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.

I don't think anybody has the god given right to live in a three bedroom house on their own unless they're footing 100% of the bill. There was a thread by a lawyer a while back who had a nice council house and was earning absolutely loads. This isn't a person that needs subsidising.

And speaking from my personal experience my social housing house is on the outskirts of Bolton ,the estates a bit of shit hole tbh
It is what it is and I have secure housing
But social housing tenants are not all living the dream in beautiful properties.

I am not critical of my neighbour, I understand why she hasn’t moved. But the reality is she is in a position to live in a smaller property and pay market rent. A lot of people aren’t and there sadly aren’t enough available properties to go round which is obviously a much bigger issue.

Which is why each case needs reviewed independently.

They aren't subsidised. Social landlords are non profit making, unlike private landlords. That is why the rents are lower. As explained earlier in the thread.

No one ever listens to this though. You will be banging your head against a wall.

But some people do need council housing. Or housing association housing. There is no way I could have afforded a mortgage on my wages when I moved into a council house. My mum was in the same position when she was eventually given a council house (that process wasn't easy). Single people living on their own don't always have the means to buy

There are always exceptions - that doesn't mean that some people aren't truly in need of council or social housing

Maybe a problem is that we’ve lost sight of the idea of a property as anything other than an asset. This is your neighbour’s home. There may be many reasons why she may not want to leave it.

It isn't their home, it belongs to The Local Council/HousingAuthority and the rent is subsidised by Poll Tax payers like me.

When we have needy families that deserve such accommodation, it is totally unfair that single people should sit pretty in a big house where they don't pay the market rent.

Absolutely not! The properties on the most desirable estates were the biggest sellers under Right to Buy, that has left tenants with little or no choice in some area. RTB no longer exists in Wales or Scotland. I wonder why our Labour government haven't withdrawn it in England?

Poll Tax?

You do know that council tenants in work pay council tax too - and where I live even people on UC pay a proportion of council tax

Community Charge then, plus a subsidy from central government also paid for by taxpayers like me.

Well not totally.

If someone is renting and getting HB then govt funds this, but if someone is homeless and entitled to temp accommodation via their council the council has to fund this (usually paying inflated rents to private landlords or hotels because we haven't built enough social housing for years). Whilst govt will cover some of the cost of temp accommodation, it pays only 90 of the January 2011 Local Housing Allowance. So those families in temp accommodation are being subsidised directly via council tax.
(Which isn't their fault and we should not blame them for the costs, rather successive gifts who have not built enough social housing or enabled councils to do so)

Yes it’s their home.

Yes but not the full whack.

There used to be a poll tax in Scotland and I believe England. Introduced by Thatcher. Scotland got it a year before England did

I paid full council tax when I worked full time and lived in a council flat -why wouldn't I?

Poll tax? Have we slipped back to the Thatcher years? Also SH tenants pay council tax too.

Poll tax 😂🤣
Im 52 and am too young to have paid poll tax
I hsve always paid council tax and I do so on on my socisl housing property.

I am in a 3 bed HA house, my adult dc still live at home and likely will for a while. If/when they do move out I would probably down size if I can stay in the same area. The HA/Council here offer you a smaller property to encourage you to move but they can’t make you.

Weird how the same people who like to typify social housing properties as palaces tend to have conniptions at the thought of living near them.

Yes very unpopular lots of riots which lead to the ultimate resignation of Margaret Thatcher

This. We have to be pragmatic.
There is not enough stock for the government to sponsor lifelong accommodation.
It's not anyone's home - it's the building that someone / a family is temporarily allowed to staying based on their current circumstamces, with the caveat they have to move once the house is needed for other purposes / their circumstances change.

Noone is entitled to.a council house.

The original Poll Tax was levied by the government to subsidise the Napoleonic Wars I believe.

No doubt a historian will correct me if I have this wrong 🙂