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 people should be forced to move. People are more likely to care for the house and the area if its a permanent home.

The biggest issue is there just isn't enough social housing. And it was a mistake to sell so much of the quality homes off.

The rent is way cheaper though, lady I know was moaning her rent went up to 600 a house like that round here privately is 1600. To be completely honest I think it’s bullshit. Actual young families with young kids like mine pay the council tax that funds the previous generations who just got given a house for nothing and some don’t even live with their grown kids anymore.

Why not raise council rent instead of council tax?

It isn't as simple to move to a smaller property as people think. I know someone who has struggled to downsize. Initially she was in a 3 bed house in a remote location with little transport. It took several years to be able to get a move to a 2 bed property with the daughter who was still at home. She was never top of the list for a 2 bed because other people were overcrowded and got 1st choice. She was desperate to move because the bedroom tax was forcing her in to debt, but neither this nor the fact her move would free up a bigger house were factors in how her priority was decided. It took several years before she was offered a newbuild 2 bed. She now faces a similar situation trying to go down to a 1 bed as her daughter has left home. There is very little available she can even bid on.

You’re conflating two separate things.

Social housing is not subsidised by the taxpayer - it is owned by the state. Rent is payable on those properties just like in the private rental market. Those renting from the state are not just for those on benefits.

Housing benefit is an entirely separate point. Those who are privately renting may also be receiving housing benefit. Conflating social housing and housing benefit is just confusing the terms.

The issue being discussed here is under-occupancy. In this scenario, many of those in houses ‘bigger’ than their needs are nevertheless paying for them.

By this PP’s logic, we should allow all of the empty properties in the country to be possessed by those on housing waiting lists and anyone who has a spare bedroom has some questions to answer. Viva la revolution!

It was there when we needed it? We're not all still there enjoying the cheap rent. You don't seem to understand the point of my post. When I needed a council property, there were ones available to my needs. When I could take care of myself, I left and rented privately in nice areas before buying my home. I didn't just stay in cheap accommodation for the rest of my life.

I remember when I left my partner in 99 and went to the council for help. The guy sucked his teeth and said he was sorry but it would be two weeks before I could get into a new flat. Two weeks! It's probably two decades now.

@ProudAmberTurtle
In what way is the tax payer paying for this person to live in their home? You do know social housing tenants pay rent, it’s not free.

The rent is way cheaper though, lady I know was moaning her rent went up to 600 a house like that round here privately is 1600. To be completely honest I think it’s bullshit. Actual young families with young kids like mine pay the council tax that funds the previous generations who just got given a house for nothing and some don’t even live with their grown kids anymore.
Why not raise council rent instead of council tax?

If councils were offering two bedroomed bungalows with a small garden at reasonable rent I am sure people could be incentivised to move into them from family houses. I don’t think people are going to be keen to move into a one bedroomed flat in a block where there is a lot of anti social behaviour and the lift keeps breaking. I live in a 5 bedroomed 3 storey house in a rural area which I own. I am keen to move to a two bedroomed bungalow. It’s not proving straightforward. The bungalow s on the market are a similar price to my house and I have to fund the actual move. The nearest small city is full of student accommodation. Planners aren’t making downsizing attractive to older people.

You’ve misunderstood social housing.

The rent is often subsidised and the taxpayer paid for the house to be built.

In an ideal world yes they would be encouraged to move, however a lot of areas don’t have 1 bed properties available that don’t have stairs. If you move someone away from their support network to free up 3 bed houses you will end up with a larger bill for care needs when neighbours and family can’t all pop in as they’ve been moved miles away. Unless more sheltered type accommodation is built it will end up costing the tax payer more

If someone would lose their home if they improve their income then you remove incentives to work/work more/get higher paid work/training for higher paid job

I'm a retired housing officer for a local authority. The problem is that if people don't downsize then there won't be anywhere near enough properties to house families. Social housing providers can't continue to just keep building more and more properties, many local authorities don't have the space for it, in many cases.
Where I worked the housing associations had incentives to get people in large properties to move. Help with moving costs and carpets provided, for example.
I understand that it's your home, but speaking from the point of view of dealing with families who could do with a larger property, I wish more would downsize.

Stay put unless asked I supposed. They’ll soon let her know if they need it. They should increase her rent to market rate though as she no longer fits the bill for subsidised rent on this size property.

Her business location is irrelevant.

100% this.

That isn’t how it works. Social housing accounts are ringfenced and don’t receive any subsidy from council tax. The difference in rent is because social housing rents cover the real cost of providing and maintaining the property with no profit element.

My great-aunt lived in a 3 bed local authority home. She would have willingly moved to 1 bedroom flat but was unable to manage the move herself. IF the local authority had supported her in the move, it would have freed her house up 9 years earlier (finally returned to the LA upon her death).

Due to her age, she was unable to pack and couldn't have afforded moving costs.

Conveniently forgetting the new kitchen and general maintenance adding to the value. It’s their home.

It's staggering how few people on here seem to realise that something has to give if we don't build more council homes and keep allowing asylum seekers to live here

The problem is the housing market, lack of social housing and extortionate private rents (often paid for by ‘the taxpayer’). All the regular ‘should this person live in a council house’ threads are just about tinkering with a symptom of the problem.

So the rent on a private one bed flat is more than the council rent on a 3 bed house? This shows how large the subsidy is.

Issue being manu LAs don't have 1 or 2 bedroom properties to move people to.

Around here they pay £1000 = £2500 (depending on number of bedrooms they give up). Next door neighbour moved from a 2 bed into a much much bigger and nicer 1 bed house and was paid £1,000 to do so.

No one should be pushed out to rent privately, and I don’t think anyone on this thread is suggesting this, however, they should be relocated to a smaller council property.

Your comments are quite stupid, market rate is wildly overinflated, the rent enables the HA/LA to maintain the building, you seem to have litre understanding of SH and massive resentment.
Not everyone can afford to buy.