To think it's fucking unfair for people like me who bust our arses off to buy a property...

[DamnCrazyWorld]

And all the while people who have practically the same type/ size of house and who are on a similar income as me in the same area are paying just a quarter of what I paid for because its a council property bought through the Right to Buy Scheme.

Should I have just got myself onto benefits and into a council property to get onto the property ladder?

It's madness. It really is.

Lightning - no I disagree. The OP snidely remarks it would have been better for her to have been on benefits. If one puts goady, misinformed comments up like that, a reply should be expected. Social housing is not there for people on benefits but people who need it.

But the people who have sold their Right To buy property would probably never have been in the position to move out of it without the equity that they had in that house. Therefore their house would still be taken up by someone, then passed on to a dependent should they die. Meaning that the house would still be unavailable for anyone else to live in.
Having the right to Buy whilst lessening the amount of housing stock also reduces the amount of repairs the council is paying for and the amount of Housing Benefit being paid, which over a lifetime is likely to exceed the value of the property.

Um....my mum bought her house last year.
She has lived there since 1969 and has never claimed a benefit in her life.
I do not agree with rtb as it happens, but your post is a ridiculous and lazy stereotype of council house tenants.

Oh, and the reason she could buy it was that my dad dropped dead at 67 whilst he was still working ft so she got a death in service benefit.
Ask her which she would rather have...a house or my dad back.

For starters, not everyone in a council/housing association property are on benefits. Myself and my DP lived in a HA flat for eight years, both of us worked full time.

We had a chance to buy it at a reduced rate but decided against it, mainly because it was in a crap area, but also because we wanted somewhere of our own so we ended buying our first house using help to buy somewhere else.

Most people in Council or HA can only dream of ever owning their own homes. So you are BU to bitch about those who do manage to purchase their properties.

Do I agree with it, I am not sure. The stock needs to be replenished for the scheme to work and that isn't the fault of the tenants.

My parents have never claimed benefits and bought their council house years ago my gran also paid hers outright when she was retired and again apart from a pension she certainly never had benefits. It is unfair but life is unfair unfortunately. I am paying over 10x what my parents paid for their first home and to be honest my mortgage scares the shit outta me but I know by the time I retire I will own my home.

Your being ridiculous and inflaming.

You cannot blame other people for your life choices and theirs.

Let's be honest rtb did what thatcher wanted it too....drive a wedge between members of the working class.
It's succeeded pretty well at that if this thread is anything to go by!

If you look at resale value an ex-council house on a council estate will not make the money a non-estate house would make.

I think you're lucky to have been in a position to buy.

I think (although I disagree with the concept) rtb people are lucky to have found an increasingly rare affordable way to buy.

I think I'm lucky we can just about earn enough to cover an extortionate private rent on a decent place instead of being left in a shit hole because there is no social housing available to us. Even if it does mean our meagre attempts at saving for deposits are increasingly pointless.

I know that the majority of people regardless of their housing situation 'work their arses off' to keep a roof over their head.

I reckon yabu for setting parameters in hard work = deserving. If that were true there would be a lot more people in much more secure situations. The vast majority are working hard to make the best of the opportunies available to them. Either get angry at the bigger picture or reign in the dose of green eye about what you perceive others 'easier' situations to be.

I don't understand RTB because they keep saying there aren't enough affordable homes yet they keep selling them cheaply to people who live in them.

I don't understand that at all.

I think the benefits comment and the tone were unreasonable, but fundamentally agree with you that RTB is a moronic policy.

Rtb was a lever Maggie used to buy the working class vote.
it worked.
Rtb wouldn't be so much of an issue if the depleted housing stock was replaced, but it hasn't been.
And then Maggie got rid of the Parker Morris rules (for the minimum size of a house for the comfort and health of the people living there) so builders can now basically build cupboards and call them "family homes"
Madness.

I have sympathy for OP. It's galling for her. It would be more galling if she was paying private rent at double or triple the amount her neighbours are paying, which is reality for many. It isn't fair.

Social housing is great but for it to be fair we either need to have it in abundance so it is open to everyone who would like to live in it or we need to ration it to those in crisis, whilst they are in crisis only. The fact is that once you have it you can keep it (I know the new rules will bring in market rate for higher earners but you can still keep it and the secure tenure) and the result is that one shitty time in life can result in a mega handout for the rest of your life. It is not proportionate.

The people on here who are saying my parents, my grandparents etc never had benefits and lived in social housing, they did have benefits. They benefited many hundreds and thousands of pounds over someone paying market rent for the same house. It's benefits, just without the stigma.

The only thing I can say OP is that it's a level playing field out there, if you were in crisis you would eventually get housed, via a hostel and a lot of stress probably and it'd be really shitty for your kids - it's probably not worth it.

It's funny that Dave didn't need any sort of lever to buy the working class vote this time. They voted for him anyway and I'm not sure I understand why.

There are also plenty of people who will never be able to buy a property even though they are 'busting their arses' working too. Just the way it is....

OP, I'm afraid YAB a bit U. I agree with sleepyelectricsheep that, knowingly or unknowingly, you're helping governments perpetrate this appalling policy by playing the blame game. I'm very lefty but I'm never going to criticise anyone for exercising RTB, they didn't choose the often invidious housing options most ordinary folk are presented with. The Thatcher govt played politics with housing and no-one since has had the balls to correct it, precisely because so much self-interest is now embedded in people's housing choices. That, in my view, is part of the evil of Thatcherism. But you don't have to agree with me to agree that our leaders have massively failed us on this:
The immoral housing bubble
www.politico.eu/article/the-immoral-housing-bubble-london-house-prices-housing-shortage/

Years ago we lived in social housing. We weren't on benefits, just lower wages and with three kids to support. The social housing literally saved us, and I know people disagree with RTB, but if we'd been offered the opportunity to buy our lovely home for a smaller cost I would have jumped at the chance to get on the property ladder. As it is were mid forties now, still working bloody hard but through no fault of our own will never be able to save enough to get a deposit to buy.

We "busted our arses" to pay our way on low income. The suggestion that people in social housing, or those fortunate enough to be offered to buy their home, are "all" less hardworking, is unreasonable.

Labour lost because they lost the Scottish vote.
I dont agree with a pp point re rent being a benefit. Up until the last decade, rents were all pretty much the same, council or otherwise. In fact my mum knew of several people who paid less for their mortgage than her rent (and that can still be true today with borrowing rates so low)
It's only in the last decade that the housing madness (fuelled by btl landlords) has really taken hold.

YABU to think you'd have been better off on benefits, that's just plain silly.

YANBU to pissed off that people get to buy a house for a quarter of it's market value when that house is supposed to be for those in need and will no longer be part of the housing stock. RTB is a ridiculous scheme, I hate it with a passion as where I live it has been repeatedly abused by those who know how to work the system.

I also think you're getting a hard time for being jealous and angry, it's maybe not healthy but it's a normal human emotion and understandable when bourne out of frustration with crap, unfair situations. Didn't realize we should be pious all the time

Have a vent but you do need to quit with the derogatory benefits shit -it's lazy and outdated.

The op is rightly getting taken to task for her lazy and stereotypical view of council housing tenants!
My parents also worked their arses off - in fact my mum wiped arses (in a nursing home) for £2.50 an hour.
My dad worked ft til he dropped dead.
As I said, I dont agree with rtb but I dont blame people for trying to ensure their future security.
The op is coming across as jealous, nasty and entitled.

Youve worded it very badly op but you have a point.

I work hard in a stressful job in order to have my house. I know someone with a house the same size as me who works on nmw in a far far less stressful job where she can walk to work where as I'm driving all over the place and often working at home in evenings and weekends and she's not.

Social housing is a mess in this country, should be given to people in need for a limited time and much more built. Silly selling them off, giving them for life and allowing them to pass to children.

I agree in principle with right to buy because I believe that people should be able to buy their own homes and not depend on the state for a home if they don't need to. I resent people earning good salaries and living in council housing where I as a taxpayer am subsidising low rents. This is what is wrong. Social housing is there- or should be- for people who really need it ALL THE TIME. Not families with 2 incomes who got onto the housing ladder in the past and could afford to own a home or pay higher rents.

I know of families where a single parent was given social housing, she then married, or got a partner, and between them they had a good income but were/ are paying peanuts in rent. This is wrong.
Social housing rents should be based on income which in the private rental market it does- you rent what you can afford.

I resent the right to buy when it means people who have rented can buy a house at a low price, stay there for some years and sell it for a much higher figure. They ought to be made to pay back some of the subsidy they had for living in it at a low rent, or buy it at the market value, not a lower figure.

I assume you mean people like the late Bob crow, pink?
I agree with you.
I also agree that far too many people get away with actually living with their partner whist claiming to be a single parent, but that is a separate issue, surely?
I also know of a girl who has made herself and her DC intentionally homeless so she can get a council property. And no doubt she will.
I also know of another girl who wrecked one house and was promptly given another (whilst the old one is being completely refurbished)
Again, these are separate issues and, I would argue, not applicable to the majority of council tenants.