To have bought my Council House on Right to Buy when I have a good income

[fuzzye]

I was given my Council House when I was 20. I was a Single Mum studying at University and on benefits. Since getting my house my situation has improved and now, aged 30, I have a very good income.

I made an application last year to buy my Council House on the right to buy. I paid £60,000. My house is currently worth £130,000 as I've spent £10,000 Renovating it. At the time of my Application the Council valued my house considerably below £130,000.

Noe there are now rules around buying your Council House when you have a high income, only that it must be your main home which this is for now. It was legal for me to buy it, and there is a lot of social housing in my area. The waiting list for a Council House is two weeks! There are many properties they have to advertise online as 'hard to let' as they have no tenants for them. So I've certainly not taken a house from anyone who needs it. On my estate also there are 4 houses currently standing empty.

It's a semi rural area and you have to have a local collection to live here. Very few people do and the population is only 8,000. Thousands of Social Housing was built around the factories here until they closed and the population diminished massively. It's not a rough area, just very sparsely populated.

Under my circumstances is it unreasonable that I feel no guilt at all in buying my Council House? There's a large number of bought Council houses in my area, and it's improved the area massively.

It's not acceptable at all. By applying for and living in a council house you are saying that you cannot afford market rent or to buy a property. If your circumstances change so that you can afford those things, then you should move out and leave it for those who need it. Right to buy is ridiculous, never understood it at all, and those who do it might as well come out and say 'I didn't really need this taxpayer subsidised housing but if I can make a big profit on it, then sod everyone else'.

and what about when market rent is comparable to social housing rent? Where i live the differance in social housing rent and private rent is about £10 /week if that also the criteria to go on the list is just that you have a legal right to live in the country i only waited about six months for my house so no massive waiting lists this is in Greater Manchester.

I hate right to buy and think social housing should only ever be available to people who need it on an ongoing basis as a safety net and I'm glad they are phasing out life time tenancies. However, as there is not a shortage in your area you have put money back into the system that the council could use to maybe help others who need the help. The discount was huge but not your fault. On balance in your circumstances I can't see the problem hope you are enjoying the joys of home ownership

And going back to chilli's answer to me that I missed; a good proportion of home ownership is good for communities, home ownership is good for families. It makes people stakeholders in their surroundings and it promotes community and personal stability. Owner occupiers are on the whole happier than renters, (as are renters in communities where there is a good proportion of owner occupation).

I don't disagree. But much of what you describe is what you get from stable communities, not necessarily home ownership. Also, I don't object to home ownership, just the comment that we should be doing everything we can to promote it. That's what I disagreed with.

there is a role for renting and ownership, and I suggest having stable situations for both, not just owners.

ginghamstarfish: You can't blame the OP for buying her council house.

The system in this country is such that you either make a private landlord rich, or you own your own home.

DP moved in with me to my now unmortgaged house. We bought her council flat for £21,000 for cash, and are now letting it out.

We broke no rules, and if it doesn't work out with me she will still have a place to live. Besides, the rental income gives her the ability to leave her teaching job which she hated.

I don't feel as if we did anything immoral in taking this course of action.

Why not ask your work colleague of you should feel guilty?
If everyone did that there would be no threads on MN.

Well done SecretSeven no goadiness there at all, no idea why you raised this old thread.