Smoking outside front door - why?

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Purchased and moved into a new build development. Quite a few council houses on estate. No issue at all, all seem nice, but I don’t want to ask this question to my neighbours but am curious…

why do council house tenants stand outside their front doors to smoke? There are no front gardens, so almost on pavement for all to see. They’re all semi’s and have private gardens so could smoke outside in private gardens but all seem to do it outside their front doors.

again, just curious, not judging. AIBU to ask if there’s a logical reason?

Just sizing up where to put the broken washing machine, broken trampoline and half a sofa for beer supping come summer. Don't mind the plebs.

I’m amazed that anyone can afford to smoke anymore tbh. That said it saves a fortune on elderly care/ pensions so maybe the local council are giving them out for free as a longer term investment

This made me laugh. The ‘rich’ professionals in our cul de sac are the only ones who smoke outside there front door here.

But are they in their dressing gowns no matter what time of day?

My dc have asked the same question OP when we walk through the council estate to get to my mum's house. The back gardens go onto the canal so much nicer to sit out the back but the front is popular for some unknown reason.

Their

Spouse it's marginally better than sniffing lines of coke through one of the DC's drinking straws at threesome parties.in a reputably very nice house

@DuchessOfDisco HA is similar to council , I live in one so I do know.
Right to acquire exists instead unless on old council contract then still rtb , plus talk of RTB being brought back in.
Most Ha stock is cheaper social housing with a small amount of market rent etc
But this post is just a typical council/ ha bashing post and drives me mad that everyone is tarred with the same brush because you live on a council/ ha estate

I don't have right to acquire with my HA..

It's a pet hate of mine and I don't understand why. My pil and my df smoke. Whenever it rains they want to smoke out the front for shelter but I can't stand it. Genuinely don't understand why I hate it but I do. Don't care if they smoke in the back.

Maybe they're intimidated by all the home owners snorting coke in their back gardens?

Grew up on a council estate and own my own home now.

It's somewhat a cultural thing. Smoking 'out front' is a chance to socialise, snoop on the doings of the street and, for many, is one of their only contact with the outside world due to being isolated in the home.

I'd say it's mainly a social exercise. When my DH and I moved to our now hometown we rented for a bit before buying, in a street of mainly CH. He was astounded by the doorstep dramas going on everyday. It just reminded me of my childhood, so I didn't notice it so much.

We live on a street with no CH or HA homes now and there's no front doorstep action. No kids playing out front either, which saddens me a bit.

You really couldn’t have confirmed your snobbery in any better way. Well done OP 👏

Brilliant!

Oh of course - can't have the scum drifting over to the nice houses so it must be highlighted on a map.

We own, to be fair it is an ex council property. My son smokes out the front if it's a work day because he doesn't smoke in the house and it's easier and quicker than unlocking the two back doors before he rushes off to his highly qualified job.
I though I'd add his job in case anyone wanted to judge us ex council house dwellers.

Yeah OP, didn't you know it's compulsory for us lower orders?

They make Council tenants wear red jumpsuits. You can't have home OWNERS like the OP mixing with Council tenants by accident.

Either that or the Council houses are all painted pastel blue. It's like Balamory but social commentary through the medium of paint. (Pink and red paint is kept for landed gentry like Archie).

You don't say!

How snobbish. Anyone can smoke out the front. Especially if they don't want to smoke in their house. Get off your high horse ffs

Because they can flick fag butts into the road rather than ruining their own garden.

Thank god there are spies on Reditt highlighting theses comedy gold threads. 😂

It's a good job you don't have front gardens because council tenants always put old settees in them so they can sit smoking while their feral kids play in the selection of rusting white goods that multiply overnight.

It's a fault of the architects not to put front gardens on the houses intended for owner-occupiers and if I were you I would write them a strongly-worded letter of complaint. Front gardens serve a useful purpose in communities. You could never use it except as a buffer behind which to safely twitch your curtains and observe your dreadful neighbours and the council tenants would know which houses were worth burgling.

Or something like that.

They could take an ashtray into the garden. Smoking out at the front of the house is awful and unnecessary. If that is what people do when they are at home, there's nothing anyone can do about it but if they wanted to do the same at someone else's house, objections would be valid.

Apart from a bit of tidying up, some gardening and putting bins out, I can honestly say I never go out the front and certainly would not stand there on display, or chat to anyone. It was never done when I was growing up either.