AIBU to be shocked that council housing is still being sold off?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

I imagined this terrible legacy from Thatcher ceased years ago. How can it possibly still be defended as a good thing?

Also, I don't intend to sell my property at all, profit or no profit.

@Banginchoons - you were the one who brought up your single parent status. As if that were something that entitled you to buy your council property.

Doesn't compare really does it.
Yes, actually it does. I was in care. No family help, no support, no financial advice, no family to fall back on when things went wrong.

@BanginChoons
Ok. This isn’t a tit for tat. I hope.
What I was trying to demonstrate is that lots of people care very much about the concept of society and every way that is achieved.

Because every time it’s chipped away at, all it damages is those at the bottom.
The whole concept of the welfare state have become devide and conquer. Them and us. Deserving, undeserving.
And this is just another way it’s used against us all as a society.

Council houses should be there to help someone for life. Where they need help.
It shouldn’t be for people to make hundreds of thousands out of. It shouldn’t be so they can pass on an inheritance, it shouldn’t be so someone earning 100k can stay because they lived there before they were rich.

it should be based on need. Real actual need.

The purpose of right to buy was to enable people with no opportunities, the opportunity to buy their house.

Screw you with your fucking opportunities, trying to take away mine.

Yes, actually it does. I was in care. No family help, no support, no financial advice, no family to fall back on when things went wrong

So you can just forget about John down the road who had it as hard as you. Because you’ve used the ladder and pulled it up behind you.
Well done

Its not so much the RTB but the lack of replacement housing being built that is the problem (due to c75% of money from a RTB -after certain conditions applied - was returned to HMT to do with what they wanted) A policy that said - we think capital asset accumulation is a good way to support intergenerational routes out of poverty but must always be supplemented with a more than adequate (more than 1 for 1) replacement of stock removed from social housing via the RTB, is vastly different to a policy that says - we think capital asset accumulation is a way for us to win votes good for some but not for all and we'll remove a much needed safety net.

Screw you with your fucking opportunities, trying to take away mine.

You took them away from others too. Congrats.

I work full time and got a council house. You don't have to be in benefits to get a council house.

You go on the waiting list same as everyone else.

Rtb is what it is. I’m not going to lie, if I get get a move to the larger property we need, I will definitely be investigating Rtb, anyone who says they wouldn’t is probably lying, if your being offered somewhere at a hefty discount and giving you perhaps the only ever chance you get in life to own a home then you would be mad to turn your nose up at the idea. For my family it wouldn’t be in view of ever selling it for profit in our lifetime, rather just having a secure home and the chance to not have to pay rent into retirement (when hopefully a mortgage would be paid off)

Wether I personally will ever get the chance is anyone’s guess, I know Scotland and Wales have abolished it so I think England won’t be far behind.

You clearly have a bit of the green eyed monster about you OP.
The problem is the money from the RTB scheme wasn’t used to build more council houses.
I rented my first flat for years, then when I got married we were in a position to buy my parents house, which my family had lived in since 1957! My grandparents paid rent for years, then my parents paid rent for years, until dh & I bought it, put in a shower room and new kitchen to make it much easier for my elderly parents to live in. We would have been mad not to buy it after all those years and years of renting.
Life isn’t fair, but don’t blame your “friend “ for her good fortune

They’ve already said they’ll be for sale under RTB after a five year tenancy.

5 fucking years?! I think I'd almost be willing to separate from DH, becoming a single SAHM, live in one of those for 5 years and then buy it and reconcile. Because unlike Banginchoons, those of us who don't qualify for council housing but work in low income jobs and don't have wealthy parents to give us a deposit have literally no hope of buying a property. I fully expect to rent my entire life.
But if I don't pretend (IRL) to believe that people who pulled a marginally shorter straw than me deserve to be led up the housing ladder, I'm deemed to be sort of bigot

@Rubicsboob

What do you mean about qualifying for a council house?

Here you just out your name in the list then bid for properties.

Is it not the same everywhere?

And we have no intention of selling it unless we need to pay for my dm care in the future.

I clearly don't CoolCarrie.

You clearly have a big hole in your ability to listen to and actually hear what other people are saying. You clearly think that saying it is all down to jealousy is the end of the matter. You clearly have a ridiculously narrow way of looking at things.

My ex left me and moved in with his mother for a while. She lived in one of the few remaining council houses in a highly desirable location. It was four bedroomed as she had had a large family but then lived there on her own. He met a woman and moved out. Sadly his mother got cancer. My ex and his sister got their names put on the rent book as tenants and after their mother died, bought the house very cheaply and made over 200k profit.

Paying rent for years does not = you now have the right to own the property. Except in the case of council properties in England, clearly!

I wonder if other countries have similar arrangements? Or do they, more sensibly, have more property available at affordable rent?

You clearly have a ridiculously narrow way of looking at things

As do the multiple posters who cant see beyond how much profit someone could make if they sold their RTB house

I bought mine in 2015 for 52k

I now owe about 45k It’s now worth £140k

Our council do replace them though,
Our city mayor is very hot on social housing . They also have a scheme where they buy them back, if/when I sell mine I’m offering it to the council first

Yes basically lots of other European countries have reasonable rents, right to long tenancies.
Which is what we should have.

The government would actually make a massive profit from it! Build houses. Rent them out reasonably. Everyone is happy.

Oh yeah. But then we wouldn’t have a bubble economy that would collapse if housing prices plummeted.

We’re all being played like a fiddle and end up fighting amongst each other for the scraps, whilst the rich get richer

We’re all being played like a fiddle and end up fighting amongst each other for the scraps, whilst the rich get richer

Agree

@itsbritneybiatches It's definitely not that easy in my borough! It's not like standing in a queue and just waiting your turn, there's a points system for how much of a priority you are and the waiting list is constantly reshuffled accordingly. So as long as you're just managing to avoid imminent homelessness you'll never get to the top of the list.
If it was as easy as signing up to a waiting list and getting a cheap house, don't you think everyone would be doing it?

Would everyone saying this is fine still say its fine if a tory mp inherited a council house and sold it for a profit? Bet its happened already.

I think it is a great idea and mixes estates up, well it is a great idea, if they continue building new homes too, instead of selling the percentage to the builder for private sale before a brick as been laid.
Lots of estates were very wild and now with some buyers and DC growing up, parents getting to stay in their family home building up the community, in the long haul it is good for areas.
A brand new social housing estate takes years to settle with tenants in and out, antisocial behaviour etc until they get the right mix, some never settle. Buying helps settle the area.

@rubicsboob If you were offered the opportunity to buy a property (with a mortgage) at a price you could afford, would you not take it?