Rents for similar properties to mine in this area (North East) 3 bed and garden are around £10-£20 a week more expensive than mine according to right move and are higher spec from the photos on Rightmove than mine and included fixtures and fittings like curtain rails, cooker, carpets/flooring and freshly decorated - you don't get that in social housing, it's a bare shell (which I'm not moaning about before anyone starts!) with whatever decoration happens to be there and no flooring, no deep clean between tenants etc. They also have parking and are in a bit better position & area than mine (I'm right next to a fast food place, on a busyish road, parking is 'interesting' most of the time!). So just on what is offered, you'd expect to pay more for the private ones than you would mine anyway.
The main attraction at least around here for social housing is the stability, rather than significantly cheaper rent. I private rented for around 14 years, and moved on average every 18 months to 2 years, only one of those moves was my choice - to move closer to childcare so I could work full time, funnily enough. The rest were because the LL wanted to sell or the place was literally falling down and the LL wasn't repairing, despite the council being involved, and a couple of times meant changing jobs and schools.
I also had some help when I first moved in with nothing - I got a grant from a charity that I now donate back to that bought me some flooring, a cooker and a bed - you know how I qualified for that grant? By working for a certain number of years in an industry.
But paying less because you get less and qualifying for help because you work, or in fact working at all when you live in social housing and always have doesn't fit the 'everything free at tax payers expense' that people assume about social housing now does it?
I worked in social care for many years, for a piss poor wage that meant I couldn't afford to buy my own home - how about people benefitting from those services by having their elderly, vulnerable and ill relatives, their children looked after so they don't have to worry about it, start 'paying their way' instead of relying on someone else's work to benefit them for bargain prices and then slagging off the people working in those industries for not being good enough to buy their own home?
There are people who use the system to their advantage, of course there are, but that runs through every level of society not just the lower end, but it's an issue of morality and laziness for the lower end, if you are on £100k a year and shove a bit more in your pension (which you will benefit from) to keep child benefit or childcare then you're clever and deserving.
A lot of people just don't like people who don't earn as much as they do, despite usually in some form or another using and benefitting from the jobs they do. That attitude is the problem and imo, far more entitled than needing somewhere to live that you can afford.