Please help me decide on what to do regarding council housing

[whatdoido3]

Hello all, long term poster but changed names as outing.

We currently private rent, £1200 for a 2 bed ground floor maisonette (south east). We are a 5 minute walk from MIL & FIL and 10 minute drive from my parents (they are our main support system with childcare when needed etc). We have private rented since we got married at 22 and we are now 30 with a baby.

We have been on the council list for a number of years and we have just been offered a new build 2 bed flat for £804 a month.

We have only just moved to this flat and have with permission from the landlord decorated how we like it etc. we have an enclosed front garden which is perfect for 9 month old DD and our spaniel.

The flat we have been offered is 1st floor, no garden and we plan on having a second baby next year. My concerns are having a dog who I need to take up and down stairs to go to toilet, a 9 month old to carry up and down with shopping etc. plus another baby potentially next year or the following year.

What do we do in this situation? It would make a massive difference to us financially. We are scraping by right now and have some debt that we would be able to clear if we moved. We fell down the private renting hole and haven't managed to get out of it, we are unable to save due to cost of renting, paying debt off etc.

Honest advice please x

An elderly gentleman lost his partner and is now after a smaller place to swop his 3 bed council house.

Take the council property. £400 a month saving is huge. Your private landlord could kick you out any time or increase the rent. For the sake of an extra £400 a month, I would walk up the stairs. You can always look at exchanges further down the line.

The security a council flat gives you is enormous. You will not be evicted because the landlord is selling, for example. Once you have a council property you can swap further down the road.