Keeping a 3 bedroom council house when your children have grown up

[Iwishitwerewarmer]

Just pondering - what are everyone’s opinions on a single parent raising their children in a council house/housing association house and staying there once their children have moved out? Should they downsize into a one bed flat/smaller property or is it their right to remain in their home/neighbourhood?

Added extra - they have looked after the property well, have landscaped the garden, installed a new kitchen and generally added value to the property.

Totally agree with this. The selling off of council housing was not a good policy. it has caused massive inflation in house prices, shortages of affordable housing & the reliance on insecure private rentals.
A majority of council houses in my area have been bought by tenants years ago but are now in the hands of private landlords renting to people who would have been council tenants if council houses were available.

No, it’s the government‘s fault. If they had doubled the discount your mum got and gave it to her to use as the cash deposit on her own home on the private market. Then everybody would win the council would have a house back to reduce its long list and your mother would have her own property.

That’s great to hear about your dad but sadly most people need a bit of encouragement, otherwise they never leave.

Why do you keep posting this silly comment attempting to conflate two situations that are not remotely comparable?

From economics. There's an opportunity cost which the council isn't able to make the most of.

So let's imagine the council owns a property which it could sell for £400k or rent out at market rates at £30k per annum, but they let out out as social housing at 10k per annum.

The council - ie ultimately the tax payer - is missing out on £20k every year (or a one-off windfall of £400k). It's not strictly speaking an expense to the council, but it's certainly a cost.

Hence it's broadly truthful to describe it as subsidised housing, even if it's technically not a perfect description of the accountancy behind it.

It would remind council tenants that it is not a lifestyle choice but instead a stepping stone while you get your act together and rent or buy a private place like everyone else.

A similar thing happened to us. Nine moves in 14 years. We were racially abused. Nearly gassed, subject to huge black mould. Deposits stolen and finally stalked. We never had a moments peace. Our last landlord was wonderful but it's been a struggle to find suitable housing now we need to downsize.
People are weird it just bricks and mortar. We never had SH as we didn't qualify.

There's no evidence that Corbyn lived in social housing when he was an MP. Other MPs did. He owns his own home in Finsbury Park. I would also suggest that it was much easier to save for a house in the 60s than it is now

Why is paying the mortgage and lining the pockets of private landlords something to aspire to?

What do you mean by "get your act together"?

Oh behave.

Most btl LL have an interest only mortgage so house not being paid for by renter at all.

If people had to move on after a year, social housing would be little better than a transit camp. Community cohesion would go down the crapper and no tenants would be interested in looking after the property.

And I hate this assumption that council tenants are "spongers". I know many council tenants who work just as hard as anyone.

Some people in council housing can't afford to buy their own property - I can't. And why should someone paying off someone else's mortgage be seen as "getting their act together" ?

But it’s ok for landlords to be subsidised by benefits?

In one case you own the asset so you get to decide what to do with it and it is nobody else’s business, once you have paid for it with your own capital.

In the other case you are paying a regular fee to borrow an asset and that asset belongs to someone else so they, rightly, have a say in what happens to it because they are simply lending it to you. Surely as a child you learned the difference between borrowing and owning something?

If that fee for a person to lend something to someone else is far below market rates and subsidised from tax revenue or via discounted rents (therefore creating opportunity cost re. what other competing objectives that capital could be used for/ invested at market rates to pay for) then of course it is a very different situation to the person owning the asset themselves.

There’s no logical reason why the preferences of the person already receiving that subsidy should override the needs of others for the same subsidised resource or why public policy should treat the first person preferentially simply because they happened to have needed that resource at some time in the past, if that is no longer the case. It is very economically and societally detrimental to allocate scarce public resources in such an inefficient manner and there’s no rational justification for it.

Move to a cheaper area.

Yes, because moving costs nothing.

What does it have to do with you whether people live in social housing or not? Or what their circumstances are?

You must be having a laugh - I live in a deprived area in the west of Scotland - where do you suggest I move to to buy property?

Because I work my arse off and have to pay huge amounts of tax that helps subsidise social housing, that’s why love.

You should move to somewhere remote.

I have lived in my 4 bed HA house for 15 years now, before me an elderly lady had lived here entirely on her own for over 20 years once her children had left. I cannot wait until the day I can downsize and will happily swap to somewhere smaller then.

It’s a hard one though, I am not at all attached to the area or the neighbours and am looking forward to living somewhere else, but as was the case with the previous tenant here, she had her daughter living over the road and son down the road so she probably didn’t want to leave them.

Don't refer to me as "love". I've worked my arse off too while living in council housing. Hard work isn't just confined to high taxpayers

Is there a reason why you find this thread hilarious?

I find it disgusting how feral and lacking in morality many posters are.

It’s frightening.

Since Covid Property that is in the arse end of nowhere are more expensive