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?

I don't need to top up. Get the full amount.

But it's only 400

I live in central london and didn't think there is much stigma apart from genuine jealousy towards social housing tenants who have secure tenancies etc.

However, I did a walk round a central area recently and observed the other participants - mostly white middle class professionals aged 60+ taking about the residents of the housing we were walking through as another species. I had to speak up. It was a desirable central london housing estate that I know has largely been sold off under right to buy is therefore populated by people just like them at an earlier life stage. I've got several friends who have lived there and I've looked at flats in the development myself.

It blew my mind that they didn't know this! I'd actually quite like one of the two beds (an upgrade from my existing one bed) in that development.

And yes, we are absolutely NOT the people the estate was built to accommodate but it reflects on the UK housing market that NHS consultants have to aspire to buy a former council flat (albeit one in a nice part of town).

In my area social housing is generally occupied by:

• older people who do not need it
• people who've inherited a tenancy before rules changed and similarly don't need it yet enjoy heavily subsidsed rent (its around 1/3 of what private rents cost).
• extremely chaotic families with no one in work plus issues such as drugs, alcohol, minor crime etc.
• migrants

Massive amounts of it were sold off, unfortunately this tended to mean over time they ended up in the private rental sector with slum landlords who primarily rent to people receiving UC housing benefits.

The estates tend to have higher than average levels of poverty, antisocial behaviour, overcrowding, and crime. This is why there is a stigma.

As I said previously, we have been stuck in Temporary Accommodation for 2 years now and honestly give anything for a 2 bed house. And I found this braggy post irritating, this poster was fortunate enough to have raised their family in a secure home, and now their child has moved out they boast that they aren't going to downsize and let another family have the same chance. I get they are not obligated to but bearing in mind we are in a Housing Crisis where thousands of families are suffering, maybe don't show off.

In cheaper areas UC will sometimes cover full private rent. In the south east and expensive areas it rarely covers it. Social rents are much much lower than the equivalent private. Its a huge subsidy, worth at least £1,000 a month.

Good on you. You'd be crazy to move!

It's really nothing to do with that at all, but nice try.

It is all to do with the (tiny) minority that take the piss, don't look after house/pets/kids and subject the rest of us to antisocial behaviour. This is then taken as a stereotype.

This I find it bizarre that on mumsnet where women are supposedly earning or married to people earning high salaries that getting a council house is viewed as winning the jackpot.

That is exactly it that is causing the unrest. Of all the people I know who are in the younger generation who live in social housing, the overwhelming majority don't pay their own rent.
In the meantime, others are struggling with the crippling cost of private housing whilst working to pay their rent and bills

From twenty nineteen

The Elephant and Castle neighbourhood is being physically, socially and ethnically transformed. This started with the demolition of the Heygate estate, a classic for stigmatised perceptions of council housing and the people who live in it. As the local 35% Campaign has meticulously documented, a succession of promises to Heygate residents were broken to arrive at a situation where 1,214 council homes were demolished, to be replaced with 2,704 new homes, of which only 82 (3%) are for social rent. The HA partner was London and Quadrant. To be eligible for the cheapest one-bedroom home built by them on the Heygate site, people needed a minimum household income of £57,500. The average household income in that part of Southwark is £24,324

one thousand two hundrend and fourteen council homes demolished and replaced with only eighty two
This is replicated up and down the country
Do the maths and stop blaming tenants.

Annual reviews? People would be forever moving. I know this isn't common knowledge on MN but the majority of people living in SH won't even be earning 40k! To afford to live in private or get on the mortgage ladder. It's not a work appraisal it's someone's home. The odd person or family will be taking the mick yes. This does not apply to everyone.

Well lucky you, but my mind strays to the families cramped in shit accommodation with small kids. That’s not fair, is it?

What has that got to do with stigma attached to council tenants?

Nothing is the answer.

Yes Good for you never mind the thousands of families waiting for their fair turn? Good for you just stay out in a house bigger than you need rather than swap or downsize. Good for you now your family have benefitted you just stay put during a Housing Crisis. Fuck everyone else as long as you are ok. Hopefully the system will become more fair one day and people can buy their own house with the money they've saved from paying cheaper rent over the years if they don't want to downsize.

I didn’t blame tenants, at all. I said that unless the government commits to a huge programme of social housing development, which we very clearly need, then the rules will have to change. What would you suggest to get families out of entirely unsuitable temporary accommodation?

Thank you. I have experience of this also. In abundance.
Whilst others are working flat out to keep the boat afloat.

People are saying that tenants should move and that there is a shortage of housing and blaming it on tenants I pointed out why that is not the case Developers are pulling down SH and replacing with a lot less SH homes So its got plenty to do with it. Sorry to spoil your fun of blaming it all on tenants

@seabubbles I'm sorry but it's a complex issue. The crux is people could move around council properties when they wanted 35 years ago. However today we have a lot of immigrants and so on and I'm not blaming them however a good chunk do not work. Also the government opens its doors and we are over run! Lack of school places, hospital waiting times and dentists.

They are separate issues! It's not because someone has got 1 extra bedroom!!

Plenty of people on less than 40k are renting privately or cut their cloth. Min wage is now around 24k full-time. A couple with each earning that could easily rent a small place.

Social housing should absolutely be reviewed. Could be every 3 or 5 years. Private tenants have no security either. Random annual rent increases that aren't indexed, contract renewal fees and having to move at a whim because the landlord wants to sell.

Just like you have to show you are trying to get out of benefits by looking for work you should have to try to get out of social housing. It should only be for emergencies.

I know someone who lives alone in a 3bed social housing house afte r divorce and the husband received custody of all children. This lady has zero incentive to better her economic situation. She's already thinking which child to pass the house onto, which is just nuts.

Make use of the empty properties that already exist?

There were an estimated
89,000 empty council-owned properties in England as of April 2025, a figure that has been rising and is highlighted as a concern amidst growing housing waiting lists. While the exact numbers fluctuate, The Telegraph reported this figure based on data from councils introducing the second homes premium, while groups like Action on Empty Homes campaign to bring these homes back into use.

I think often probably just driven by bitterness at how much rent / mortgage they’re paying themselves, for identical housing, with the perception (right or wrong!) if you get it through social housing it’s cheaper.

On my street there are some long term council tenants paying ~£400 a month to live here. To rent one privately is ~£4,000.

The inequality in housing is quite extreme…!

Which would be a good start, I agree. These will need refurbishing of course, so that money has to come from somewhere. And, with 1.3 million people on the waiting list for social housing, less than 90 thousand homes isn’t even 10% of what we need.

I literally saw a TikTok today of a couple in a council/HA house doing a gender reveal and 80% of the comments were horrifically snobby. Calling them crack heads, saying they're on benefits, saying it's another child the taxpayer (i.e. the commenter) will have to pay for. There is nothing on this dad's TikTok feed that indicates if he works or not. It's entirely assumption based on him living on a council estate. There was a clip of him walking his primary school aged daughter to school and there was a comment saying how he's lucky to be able to drop he daughter off at school when other parents have to work, when she had no idea if he was dropping her off on the way to work (like my dad did, and like plenty of parents do).

In my Mils case and Sil..but it is means tested now and right to buy doesn't exist anymore I thought?