To think social housing should be means-tested annually like benefits?

[EqualLedgerJay]

Situations change, why should lifetime tenancies exist if income rises? AIBU to think fairness cuts both ways?

Well, I do think that is wrong :(

What makes you think housing benefit has to be paid? People need to work and take responsibility for themselves. We could knock 10% off rental costs immediately by stopping the cost taxing and punative legislation. It would cost £2 billion and also improve the availability of rental stock. I get the impression people don’t realise that landlord taxes are just renter taxes.

Is it? I think a little bit of self reflection might not go a miss to be honest. I wish I could face wine again 🤢Xmas party on Tuesday or rather Wednesday morning has convinced me to steer clear for a while.

Unless you happen to be Homes England (which is where the £9b came from) or a HA, you are not putting your hand in your pocket for SH. And if you are Homes England, most of your income comes from investments, interest on loans, and the sale of brownfield land. You create income for the central government, along with creating thousands of jobs, well done you.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/homes-england-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-and-2025/homes-england-annual-report-2024-to-2025-chairs-foreword-and-performance-report-accessible-version#financial-review

To qualify for social housing or affordable housing, one of the criteria is that you are on a low income.

Therefore, if your income exceeds this, you should be looking to rent privately or buy (if you can). I personally do not qualify for either of these as our household income just exceeds it. Therefore, it would be unfair for someone on the equivalent household income to remain in that property if there are 1000s of other low income individuals or families who require housing.

I don’t think (at the moment anyway), while resources are this scarce, that these kind of homes should guarantee security for everyone sadly. That’s the issue. People are demanding that they stay when they no longer qualify and it reinforces the housing crisis. Until, the target need is met, we may be in a better position to guarantee that security for more people - we are simply not in that position in the UK. Therefore, at the moment, as it currently stands, social housing in particular (over affordable housing) ought to be given to low income families.

Please note, I do not include disabled, injured or those suffering from illness here.

Yes sadly I do think people should have to downsize if they are in council property with more than one extra bedroom. It’s harsh to move an elderly person but if people move in their 60s its not so bad. If it was properly organized it could be done within the area they live in or by ‘swapping’ with someone in council property that needs bigger so they would be able to choose. As long as you knew well in advance and were given a couple of years. I understand people don’t want to move but people in private homes often downsize to fund retirement.

Really though everything would be solved by building alot more affordable decent accommodation

The cut off to apply for SH for a single person where I live is £30k. So you could earn £28k and be housed, then take a promotion that gets you £31k. You get evicted, then spend almost half your take home on rent in a private rental, meaning you have even less disposable income and no hope to save to buy.

Not in all LA's. In mine, there is no income criteria for SH.

Anyone can join and it is a banding system. The top banding is for those who are severely disabled and need an adapted property, care leavers etc right down to those at the bottom banding which will be those who are deemed to be suitably housed such as home owners or those who don't have any local connections and live out of the area.

Oh, the "facts" are coming from AI. That explains a lot.

Myth - All HAs and LAs have the same criteria for eligibility
Fact - AI hallucinates. It makes shit up, it crawls the web (including opinion pieces) and generates 'facts' from it.

LOL, it’s public money. This should really not be that difficult to grasp.

You seem to have a problem with public money going towards housing. Is that because it does not benefit you?

Public money that has been ringfenced for affordable housing and is not coming from taxes collected but from revenue generated by the department itself.

You keep talking about "my money." Your money is not funding Homes England.

👍

you can also check the citizens advice website which states you generally need to be on low income/savings

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/applying-for-council-housing-or-a-housing-association-home/getting-a-council-home/

I checked my local council and it says you have to complete a pre-assessment and it asks for salary details, savings, have a local connection, citizenship status etc

If the pre-assessment is this stringent, then I think it’s fair to review council housing tenants every few years to check they’re still eligible. Like other benefits.

p.s. AI isn’t always inaccurate. It can be pretty good.

Are you being genuine right now? Just think it through what you are writing.

I’m afraid you’re incorrect. It does come from the tax payer. Council tax for example - part of this goes towards homelessness and planning.

Explain how money generated from interest on loans given to housing associations comes from your taxes?

I have a problem with almost every aspect of how public money is being spent and the level on which the taxes are targeted at such a small group of people. The whole system seems targeted to keep people utterly reliant on the state and to discourage any sort of growth. It’s the opposite of what any country should be doing if it wants to improve quality of life.

Honestly of course social housing has been subsidized by society in one way or another, by grants to housing associations , by councils building and managing properties, by public land being used to build some of them. If they weren’t subsidized by society many more homes would be built and rented at the same affordable rents.I don’t disagree with social housing or begrudge people living in it ( I just wish everyone could have decent housing) but it is subsidized by society.

People are failing to recognise that there’s actually a range of sources that fund social and affordable homes e.g. grants and loans from the government, selling land and properties, partnerships with housing developers etc

This.

I think we need more housing security, not less. I’d like to see private renting become more secure, more people with access to social housing and more restrictions on buying property. We need to break this endless property inflation, I feel so sorry for people struggling with housing now, it’s insane.

This thread is the most irritating thread in the history of mn 😂

Why dont the idiots bashing everyone in sh read the posts and show understanding of how the vast, vast majority in sh are not on great wages?

I've said a few times now that thos4 on low wages- cleaners, teaching assistants, shop workers etc (you know, those who really keep things running) earn a pittance and maybe even need a small top up to pay their social housing payments? Isn't this an indictment on low wages? Rather than a failure on people working bloody hard in gainful employment?

They arent earning 100k!!!

And without them, we as a society would be in trouble.

It isn't the great unwashed jobless v the 100k wages people.

The vast, vast majority are somewhere between.

Who would think social housing isn't a good idea for these people?

And for those others in between, fight for the same for your families (or put your bloody names down), and stop attacking those very slightly more fortunate than yourselves on the housing front.

NOBODY HAS ANSWERED THIS.

What is wrong with hard working families on low wages having affordable housing?

Somebody please answer this!!!!

‘More restrictions on buying property’

What’s this now?

It’s not clear what the actual question is that nobody has answered? Are you asking if people are on low wages?

I’m not really sure why you’re persisting with this.