Affordable housing/council houses and their front gardens

[Dentalpainsucks]

I know this is a stereotype but things are a stereotype usually for a reason. I'm 48 and in the 30 years since I left home I've lived in ,ultiple towns in the UK as well as abroad.

Most recently I've bought a new build on a small development where all the affordable housing is at one end of the development (and a style of house you don't find on the private owned). As its new build, there are no real hisotical factors about the area that come into play. However, if you go down that end of the development, you see:

Kids toys strewn all over the front gardens and paths

The odd matress or two dumped

And I think what sparked this is they now have the ubiquitous - car up on ramps in the front garden. Two of them (and there are only about 30 houses in total)

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but why does there appear to be no pride or attempt to keep it tidy. Pride and tidiness doesn't cost money

You've already been flamed I see, whenever this topic appears on mumsnet there's always a group who get offended or chose not to believe it, well, I've lived amongst it a few times now, it's a real occurrence whether you want to cry snobbishness or not. That being said the adage, that not all social housing is like that does apply, but in my experience, the social housing on the estates I've lived on have looked more like what the OP describes than not.

And for what it's worth, I spent most of my life growing up in a council house, on a mixed estate ;)

Ours has different building materials and different house styles. Never fenced off.

I live on a HA estate. Looking out of my window now, I see no mattresses and no cars on ramps. Next door's garden has a pile of rubbish outside which has been there a while, but other than that it's pretty tidy round these parts.

Exactly how many jacked-up cars have you actually observed?

Be truthful.

My privately-owned garden is a mess. My opposite neighbour's council house garden is immaculate. Must be a glitch in the matrix.

I wonder if they’re busy laughing at the snobby gits on the other side paying an awful lot more for the same poorly done new build with the over-inflated council tax bill 😏.

@Dentalpainsucks you sound like an ass.

You are not wrong, OP. You’ll get lots of faux outrage here. You can always tell social housing apart from privately owned homes on an estate. The reason is how the social tenants treat the house.

There is a reason why these houses sell cheaper than privately owned ones. And there is a reason houses adjacent to social housing are valued lower. You can’t argue against market forces. If the tenants were so good, everyone would want to live next to them.

I grew up in the kind of income bracket you're sneering at and yes, a lot of the homes were a mess.

One of the first principles that us chavs have instilled in us is an intuitive grasp of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

When all of one's time and energy is dedicated to barely surviving (I.e. being unfamiliar with feeling properly warm, fed, and safe) it's difficult to care too much about a tidy fucking lawn or what Mrs "it's pronounced Bouquet" Bucket thinks of your shitty existence.

Feel free to spend your own time and money hauling the old mattresses to the tip if you're so passionate about the situation.

I never understand why this concept is so difficult for people to grasp. And still waiting for OP to explain why they thought this observation needed to be typed out and posted here. Pathetic

Right 😂.

Rubbish. The only reason anyone can tell my house is privately owned, and not council owned like my neighbours, is that I built an extension and theirs are in the original configuration. They have far nicer gardens than me, and cleaner cars.

Ex council houses don't sell sell cheaper round here, quite the opposite, as they're the well built ones with good sized gardens.

And I'd rather have council tenants for neighbours than owner occupiers - if council tenants are antisocial they can be evicted, if owners are antisocial they can't so you have to move, and declare neighbour disputes when you sell. Carry on feeling superior though.

To be fair, I have one of those houses and my lawn and garden are my pride and joy - but others look exactly like what you have described. They don't give a toss! There used to be inspections from the housing association but that's all seemed to stop now.

Oh dear don’t think social housing is the problem. My opposite neighbour is an owner occupier and his front is a tip with rubbish lying around and multiple old cars on the drive. Dread to think what the back garden is like but at least I can’t see that.

I on the other hand rent, have an immaculate front and a beautiful back garden. It depends on the person not the status.

I live in social housing myself and disagree.

I live near a road where every house is £2mill plus. Four of them have what you describe in the front garden. Therefore, all occupants of expensive houses are slobs. And they never cut their grass.

Posh street here. One of our neighbours seems to have abandoned a freezer in the street in the hope that someone will take it away, and another has a rotting black cab in their front garden. Nice.

I live in a HA home. No mattresses or rubbish in the front garden but it is pretty bland and my front door is desperately in need of painting so it definitely looks scruffier than next door. I just really lack in time to do more than the basics.

I'd say in HA homes people are more likely to be working manual labour/long long hours, anti-social hours etc. More likely to have less money to outsource jobs.

My dad is also a home owner of a nice road. He's also a hoarder..

You must live in quite a rough area if this is your experience OP. It's not been mine of course in the many different residences I've lived in but generally wherever you find tiny gardens and houses where dc live you might get a few 'strewn' toys. Possibly even a ramped up car that needs work doing to it tho so much easier to remain 'unseen' if you've got more space. Etc

People will say this is bollocks but there's truth in it.

There's one road of social housing in my village and you can spot it. There are a lot of bikes and garden things left rusting in the gardens. The council also put cheap wire fencing up so the front gardens are more visible than if there was a fence.

I think its because:
The houses don't have garages.
The houses don't have porches.
Garden sheds are expensive. If you are hard up you are not going to be able to afford one.
Generally the houses aren't huge and they tend to have families in so not loads of space to perhaps store bikes etc indoors.
The houses are badly oriented so the front gardens are heavily shaded and grass doesn't grow well. Sure if you had a lot of spare money you could be spending it on weed seed & feed etc but if you are living hand to mouth its an expense you can't spare.
Some of them are maisonettes and the downstairs has the back garden and upstairs has the front. So people use the front garden for things you don't usually see, like hanging washing.

So really its nothing to do with the tenants of the property and mostly to do with the designs of the buildings and the fact that councils and housing associations don't often provide sheds.

I’m sure they are devastated to be laughed at by some uptight wankers 😂must be heartbreaking.

Bloody poor people! Why can't they just be rich like everybody else?! Some people just aren't even trying. Shocking! 🙄

I used to live on a new build estate which was part owner-occupied, part HA. I’m not saying that there weren’t some differences on the level of upkeep between the two but just remember the builders almost certainly had to include some social housing to get planning permission for the houses for sale. If they hadn’t, where would you be now?

An approach to these situations that I've found useful/helpful is to get to know your neighbours a bit; there might be quite valid reasons why some mattresses hang around rather than being immediately removed (no suitable transport, no money, not knowing where/who can help,etc) - then I'd offer in the first instance. After saying Hi a few times first of course!

Then the car ramp place might be home to a super-handy mechanic. No good going all Hyacinth, it's a few houses not some vast sink estate.

Bet there's at least 1 or 2 that are taking pride in their gardens and you can say hi to them too, share plants etc. Hopefully not to become a bitching-clique; it's a new-build estate so as much up to you as anyone OP to help make it a nice place for everyone.

Toys in the garden? You better report that now! Best put a stop to it before you get working class children wandering around and infecting everyone with the poor