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Original poster

The good old Mumsnet Council housing debate

141 replies

QuandaleDingle · 30/09/2022 22:14

You know all you people who demand that council tenants have their long tenancies taken off them and have their rents increase ??

Why don't you INSTEAD demand that the government makes shitty insecure private renting better ? And becomes more affordable and secure.
Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Rather stick the boot in on council tenants out of some sort of spite and ...jealousy ? I also think snobbery comes into it

It's a race to the bottom for some peeps🤦‍♀️ I'm not a council tenant btw but I have been.

OP posts:
EscapeRoomToTheSun · 30/09/2022 22:15

Thank you.

girlmom21 · 30/09/2022 22:16

There should be housing available for anyone who needs it at affordable rates 🤷‍♀️

ChilliBandit · 30/09/2022 22:19

100% agree. And before someone trots out the line about social housing rents being subsidised, they aren’t. They just aren’t overinflated for the private market. Pull up the publicly available accounts of any social housing association, they make surpluses which they reinvest back into housing.

CuriousCatfish · 30/09/2022 22:19

FREE HOUSES!

Original poster
QuandaleDingle · 30/09/2022 22:20

girlmom21 · 30/09/2022 22:16

There should be housing available for anyone who needs it at affordable rates 🤷‍♀️

Totally agree

But some people would rather have council tenants be made more insecure and skint than lobbying for this to happen

OP posts:
userxx · 30/09/2022 22:20

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Because the UK is massive 🙄

Screamifyouwanttogofast · 30/09/2022 22:23

userxx · 30/09/2022 22:20

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Because the UK is massive 🙄

Jeez, spot the nimby. It’s hardly Hong Kong here!

CuriousCatfish · 30/09/2022 22:24

girlmom21 · 30/09/2022 22:16

There should be housing available for anyone who needs it at affordable rates 🤷‍♀️

You really think that the people whining and moaning about SH would ever lower themselves to live in one?

They won't even buy a house near one or send their kids to school near a council estate. They hate that someone 'poorer' than them has secure housing.

userxx · 30/09/2022 22:27

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

HighlandPony · 30/09/2022 22:27

userxx · 30/09/2022 22:20

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Because the UK is massive 🙄

We seem to have enough space to build houses that rich folk buy as second homes or to be let out as air b&bs.

I bought my council house (in what’s called a pressured area) and the terms of sale back then were you had to offer first to sell it back to the council for current market value first before you could list it in the open market. You can’t buy your council house here anymore though.

AlwaysGinPlease · 30/09/2022 22:28

Jealous? Unlikely.

LoveChristmas03 · 30/09/2022 22:29

Not all council properties are equal. My mum has been trying to swap her 3 bed in a nice area for a one bed in an equally nice area for years. It's not happening anytime soon. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

longleggitybeastie · 30/09/2022 22:30

Agree 100% OP

I got my council flat after a several episodes of very bad misfortune and ill health. I'm degree educated and have always worked whenever possible.

I thank my lucky stars on a daily basis that I'm not facing the instability of the housing market at the moment. Many would dispair at being at the "low end of society" and aspire to greater trappings of wealth, but I love my small, humble but affordable flat for the security it provides me. I do not need any more. But it was not a fun time getting here.

The fact that it IS possible to run social housing with low rents feasibly as social enterprises should be something that is revered, and a wake up call that we need more, not less.

Realityloom · 30/09/2022 22:30

Agree OP. Not everyone gets a lifelong tenancy anymore!

I know in parts of London you don't. There's pros and cons to renting and owning realistically how many homeowners will have to sell their homes to pay for nursing home fees? Thats all I used to hear the elderly say.... which I agree it's a disgrace!

More council homes should be built there's plenty of land and people willing to pay. Everything is student accommodation that gets built.

Sarasandman · 30/09/2022 22:31

Not only are they not subsidised, but they make a profit, which has been taken from councils and goes to central government instead.
Council tenants effectively pay extra tax through their rents.
Council housing is a form of ethical housing, where the rents go to creating more housing, maintaining existing housing with repairs etc., or towards the public coffee.
Yet so many people pay private landlords profits instead, so many welfare benefits are given to private landlords.
I do find it shocking when private tenants turn on ethical renters instead of campaigning for better housing.
Many people also forget that tenants of social housing often campaigned and worked for many years to create their housing associations and cooperatives. If people are jealous or resentful, they could try looking into community housing, cooperatives, housing trusts: they could take more responsibility by creating more affordable housing for their communities just as the people they look down on have.

romany4 · 30/09/2022 22:32

I'm in a HA house. My rent goes up every single year without fail.
And don't even ask about trying to get a repair done ...they are still saying minimum 3 months because Covid!

ivykaty44 · 30/09/2022 22:32

Why don't you INSTEAD demand that the government makes shitty insecure private renting better ? And becomes more affordable and secure.
Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

that’s why I haven’t voted Tory

because they consider the poor feckless

there latest job is cut benefits to help cover the tax cuts

CuriousCatfish · 30/09/2022 22:33

They should be complaining about greedy buy to let landlords but SH tenants are an easy target.

ChilliBandit · 30/09/2022 22:36

@Sarasandman - I am not sure about houses own directly by councils as there aren’t many left, but housing associations do keep their surpluses and reinvest in their housing stock or build new. They do not give it to central government.

Winceybincey · 30/09/2022 22:37

Because why should low earners have a home at all? They should live in a cardboard box where they belong, sleep on a hard wet floor after working 12 hour shifts saving lives, getting food on the shelves, cleaning and disinfecting to protect public health, and so on. Their lives are worth less than the mud on my boot. Now get back in that box!
Tongue in cheek btw. I agree with you Op. Some in society live through their egos and love a sense of superiority - which is the opposite of what life’s about IMO.

5128gap · 30/09/2022 22:37

userxx · 30/09/2022 22:20

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Because the UK is massive 🙄

There's enough land for all the house building companies to buy to build private housing, or to hoard in their land banks. Space for houses is really not the problem.

Lolliepoppie · 30/09/2022 22:41

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Anyone who WANTS one? So you’re advocating no means testing at all for council housing?

I think you need to appreciate that resources are finite and council housing is there to support families who can’t afford private rental. If a single person is in a 3 or 4 bedroom house they are taking up a resource which they don’t need, and another family might be in desperate need of.

Screamifyouwanttogofast · 30/09/2022 22:42

I look around my area and the number of people going to view every single flat that comes on the rental market, or see the ludicrous prices houses go for and I think we have reached saturation point in the UK housing stock. There is no more. The music has stopped in musical chairs, all the chairs are occupied and those without on are just not going to get one. Yes airB&Bs and second homes are a bit of an issue, but this country is stuck until we start building a lot more of all types of housing - student, rental, social housing, family homes, retirement downsizing places. Everything.

userxx · 30/09/2022 22:43

@5128gap and that's absolutely wrong too. No idea what the solution is for far too many people in a small country.

Realityloom · 30/09/2022 22:49

Lolliepoppie · 30/09/2022 22:41

Or even better than that, build more council homes so anyone who wants or needs one can have one.

Anyone who WANTS one? So you’re advocating no means testing at all for council housing?

I think you need to appreciate that resources are finite and council housing is there to support families who can’t afford private rental. If a single person is in a 3 or 4 bedroom house they are taking up a resource which they don’t need, and another family might be in desperate need of.

This rarely happens anymore. People pay bedroom tax even those on benefits it's been like this for a number of years!

The council doesn't give out properties with numerous rooms for a single person.