To think that if private landlords make profit from rentals..

[TheoriginalLEM]

Then why can't local authorities do the same?

People bang on about social housing being a drain on the economy. Well yes, ok, if everyone living in social housing was on benefits then it would be i suppose. People say that these houses then need upkeep. Well yes, they do, people are paying to live in them.

To me this is a no brainer - make social housing work. Make houses that people WANT to live in. Encourage people to maintain them themselves to a degree, provide maintainance and offer updates and charge a reasonable rent.

There is a profit to be made? NO? or alre all private landlords philanthropists?

Even if folk are on benefits, surely the cost to maintain a LA owned property is less than what is being paid to land lords?

That is the answer to the housing crisis - not building substandard houes and charging some poor sap a quarter of a million pounds to buy it. What first time buyer can afford that? You haven't thought this through Dave no surpirse there then

I'd still like to see the difference between council rents and private?

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-rents-lettings-and-tenancies

Valid point going - I was thinking in personal terms, but yes there would be economy of scale.

I have a dream that if I ever win the lottery i will buy properties and rent them out cheaply. Any profits would go back in to the property (maintenance etc). Why aren't there any landlords like that out there? Dreaming is free.....

Wow Jorah - how interesting

Like i say I have been lucky enough never to have needed HA or Council - and was always put off by the 5/10yr waiting list

I personally wish there was enough for everyone who wanted/needed

cruikshank I absolutely agree with your second post when it comes to tenants who are working/studying and paying the council full rent, but what about those that aren't?

I live in an ex-council building (I bought from the RTB-er), and the gamut of tenants runs from the bloke who works nights in Tesco to feed his family, through the 40-something "I bin 'ere 20 'ears, me" alco whose schedule seems to involve smoking joints hourly from 10am and occasionally taking her Staffie out to poop on the communal lawn. From talking to her, it seems she hasn't worked at all, like, ever. There may be more to it, or she may be taking the proverbial. In my (possibly controversial) worldview, the latter needs a strong incentive to contribute. You also have the Bob Crow example, above.

Like Jorah I would much rather have houses allocated to tenants in lieu of HB with a right to live there for a fixed period, to be reviewed every couple of years. Otherwise there is (sometimes) a disincentive to work.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine, those are private social housing rents, they aren't private rents as a whole. The average private social housing rent in England is £92.40/week, but the average private rent as a whole is around £170/week.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/private-rental-market-statistics-england-only

The average weekly LA rent in Kensington & Chelsea is £112/week, but the average 2-bed private rent in Kensington & Chelsea is £648/week

Its All Going to be Fine. It is a problem with a lot of HAs not just one. I have another link on another thread when an HA took thirty engineer visits to fix a boiler THIRTY. How on earth is a social housing tenant who works suppossed to hold down a job in a situation like that.

A single mum was left without cooking facilities for a fortnight and Social Services had to step in with a mini cooker on Christmas Eve. These are all different HAs.

Many elderly ppl have been left without by different HAs Its a problem across the board.

Apologies for the googe fail Thanks RickRoll for putting up the proper figures

HelanaDove I didn't say that it was just an issue with that HA, I said it wasn't an issue specific to LAs in general - you get crap landlords in both private and HAs - all landlords need proper regulation...

So while we are pretty much agreed that private rents are too high, but the gap between them and council rents are too vast - surely they could go up a little and generate more revenue that can be used to get more housing and then we would have a virtuous circle as we would have more council housing and then private rents would have to come down

Here's an (I think unique) example of a council setting itself up as a private landlord, with profits stated to be going back into more housing: www.theguardian.com/money/2015/sep/16/london-council-sets-up-as-private-landlord

my parents and my dp's parents both have council owned houses. Very similar families - my dad a railway worker. my mum a cleaner. dp's dad a gas fitter for British gas his mum a home help. It was a choice for them to have council housing in their day. Nice houses in nice areas.

They probably wouldn't even be considered for social housing now in similar circumstances.

They may not choose it either. its very different now. Social housing =rabbit hutch, claustrophobic estates that no one chooses.

Wouldn't it be nice if it was an attractive choice and the rents went into the public purse.

tenants could be encouraged to maintain themselves and those on low income have access to subsidised repairs.

My mums house is very much her home. When i lived in rented accommodation i was made to feel i was living in someone else's house. Which of course i was.

My terminally ill aunt lived in a HA bungalow.
She needed a key safe for the carers (and us) to use to let ourselves in (particularly after she became bed bound) after 4 months my cousin bought one herself and fitted it (illegal apparently)
What can you do?
So many dreadful landlords, and I don't mean just private.

all a big mess isnt it :(

Totally agree The regulation isnt there. There is also a very sinister undercurrent in the attitudes towards social housing tenants.

Before the Inside Housing website went subscription only i used to go on there and read the threads. Some of the attitudes on there from some of them who claimed to be housing officers were disgusting.

I had a snake get into the KITCHEN of my social housing flat three months ago. The police refused to help saying it wasnt their job.

Exactly the same type of snake gets into the GARDEN of a house in West Hampstead. They couldnt get there quick enough.

The way social housing tenants seem to be percieved is a real problem.

thanks for the link London

Anyone who earns less than £66,000 per year is eligible for a one or two bedroom property while the cap for a three- or four-bedroom property has been set at £80,000.

The homes are being let out at 80% of market rent, but will still produce a surplus for the council. Two bedroom flats will be available for £940, almost half of what it would cost in neighbouring boroughs such as Hackney where the median rent for a two-bedder is £1,700.

When i lived in rented accommodation i was made to feel i was living in someone else's house. Which of course i was

I have never felt like that, but then I've not rented for about 20 years, BTL wasn't much of a thing back then...was it?

I don't disagree with you OP, but you forget that the gains from housing investment are largely capital gains, only realised when the property is sold.

I rent out our old house - I charge a below-market rent because I can afford to do that (we own the property outright so our only costs are property taxes and maintenance) - but even if I charged a market rent, it would be unlikely to fully cover the cost of a mortgage if I had one.

not really suzzane. my ll was in the army so moved about. made it clear i wasn't allowed to decorate or change anything. left me and my dd living in a house with a giant hole in the floor.

I read the first mike suilver link and wow that really opens your eyes! These people expect more from their landlords than most of us who own homes who know contractors hardly ever turn up or if they do it's not on time in the real world and his wife let out a stream of invective - what awful awful people. You don't get domestic problems fixed by letting out a stream of invective.

In London where 2/3 of landlords will not let to those on housing benefit as mortgage companies do not appliow it and HB tenants often don't pay and cause problems in the main rents are much higher for private landlords than social housing.

However there is nothing to stop any state or indeed a private philanthropist building homes which cover costs but make no profits if the state can afford the capital building cost.

Someone said above social housing rents were going up under the Tories. That is typical left wing inaccurate propaganda. In fact Cameron has forced a rent reduction on housing associations and they are livid!

Council houses are cheaper then privates for a reason.

You don't get carpets, white goods, a decent finish, showers and baths ect ect.

If I private rented I wouldn't of had to decorate, put flooring down and buy absolutely everything. I even had buy skirting boards for the bedrooms as they were not deemed a necessary.

grazi actually hb users usually always pay. It's the getting them out that's the difficulty as they need to be officially evicted with court orders and bailiffs to then get a council house. The insurance is also higher and so is the wear and tear if they don't work and are home all day.

Good point. Massive difference and it used to be the other way round. Go back to 1900 - 1950+ when most people were in private rented accommodation and then councils started moving people out of the East end tenements where they were sleeping 6 to a room in houses sharing an outside loo etc and they were moved out to newer accommodation and the council accommodation was much b etter than the private rented they came from.

Mistigi - a gain is a gain, I dont really have sympathy for someone who is not 'making a profit' on a home they are renting out, because even if the rent/repairs etc is less than the mortgage, they will still end up with an asset which those who are renting wont

It is not true that council house rents pay for themselves, maintenance and upkeep. Our local authority is spending 8 million this year upgrading council houses with new bathrooms, kitchens, heating etc and an additional 5 million upgrading estates with better fencing, paving, drives etc.

If DH and I wanted any of that done to our house we would have to pay for it ourselves.

I think new social housing should be built- good quality and rented out at rents that mean it is sustainable but affordable.

"You don't get carpets, white goods, a decent finish, showers and baths ect ect.

If I private rented I wouldn't of had to decorate, put flooring down and buy absolutely everything. I even had buy skirting boards for the bedrooms as they were not deemed a necessary."

But when council rents can be £10,000 per year cheaper, that's not that much of a hardship (and I'm sure it's not universal either)