To think housing in this country is fundamentally broken?

[BrokenHousingLogic]

Whether you rent privately, rent socially or own, it feels like the system isn’t really working for anyone.

• Rents are high and insecure
• Buying is out of reach for many
• Social housing is under strain
• Landlords and tenants feel pitted against each other
• Local authorities seem overwhelmed

It often feels like people are arguing with each other instead of addressing the fact that the whole structure is failing.

AIBU to think this goes beyond individual choices and points to a system-wide problem?

Nah, you just don't like poor people living near you. Own it.

You don't think the 9 million people already out of work can possibly go out and do some of them jobs?
Right to buy helped my parents. They bought a house for £19000. Plenty of houses have been built but the country is full.
What hasn't worked is mass immigration. It has to stop. What is the government waiting for? An absolute disaster where people are dying because hospitals can no longer cope.
It's shear incompetence. I'm paying taxes every single month and getting zero back.
Give tax payers a vote as to whether the borders should be closed.

There are older people trapped in family houses, that they own, in less expensive areas. If they sell, their homes won’t raise enough to buy a retirement flat, or their income isn’t enough to support the monthly service charges. They're also very unlikely to qualify for social housing.

Some sensible thinking is needed to future plan for an aging society. If they could rent, theIr capital would support their rent and care costs without resorting to benefits, a saving for the taxpayer.

It’s not that at all, but subsidising people so that they can afford to live in ‘naice’ areas is a poor policy as it costs more (wasteful use of the states resources) and it’s unfair on those who work hard, earn good salaries, pay taxes and yet cannot afford to live in these areas. It disincentivises people from applying themselves, their skill set and their resources to do the best they can for themselves. If you can’t see that this is a HUGE issue in the UK you probably are unaware of the talented young professionals leaving this country in their droves - for just this reason.

Yeah but then ppl moan when family members read women arent available on tap to care for elderly relatives

If we didn't have an explosion of households headed by solo adults, there would be plenty of housing.

There was a documentary out years ago about a lady who had lived in her leafy suburban "naice" street for years, but didn't really know the other people living there.
She interviewed the people that lived in her street. Most were middle class families and older people... all a bit posh. There was an elderly gent who lived alone. And one house was converted into flats, and she met a young man who lived in one who didn't work and was on benefits (so probably on a hefty amount of housing benefit). He invited her in and ordered pizza for them. Such a friendly young man.
According to you, he should not be living there, and should be living in a street full of other unemployed people.
He did not work as he had Tourettes. She visited him a few times, and they struck up a friendship.
By the time she had finished filming and wrapped up, she found out he had killed himself.

I can't remember the name of it, but it was interesting and also really sad.

There is no shortage of homes for sale. I've just looked on RM and close to me there are loads of 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom houses for sale. The problem is people don't have the deposits to buy them or the salary multiplyers lenders ask for. Yet second home owners and LL's are constantly blamed. I used to hear on MN if greedy LL's sold first time buyers would be able to buy. In 2025 about 93k LL left the market selling up about 100k houses. Now renter's grumble they can't find a house to rent. I let out a 3 bedroom house mid December. I normally have about 16-20 viewing requests and 12 potential renters. For this house I had 46 viewing requests within 48 hours and 26 wanted to rent it. 3 couples asked to rent it without even viewing it they were do eager to find somewhere to live. I blame the government and councils for not building enough 2 and 3 bedroom social houses for families to live in.

Not when there is a shortage of one bed places for those solo adults too.
All the people I know in temp housing are single adults. There is nowhere for them to go.,

No. He shouldn’t be living there. Who’s to say a more deprived area would have been less welcoming? I’ve lived in a variety of areas and the more socially deprived were often the friendliest. It’s the cost that’s the issue. We cannot just keep hosing money on housing people in places like that because it would be a wee shame to move them, when the state could save money to spend in other areas of housing, like building more.

Well, he killed himself so he is not living there anymore. The "naice" area he lived in was not welcoming to him at all.
I know people in areas where everyone is on benefits, and it is miserable. One lady I know has severe anxiety and just wants to be left alone. She has a sex offender who has been released from prison housed above her who is threatening her, and the lady opposite is an addict who is also making her life hell.
I am on benefits, and most people in my street own their house. A mix of people works better than just all of one demographic.

Well he killed himself so you got what you wanted

I wish we would research other countries to see what they do but not just Norway which is rolling in money- in Canada pot smoking is legal -I’d have thought that would cause more homeless -what do they do about i? France must have tons of illegal immigrants from North Africa -how do they deal with it?
Is it our millions of unemployed and neets having to be housed by councils that is the problem? I’d love to be directed to a book or article with info

How does "pot smoking" lead to more people being homeless? Given that it's pretty common in the UK?

Vancouver has a tent city that functions as a permanent encampment for homeless people, most of whom are drug users. The city has decriminalised hard drugs in that area and provides needle exchanges etc as it was seen as a better use of public money than simply going in and arresting people.

In the US it's not uncommon for houseless people to live in their cars, as a car-centric society means even the poorest have to have one in order to get to work.

You realise there are people in Canada and the US states where weed is legal who consume it much as a middle class person in the UK would have a naice bottle of wine at the end of a hard day? The cannabis industry is huge and it's marketed in the same way craft beer or other indulgences are.

Those 9m economically inactive, this includes students, retirees, carers, SAHP's and those with long-term sickness.

Good luck finding builders, carers etc from this pool....

The Tories hiked immigration, with their disasterous, post Brexit immigration policies, which used numbers coming in to boost our GDP growth... we went from around 220k per year to 1.2m per year and that was the net figure, the numbers who came in was far higher and most from non Christian cultures.

Then there is thought to be between 200k and 400k PER YEAR who don't go home after their visa's expire, again, a problem the Cons did SFA about.

The roots of our housing crisis lay squarely at their door and fixing it, if its even possible, now we've rejected ID cards, will take a lot longer than 18months.

@XenoBitch They aren’t single people wanting one bed flats! Many are divorced or separated people wanting 2 family homes.

This goes right back to the selling of local authority housing and not building more or refurbishing other stock. In our city despite building more that's not the problem. It's all the empty stock.

The price of housing along with everything else is ridiculous.

Vancouver has a tent city that functions as a permanent encampment for homeless people, most of whom are drug users. The city has decriminalised hard drugs in that area and provides needle exchanges etc as it was seen as a better use of public money than simply going in and arresting people.

Neither solution sounds ideal but I don’t know what the answer is. What happens to the homeless people in Vancouver in winter as it gets very cold there?

Totally agree.

Of course the severely disabled cannot be expected to work BUT many on mumsnet seem to think if you had a tough childhood you should be excused from work yet expect to be housed next to a hardworking family in a nice area.

The sense of entitlement has no limits.

If nothing else maybe people need to stay single if 99% certain they have decent partner or they have the financial ability to support themselves and their children if the relationship ends. Why should someone who makes careful thoughtful decisions have to pay tax to support those who make reckless ones.

If you are single and are not in receipt of any benefits you can live alone.

If housing benefits were scrapped except for the severely disabled, people would make better life decisions and also seek work. Why, because they would have to.

Wait until you learn that many working adults receive housing benefit because rent is too fucking expensive.

Or that housing benefit does not cover rents in full.

Genuinely, @Balletpoint , how long is it since you last rented? Or even spoke to someone who does?

Within 24 hours. Renting is expensive and buying (also expensive) but probably financially cheaper at this moment in time unless you are a mobile contractor.