The good old Mumsnet Council housing debate

[QuandaleDingle]

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.

Couldn't agree more OP.

We've been stuck privately renting and the rents are ridiculous all for landlords to make a profit. Trying to pay a crazy rent and save to buy your own place is impossible. We continue to work to earn more to try to save but with the cost of everything rising its like a viscous cycle.
We arent able to even apply for council housing as we earn over the amount for it and there are people who need help a lot more than we do so we're stuck under the mercy of a landlord and with the current situation its scary. There needs to be more protection for tenants and also more affordable rents.
All these house builders should have to give more than just the 10% of homes per site to the council. So many are bought by buy to let landlords charging expensive rents when there's a serious housing crisis going on right now.

Far too many people in parts of the country you mean. Try living in an area that’s suffered from depopulation massively. Where nearly 30% of property is air b&b, holiday let or second homes.

Our services and amenities have been decimated because we don’t have the residential population to sustain them. School shut, health centre shut, bus is once every hour and a half and stops at 10pm (actually 21:54) and we have no Sunday service at all. Don’t use your cars the government say, how can you not when our one village shop shuts at midday on Sunday and the nearest then is Tescos miles away in the town. post office shut, community centre on reduced hours and 80% of the things that run out of it don’t run anymore. No youth club no band practice no mothers and toddlers no beavers cubs scouts no rainbows brownies or guides. Hospitality industry only opens regularly in the summer months other workplaces have closed and jobs gone with them.

This village was alive with families when I was growing up but now it’s mostly older folk who don’t need to work and property that’s empty for 6 months of the year.
Doubling the council tax on them won’t work coz that’s just the price of a single long weekend stay. we need families at the heart of our community again. Not greedy landlords who have no ties to the area and contribute nothing to the area. I’d rather have council tenants in them than the rich staycationers that come fri-mon walk about the hills and the loch for Instagram then bugger off again for the next lot to come.

There should absolutely be more council housing, we privately rent, I work full time even though I'm chronically ill because I have to. fortunately I have a very understanding manager and despite rees-moggs insisting civil servants need to be back in the office I can work from home. I haven't actually been downstairs since Wednesday though as I've not been up to it. We can't get a council home as the only accessible ones are one bedroom, which is no use as we have one autistic 19 year old who will likely never leave home and one who has only just gone to university so will be home in holidays.

As I'm not working the next 2 days I might manage to venture down, but that means I'll probably sleep on the sofa tomorrow.

An affordable, suitable accessible bungalow or flat would be a life changer, but it's never going to happen.

Agree!!!

The post became defunct when op hurriedly added;

'im not a council tenant btw'

oh fuck me dead

Fuck me dead is now my new favourite saying.
Thank you
😂

hahahaha, and mine

@abbs1 there are rules that a % of a new estate over a certain size has to be affordable housing and these normally go to housing associations.
I personally think the issues are around air bnb and private landlords who run them as businesses, it should be that if a landlord has over x properties then some have to be at affordable rent to people on the housing list. And I only say multiple properties as I know of a few people where they have moved abroad for a year and then moved back

I assure you it isn't wrong.

Why is that? I stated this simply because I've got no personal investment in the issue.

That right, build build build build... fuck the world, just build cheap houses yay !!!!

What about those of us who were grateful to grow up with the security of social housing and no longer live in social housing but want that security and affordability for others, are we allowed a say?

Well, where else should people live?
If the suggestion was that we should build houses to stand empty, or so that we could all have a few each, I'd see why you're getting upset. But if there are insufficient houses, apart from addressing second homes, which I imagine wouldn't be enough to solve the problem, what's the alternative?

Totally agree. Private rents are ridiculous and is often the reason people's benefits can be so high too. In some parts of the country a small 2 bedroom can set you back over a grand a month! I am lucky to live in a council house now and know how lucky I am. It maybe unusual but round here there is actually a high number of council houses compared to private rents. This wasn't the case growing up in a different part of the country though with my mother struggling to afford the rents and having to move house every 2 years when they decided to sell. A house is something people need and when people have to spend 50% of their wages on rent, it's just totally ridiculous.

Being fair I've seen a big change on mnet over the last few years. Not nearly as many believing SH is just poor housing. A good many lightbulb moments must have happened.

@ChilliBandit

"What about those of us who were grateful to grow up with the security of social housing and no longer live in social housing but want that security and affordability for others, are we allowed a say?"

Yes absolutely! This is the point I'm trying to make. I did not grow up in council housing but I lived in it between the ages of 28 and 36 and I was so grateful for that stability for my children and me. So I want it for others too.

@5128gap

Totally agree

Why don't you INSTEAD demand that the government makes shitty insecure private renting better ?

I think several things have been done in recent years, was just reading about something new in the past month or two.

I won't push for the building of new council housing until they rescind the law allowing people to buy them. It's immoral. I also think rents should be enough to cover decent maintenance (ie not necessarily cheap but reasonable).

And lack of social housing is not reason not to regulate th

..regulate the private rental market.

I used to hate RTB with a passion but you can't argue with the impact it has on social mobility. Even the discounts are funded from the rental income. I do despise the hoarding of the proceeds by central, the income from RTB should be kept by local gov and used to build replacement property.

WWhy so we need to build enough council houses for anyone who wants or needs one?

Where the hell is this money coming from?

And of course it’s subsided. What on earth is the PP who said that they weren’t, talking about.

Meant to quote userxx

Won't someone think of the goats 😲

Can you explain how it's subsidised please?