AIBU to be worried about social housing?

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Have found our dream home on a new estate - looks out over green to the front. Lovely lay out, super excited. However, we went to look at the one we wanted to reserve (80% finished) to find that half the garden backs onto a small row of 3 social rent houses. I feel awful to be worried abou this but I am! The other houses it backs onto are small private houses. I now don’t know what to do. I don’t want to make the wrong choice for our family. What if there’s trouble? It’s seriously making me reconsider. There isn’t much social housing on the estate (minimum amount I guess) does anyone have any experience?

Is the back garden north facing OP? That would put me off far more than social housing.

we all know that north facing gardens suck. Where as social housing may only possibly be a problem if you get a nuisance family move in (which may never happen or may be your owner occupier next door neighbours!)

YANBU to be concerned about neighbours and take that into consideration when moving.
YABU to base that concern solely on the fact there's social housing.
All the problems I've had have been with private renters, since being in sh I've not had an issue.
The ha I rent from has far more rules and restrictions regarding anti social behaviour than any private LL I've had - and they get involved and deal with it more than private LL IME.

@PookieDo and what are you then if not an embarrassment.

You have no idea of my experience just because I won't agree to your narrative.
How dare you belittle anyone elses experiences

TBH on a new build estate I wouldn’t be at all concerned. I’m pretty sure they cherry picked rent paying working families to go in our estate. Everyone has long tenancy so we invest time and effort into their propertied

What should concern you is that small families and couples buy the houses. You all move in at much the same time and it’s all good. After 7 or 8 years families outgrow the tiny shoe boxes and often they get bought up for private rent. You get a rapid turnover of people, which in turn means they are less inclined to be neighbourly.

@Pharlapwasthebest I am not making assumptions. My post was directed at those in social housing that don’t work and I actually wrote DON’T in capitals to make this clear - you must have missed it.

I also stated that I grew up in social housing and moved out when I went to uni - quite a few of the people I went to school with have either done time or currently doing it and those that aren’t are long term unemployed since they left school!

I’m the only one that went to uni and ‘bettered’ myself from my estate as I was lucky to have a family that supported that route. I also didn’t want to have the life I saw my peers having. Very few people worked, more do now, but mainly cash in hand. Drugs are rife, antisocial behaviour I’d say is epidemic. I’ve seen it kicking off so many times, it’s constant and not the environment I would chose to live in.

The likelihood of having antisocial behaviour from neighbours does increase if the neighbours are long term unemployed, not because of a disability, but because they’ve never had an expectation that they need to work due to state handouts.

I live in a HA flat on an estate that is nearly all HA. The area looks a mess as maintenance of the exteriors has been non existent over the last decade. Opposite me there is a drug user whose dealer is always calling round to drop off another order. There’s a paedophile a few doors down (hasn’t done time as is cooperating with rehabilitation). A guy up the road repairs motorbikes and cars (on the side while on benefits) - there are bikes revving up and down the road at all hours. I had to get a harassment order to stop another guy hammering on my door trying to get me to park my car further from his (in case he needs to jump start his). Reached the point where I told him to stop asking me to move and he tried to push his way into my flat to continue the conversation. No one around me works and no one has any through for their neighbours. If I didn’t have to live here there’s no way I would. Not every social housing tenant is quiet, hard-working and considerate. You are right to be cautious OP.

@Marilynmansonsthermos there’s a huge difference to council house tenants in the 70’s to now. I wasn’t born then, but the older generation who lived near me growing up were workers, good values and maintained their properties. Tenants nowadays, those that have never worked, are a different kettle of fish entirely.

@gamerwidow

It’s when people can’t see it when they are posting, as if literally ‘keep those people away from me’ and ‘not in my back garden’ which is exactly how we have ended up here!

There were/are areas of the U.K. that were not fit for a mouse to live in with next to no economy or jobs and we are paying a huge price for this damage. People penned into absolute sink estates turned to crime and were cut off from normal society. They did not grow up with many of the privileges afforded to others. Ever listened to the song Ill Manors by Plan B? Those lyrics are pretty powerful

25% of SH on an estate is supposed to integrate people into a normal community. They are also allowed to live near a park, shops and have their kids in a non failing school. I find it upsetting that society is so fractured. This is the fault of the government. They have caused so many of these issues

@purplelila2

It’s not an experience it’s your experience of 1 person and i especially loved that this is proof you can take the girl out of the council house but she will always be a council house girl

This is the fault of the government

Why is it?

The government don't tell people where to live, whether to work or not, to have children etc. These are all choices we make as adults and we alone are responsible for them.

I have to live within a commutable distance to D.C. schools.

I don’t see how I can just up and move.

God can we stay on topic? The OP wants to know if she's worrying too much about the possibility of having anti social neighbours. She wasn't demonising or denying that social housing tenants can be 'decent' people. Whatever the hell that means.

Thank you pookie do for clarifying that social housing is different to council housing.

I live in social housing. What someone said earlier, we don't shit on our own doorsteps. I always rob off the estate down the road and make sure my kids Wayne and Sharon only rob off the really posh neighbours.

Faults of government listed at your request:

I am talking long term historically and the same is relevant for all types of ghetto in any country. Look at them all. They all have the same issues.

• Building huge council estates to house poor people then allowing them to slide into hopeless and awful disrepair, disease illness and over crowding. I saw some footage of the conditions people lived in Manchester and Liverpool in 50’s it is atrocious
• selling off council house stock to make money but not building more social homes or making council estates better
• people lose hope. They don’t have as much means (money) to make things better for themselves
• angry hopelessness passed down to other generations who don’t have any alternative experiences to learn from
• lack of access to pathways that could help people make better lives. Like Far less likely to stay in school let alone go to uni, as who can afford it or what is the point
• once hope is lost they get angry and behave anti socially and commit crimes
• dreadful access to mental health services, drug and alcohol support. Use drink and drugs as feel hopeless disaffected and disassociated from society.
• anti social behaviour becomes a normal way of life because everyone else is doing it too
• real segregation between classes not helped by ever changing benefit traps people losing incentive to work - government introduces benefits system
• lack of adequate policing creates almost a lawless society of gangs that cannot be addressed - see increase in knife crime
• media constantly blaming immigrants and the poor for all the issues creating tension between classes in society, disrespect and aggression
• gov continue to come up with new ways to financially penalise the poorest section of society -disabled, elderly etc

The topic is should I live near social housing as they usually are not decent people and it will affect my house price

What other topic is it?

I grew up in a council house (as they used to be called) and have just bought an ex-council home for my disabled DS to live in. Certainly the stats suggest they involve more problems, but IME the key is to "know your estate" before buying - visit at all times of day, look up local crime figures, etc. FWIW the area I was raised in is now an utter nightmare and the one where I've bought - while hardly the best area of the city - is a very caring community where I can't move without yet another neighbour offering to "look out for my son"

In your case, OP, I wouldn't worry about the shared ownership places as that's a very different profile, and it seems a fairly small estate with only a few HA units which will probably be a very different scenario to a huge, high density HA area

I'd be careful about the private road, though; the issues around maintenance, what happens about parking disputes and more are all things you might want to look into

@PookieDo that is not what the OP asked. You are putting words into her mouth.

That is exactly the subtext of the op. As I read it.

I can read
It said this

to find that half the garden backs onto a small row of 3 social rent houses. I feel awful to be worried abou this but I am! The other houses it backs onto are small private houses. I now don’t know what to do. I don’t want to make the wrong choice for our family. What if there’s trouble? It’s seriously making me reconsider

Sorry please explain what I have read differently to you?
That there could be trouble from SH and many many people agree that it’s very likely

Oh and loads of others told her not to as she won’t be able to sell it on etc

Selling a house on is a consideration surely when you buy

Some people are so judgy on here. If you were investing £450k+ interest on a house, you'd want to make sure it was the right decision.

Don't listen to all of these people OP, I think you should do more research on the area itself and ask the neighbours about the area. You're more likely to get a accurate review and can make a decision from there.

I didn’t dispute that it isn’t

But I am allowed to point out the horrible tone to the thread is that many people wish that SH do not live near private homeowners. Like segregation

And I pointed out that sink estates breed crime and are far worse for society and we should have mixed housing and integration of our infrastructure

Many SH tenants have strict rules in their tenancy agreement or are shared ownership, have to pass affordabilty checks

@PookieDo.

Nowhere did the OP mention house prices. I don't think she'd even thought that far ahead.