purpose kitchen please... It works both ways

no one is stopping you. if you can get a similar place for similar price but WITH a dishwasher, more power to you.

Thin end of the wedge if you ask me. Other tenants not much bothered about their 'high-earning' neighbours effectively being taxed for wanting to remain in the same community, against all the pre-election rhetoric about supporting hardworking people who are doing the right thing. Once the concept is accepted and an initial threshold has been set, the capacity to lower it is always a possibility.

i just put my details in to entitled to as we earn almost 30k between us and when it comes in we will be on 30k bang on pretty much as dh due a pay rise

atm we pay all our own rent, we get no help and dont need any. YET when this comes in we will get around 40 a week housing benefit

what the actual fuck

mypubes quite. It's all very well a the people saying we need more affordable houses but my job involves working with the people trying to deliver them down here and there are so many hoops to jump through and so much protest to every scheme

Also I am on considerably less than 30 k with two tinies and have to somehow manage a £900 mortgage since abusive exH left (thankfully tax credits cover my childcare) . My friends in identical houses with similar salaries but where the houses are council/housing association have much more disposable income than me. Not sure if the new rules are perfect but certainly it feels like there are two parallel worlds at the minute and those saying they will reduce their hours/ stop working etc don't seem to appreciate that many of us don't hAve that choice, we are on the same budget but have to pay private rent / a mortgage

There is a big difference between paying rent and having a mortgage

Putting people's rents up won't give you any more disposable income, neither will it take away the asset you will eventually own.

pebbles, my neighbours have more disposable income than me, in similar circumstances. I don't begrudge them that; my mortgage will be paid off eventually.
If I'm honest I would, however, somehow object to them suddenly leapfrogging me in asset terms if they are given a hefty discount on their HA property, should they decide to bypass this extra rent nonsense and buy it. I've been paying the mortgage for nine years at twice the rate of their rent, but prices are only now beginning to return to the price I paid to buy this place.

I used to think that Al

ledare but there really isn't, not when you have hardly any equity and stuck living 2 streets away from abusive ex!

Not wanting to take money away from others, just trying to point out to those with HA etc properties that actually they are v lucky, we private rented for years paying twice the rent of friends in identical properties, whilst desperately scraping together a deposit as we had no security in private rented. The system is weird and strange at present and I think it does need reform. I am passionate about affordable housing, it's a big part of what motivates me at work, but there has to be more equality in the system. I would like to see much more regulation of private landlords, and more secure private tenancies. Plus a real boost for new build affordable housing rather than just mainly helping private developers build private housing.

But while the supply is so small, I would like it to go to those most in need, to those living in totally inadequate accommodation / b and bs. Anyone who can choose to work less to keep a benefit doesn't realise how lucky they are

That does sound tough but you do have the choice to sell, rent privately until the money runs out then apply for housing.

When my abusive ex fucked my finances and DD got ill, I had negative income because I couldn't work. I wish I'd had the option to save my career and house because it took over ten years to get a decent HA place which is now almost more per week than my mortgage was per month.

We were in a 1- bed flat for five years. It wasn't pleasant but I couldn't stay on the ladder. It was just before tax credits were introduced so just Income Support and certainly no help towards childcare even if I could have stayed in my job with DD spending so much time sick or in hospital.

I admit feeling a bit jealous of other lone parents who had little 2-bed houses and ex's who paid some maintenance while I slept in the living room, and I was ashamed when former colleagues did the preschool visit and saw how I was living, but I was grateful to be keeping DD off the streets and safe from that man.

for you. I hope you find a way.

Can't you see, it's people like you, in that situation, who I feel deserve the priority access to social housing. And that is why it is hard to read comments about people saying they will choose to work less in order to keep a subsidy. Out here in the real world that quite simply isn't an option!
Anyway, going to have to leave thread as all talk of abusive exs is triggering
I would love their to be an abundance of social housing, but while there isn't, it's those living in intolerable conditions that I want to see helped first

Sorry, pebbles, I do see. Perhaps I am coming across wrongly. And apologies for triggering. I think I should leave this one as well.

Not sure if the new rules are perfect but certainly it feels like there are two parallel worlds at the minute and those saying they will reduce their hours/ stop working etc don't seem to appreciate that many of us don't hAve that choice, we are on the same budget but have to pay private rent / a mortgage

it doesn't seem like there are two parallel systems, there are two parallel systems. Council housing is cheaper and more secure (hence the competition for them).

I am an immigrant and it's really odd to see a housing system with two very different components. Private tenancies are terribly insecure, and part of the problem. This why people clamour for more council housing, when what would benefit more people is better protections for private tenants.

It's all very well a the people saying we need more affordable houses but my job involves working with the people trying to deliver them down here and there are so many hoops to jump through and so much protest to every scheme

God didn't make those hoops to jump through. That's on the local and national governments.

Not sure if the new rules are perfect but certainly it feels like there are two parallel worlds at the minute and those saying they will reduce their hours/ stop working etc don't seem to appreciate that many of us don't hAve that choice, we are on the same budget but have to pay private rent / a mortgage

Without wishing to sound rude pebbles, what does that have to do with anyone's decision to reduce their hours or not? Sure, there are people who don't have that option, but what impact do you think that should have on anyone's decision? There are lots of SH tenants who couldn't possibly get a mortgage, but you presumably wouldn't suggest that those people on the same budget who've managed to buy a home should factor in other's lack of access to credit when they make their life choices? And what would 'appreciating that many don't have that choice' actually mean?

Private renters are also in the position of being able to reduce their hours and pay less rent as the shortfall will be made up by housing benefit.

And unsurprisingly enough, if you want to own a house then yes- you do have to pay the full whack for it yourself.

tenants / home owners / / mortgage payers / council tenants all need to stop sniping at each other!!! this is what the tories want, divide and rule!! basically anyone that is not independently wealthy we "ALL in this together" as in we are ALL in a fucking shit situation one way or another !! lets stop arguing about who deserves what ffs

and all of us in council / HA houses need to not bow down to the pressure to buy!! as all that will happen is that will reduce the stock further and they will be able to say that cos not many peop

IMO This policy is devised to encourage council tenants who earn OK money to move to the private sector, thus decreasing the perceived social value of council housing. Yes, a wealthier tenant is indeed taking up a house that somebody who is more 'in need' could live in. But the most damaging factor in the long term for the provision of new social housing is an increase in private sector renting and in home ownership. SO Whilst the more of the population either move out to private rented if they don't want to pay the extra, or exercise their RTB. they are not living in council houses, so there fore the gov can say that the demand for council housing decrease. if this makes sense?? am not v articulate should have worked harder at school then I would not be a scrounger in a council house needing tax credits eh tories

i just feel so very sad about all this, i loved my council house, i first got one due to being in a very bad situation which i am not going in to but in the last 5 / 6 years i have turned my life around. i am married to a lovely man, we are happy, dh has got a good-ish job, he started on min wage in a shop and is now area manager. and i am growing a small business. haveing a secure, affordable home gave us the stability we needed to get on in life (which is what the govt keep talking about, people "getting on" and working hard, its exactly what we have done!) .... i was proud of where we had got to, i finally started to think my life was good and worthwhile. we started to have nice things like foreign holidays, a nice little car, treats for my 3 dc who have been through so much too. i felt secure here which was the main thing but this has now been thrown in to turmoil. the awful things i have gone through in the past mean that security was everything to me. i felt that it was my home for life but i just look around it now and think whats the fucking point of bothering when it depends on me and H staying on a low wage. can't even aim high at work, whats the point of growing my business, maybe employing staff, and earning more money. this is going to destroy communities because i am sure many many people feel this way!!. do people think that if we can get the tories out in the next election we have any chance of a) stopping this and b) actually building more council home??

sorry for the absolute ramble

ignore second sentence in second paragraph forgot to delete it when I worded it better

It's devised to get people to buy, dirtydeeds. By a govt that doesn't want SH to exist. Most SH tenants aren't going to go private. But plenty of them will be unable to afford increased rent whilst simultaneously being able to afford a mortgage on the heftily discounted purchase price. Like my aunt I mentioned upthread. There'll be people who are effectively forced. Bear in mind there are mortgages available that allow the discount to be used as a deposit, so people won't necessarily even have to save.

I've just found myself in a council house as we were renting privately, landlord sold and we had no where to go. I feel incredibly lucky not to be homeless but feel it is morally wrong how little rent we pay. I actually said a few months back it should be means tested as we can afford to pay more. I don't have intentions of buying it. I think the extra rent I will probably end up paying should go back into social housing which is probably won't!

yes muff we have been offered RTB there is a huge drive atm, we kept getting letters through the post so i rang up out of curiosity. they told us we would get the house for about 90k subject to valuation (we do live in the arse end of no where in the midlands) and that it didn't matter that we had no deposit as the bank would accept the rtb discount

basically they are trying like fuck to force persuade us to buy

and tbh the mortgage would be a few quid a month LESS than our council rent (we do pay full rent) ...let alone when they increase the rent when this policy comes in

my tory parents keep saying we are mad not to take them up on it

cadenza FFS it is NOT morally wrong in nicest poss way don't be silly

what is MORALLY WRONG is robbing landlord scum charging the earth for their shit holes!!

council rent is sensible rent compared to most people's incomes !! fgs dont fall for it being "subsidised" and all that shit

The sums, for anyone not believing me:

Aunt's rent on SH 3 bed- £390 per month
'Market' (ha!) rent on 3 bed terrace not done up- £580 per month
'Market' price of 3 bed terrace not done up- 85k
Discount price for my aunt- 36k
Monthly mortgage payment on 15 year mortgage (they're not young) at a conservative 4%- £269

Looking like a bit of a no brainer, no? Rates could go up, of course, but given everything that's been done to keep them artificially low for so long, it doesn't seem very likely. And the interest rate here could be much lower than 4% anyway.

Me and dp earn 28000 between us, pay £450 per month in childcare and couldn't get a housing association house so pay our full rent £900pm (tiny flat in SE ) it annoys me so much when I see my sister in a new build house from HA only having to pay £400 and her and her dp are earning more than us. I think it's absolutely right they do this. the people in them can then if they decide can move on as won't have the cheaper rent there will then be more social housing available for those who need it.

Jelly have you not read all the posts about how people will be either reducing their incomes so they don't have to pay the extra or buying? Or claiming HB topups when they don't now? Do you seriously think this is actually going to free up any SH?