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.

No. It stays the same. So there are a few very wealthy people benefiting from subsidized housing

Yes but ‘we’ taxpayers can and do live in Sh….so we are paying tax for SH as a whole

im fine with that tbh…

A net contributor is someone who earns £40k+
Depending on where you live, that can be fuck all and can even be topped up with UC.

No one in SH has to move if they earn a certain amount. Would you give up a secure tenancy if you didn't need to?

Nobody benefits from subsidised housing. It doesn’t exist.

I'm in my 50's couldn't get a mortgage if I tried, or pay for private rent.

Housing associations do commonly make surpluses. And it is fiction that all social rents contain an element to pay for the house build (as I’ve said, these were often paid for in whole or in part by grants or other taxpayer schemes)

That’s fine but you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim to be a taxpayer who pays your own way then take umbrage when challenged because you can’t afford to pay your own way!

and lots of people in their 50s have a mortgage. I do.

Building costs are paid with loans and rents are set with an element to cover repayment of these. Not for profit organisations are required to plough any surplus back into maintaining and administering the stock. It’s pretty obvious you’re making this up as you go along.

lol. Sure it doesn’t. Where are all those grants and tax subsidies going then?

that’s what social housing is- lower cost housing subsidized by the taxpayer

And when did you buy your house?

There are no grants or tax subsidies. Social housing accounts have legally to wash their own faces.

Not true- look up the housing budget. It’s about 15bn a year

yes there are some subsidized loans too but lots of grants. And rents are not set with reference to house building costs - apart from anything else housing was often built some time ago or transferred from other bodies

Does anyone get a new mortgage in their 50s? As in first time buyer. With perhaps not much of a deposit?

that’s not true. If it was true there could not be a yearly housing budget. Yet there is. Social housing providers get significant grant funding on a yearly basis

Some people do. It’s certainly not impossible.

apart from anything else housing was often built some time ago or transferred from other bodies

And paid for via rents. In the case of those built immediately post war paid for several times over.

Not on my wages lol

something I DO see in Social housing is that while plenty of people take good care of their properties and maintain them as much as they can and decorate and take pride in keeping them looking nice, the higher percentage of people in SH with mental health issues, chaotic dysfunctional families and anti social personalities means that a high percentage of the houses end up with windows smashed in, furniture trashed, rubbish in the front gardens etc because there’s no money to pay to have it taken away… all of this gets fixed - “for free” by the council

Well duh! this thread is full of people who think social housing should only be for the most desperate. You reap what you sow

John Boughton (author of Municipal Dreams The Rise and Fall of Council Housing) on the welfarisation of council housing.
//www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-rise-and-fall-of-council-housing-56139
Inthe 1980s, residualisation may have been a partly unintended consequence of housing policies pursued with varying ideological intent
Since 2010, and more so since the return of single-party Conservative government in 2015, we’ve seen something further: welfarisation – ‘a conception of social housing as a very small, highly residualised sector catering only for the very poorest, and those with additional social “vulnerabilities”, on a short-term “ambulance” basis

Look it up. There is a multi billion pound program of grants on a yearly basis as we’ve already established. There’s no legal requirement to charge any proportion of building costs in rent and in any case often social housing providers haven’t built the property or haven’t built it recently.

YY @vodkaredbullgirl my block of flats was built in 1977

Yes, if they want to buy a shed.

I could probably stretch to a caravan 😆

And you would have to move on after 10 years anyway.

How can that be true and your claim that social housing providers legally must include building costs in the rent?

often social housing providers get grants to buy properties too. It doesn’t pay for itself- that’s a matter of public record. The taxpayer pays some of the cost. that’s the point- social housing is supposed to be subsidized to be affordable to people on lower incomes.

“We’ve” established nothing. You keep parroting nonsense, offering no evidence, in the hope you’ll convince. There is a legal requirement for social housing providers to cover repayment of building costs within rents and a requirement that the cumulative rents cover all the costs of maintaining and administering the stock. The older a property, the more likely it is to be fully paid for via the rents paid for it.