To really dislike the attitude some people have about council estates?

[MoominMantra]

Specifically this;

'I grew up on a council estate but I wanted to better myself'

Better yourself? What does that actually mean? I think people like this are insecure and suffer from internalised shame about their roots.

I was then told that because I didn't grow up on a council estate myself then I have no right to an opinion on this.

All I know is that it's deeply unpleasant to look down on others whatever the circumstances. It's not wrong to be happy living on a council estate is it.

AIBU?

@thentherewascakes i bought my council house like million's of other's across the uk, i got a 3 bedroomed semi for under £10,000 in the 1990's because i'd been a tennant for a good many year's i got a big discount, it's not the people who bought council house's that have helped toward's the housing crisis its the council's they didn't replace houses that were bought, of course people were going to buy it was cheaper than renting.
I'm in Scotland and the Scottish Government put a stop on buying council properties a few year's ago

happyhillock
and you can sell it at market rate and make a huge profit.
It's an outrageous concept.

Fine, but I wouldn't be the one to pay the market rate for it - and if everyone was doing the same and refusing to buy them at top rate, these houses would be worth a lot less.

www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-rise-and-fall-of-council-housing-56139

In the 1980s, residualisation may have been a partly unintended consequence of housing policies pursued with varying ideological intent.

Since 2010, and more so since the return of single-party Conservative government in 2015, we’ve seen something further: welfarisation – ‘a conception of social housing as a very small, highly residualised sector catering only for the very poorest, and those with additional social “vulnerabilities”, on a short-term “ambulance” basis

@hellodarkness this explains why some estates have become the way they are now.

Comical - I’ve seen equal measures of “chavs” with more money in other types of housing

People on the left like to romanticise council estates and working class people. We’re not all salt of the earth saints some of us are decent and some of us are scumbags the same as every other group of society.

I think it's because you are more likely to encounter social problems / nuisance neighbours than you are on a private road. That's not to say private roads are free of issues because they are not. I didn't grow up on a council estate but my dad did and I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house growing up.

When I think back to my grandparents estate it was poorly designed, narrow roads / cull de sacs and it felt very hemmed in and claustrophobic. It also looked deprived. Lots of tenants used to throw rubbish outside their houses and some people living there were scary!

There's nothing wrong with living on a council estate but I can see why it's nothing to aspire to! I think people who grew up on estates are probably relieved and to see it as an achievement, not to live on one anymore. They are entitled to their opinion. It's functional, essential housing but not desirable.

"All I know is that it's deeply unpleasant to look down on others whatever the circumstances. It's not wrong to be happy living on a council estate is it. "

Not at all.

I dont think there is a problem with aspiring to not want to live on a council estate. I am assuming lots, though I accept not all, given the choice wouldnt live on a council estate. YABU.

YABU.

I lived on a council estate for 7 years. Developed severe anxiety due to violence, drug dealing and using, sexual violence was rife in all the alleyways behind the houses (including mine), drug use in the open, needles etc on my garden weekly.

It was fucking terrifying. I never felt safe. People would hammer on my door at 3am because they’d mistaken my house for next door but one who was a well known drug dealer.

There was also a lot of child neglect/abuse due to addict parents. It is awful watching children go through bins to find food, not to mention wearing skirts with sandals and no socks or tights, just a shirt and jumper and no coat when it’s fucking slinging it down and they’re going to school alone because Mum and Dad are passed out, the house is cold and they have no food there but at school it’s warm and they get fed.

The night before I moved out, someone was stabbed just outside my front garden. Crime scene tape and officers everywhere. The moving van pulled in, looked around and then fucked off, refusing to do the move.

So no I’m not sorry I moved out, I’m not sorry my children don’t have to experience that any more.

Thentgerewerecakes
I agree. We bought an ex council place years and years ago and the vendors couldn't wait to bank nearly 42 k ( after buying it from the council)
and move to the country. We were young and silly and needed somewhere to live quite quickly. When I think about it now I realise how silly it was.

However, I was brought up on a council estate and it was a very large house and close to everything you needed. Swings and roundabouts when it comes to property.
I never look down my nose at anyone : where I was brought up was much more community minded than it is where I live now. The new builds I see are so squashed and are a small fortune. It's all just about profit most of the time and no infrastructure at all. It's all quite depressing.

@thentherewascakes - I found out the house I purchased for £100k 15yrs ago was bought from the council for £12k a few years before. Takes the piss that people who never worked a day in their lives (I know this is true) made a profit like that.

I really regret moving here now as the estate agent lied to me, telling me that the small estate was almost entirely private now (actually there's 2 private houses at most). My latest council neighbour is horrendous so I can fully understand those who think it is bettering themselves to move away. My dad grew up on a rough council estate and he certainly feels he bettered himself. We were incredibly poor growing up but he made sure we never ended up living in a council house as he wanted better for us. Just a shame that all I could afford to buy was an ex council house when I moved out.

it wouldn't be such an issue if people who desperately need accommodation could find some, sadly they don't.

It entirely depends which council estate to be fair. There are some estates near to me I’d happily live on but you couldn’t pay me enough to live on some of the estates I work in.

@thentherewascakes i bought my council house because i was allowed to, nearly everyone in my street have bought there council semi's, in the last 18mths 4 have been sold at the full market price, people buy these houses because they have large living room's, large kitchens and every bedroom can be used as a double room, large garden's, i know a couple who bought a new build for over £100,000 living room and bedroom's are tiny, if you want to blame anyone for us ex council house buyer's making a big profit look no further than Margaret Thatcher, she allowed us to.

the welfarisation and residulisation of social housing estates is quite deliberate.

happyhillock are you in Dundee, just out of interest?

I found out the house I purchased for £100k 15yrs ago was bought from the council for £12k a few years before. Takes the piss that people who never worked a day in their lives (I know this is true) made a profit like that.

How did they manage to get the £12K to buy the house if they never worked a day in their lives?

Very few 'council estates' actually have properties that are council owned any more. The majority of the houses are privately owned and a lot of those are ironically rented out privately to people on low incomes who need extra help like housing benefits etc to afford the high rent but if all these properties hadn't been sold off many of these families would be able to get a council house to rent (and not then need the top up of benefits) and they would have much more security than private landlords. As council estates were planned purpose built communities they have parks and play areas , schools, shopping arcades, sometimes pubs, community centres etc.
I love the style of 1920/30/50s council estates.

@thentherewascakes people who had never worked a day in there lives wouldn't get a morgage to even buy a council house.

I grew up on a council estate and yes our family wanted better for us than a drug infested estate where prostitution is rife.

The sad thing is too often people who grow up on an estate assume that's all there is. It was by chance that our family was moved out of our estate temporarily to a leafy part of London. It opened our eyes to the fact that there was more than estates out there.

My parents worked hard - both parents were mature students who got their kids out of a cycle of poverty

'People on the left like to romanticise council estates and working class people. We’re not all salt of the earth saints some of us are decent and some of us are scumbags the same as every other group of society.'

I know this but nobody should assume that rich people are all paragons of virtue.

My daughter went to a posh private girl's school where there were a lot of problems with sexual abuse within families, police called to school. Stealing, and bullying. I moved her.

My best friend went to Oxford - said she's never seen so many maladjusted people with alcohol and cocaine addictions.

OP if you have never even lived on a council estate, what on earth are you talking about?

Doormat

I found out the house I purchased for £100k 15yrs ago was bought from the council for £12k a few years before. Takes the piss that people who never worked a day in their lives (I know this is true) made a profit like that.

How the hell did they get a mortgage if they were unemployed?

you know you don't need a mortgage to pay a £12k house!

I could just put that on my credit card. Anyone else could.

What exactly is your point @thentherewascakes?

There is a council estate near me where the people seem perfectly nice. There are no social problems in the news. I can, of course accept that all estates are different.

The person I know says that those who live on council estates are all lazy layabouts. I think once you start looking down on other people, you dehumanise them. The person I know is the only one of his brothers who has this snobby outlook - the others had fond memories of their childhood.

Obviously I know that if you are living on a street of criminals it must be a nightmare and nobody wants that for their children.