To think you should downsize your council house if it’s just you?

[OuchOuchOuchh]

Oh my goodness I have created war at work and everyone is gunning for me.

My auntie has a huge 4 bedroom council house she has lived there since the 90s with her one son. That has now moved out.

All i said was I think it’s unfair that she’s living in such a big family home perfect for a family to bring their kids up in. Large garden backs on to the woods plenty of visits from deers and fox’s it’s beautiful! Anyway all I said is that if you haven’t purchased the property in a certain amount of time you should have to downsize if it’s just you living there.

Theres families overcrowded and can’t get anywhere then you have my auntie paying £100 a week in rent for a massive house for just herself.

please tell me if I am being an asshole! I appreciate it’s her family home but it just doesn’t seem fair to me.

The answer isn’t saying no one would have security. The answer is tenants across the board should be entitled to security. The volatility of the housing market - caused by those engaged in property speculation - has meant that the only people who now have security are those with council tenancies.

Sigh. They do work. No bank is offering mortgages to people who aren't in work, even if it is only for 30% of the value.

I agree it's ridiculous to sell these houses (at any price) but that's not the reason. Lots of perfectly decent working people live in social housing and pay their rent.

It's very easy to declare it bitterness and point fingers at the government when you're unaffected isn't it...

And if that happened and you moved to council housing you would appreciate feeling a level of security of knowing the rug isn't going to be pulled from under you a second time.

It’s more likely that ‘little Ednia’ (how patronising) will actually suffer as a result of clinging on to a house much bigger than she needs because eventually it will become unmanageable for her, and who will step in when she falls? Oh yes, A&E. More cost to the taxpayer. And then who will be expected to provide social care for free to enable her to stay in her huge cheap house? Oh yes, the taxpayer.

And it’s almost charming you think ‘demanding good housing’ from the government will work, when in reality a snowball has a greater chance in hell.

Council tenants aren’t ‘helped out’. They meet the criteria for housing under the relevant government scheme

Because they need help with somewhere to live. They cannot afford to buy a house or pay the private rent prices so they need help from the government to have somewhere to live. So the government rents them a house that suits their needs and their family size for a lesser rent. I would call that help.

There wouldn’t be any suitable council housing because people like OP’s aunt are blocking them 🤷🏼‍♀️ the waiting lists are enormous.

We bought at the end of 2019, majority of our deposit was saved in the 2 years prior.
We have 3 children with the last one born in 2011 and didn’t get any UC.

I admit, I must be naive as to the enormity of the problems when all the other factors are thrown in, its not something a blanket approach can fix as there are just too many variables and so many different circumstances (adapted homes etc)

Absolutely! 👏🏻

Have you ever been in a council house? I’ve yet to come across a HUGE one. And I’ve never come across anyone paying £25 a week rent to live in one. Are you quite sure you know what you are talking about?

The votes on here are heartening anyway. At least 80% of posters realise we can’t all live a wonderful lifestyle for free if we simply ‘press the government enough’.

4 bedrooms for 1 person is huge and £100 is extremely cheap.

@OuchOuchOuchh
Surely you wouldn't be happy for your aunt to be uprooted and moved to somewhere else where she may not know anyone? Are you going to be her support system? Would you be happy for her to have to get rid of all her things and squish into a 1 bedroomed flat, maybe with no garden?

Sorry if I sound harsh but this happened to an elderly couple in our village and it was heartbreaking. For 60 years they lived in a 3 bdr house with a garden which was their pride and joy. They kept it beautifully. They were forced to move to a really tiny 1 bdr bungalow with a very small garden. They were heartbroken and both ended up on anti-depressants. They had to sell most of their things, family, their beloved grandchildren, could no longer come to stay, no room for a dining table in either the kitchen or sitting room, no room for their hobbies and they knew nobody. Worst of all, when one became seriously ill and needed medical equipment in the bedroom his 86 yr old wife had to sleep on a truckle bed in the sitting room and no room for a family member to stay to help out. Just awful.

If people are forced to move at least let it be to a 2 bed place. 1 bedroom is no use to anyone except maybe students when it is only temporary. I hope the Govt. will sort out the mess that is social housing.

You were the one who said that you would rather be paying council rent than your own mortgage (for an ex council house), then something about not being able to move (even though you want others to be forced to move into inferior situations) , it's very easy to declare bitterness when your whole stance reeks of it.

As for pointing fingers at the government... who else is to blame?

This narrative of needing help is Tory through and through. You do realise that, among other factors such as destruction of housing during World War Two, social housing schemes were established in Britain because of the dereliction and squalid conditions many were forced to live in in the private market? The state had to step in because the conditions that the private market dictated were causing a public health crisis. The main attraction of council houses was they were clean and not falling in round you. I am sure many people like me had parents who grew up in the remanents of Victorian slum housing.
The patronising talk of ‘helping’ is bizarre. Council tenants are equal members of society. They pay in to the government to provide these houses and schemes to. Do you think someone going to a NHS hospital is being ‘helped’ in the same way? If you meet the criteria you are entitled to utilise the scheme.

Ps not all council tenants cannot afford private rental accommodation. They may be able to do so but want a secure home that they can’t be lugged out of every two years. If they meet the criteria they are entitled to apply. It’s actually none of your business why any one is in council or social housing.

I'm in a huge 5 bed council house. It's got a drive way, back garden, lovely roof terrace garden and some big rooms. I pay £98 a week. It was fully occupied but then 3 of my 4 kids left home unexpectedly and very quickly in the last 2 years. Problem is that this house was adapted specifically for my disability and I can't get a grant for new adaptations for a good few years yet so I'm stuck here where I want to be or not.

I love this house though so am hoping to buy it next year. Plus at the last stock/structural survey they said the terrace/roof garden waterproofing is so badly degraded it's almost ready to be condemned , and as it's so expensive to repair ( 3rd floor and a wall needs to be removed via specialist company) that if I was to move out they would likely just offer it on the open sales market. But if I bought it I'd just stick a conservatory over it like the neighbours and call it a sun room 🤷🏼‍♀️. No idea why the council just couldn't do that but it's against the rules apparently. In our area the council DO reinvest in new builds and often buy properties to add to the stock. I know this is 100% true as my dad got into a bidding war with them and they won. Then my sister by some fluke got that property from the council and my dad was gutted 😂.

Well obviously the government is to blame, but since none of use can do anything about decades of shit policy, I think we should all have to deal with the consequences.
Sorry but why should older council tenants (because let's face it, they're the only one with secure tenancies these days) be the only ones insulated from the housing crisis?

But you dont pay the same for a council house as privately renting or a mortgage?

I absolutely support them and building more of them (people should never have been allowed to buy them in my opinion). They should also never be ‘forever homes’. They should be used for those who absolutely cannot afford private rent or mortgages. Circumstances should be checked every few years to make sure the person living there really needs it and the size of the property fits their needs.

I think the idea of staying in a council house forever really needs to change.

Its not as black and white as it seems. Agree that the property is too big now for her needs, but also there aren't as many smaller units available to offer and for her to choose from. These also may not be in the same area, or an area she wants to live in, and as we get older its also important to consider her support systems. She will not necessarily wish to move somewhere away from family, friends and familiarity to a completely new area and be completely on her own say.

Well that’s precisely it isn’t it? Most housing is conditional, either paying the mortgage or satisfying the conditions for social housing generally.

if I failed to meet the conditions of my mortgage eg defaulting on the loan I would be chucked out. The same if I could no longer afford that size of mortgage. In both cases I would have to move out, find alternative living accommodation. home ownership with a mortgage is not secure. It is dependent on external factors, in practice, until my mortgage is paid off my house effectively belongs to the bank. My occupation is conditional.

similarly if a housing tenant can not maintain their conditions of occupation eg, they no longer need the asset owned by the state because they have sufficient income or they can’t meet the need level to justify having the size of property theb they should move out.

Mortgage holders stability is conditional on affordability with the cash. This me who live in state assets are effectively qualifying because they fall into the safety net, their payment is their need.

@Alleycat1 what the heck is a ‘support system’? Is OP’s aunt an unstable building or something? 🙄 if you mean she knows the area well 🤷🏼‍♀️ We can’t afford to stay in ours so are moving. The entitlement on here is staggering.

So you haven’t been a council house then…
If you had you would know that in many even with four bedrooms you cannot swing a cat in any of the rooms. Particularly if they are older stock, which most now are as the government preferred selling them to building them.
Who is paying this mythical 100 quid a month? Sorry I don’t think you have any real life experience of this topic at all.

My mortgage was less than the rent in my council house and it was only 10 quid less a month than the person who lived next door who rented privately. We don't all live in London.

But the council/housing association don't help with swapping people around and you can only move to a house that is suitable for your needs.

Your aunt could swap to a 1 bed flat, but the person who is in the 1 bed flat needs to be seriously overcrowded to be allowed to have your aunt's 4 bed house. If the council/housing association helped, they could arrange a multi person swap but they don't so people are stuck paying the bedroom tax or being over crowded