To think that there is a misunderstanding about social housing.

[Bitchesbelike]

On social media, lots of people assume that people in social / council housing are getting a free house and don’t work.

i grew up in social housing: my dad worked from age 15 to 65.

my brothers have worked since they were 16 and both live in social housing.

its not “free housing”: it’s rented, affordable accommodation.

I’ve recently downsized. It was bloody hard work. I actually swapped house (mutual exchange) and was really stressful

I used to be on the parish council for my village.
we had a big estate of social housing, full of couples in three or four bedroom homes whose kids had moved out.

there was nowhere to downsize to in the villlage and they didn’t want to move to another village after 50 years living n that house so nobody downsized.

the parish council is apparently looking at building some 1 bedroom bungalows social housing for them to downsize to.

Poor enough? Eh??

It is a bit of a golden ticket if you get social housing. Way cheaper and secure so you end up with more disposable income and a lot less stress than anybody privately renting. Right to buy seems wrong.

How is it not cheap? I have a 3 floor, 4 bed, 2 reception room house for 500pcm.
Its incredibly cheap! Especially for my area (big NW city)

In my area you won't get up the waiting list for social housing unless you are disabled or among the very poorest families.

This

Let’s also remember that housing benefit (UC housing element) will pay the full rent for many, many council housing tenants- so really they are getting it ‘for free’.

Are you sure? HA rents are pegged to average rents for the area and set at 60-80%.

OP, I disagree. Times have changed.
In London where I live only people who are highly vulnerable (usually disabled, etc) get council housing. Their vulnerability often means that they are unable to work and that benefits pay their rent, so the houses are, in effect, free. Even those who work still end up being much better off in social housing than in private accomodation due to the much cheaper rent.
People who live in privately rented accomodation are affected by the Local Housing Allowance cap, so even those on benefits may end up with a big shortfall between their rent and their ‘housing benefit’.

social housing in London is like gold dust

Of course its subsidised, that is the whole purpose of it. Its a social provision to support society.

Yep. I live here too, see it with my own eyes. Basically social housing is a golden ticket and you have it for life. It’s completely a joke that it’s never reassessed- you could win the lottery and still have a rent controlled flat. This country is insane.

Although it’s not free, social housing is very heavily subsidised. Rents of £100-200 per week are common for 1-3 bedroom places in central London, compared to the local market which in some cases could be £500-800 per week.

In addition to that, lots of social housing tenants have their rents paid by housing benefit directly to their landlord, so the tenant isn’t technically having to find the money themselves. That may be where some of the misconception of “free” originates.

Only if they are in council housing. If they are in private, they will have to make up the shortfall themselves.

In my area the LA rate is £176 per week

the cost of a 3 bed private rental house on my street (disadvantaged zone 2) is £3400

Exactly?

Yes that was the point!

We're talking about council/social housing and whether the perception of 'free' is accurate.

My Mum and stepdad are still in the same 3 bedroom council house that they raised me in. They are now in their 60s and 70s, with mobility and other age-related issues, and have tried several times to down-size to a smaller and easier to manage property. The problem is that there are no available properties that would be suitable for them!

Near me, it’s £550/£575pm for a 2 bed HA or £800-£900 for a private rent. Ao definitely cheaper.

Because she was the most stubborn/determined person I have ever known. She was offered a lovely 1 bedroom bungalow in the same village as her 4 bed house several times, but refused and I don't think the council could force her.

That depends on how much of it there is.

Where I have my rental properties there has been a shed load of house building by three HAs

Private rents have come down considerably due to their being less demand for it because of all the new HA stock.

It's also meant a lot of the shit landlords have sold up because there is no demand for their properties as rentals.

It's been a great thing for the area.

Mine is about 25% of private rent in same street and its covered by housing benefit/UC so I suppose it is free for me as I don't have to worry about rent. I get it paid directly to UC because of my disability.

I'm extremely lucky to have it as theres not many 4 bed houses available.

It was a house swap and I plan to do the same when I no longer need such a big house.

Landlord problem right there….over £3 grand a month??

Yep. Not saying their isn’t but that’s just how much it is here.

so, say I’m a teacher on £2000 per month - how annoyed do you think I’d be that I can’t afford to live near the school I teach at yet a family that don’t work and have no need to be in zone 2 get a free house in central London?

I'm sure that's just someone being goady. All the faux 'but I just want to be educated' 🙄

We live in a housing association house (I've been a tenant since I was a single mum before I met my husband) we both work full time in demanding jobs, pay all our taxes and don't receive any benefits apart from child benefit. Technically, yes, we could afford to rent a house privately although we'd be massively pushed financially to do so (we have never been and never will be in a position to buy, the house prices where we live far outstrip what we earn as it's a touristy area with lots of second homes) but where we live there's a massive shortage of housing and rental prices are really high and competition fierce. Basically we'd be putting ourselves in a massively worse situation by doing so (the insecurity of private renting) when as it stands we have a secure home in an area we've always lived in, that we can stay in forever as long as we pay the rent. It would be insane of us to give that up.

The solution here is, obviously, to build more social housing, and lots of it. Ordinary working families also deserve security of tenure at an affordable price especially when they're just perfectly average working households raising their families (like us).