@Meruem
There are many reasons not to want to move. I’ve lived in more than one place where neighbours played loud music all the time and there’s nothing can be done about it. Oh you get told to keep a “noise diary’ for months and then what? Nothing happens. I have been close to a breakdown before because of it. Where I live now is peaceful and quiet. I have no issue with any of my neighbours. (Well the people at the back have a few parties but I sleep at the front and don’t hear it). So no I don’t really want to move to a flat and risk having to put up with all that shit again.
My house was a wreck when I moved in, it was an exchange so if I wanted it I had to take it “as seen” the HA wouldn’t do anything to fix it up. I could see the potential and was willing to do it but I’ve spent a lot of money on it.
Like others have said, smaller properties aren’t much cheaper, a few £s at most. Not worth the hassle of moving etc. I pay my rent so the bedroom tax doesn’t affect me.
Ultimately I have a secure tenancy, so yes for my lifetime, as long as I don’t get into rent arrears or turn it into a drug den or something! So people can go on as much as they like about it being unfair etc but posters on MN are not going to make me give up my home! Lockdown has made me appreciate it even more so I will only move if the day comes when I physically can’t get up and down the stairs.
Exactly this.
Posters like @freakyfridays are just bitter and jealous of people in social housing. You often find the more spiteful, nonsensical crap coming from people who are jealous. Like 'my tax pays for your home.' WRONG. Taxpayers do NOT pay for social housing, and the upkeep/maintenance etc... The RENT that people pay for the property pays for it!
And despite what some bigoted fools think, not everyone in social housing is on benefits. 41% of people work, 20% are disabled or unable to work through illness, and the rest are retired, (with a fairly small % actually out of work/on benefits.)
It's also bollocks that children inherit their parents tenancies. Only if said child is an adult and is a co-tenant, and many councils and housing associations will not put an adult child on the tenancy agreement as a co-tenant.
Also, it's true (as many posters have said,) that there are very few 1 bed social housing properties. Maybe in That London there are more, but there are very few anywhere else. And many of them are a bit minging, are in fairly crap areas, and are really pokey, with very little garden, and nowhere to park.
I know a single person and 2 couples, who are all in 2 bed properties. They all want to move to another area, but will only qualify for a 1 bed home now. The 2 couples live in a 2 bed house and a 2 bed bungalow, and the single person lives in a 2 bed bungalow. The people who run the housing list where you have to register, (that around 8 different housing associations put their homes on to rent,) say no way will they get another 2 bed, even though they're in one now.
In the county they live, the 1 bed council properties are all pokey and in pretty average/slightly rough areas, and have no parking space, no driveway, and a postage stamp for a garden (front and back.) And the 2 beds seem to be bigger, with wider, bigger gardens, and driveways, and seem to be further away from each other. So they won't be giving up their 2 bed homes anytime soon.
As you say Meruem, why the F should anyone give up a place that is really nice, a good size, in a lovely area, and has good parking/big garden/good quiet neighbours etc........., for a shitty area, a poky, much smaller home, with no parking, no garden to speak of, and in a place where they know no-one, and where they will probably pay more rent? Just so the council can get a property back on their housing stock with one more bedroom? There's nothing in it for the tenants. So why should they sacrifice their lovely home?
As long as they're paying their rent and looking after the place, it's their home, and no-one has the right to say different, OR to say they should leave. The haters need to aim their bitterness and vitriol at the councils and the Government who need to be building much more social housing, and NOT at the people in social housing.