I hope this doesn’t become a judgement thread about the politics of housing just advice or opinions, has anyone been in a similar situation? Ultimately ‘affordable housing’ doesn’t really seem very affordable, but what options do people have?
Single parent who works 48 hours a week in 2 jobs earn about £25k (before tax, NI and pension). One of these is zero hour contract and variable income. Live in South where I was born and DC go to school. 2 teen DC and get very small amount of child maintenance for them. Living in crap private rental flat now paying £850pm, no garden, no central heating under a crappy landlord and am classed as overcrowded. Claim some universal credit which helps with housing costs. No savings. Also studying through employer to get better paid jobs in future.
I was contacted by the local council and I have been offered the potential of a housing association Home. There are a lot of these at present being built on new estates and they are really struggling to get people into them. These are not council housing at lower rents in fact the rent will be more than what I pay now but on my salary, I still can’t actually afford it in reality. No one is bidding on them because the rent is £900pm, people who need housing obviously can not afford them? I can see the housing every week and it is true no one is bidding on them because they are repeatedly listed there week in week out. The list size where I live is apparently fairly low now and now they seem to be building more than they can offload to qualifying residents.
But it could be a secure tenancy and I will have more rooms and heating. I do not know what to do.
- hold out for an older cheaper council house at a much lower rent that I can actually afford on my salary - could be a very long wait
- stay in unsecure private renting with unpredictable rent rises, crap LL/heating issues. Also I am stuck in a 12 month fixed term till April and might have to pay 2 rents until it ends if LL decides
- Try to make housing association rent payments work by cutting back on all other bills and eventually getting a better job
- Move away from area completely to cheaper part of U.K. including DC father, schools, family, friends and my jobs
