Housing stigma

[Antiquedoll]

Has anyone else noticed an increase in bad attitude towards social housing from property owners? I hought the UK was progressive and believed innequality but it seems to me the division is growing?

Nope, I think there has always been a negative attitude towards people in social housing.

I think you know how this will go OP.

A lot of it stems from jealousy tbh- a reasonable rent and secure tenancy for life.
My house is council and a little cottage by the sea. I’m super lucky.
I suppose it depends where you live- in my town it would be differentiate as so many council places are now private so there’s less snobbery in general. That might be different in other areas with large estates

It’s always been like this.

I think the COL crisis has brought up a lot of issues. Lots of people are struggling and some may feel resentful towards others in what they perceive as “free” housing, with “free” maintenance. Now, I know it is absolutely not free, as do you and a lot of other people, but I think that perception is at the heart of any issues.

Im single and childless child moved out. Im in social housing 2 bed and love it.
Life time tenancy my rent is dirt cheap.
And im in a fantastic area.
Ive been asked to downsize a few times via friends of friend to a 1 bed not going to happen.
It also feels like home with security.

Of course every situation is unique and there are working people that pay full rent on social housing. Let’s not forget though It is “free” if you qualify for universal credit and the housing element is paid.

This is not new.

That's great, but the bragging about not downsizing leaves a bit of a nasty taste - I'm not saying you have to of course but as someone who is currently crammed in Temporary Accomodation and been desperately awaiting a 2 bed home for 2 years and counting, seeing this stings a bit. Sorry.

You get awarded the right to social housing and keep that right indefinitely with no means testing. And THEN you get to buy the bloody property for about 20p and its yours. And its removed from the stock for anyone in genuine need.

No you don’t. 😂😂

But any rent is "free" when you qualify for the housing element of UC, that includes private rentals.

I've lived in my HA house for 17 years. I've never been offered the chance to own it, nor will I. Some council housing is open to be being purchased, but that vast majority of councils sold their housing stock years ago. Most social housing now belongs to HA, where you most definitely don't have to right to buy, nor can you pass down your tenancy to family members.

No you don't. What are you on about? 😂

I don't think it is anything new, when I was a kid people looked down on people who lived on the council estate, as kids we couldn't care less.

I do think a few tenants make a bad name for the rest, near where we live there are needles etc. left lying around which you don't typical see elsewhere.

And this is what causes the divide. I work bloody hard to pay my mortgage. Social housing shouldn’t be for life. It’s time that people were given homes with the actual number of bedrooms needed - it’s wrong having people sat with spare bedrooms when the list is so long - don’t like it then buy your own house!!!

I live in social housing in the middle of a very expensive area of my town. I've been walking behind someone walking into school and they were talking about how it must be great to have such a big telly paid for by others. They were referring to my house that they'd just walked past. There is definitely the assumption that people in social housing are all fiddling benefits and not deserving of living in nice areas. It's shit and the stigma against benefit claimants goes right along side it.

Agree with this actually. I have no skin in this game, I am not in social housing and will never need it, and I think we need far more of it. But temporary accommodation provision is dire (used to be part of my job to allocate) and entirely unsuitable. Families in temporary accommodation are absolutely suffering whilst people live in social housing bigger than they need. Unless the government will commit to a huge programme of social housing development, then I think the rules will have to change.

But the poster above says she gets to stay in a 2 bed as a single person with dirt cheap rent, doesn't sound like her situation has been reassessed from when she had a dependent child to house?

I don’t think most people resent those in genuine need having housing but most people do resent those who have social housing larger than they now need, eg the poster above. In my opinion social housing should be allocated in accordance with need and annual reviews, if you need larger or smaller then you should be allocated appropriately, rent should be sliding scale up to full market rent based on ability to pay too so those on higher incomes are paying as much rent as if they were private sector renting but those on lower incomes should get it cheaper. I’d love to see a large range of people in social housing too, not restricting to the most needy because in my utopia we have plentiful supply!

I live in a 2 bed SH with DP. The only 1 bed SH around here is for single people only so we're staying put.

I'm not sure that's true though. As U understand it, private rentals get the LHA and they have to top up which can be hundreds of pounds a month to find out of the UC, social housing is paid in full. Willing to stand corrected however!

This.

I have 2 cousins in social housing, both pay fuck all for a much bigger house than we have and neither of them work. They both love to call me a mug for working and suggest ways I can claim various things. One has 4 children, the other has made a career of faking disabilities and is absolutely gleeful about it.

It very often feels like an enormous injustice that we work so hard for so little, and they have so much more. I’m positive I’ll be called a liar, but my cousins follow various tik toks on how to claim more benefits, incl that weird Bonnie person. They are the cliche, but apparently it works and they benefit from the con.

There has definitely always been a degree of snobbishness from property owners towards council property/housing association tenants.

You have Right to Buy on some HA properties.

And you can succeed but succession can only happen once and there are requirements to qualify.