To think council housing is really unfair??

[Helpmechooseausername]

I totally get that some people need to be housed by the council, but AIBU to think that the system is abused - but it seems to be his the system works?

I know of two families who have lived in their council houses for years and raised their children there. They needed help when they first moved in, and so were quite fairly given council houses. But, now the kids have grown up and moved on. The parents both have got jobs, nice cars, holidays, go out for meals, etc., etc.. They can continue living in their council houses for the rest of their lives.

It seems massively unfair. Is it really not means tested?? Surely the houses should be given to other people who need them? How can it be right that they aren't told to move back into the private property market?

I feel a bit like when I stand in a queue in a shop, waiting to pay, while people come in and just take what they want without paying or queuing!!

And yes, I'll admit that I'm jealous! I can't afford to do any nice things for my kids and I, despite working hard, and it seems to be because I chose to own my own home and get a mortgage instead of getting a council house!

"And yes, I'll admit that I'm jealous! I can't afford to do any nice things for my kids and I, despite working hard, and it seems to be because I chose to own my own home and get a mortgage instead of getting a council house"

Sell your house, go into private rented and pop your name down on the council house wating list then. Problem solved! Just out of interest do you think that council house tenants are all idle and living a life of luxury and what are your thoughts on the very high costs of private rents?

Present day HA house have conditions ie if children leave home and no longer need ie 4 bedrooms then they are rehouse in 3 bedrooms leaving the 4 bedrooms home for a larger family.There are reviews every 6 years.Sotimes have changed also some rents are high ie £900 a month plus charges this is much cheaper than private rents n the same estate.This is The Cotswolds.

Wow.

Did they not have to pay rent?

It is being used appropriately. Having a secure rented market is an appropriate government intervention.

What is not appropriate is how successive governments have destroyed social housing. This pushed people into private renting,,where there was not, and still is not, sufficient supply or sufficient security of tenure. The lack of supply drive up rents ( it’s not greedy landlords, it’s just how markets work. Are home owners who sell their homes greedy when they sell them for their market value?) . High rents mean that more home owners rent out properties they previously would have sold, or buy as an investment, reducing supply of homes to buy, in an already under supplied market.

All this is the fault of deliberate choices made by governments ( both Labour and conservative) over decades. Blame them, not the individual citizens living in this fucked up system. ,

But in the context of the scenario OP is describing, it’s what allows people to afford other things. If they were forced in to rented accommodation / mortgages - they would either live pay check to pay check on Aldi food (nothing wrong with Aldi just making a point that life would be modest), or have a council property and put disposable income in to things they enjoy. I don’t like this outlook that people on the poorer end of the stick should revel in poverty and only the ones that have C level jobs should be allowed on a plane. Life is for living. As long as someone isn’t a millionaire living in a council house, I have 0 issue with those who needed it and then progressed later in life keeping their home.

41% of all council homes sold under the right to buy scheme are now being let on the private market, according to research by the New Economics Foundation (NEF)
May 2024

He bought a house previously at 23 years old and owned it for around 9 years
its being sold as they split up

so don’t worry it wasn’t his ambition to have a council house he had plenty of ambition to be a home owner and now he isn’t anymore
but he did own a houses at an early age

he needed somewhere to live so he moved in with his nan and she likes having him there it’s company for her

regardless of if he stays there or not he has a secure cheap Tenancy for as long as he needs it

hate the game not the player

Yes of course but subsidised.

there are a few posters saying the council make money from council house tenants. Really? I find that hard to believe. Don’t the government provide cash directly for housing to councils? why would that be needed if housing were profitable. Surely the cost of maintenance and administration wipes out any profit?

I live in a housing association house (no longer any council houses here). Moved here when my dc were tiny, I still live here with both my adult dc. Most people on my road have moved out once their DC’s have left home, either to a smaller housing association house or they have gone on to buy a house, I think only one house on our road is under occupied. People are encouraged to move into smaller properties when their dc leave but people can’t be forced too. My grandad lived alone in his 4 bed council house for the last 20 years of his life but they did try and encourage him to leave by offering him local sheltered housing, he refused because he had lived in that house for 60+ years.

Some housing association houses are no being given on condition that you move out when your dc leave home. It’s not the same as it used to be.

If some posters had their way, we would be living in a cardboard box.

So what would your cutoff be? You’re not happy for a millionaire to be in a council house, so how well do you think someone should be able to do for themselves before being asked to move on?

Most people I know of my parents’ generation do exactly that. But it’s their perogative. They have bought their homes. It’s not social housing which is there to provide homes for people on low incomes based on need.

But it could. It was getting close to it when Thatcher decided to sell it off.

Bevan’s original vision for council housing was it should be available to anyone who needed or wanted it.

Council tenants pay taxes.

Council housing: The government use taxes to build not-for-profit homes and the tenants of those homes pay the taxpayer back via their rent. Once the cost of building the homes is paid back, the homes are still there and the rents carry on pouring in. So, the taxpayer gains.

NHS: taxpayer pays for everyone (even the super wealthy) to be treated free and no money back.

Yet, NHS is supported and council housing isn’t 🤔

Wasn't this idea first touted by David Cameron back in 2010 ? Wad poo pooed then by labour. Even the left facing Guardian ,agree that the council houses weren't sold off would have been impossible to maintain. In the 50s large swathes of land were usef for council estates. The population was a lot less then so easy to do .full employment and we built homed for heroes .you are buying an asset for your future. Lots of council house tenants can't afford foreign holiday s either!

https://www.lgcplus.com/politics/lgc-briefing/investment-in-council-housing-will-save-public-money-13-10-2021/

7bn a year apparently - but this will be reinvested in to whatever they need to maintain / fund

But housing of all tenures is still a finite resource. Perhaps we should tax people more who under-occupy their homes? Same logic.

She says she needs to pay 200 per month. She is always buying stuff so I think she's telling the truth. Why lie about something like that?

Hmmm seems a bit judgemental to me - how do you know they will life the high life when they pay off their mortgage? A lot of us will be 70 and still paying off mortgages and managing student debt and redundancy debt and on I could go from the increased cost of living

Not sure that the solution is turfing people out (no idea what the solution is tbh) but this is a subject that does cross my mind often and was triggered by knowing someone who now earns £80k but lives in a council flat, and also someone else who was given one as a care leaver but is now mid 30s and a stockbroker earning £100k+ and still in it. Surely there needs to be a point where its decided that the space needs to be freed up.

This is the same where I am.
A relative recently got a 4 bed housing association house. They have conditions, one being that they have to be using at least 3 or the 4 bedrooms or they have to exchange for a smaller property. They haven’t got a secure tenancy (I do, but I have been in my HA house for 15 years before they started the new rules).

Anyone who thinks council tenants are just gifted houses are sorely mistaken. We had to clear out my nan's council house when she died – clutch your pearls harder, social housing critics, she lived alone in a 3-bedroom house! – and we were ordered to remove EVERYTHING. Perfectly functioning fridge-freezer, cooker, nice furniture, curtains, even carpets. The house had to be stripped down to a bare shell, which meant whoever took over the tenancy had to start from scratch at their own cost.

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that was the original intention.

A millionaire = million +