To wonder what would happen if every council tenant had their tenancy reviewed

[BumpowderSneezeonAndSnot]

Life time tenant or not. Everyone was reviewed and income taken into account when calculating rents. Would this free up housing stock for those in need?

Our socialist friend Bob Crowe stayed in his council house, despite earning £145,000. 'No moral duty to move out' apparently.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bob-crow-i-have-no-moral-duty-to-move-out-of-council-house-despite-receiving-six-figure-salary-as-8964238.html%3famp

Universal Credit is causing homelessness and the answer is to move other tenants out. there is NO job security anymore. Its funny how MN has threads saying there is no such thing as a job for life yet when a social housing tenant gets a better job or a promotion there suddenly is?!

Some posters on here love playing different rules for different folks.

The housing crisis will NOT be solved by moving tenants around like chess pieces.

Maintenance of HA properties are not comparable to private rents either.
HA tenants receive no white goods, no floor coverings, must pay for all garden maintenance and improvements, all decorating. Some spend thousands on chasing electrics to get rid od councils horrible cheap trunking, cheap kitchen units.
Should tenants be reimbursed for the cash they've spent improving someone elses property, if they're going to be forced out?

There are bigger things to froth about than Bob Crowe’s council house that the law says he is entitled to.

When the left take the piss they get hung out to dry.
Business as usual for the rich.
Who are the scroungers?

www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/14/mp-landlords-number-risen-quarter-last-parliament-housing-bill

We have a secure tenancy, I agree with the OP but I am in a property that is bigger than we need. We have a 4 bed but it has been adapted to suit my needs. OH has been promoted but we couldn't comfortably afford to rent privately. I should imagine if we were assessed then we wouldn't qualify for a council house, the same as my neighbour who is 85 and is In a 3 bed but lives alone. If she was told to leave her home I think it would cause her so much distress. There are not enough social housing around here even though there have been 7 new developments, a very small amount have gone to housing associations. I don't know what the answer is, but kicking people out of their homes when they have lived there for a very long time seems cruel to me.

It's a race to the bottom is it?

If they reviewed and managed to free up housing stock, how quickly do you think people would start moaning that those deemed "deserving" arent deserving at all? There's always a reason found isn't there when you're nit-picking and lack awareness that scarce housing stock and lack of new building is the government's fault

Social housing isn't free

This country has become so bitter.

ldliketo I would say it’s completely different if your home has been adapted due to disability. I would also hope those over a set age would be allowed to stay if something like this were done.

It absolutely does suck to have insecure tenancy and the risk of having to move, but even if there were a review every 3/5/10 years or whatever, that’s more security than almost all private renters. Am very conscious of the fact that there are many disabled people on waiting lists living in wholly unsuitable properties and families without a home at all.

"We really are becoming a nasty little country arent we"

John Simm as David Marrs in Collateral.

No one is saying there’s a job for life but if people who no longer needed social housing were moved out, there’d actually be social housing available when someone falls on hard times. That’s the entire point. Even a five year review would give both medium term security and ensure the people who need a home have one

Well my housing officer sat in my living room and admitted there was no adaptable housing when they visited over DHs scooter (see earlier post)

I know a lot of people in council ammodation, none of them would be affected if the council reviewed their income. I know several people who have given up council homes when they were able to get a mortgage.

Excellent post myrtle

kicking people out of their homes when they have lived there for a very long time seems cruel to me.

I think the use of emotive language is not helpful here. It's not 'kicking someone out' to move them into a more suitable housing situation for their stage of life.

It's not 'kicking someone out' to move them into a more suitable housing situation for their stage of life.

But it is exactly that. People become attached to their homes.

I think council housing was originally meant to provide life long housing for working people in lower waged jobs and professions. It’s only now people are saying they should be stop gaps. It was recognised back when they were first provided that the housing market was too expensive for part of the population and that lower incomed working families had a need for stability. This is still the case today. Until the private rental market becomes affordable to lower waged people then council housing should be providing a home for life. There are many jobs that pay far less than the workers doing them deserve and private rents are stupidly expensive in some places and insecure, meaning regular moving costs on top of the need to keep enough for deposits etc in savings.

Personally, I believe council properties should change hands as your needs change. It’s not ‘your’ house- it’s social housing. As your family increases or decreases in size- and as your needs change, so should the size of the property you are ‘entitled’ to. However since smaller properties are usually tower blocks, and these come with all sorts of issues, the system falls down there.

Mrcharlie you state that 'everyone' is at it do you mean everyone you know or social housing tenants as a whole? I have lived in my HA house for about 25 years, and in that time have come to love my road that I live in. The neighbours haven't really changed that much and are mostly elderly (home owners). I have raised 2 children (both same father) ...as if that matters and struggled to pay my bedroom tax when widowed a few years after my son flew the nest. When a housing officer came round and saw my sons tiny box room with my daughters wheelchairs and medical equipment in she stated it is more the size of an equipment cupboard than a bedroom (small box room). It was only after returning to full time employment after being a Carer for my DD for many years that I was told that if I work full time Im exempt from paying bedroom tax.....so it seems that the people who were being sent to live many miles away because they couldn't afford the bedroom tax were/are the folks who for whatever reason are not in full time employment, social cleansing at its best! Because there are only 3 HA houses in our street I'm sure once we move out (in our boxes) the HA will probably sell privately. BTW the largest group of under occupiers are indeed pensioners who are exempt from paying bedroom tax anyway, Bedroom tax was supposed to have helped the housing crisis when in actual fact all its done is given the HA more money from the poorest and most vulnerable.

In London you are likely to be housed in the smallest property that meets your needs.
If you have two kids you will get a two bedroomed flat
If your family size increases you are unlikely to get moved.
So when your kids grow up and move out you won't have a mythical five bed house, you will have a two bedroomed one.
Hardly massively under occupying. Particularly as there is a lack of accessible one beds to move all of these horribly selfish elderly social housing scroungers into.

Housing providers did actively promote downsizing or "rightsizing" as Lord Best has coined it to older tenants. They did do for a variety of reasons including better use of available housing stock but also better support for elderly tenants. There is evidence of elderly occupiers facing a crisis move - where they are forced to move because of health deterioration, falls etc. Crisis moves are not a good well planned option. However when the bedroom tax was brought in social landlords ability to support older people in moving (often including financial support) was compromised and as pensioner households were exempt from bedroom tax it made better business sense not to offer moves. Unintentional consequences and all that....

I think GP’s should not be exempt from social housing. They do such a valuable tough job.
Nurses sometimes have special entitlement to local housing.

Are nurses ok Axl?
Are they worthy to have safe local accommodation?
Some of them earn a lot you know.

It's ridiculous that people get tenancies for life. I have a relative who earns over £100k and is paying something like £150 per week rent for a big council property in Central London that they have occupied for decades. In contrast I have another relative who earns £20k is private renting paying over £200 per week for a room in a private rental with no security of tenure. Council home tenancies should be regularly reviewed.

"Particularly as there is a lack of accessible one beds to move all of these horribly selfish elderly social housing scroungers into."

One of the one-beds on the ground floor at the bottom of our block recently became free after the elderly lady who lived there died. There are apparently 600+ people in our area waiting for a one-bed.

Who did they house in there? A pregnant woman and her partner, who won't now be a priority to be re-housed until the baby turns 5.

I don't believe there wasn't a better way to maximise use of the existing stock. There's no joined up thinking. Just seems stupid to me when they could've juggled 2/3 households around.

How do so many of you know how much your friends and relatives earn? Am I weird in that I don't discuss such things with people? I don't have a clue what anyone else earns.

It's clear that many people on here want a race to the bottom so that people in social housing are as ripped off and insecure as people who rent privately. No wonder this country is becoming such a shit place to live.

Helena Dove I'm going to remember that quote.