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Original poster

Jeremy Vine - people are morally obliged to downsize and free up property

668 replies

JoanThursday1972 · 14/04/2023 12:17

Currently have this on the radio. Suggestion is that people are not entitled to remain in and live in the house that they have bought and paid for. That they should downsize and free this up for more deserving occupants, ie families.

This is surely a personal choice and not an obligation? Anyone is entitled to live in a house they have bought, regardless of size.

OP posts:
LolaSmiles · 14/04/2023 17:57

The ‘poor’ people who buy it should have the intelligence to realise that to renovate a house costs money, if they can’t afford it, tough, buy a house that’s within their means, it’s not up to the previous owner to maintain a house to a future buyers wants and needs, your post is ridiculous.
Agree with this.

If a house needs work it's usually reflected in the valuation.
The same house done up to a modern spec would cost more.

LakieLady · 14/04/2023 18:01

GemGemGemGemGemGem · 14/04/2023 15:42

Absolutely not if it is your own house that you have worked for, and own. Council properties, absolutely. The right to buy was a ridiculous mistake (I wouldn't be against it if more had been built but demand outstrips demand hugely). No one should be allowed to endlessly rent a house built for a family/ larger group of people when there are so many living in overcrowded B&Bs waiting to be housed.

I sometimes feel like that about my MIL. In her 80s, she's still living in the 2-bed council house that she brought her kids up in. Her rent is entirely covered by housing benefit, because the bedroom tax doesn't apply to pensioners. It seems very wrong.

But then I think about the fabulous garden she's created over the 62 years she's lived there, which is her pride and joy and the most fantastic spectacle, and how it would break her heart to leave it. And spending a few hours a day gardening every day that it's not pissing with rain all day keeps her fit and makes her happy. It would absolutely break her heart to move, that garden is the main reason she keeps going.

Three of her children were born in that house, it was the only home she and her late husband ever had to themselves (they had 2 rooms in her parents house when they first married).

Even if there was ever a change in the law to force council tenants to downsize, I know full well that the 2 of her kids who are loaded would put up the money to buy it for her under right to buy, so the council wouldn't be able to let it to a family anyway, and it would never be social housing again.

TheGoogleMum · 14/04/2023 18:02

I think it's weird how many couples seem to have 4 bed houses and no kids (not kids that have grown either, just literally a couple in a large house with no dependants). I'd love a 4 bed house but can't afford one (have 2 kids and DH works from home so office would be useful). There's no way to enforce this though and it does seem unfair to make older people move who have lived somewhere for years and may still have grandkids come to stay.

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 14/04/2023 18:04

summerhillgang · 14/04/2023 16:58

Yeah I agree that boomers who are roaming in around in houses three / four times the size of them should move into smaller houses and give some of that wealth to their kids and grand kids.

Why should they give that wealth to their children? Surely that wealth should be saved for their later care needs or to keep themselves healthy so it is much longer before they need supportive care.

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 14/04/2023 18:06

LakieLady · 14/04/2023 18:01

I sometimes feel like that about my MIL. In her 80s, she's still living in the 2-bed council house that she brought her kids up in. Her rent is entirely covered by housing benefit, because the bedroom tax doesn't apply to pensioners. It seems very wrong.

But then I think about the fabulous garden she's created over the 62 years she's lived there, which is her pride and joy and the most fantastic spectacle, and how it would break her heart to leave it. And spending a few hours a day gardening every day that it's not pissing with rain all day keeps her fit and makes her happy. It would absolutely break her heart to move, that garden is the main reason she keeps going.

Three of her children were born in that house, it was the only home she and her late husband ever had to themselves (they had 2 rooms in her parents house when they first married).

Even if there was ever a change in the law to force council tenants to downsize, I know full well that the 2 of her kids who are loaded would put up the money to buy it for her under right to buy, so the council wouldn't be able to let it to a family anyway, and it would never be social housing again.

Show quote history

That money could go toward building new housing stock though. That's really what the right to buy money should be ringfenced for IMO

ifIwerenotanandroid · 14/04/2023 18:08

Socrates - blame Thatcher. She anti-ringfenced council house sale proceeds.

LakieLady · 14/04/2023 18:10

DiscoDragon · 14/04/2023 14:53

My nan lived in her council house for over 50 years, she raised her children and grandchildren there. I do not think she should have been forced to leave her home after my grandad died, that would have been cruel. It was a 3 bed house and she'd regularly have family coming to visit and they would stay in the spare rooms anyway.

My problem is with people who insist on having more than one home, especially "holiday/weekend" homes. They should stop being so greedy and just stay in a hotel if they want to spend their holidays/weekends in Cornwall or wherever.

Having the space for family to stay over was an absolute blessing for MIL a while ago.

She had pneumonia, and was allowed home after 3 days in ICU on the strict understanding that someone would be able to stay with her to make sure she was ok. SIL went and stayed, and for the first few days MIL had visits from community nurses just in case she had a relapse (they plainly didn't trust my eminently sensible SIL, who was the one who realised MIL was very ill in the first place!).

That spare bedroom prevented MIL becoming a bed-blocker for 2 weeks.

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 14/04/2023 18:10

Frabbits · 14/04/2023 13:39

It's the second one. He's a talk show host, hosting debates is literally his job.

Show quote history

Thank you.

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 14/04/2023 18:15

ifIwerenotanandroid · 14/04/2023 18:08

Socrates - blame Thatcher. She anti-ringfenced council house sale proceeds.

Typical, negligent politics. Although successive governments could have changed it, if they wanted to. They are all as bad as each other merrily kicking the can down the road.

ifIwerenotanandroid · 14/04/2023 18:22

Exactly what I was thinking as I typed that post!

DiscoDragon · 14/04/2023 18:24

LakieLady · 14/04/2023 18:10

Having the space for family to stay over was an absolute blessing for MIL a while ago.

She had pneumonia, and was allowed home after 3 days in ICU on the strict understanding that someone would be able to stay with her to make sure she was ok. SIL went and stayed, and for the first few days MIL had visits from community nurses just in case she had a relapse (they plainly didn't trust my eminently sensible SIL, who was the one who realised MIL was very ill in the first place!).

That spare bedroom prevented MIL becoming a bed-blocker for 2 weeks.

Show quote history

It was a blessing for my nan too, her daughter (my aunt) had a profoundly disabled daughter in a very big and bulky wheelchair. She and my uncle would bring my cousin down from Kent to visit regularly and they could not have managed with my cousin in a hotel, neither could they have afforded to visit anywhere near as often if they'd had to pay for a hotel. Both my aunt and uncle had to give up work when my cousin was born as she needed round-the-clock care.

My nan also had my dad or my other aunt staying over occasionally after being discharged from hospital and also when she was suffering from very low iron levels and was very ill with that.

LakieLady · 14/04/2023 18:28

itsnotmeitsu · 14/04/2023 17:49

@ifIwerenotanandroid · Today 13:28
@LakieLady A bungalow near me was demolished & three houses built cheek by jowl on the plot! >

A bungalow one garden across from me was demolished, and on the land the developers who bought it built seven apartments and 2 bungalows. On one of my boundaries around 170 properties are being built since 2019 on what used to be a school playing field. I went from living somewhere I could see and hear all sorts of wildlife to living on construction sites. I wouldn't live in any of those properties if you paid me to do it. The power to influence home/property ownship or usage is in the hands of property developers and central government. There's no onus (so far) on any property owner to benefit them or help them with that.

That's really sad, albeit not for the people who will move into those new homes.

Some years ago, the owner of the fields behind my house tried to get PP to build loads of houses on them. There was a huge outcry, planning permission was denied, and money was raised to buy the land so that it could remain public open space.

The fields are now owned for the benefit of the people of the town in perpetuity, the nearby agricultural college keep sheep on them, and the fields are there for everyone to enjoy. And they're full of skylarks, some rare orchids, and more different varieties of butterflies than I have ever seen in one place.

Whisper23 · 14/04/2023 18:47

I think it's weird how many couples seem to have 4 bed houses and no kids

What's "weird" about it? They can afford a 4 bed house and they like the space. Not difficult to understand surely.

WickedSerious · 14/04/2023 18:50

Seasonofthewitch83 · 14/04/2023 12:55

I have found many older folk would be happy to downsize but they dont want to go into a flat, they would prefer a bungalow. They don't seem to be built anymore.

Bungalows are also horribly overpriced.

Exchange230316 · 14/04/2023 18:54

Whisper23 · 14/04/2023 18:47

I think it's weird how many couples seem to have 4 bed houses and no kids

What's "weird" about it? They can afford a 4 bed house and they like the space. Not difficult to understand surely.

I agree! Almost to suggest you are only deserving if you have kids. If one has worked hard yo afford such a home I am mot sure what business it is of anyone else. I certainly wouldn't give it up for anyone.

5128gap · 14/04/2023 19:40

ifIwerenotanandroid · 14/04/2023 15:17

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-462092/Britains-gardens-threat-Prescotts-rules-allow-new-homes-built-green-spaces.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-440794/Thirty-thousand-gardens-year-torn-Prescotts-policies.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8729000/8729919.stm

It seems to have been about legally designating gardens as brownfield sites & thus allowing several houses to be built where there had previously been just one house & a large garden. So not compulsory purchasing, though that's the way I seem to remember it being presented in the media. (And no criticism for the DMail links, please - I was a Guardian woman in those days!).

Thanks for the links. Actually I do remember that at the time!

DannyZukosSmile · 14/04/2023 20:24

Seasonofthewitch83 · 14/04/2023 16:26

I mean, I know you were trying to make a point but this isnt really a bad idea. Car sharing should be encouraged!

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NOBODY wants to do that.

DannyZukosSmile · 14/04/2023 20:25

Ofnoteannightmares · 14/04/2023 17:32

Boomers - a generation who got lucky to be born at the right time to buy affordable housing, with their parents the ones who fought ridiculously hard during WW2 and THEN fought to overturn the stultifying class system that ruled this country so their children had a more equal world to grow up in post-war, whilst those boomers were still toddling around.

But yeah, the boomers all just worked soooooooooo hard, and every single thing they have materially is a direct representation of just how great they are, as opposed to how great their PARENTS were.

LOL, you're so bitter. 😂 Comparison is the thief of joy and all that jazz eh? Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make yours shine brighter ya know? Wink

YetMoreNewBeginnings · 14/04/2023 20:29

TheGoogleMum · 14/04/2023 18:02

I think it's weird how many couples seem to have 4 bed houses and no kids (not kids that have grown either, just literally a couple in a large house with no dependants). I'd love a 4 bed house but can't afford one (have 2 kids and DH works from home so office would be useful). There's no way to enforce this though and it does seem unfair to make older people move who have lived somewhere for years and may still have grandkids come to stay.

I don’t understand how anyone can find it weird that a couple that can afford would have 4 bedrooms given the absolute boom in home working over the last few years.

Theeaglesoared · 14/04/2023 20:31

It is depressing the number of people who are personally blaming Jeremy Vine. Are people really that dim?

mbosnz · 14/04/2023 20:33

I want those with mansions, and holiday homes to lead by example. Also, could they toss in the thousands of acres that are unproductive, and a monument to the classist ego of the elite of the country? It would help, ta, ever so much.

Goodoccasionallypoor · 14/04/2023 20:45

Theeaglesoared · 14/04/2023 20:31

It is depressing the number of people who are personally blaming Jeremy Vine. Are people really that dim?

Yes.

loislovesstewie · 14/04/2023 20:54

BTW lots of older couples sleep in separate bedrooms. Often one has health issues and they find better rest is obtained when separated. It was something that older couples often asked for when I was working and dealing with the housing register. And frankly with some of the health conditions it was clear that it was necessary.

Babyroobs · 14/04/2023 21:04

LadyVictoriaSponge · 14/04/2023 17:42

The ‘poor’ people who buy it should have the intelligence to realise that to renovate a house costs money, if they can’t afford it, tough, buy a house that’s within their means, it’s not up to the previous owner to maintain a house to a future buyers wants and needs, your post is ridiculous.

Show quote history

Absolutely ridiculous ! no -one forces anyone to buy a doer- upper !! I'm sure the fact it needs lots of work is reflected in the price.

WarmWinterSun · 14/04/2023 21:08

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