To clarify exactly what a council house looks like

[Lifegoeson5]

So many posts about council housing and 'benefit scroungers' getting 'free' housing.
I pay £150 a week for this...

Do you not feel guilty about permanently removing a property which was intended to benefit the needy from the council house supply and ultimately benefitting from that financially?

No not at all. Do people feel guilty who recieved large inheritance? Or bought before prices went stupid? We've had some shit luck in life and some good luck like most people.

We bought out house as we managed to work hard for better jobs but we couldn't afford to buy anything other than the house we were in (council). We were told the money would be used to build new houses. The tories were talking about charging more for people on better wages therefore we were pushed to buy from that also. If we hadn't bought it we would still be in it renting so not taken anything from others.

Council were not built for the poor. A third of the population used to live in them. The whole point was that the doctor would live next door to a butcher etc this a mixed economy of tenure.

Lifegoeson we are in the same situation. We moved into a property beginning of 9ctober and we are still waiting for broken windows to be fixed, smashed security lights, drug paraphernalia in the over grown garden, front doors with seals broken, this is to name just a few of the issues. It has taken threats of legal action, mps etc to get told some of the jobs will be completed in the next 90 days taking waiting time up to 5 months and still no mention of the garden being sorted. I pay my rent (don't get housing benefit), I have two children on the autistic spectrum (my husband works, I am a carer to my eldest child due to the extent of her issues) but I am spoken to when I try and complain or ask for resolution as scourge of society.

I’m in a HA house, it’s in similar condition to OP’s, some things they will fix but only if they are effecting day to day life. My back door is broken, I can’t lock it, it’s a glass patio door, it doesn’t shut flush so let’s in cold air and water, the council won’t replace it as it’s not an original feature (the people who were here before me put the door in), I can’t afford a new door. Took me 5 years to get them to replace the front door which had a crack down it and was rotting away. Yet last year they replaced all the windows with new one (I didn’t need new ones) and replaced the boiler (didn’t need one of those either). It seems everything is on a time slot, kitchen every ten years, new windows every 20 years, new boiler every 15 years....etc...etc..., if something breaks before that time it’s tough shit bit if it’s still in great conditions at the end of that time they will replace for the sake of it.

Newer council houses are awful for mould, they are not built as well as the old council house. I open my windows as much as possible and blast the heating up.

It’s not the people buying their council houses to blame - it’s the Tory government for allowing it in the first place (buying votes!). The money gained should have gone into building new council houses, it never did.

I think a lot of resentment against council house renters comes from renters in the private sector. Those who earn too much money to be considered for social housing, but also have no chance of buying themselves, for whom the security of council housing has never existed. In private rental accommodation damp and mould is the norm ime. I've had property damaged by the amount of mould and damp. It's not just condensation damp either - I've had water running down walls in rental properties before now. I also know someone whose landlord performed their own repairs on the electric wiring - most landlords perform substandard botched repairs and take the piss, but on wiring it is bloody dangerous and was causing a serious fire risk.

It is a race to the bottom unfortunately. That's the country we're living in - racing to the bottom for years.

The major problems with new builds.....

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2901354-Housing-associations-Are-you-having-problems

Ive just been conversing with another tenant who has been without running water for 13 days. Social housing.

There are ALOT worse out there!!!

You really need to count yourself lucky

Im assuming @PigOnStilts has been e mailing the developers who have been demolishing social homes as part of the gentrification
regeneration schemes and building a LOT less of them for social rent n their place, whether they feel guilty.

I lived in a mother and baby unit (council run, not refuge). I paid 190 per WEEK for 1 room that had the wall next to our bed covered in black mould. We shared a toilet, shower and kitchen with 12 other families. It was vile and one of the better ones too.

It was a genuine question 🙄, like I said I was planning to buy mine but circumstances changed.... So I'm not being a judgy cow.

But there's people in all of our shoes now... Who won't ever have the security of the council home.

Govt basically just handed away all those protected assets for pennies. I do think it's ridiculous as is their failure to police the distribution of their proceeds as pp have pointed out.

@autumncolours9 that's a very self serving attitude.

@helenadove

Im asking a question. On a forum. No need for the sarkiness.

People keep very quiet about their council subsidised windfalls though, don't they, just wondering if, having had the benefit of the welfare state, there is any notion that perhaps just grabbing a bargain was a bit selfish.

Pigonstilts - yes I do think right to buy is wrong, even though I did it. It didn't sit well with me but I wasn't going to not do it. Right to buy is no longer allowed in our area and hasn't been for about 3 years now.

OP I get you. 2 years ago we had to move into a council flat. The pictures I could have posted were incredibly similar and I’d have had more to add. We were very fortunate that we were able to move to somewhere lovely very soon after. Not before the beds had gone mouldy sigh

£600 a month I consider cheap, it looks like it needs a good clean. In my opinion if your lucky enough to be housed spend a bit to make it liveable like people who buy their hose have to. Not everything is free.

I wasnt being sarcastic I was merely making the point that the expectations of the standard of behaviour expected from working class tenants seems to be higher than that of the developers.

Why have loads of fucking kids if you have a shit EXDH and no money?

DNA In cases of domestic abuse there is sometimes (though not always) reproductive coercion going on as well.

So when i hear of cases where a woman who has been abused also has a large ish family i find it pertinent to ask this question first before making assumptions.

Wow are we actually having this conversation in 2019! Council houses are notoriously well built with large rooms and spacious front and back garden!!

New council houses are not well built with big rooms and garden. My rooms are tiny, literally just fit a bed in dd’s room and a bed and chest of drawers in my room. They have just built a few more on my road and they are even smaller with hardly any garden. They build them to just do the job now, unlike the older style homes that were massive with dining rooms and huge gardens (they had huge gardens so people could grow their own veg).

@PigOnStilts

I disagree. Do you really expect someone to make a choice to leave move children in insecure housing just because some are ignorant or envious? Or should I have not gone back to work to help our finances? And just stayed low income claiming tax credits etc? Either way we would still live here so buying was he best choice and he council got some money for ageing housing stock.

I've had a condensation problem in my detached 4 bed house. A dehumidifier has really helped. I open the windows every morning, blast the heating, wipe the windows and we used anti mould spray and paint when we moved in.

No plastering required.

Wow are we actually having this conversation in 2019! Council houses are notoriously well built with large rooms and spacious front and back garden!!

Some are, most aren't. Though for some reason bungalows round me seem to have the massive gardens. The family homes often just have a yard. Internally the houses tend to be bigger than newer houses, but that is the same everywhere

I live in an ex council house (1940's build). We have terrible mould but I think it's our fault rather than the house itself. A few years back I got all the air bricks closed off to stop the spiders coming in in the Autumn. Big mistake! We have a bathroom downstairs, washing or towels constantly on radiators and/ or tumble dryer on . We have several mini dehumidifiers in each room but still have a lot of condensation and mould in certain areas. Am taking a few more tips from here to try to get rid of it.