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.

I know of an elderly woman who has been put up in the only temporary accommodation available on her release from a hospital following serious illness who is living in a hotel by an airport. Her only child cannot put her up as he already has another elderly relative living with them as there is nowhere suitable for her to go either and the mother can’t be squeezed in as along with their own children the house is assessed as overcrowded and the authority will not move a vulnerable older person in to already over crowded housing situation. YOU may not believe people are moved miles away but that’s because YOU no absolutely nothing about the reality of the situation

What was her situation before? How old is she?

@Cuppasoupmonster

yes. The problem is when people have tried for housing and been told they are not a priority because it’s for those who fit x,y,z category.

Then those living in them say well I’m not x, y or z.

and people don’t really understand the legislation around housing ( see the debate on whether they are subsidised or not and by which perspective).

Still, that doesn’t help someone homeless tonight and we really have lost sight of priorities, I think.

We are either a wealthy enough country to accommodate peoples needs and wants or we are not - it can’t be about someone’s loveable, cuddly nan vs some undeserving abstract character.

If it’s localised, then where does that leave high cost areas like London?

Never mind the families stuck in small bedsits though-as long as you dont have to travel to see your relatives like the rest of the population 🙄

How many people agreeing with the op own houses?

I know someone (cousin) who currently lives in a 3 bed housing association property that they grew up in and have lived in for 40 years. They never moved out of the family home and lived with their parents. Their Dad passed around 10 years ago and Mum a few months back. They plan to look for a smaller property but wanted to do so when they felt ready after all they have lived here since two and the house has lots of memories but they have been told they need to find a new home asap because the property is too big. I agree with the housing association but also agree with cousin that they should be allowed to grief and look when they are ready.

Nobody should be in temporary accommodation, it's a huge failing for us as a nation. One of the reasons i think social housing should be reassigned based on need is precisely so that things like this don't happen - to anyone, young or old.

If you signed a lifetime tenancy then yes you are!!!! What don’t you understand about that?

So she was just meant to say no to the 2 bed yes? She should just up sticks and fuck her life up because the government have fucked up? The guilt is not at my nans door mate.

Who you going to chuck out of a one bed disabled access flat to move this woman in to it? And where are they meant to go? The one getting chucked out I mean

@AllThingsServeTheBeam

I don’t think your Nan should move. Don’t you live close by? Council housing offers social cohesion, particularly when family members live close by. Often they become involved quite heavily in the care that is needed to the elderly member of the family. This actually saves the government money, when the alternative would be to move the Nan miles away from her home and family and therefore having to provide social care.

No she shouldn't and she doesn't need to. Just a few posters on here think she does. Thankfully, back in the real world everyone knows she's doing nothing wrong stopping in her bungalow

Do you want her inside leg measurement? She is in her 80s. What’s that adding to your understanding?

But other people who want to enjoy their adult children and grandchildren visiting their nice house and sleeping in the spare bedrooms, save up to buy said house.

You can explain til you’re blue in the face why you’re entitled to a big/nice/over and above your needs council house at lower-than-market rents, “you can pry it from my dead hands” etc, but people who have lived a life working hard and struggling, living in shitty gross privately rented houseshares when they’re young (or into their thirties), spending huge % of their income on privately rented houses, or scrimping/saving to afford a deposit for a flat, will never understand! And they will never empathise with you. And that’s understandable.

Regardless of what the council housing scheme was originally devised for, there are so many desperately needy people and young families who are inadequately housed, and the most obvious thing IS for people who DON’T need 4 bedroom council houses to give them up. As they are able to support themselves on the open market.

As for people pouring money into decorating/renovating their council houses - jut bonkers. Save that money and put it on a downpayment to buy a flat. Could have upsized several times and vacated the council house for someone who needs it.

(of course all this only applies to people who CAN afford to privately rent, but choose not to. People who can’t afford it should stay in council housing as long as they need, even if it’s forever)

@Hellybelly84

Families are stuck in bed sits due to a failure of this government not building more housing. Why you think it’s acceptable to blame an elderly lady who has lived in her home probably for a long time is very sad indeed. Why shouldn’t she live close by to her family? That’s not a crime is it?

we are left duking it out over who gets to have a roof over thier heads while the wealthy & powerful (who make the rules that got us in this situation) luxuriate in thier multiple mansions...

As someone from a (very well off) country with majority socialised housing, I think the attitude around housing in the UK is very dog eat dog. A bit like Americans thinking healthcare is a privilege, not a right, and poor people shouldn't get healthcare they didn't "work" for.

Absolutely agree as long as there are suitable properties within a reasonable distance. People who own their own home often have to downsize, I moved from a 5 bed detached where I'd raised all my children in to a 3 bed terraced house when my husband and I split up as neither of us could afford to keep the big house. Retirement or job loss are other reasons why home owners downsize, why shouldn't renters be expected to downsize when their house is too big?

The council gave my nan her 2 bed bungalow. She accepted it. She has a tenancy that now allows her to enjoy it until the day she dies.

She did used to own her own home. But had to sell it. She is able to share her home with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She is doing nothing wrong.

It’s a tricky one this - isn’t this why they introduced the bedroom tax? To try and make people only take accommodation suited to the number of people in their home?

You are entirely correct. The only one true god in the UK is home ownership and if you don’t subscribe to the faith you are very much blacklisted. The needs of private ownership of property is the altar every shred of decency left in the UK has to be sacrificed on because - whisper it - the inflated numbers on the page are the only things nominally generating wealth. They aren’t at all of course but don’t tell those who have drunk the kool aid!

@Goldd

I wouldn’t be able to afford mine, the right to acquire isn’t that generous. Also I’m a firm believer in council housing and this will go back to the stock once I’m dead. Also it’s very, very old. Would be a financial disaster to buy it in terms of maintenance etc.

I waited over a decade in cramped conditions before I got my house. Before us an elderly lady lived here alone and had to die before we were offered it. And no didn’t begrudge her, my own Nan kept her house before she died too. Personally I am a great believer in social housing and social cohesion so I see the benefits of lifetime tenancy’s. I certainly won’t be giving it up. I love my garden too much. I lived in flats for years and years even with small kids and it was shite. Noise, noise, no spacey, no garden. Never again.

It’s easy to blame those at the bottom of the social pile for the housing crisis but anyone with half a brain knows those problems we’re most certainly created from the top.

AIBU to think that a depressing number of posters here would cheer if the government reintroduced workhouses, so we'd have somewhere to shove inconvenient old ladies who have the temerity to survive? That would certainly solve the problem.

Or of course we could go the Jonathan Swift route.

But the entitlement from some people still makes me wince. Misuse of a system which is so important as a lifeline to people in difficult circumstances.

I think no one should be allowed to live in a council house for 30+ years, unless they have some kind of a serious disability or are a carer of a disabled child.

Adults should eventually get on their feet and pay the full price for their own house just like everyone else. What makes them so special that they have to be subsidised by the taxpayer for their entire lives?

Interesting how the person who is living in the home is being repeatedly labelled 'entitled' when they're not expecting anything at all. Yet it's perfectly acceptable for others to grow their family beyond their means and imagine themselves entitled to someone else's home?
This country absolutely has the government it deserves if this thread is anything to go by.