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...

I think we are all missing the point shes trying to make here that everyone who bashes council tenants being lucky to have affordable housing are not in fact living the dream. If you were private renting and this was your living situation would you not be livid they were not doing anything about it? This is the case now with a lot of council properties. I worked for the council for many years. This is the conditions people are moved into and it's not seen to for ages. As far as council are concerned you are housed. End of. Ongoing, she could make it better but it's not her property? Shes already spent £5k of her own money trying to do it up. Would you spend £5k of your own money trying to get a private rent up to standard or expect your landlord to chip in?? I private rent and although my place isn't exactly perfect, I wouldn't be putting thousands of pounds into doing up a home that isn't mine.

..just to clarify I also private rent

Bet the social tenant i mentioned upthread who has had no running water for days wishes he had a leak right now.

Found these interesting posts from an old thread. Posted by someone who said the same thing ive been saying for years. But her DH works/worked on HA homes.

LEMisafucker Thu 12-Dec-13 10:23:27

It is not ridiculous - my father worked all his life, my mother still lives in the 3 bed council house that they would have paid for ten times over in rent. It is not about moving pensioners out of their homes its about the money being paid in by people renting these properties being put back into the system and invested properly. Its about efficient repairs and moneies not being squandered going through middle man after middle man before the guy turns up on the doorstep to fix the boiler. My DP has worked on social housing contracts, subcontracting for a subcontractor whos is subcontracting for the main contractor who is farming all of this work out with god knows how many back hander with every little cog in the wheel syphoning off their money so where a job that DP would charge £150 for a days work (hes a carpenter) to a private homeowner, the same job is probably costing the council (the tax payer) £400 while everyone else creams their bit of money on top. He was astounded at the lack of organisation, waste of time, three people sent to do a job that could be done by one person etc. THAT is where the failings are, well, one of them, not allowing people who have paid into the system over the years to keep the homes they have paid for. Many pensioners CHOOSE to downsize, but even then suitable places are not available - you cannot put a pensioner for instance in a 1 bed flat on the fourth floor

same poster

There wouldn't be that problem of the maintainance costs if it wasn't such a lucrative business, contractors fall over themselves for SH contracts provide substantial "perks" its money for old rope. They pay underqualified workers a pittance of pay to get the work done quickly to a pretty poor standard and charge more than a premium job. So that argument for selling off the council properties falls a bit flat - there are people out there making substantial profits out of people falling on hard times

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

You can't just throw that in and not give the context. Is it the HA responsibility or the water board? Is it a leak? They can be notoriously difficult to find especially if it is only a very small crack in the pipework.

You need to give the whole story, not just soundbites designed to shock.

My brother works for a housing association doing repairs etc and the vast majority he says is basic maintenance and cleaning.

Must sting when he’s on the bare bones of his ass paying private rent with no security

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

No running water is a top priority repair. When I worked in housing support, I got a tenant i temp accomm moved in 24 hours when her water supply failed, and that was with a notoriously hopeless council.

The repair line call handler said that she would have to buy bottled water and heat it up to bath her baby. The nearest supermarket was 1.5 miles away and she had 2 kids under 2. I got on to the area housing manager, who went bloody ballistic and sorted out the move.

Any tenant who is treated like this needs to start a formal complaint and get on to their local councillor, if council, or their MP if it's HA.

Starting a complaint often gets a quick resolution, getting an MP or councillor involved really puts a bomb up their arses.

@iamNOTmagic, I've worked in a housing-related field for 12 years, and across 4 different council areas. I've never seen the sort of levels of disrepair in social housing that I have in the private sector.

While some private landlords are great, a significant proportion are absolute cunts who just want the rent to roll in and refuse to take any repsonsibility for the property. Thankfully, the change in the law re revenge evictions makes it a bit easier for private tenants to get stuff done.

One landlord refused to do anything about a leaking, decrepit, roof until a passer-by was injured by a flying roof tile and started legal action against him! The poor tenant had to go to the sorting office to get her mail, it was so bad they refused to deliver to the house because it was dangerous.

How long have you been there?

I think we have just become a generation of entitlement, and this may be worse if we have grown up in council/HA properties. I was listening to a podcast last week (of a lovely lady btw) about decorating SH properties. The lady got a SH flat in London, had 2 dc and got a 2 bed flat, which she had spent ££££ on, putting in a new kitchen and bathroom. All lovely. She was saying that people were dismayed about her spending so much on a flat that wasn't hers, but also that she was privileged to get such a property. She was shocked by that, as to her she wasn't, it was private renters who were privileged; she couldn't choose her street, couldn't choose a school catchment area, couldn't choose how many bedrooms or reject a property if the layout didn't work. I quite frankly was astounded at her naivety in thinking that everyone who privately rents are faced with so much choice. She went on to say that she had always grown up in council/SH properties, so this made more sense then, she clearly was not aware that many people are living in very shoddy private rentals because that is all they can afford. She really couldn't see that a secure tenancy, in London especially, was a massive privilege.

To stop mould we bought a condenser dryer. Also opening the windows and turning the up heating does help.

If you do have damp that isn't caused by you then you should be reporting it the HA.

Most Social housing is choice based lettings now any way so people can to some extent choose where they want to live

You could sort the mould out yourself, I think most homes at some point have this?
Other things are only minor which could be sorted yourself

If you were private renting and this was your living situation would you not be livid they were not doing anything about it?
@disneydatknee, as iamnotmagic said, this is the living situation for many private tenants. It is, ime, the norm for rented properties to be damp. Many private landlords also do botch jobs on repairs, when they do repairs at all, that create risks themselves. Yet we do not get security of tenure that HA tenants do, and we pay private rents. Private tenants have been abandoned because we work and so have a little bit more money which can be taken off us by landlords with impunity, but we're expected to feel sorry for those who actually have as much as we do without working for it. That's the issue.

And yes, it's divide and conquer, and yes, it's a race to the bottom, and yes those are awful things, and no I don't like the increasing divisions. But the fact is many of us stuck in the private rental trap into our 30s or 40s would be better off now if we hadn't bothered to work for it and try to do the right thing all our lives, and had got ourselves pregnant in our teens instead.

So you are assuming council houses are full of single mothers who don't work@ImGoingToBangYourHeadsTogether?Hats a massive generalisation.

Thats*

Yet we do not get security of tenure that HA tenants do, and we pay private rents. Private tenants have been abandoned because we work and so have a little bit more money which can be taken off us by landlords with impunity, but we're expected to feel sorry for those who actually have as much as we do without working for it. That's the issue.

Who says they haven't or don't work for it? I live in social housing. Never been unemployed. Same goes for several of my neighbours. I work ft+. Another myth about social housing, I had to show payslips to prove I could afford it. I pay all the rent (and that's not a moan before anyone starts - I'm addressing the sentiment that I don't work for it!!!) Out of my wages - many in private rent receive housing benefit - which goes to a private LLs and towards profit - so you could say that actually I'm working for it more than someone in that situation. But as that doesn't fit the stereotype then it's largely ignored, in favour of posts like yours and other people jumping on the bandwagon.
I agree with your sentiments regarding the state of some private lets and unscrupulous LLs though - because I have lived in many private rents 8 in 15 years actually, and I think the whole thing needs an overhaul to stop people paying a fortune for property that the LL doesn't maintain. I'm grateful that I have a more secure tenancy now, and that I do get repairs done, but I did my time in private rent.
Why, instead of thinking that the bar should be raised for everyone, are people so insistent that it's lowered even further so everyone has insecure and housing in poor repair with little hope of that being resolved? The fact that some LLs (all bar one in my case) are putting more profit over anything else is on no one other than the LL, and the powers that be that make the rules and allow it to happen.
How can any social housing tenant be held responsible for the state of the private rentals sector?

Availability of council / social housing probably depends a lot on where you live.

Friends daughter has recently obtained a council house (working single mum one DC). The house was in an appalling state when she got it and I suspect many other families had already turned it down.

Yet with support from other family members (dad majorly into DIY) she has a lovely little home now, and secure tenancy.

Had she applied in neighbouring authority (where I work) she would have had to have presented homeless and been given one bedroom hostel accommodation as that is all available.

We had black mould when we bought very old neglected house that didn’t have heating . Have got rid if it by insulating house, installing heating and regularly ‘ airing’ the house . Good Luck with that as I know how unpleasant it is 💐

Cactus there are data protection issues involved with posts that are in closed FB groups as @MNHQ would confirm.

@ImGoingToBangYourHeadsTogether Wow these women you have talked about got themselves pregnant did they? Have you contacted the Vatican Because im sure they would be interested.

You sound like a hateful classist misogynist .

I suppose you think social housing is full of single mums with six kids swigging Stella Artois.

 23%  of those  living  in social  housing  are  pensioners.     DH  and i  are  in a one  bedroom  flat    and  he  will  be  70  in  a few  months. 

and im childfree by choice and teetotal. You will probably need a lie down to recover from the shock.

Helena if there are data protection issues, you should never have posted it in the first place. I am not sure why being asked if it is inside the boundary or outside suddenly makes it a data protection issue.

Though I think you should look for reports of good practice as well (there are lots) at the very least to balance things out.

Glad you mentioned that. I already do.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2719481-to-think-this-housing-association-is-giving-great-support-to-domestic-abuse-victims

Then there is Habinteg A housing association that provides accessible housing. Ive heard good things about them