How do working class ppl manage to afford to live in central London

[Qae]

Just that really. Housing in London so so ridiculously expensive. We were slightly lucky because we purchased our house before prices went mad, but I don’t understand how working class families, particularly families who haven’t been settled in London for decades, can afford to move and love in central London.

They will not be in a 2-bed house.

Many families live in a single room with shared facilities.

Also yes - working class is not automatically the same as low income.

You can be working class or middle class on a high income or a low income.

Overcrowding is the absolute norm in any part of london. Mum, Dad and and two kids in once bedroom and another family using the otehr two rooms. Its completely normal and accepted. My working class london friends would think nothing of having three kids in a two bed flat with them both working full time , opposite shifts, to pay for it.

Acton is not central London. Acton and places like it (including where I live) is where ordinary people live if they work in central London and have to pay for their own housing.

Central London is basically for the very wealthy, the very young who don't mind sharing or spending their whole salary on rent, and for those in social or subsidised accommodation. You can't make it work for long on an average salary.

Acton is not central London. Perfectly ordinary people rent and buy in Acton.

Mr Monkey is working class and grew up on central London (Soho and Chelsea), his parents ran pubs and they lived in the flats above.

Many will be living in council housing or private rentals with the majority of rent being paid by housing benefit/universal credit.
Most of them won't be living in two bedroom houses. Lots of families will be living in 1 bedroom flats.

DH and I lived in a squat on Kilburn High Road for a while.😁

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142775120

Or are you more annoyed at recent immigrants living near you??

Some communities will choose overcrowding to stay in a location. Lad in my team leaves in a multi generation house. 4 bed, and has his parents, brother , wife & baby, other brother, wife, baby & toddler, him & and his grandmother.

Depends how you define working class. If you mean the traditional white WC cockney types, then these moved out to Essex/Kent or died off years ago. They probably represent only a tiny percentage of the London population now.

If you mean it more broadly, then yes that has baffled me also. I get the DLR to Canary Wharf and it's odd because these big banking behemoths have their virtue signalling CSR programmes yet the people living in one of the council blocks it shadows have a virtually nil chance of ever getting a job on the trading floor off them. Yet at the same time I'm the one commuting in 40 miles from the shires whilst they manage to live a stones throw away, so yes I'd like to know how they afford to live also.

Acton is not now, nor has it ever been, Central London!
It is zone 3, which is a perfectly normal area for people who arent wealthy to live.
Also, working class does not mean poor! Some working class jobs pay really well (see plumbers and electricians!)

@TheThingIsYeah the key thing being council housing - there is a lot of council housing in central London. Once you have paid for housing London isn't actually a very expensive place to live.

Theure probably living in very over crowded accomodation. I work with a Bangladeshi woman who lives in East London. They have 5 adults and 3 children living in a 2 bed flat.

We're near Finsbury Park, so not super central but fairly so. Generally 3 bed, victorian terraces. Next door but one is a house of delivery drivers. There's upwards of 9/10 adults in the house, as there are generally this many bikes parked up, but there are also a couple of women who live there and seem to coordinate the shopping and cooking, plus 2 babes in arms. I've seen into the downstairs front room, only about 12 x15 feet, and it alone had 3 bunk beds in it. I was chatting to one of the ladies putting bins out and they cook communally and share bills. Pretty sure they don't claim benefits as generally they're aiming to fly under the radar. Their main aim is to send as much money home as possible. Seems to work for them.
Of my own kids, DD1 lives very central in E1. Renting bed-buggy ex council 3 bed with two friends. Spends half her salary on rent. DD2 also v central in West Kensington, but currently a student with scholarship so protected from cost a little. Her neighbours are a postie on one side and a lawyer on the other. 🤷‍♀️

Hanwell is zone 4, so much further out.
have no problem with immigrants, I am an immigrant myself.

Unless they’re in social housing, they don’t.

Why so nasty @HerMammy ?

it's still London in terms of house prices.

Social housing does exist in London.

But house prices aren't the same across London.
Zone 1 prices (which IS Central London) are much much higher than other Lo don areas. And prices in zone 3 are lower than those in zone 2, but higher than those in zone 4.

London is not all the same. And Acton is not central London.

And yet on the thread about the new £38k limit for immigration, people were falling over themselves to say people coming from abroad can't get UC and don't get a penny from the state. 🧐

A 3 bed semi is at least £600k

I know that, but the difference between a 2 bed in acton and 2 bed in - I dunno, camden? Are likely to be closer in price than a 2 bed in acton and a 2 bed in dudley.

@MumblesParty
OP made a point of saying recent arrivals rather than just working class, that is nasty, not my question

Many of them don’t. I have a friend who has lived here for 30 odd years from Oz. She has no recourse to public funds which means she can work here but she can’t claim benefits.