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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To live in a council house?

173 replies

mrsruffallo · 19/06/2008 12:52

Many people who live in council houses got to work, raise their children well, and are quite normal.
A recent thread made me laugh about the misconceptions regarding council tenants. A poster actually described them as homes for the umemployable, or words to that effect.
I am in my thirties, a sahm, professional husband, no asbos, bright, healthy children.

Can I clear up any Daily Mail views for anyone?

OP posts:
thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 18:57

memoo - please refer back to where I said anyone who lives in council housing does not pay tax. I cannot find it myself.

All my posts refer to the pisstakers.

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:01

No, but you imply that your tax pays for our "new kitchen" etc as though council tennants don't have to pay their taxes too. I could argue that the taxes i pay pay for your child benefit

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:02

also we don't get kitchen for free

If you rent privately you would expect the landlord to keep that property in a reasonable state.

I pay £100 per week in rent and so i am also entitled to expect my landlord (the council) to keep the property in a reasonable state.

having a new kitchen fitted when the existing one is 30 years old is not unreasonable

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:03

well lucky you, its newer than mine!

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:05

but my kitchen being newer than yours doesn't mean you have in some way paid for it!

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:06

well, what i can say is YOU CERTAINLY WONT BE ASKED TO CONTRIBUTE TO MINE!!!

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:08

Your not making sense, why do you think you have been asked to contribute to mine?

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:15

Listen, as I keep saying, I am fucked off with those who take the piss, live in council accomodation, and have the gall to whinge that even that is not good enough. Its a roof over their heads. (maybe a leaky one, but that is the same for private dwellings).

I am talking about those, who do not work. Those who live with grown up families where 4 or 5 are earning. Those whose children have grown up and remain in a 4 bed house with only 1 bedroom being used.

What about all the people who are homeless, or in B&B through no fault of their own. Battered wives etc. They need this accomodation and would be grateful to be in the position of some of the ungrates.

The scroungers need to shove off, and make way for the deserving!

This is not directed in anyway at you memoo.

NotDoingTheHousework · 19/06/2008 19:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

MsDemeanor · 19/06/2008 19:22

Look, everyone knows the phrase 'subsidised by the taxpayer' is understood to mean 'we decent hardworking Daily Mail reading middle Englanders hand over our hard-earned, unwillingly given taxes to pay the cost of some chavs living the life of Riley in their council house'.
That is NOT what happens. The working homeowning blah blah taxpayer does not pay towards the cost of council housing. Much council stock is very old - 40s, 50s, 60s, when building costs were very low and the land was already owned by teh council. You could buy a house for less than £2K in the 1950s, so it clearly cost less than that to build. I'd say the council has had its money back in rent since then.

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:23

I think we'll have to agree to disagree,

my house is not owned or run by a housing association, its is owned and maintained by the council to whom i pay rent. Maybe what you believe is true in some cases, i can only speak for myself and my situation.

families who receive child benefit and tax credits are having their incomes subsidised by the tax payer, people don't often go round making assumptions about them, i feel like council tennants are seen as easy targets

NotDoingTheHousework · 19/06/2008 19:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 19:25

do you realise your taxes are going to subsidise thousands of fat cat shareholders/employers to pay a non-living wage?

yes, that's right! the low income person claims tax credits whilst the dish runs away with the spoon.

your taxes also go to fund second properties in london for MPs, and they walk off with the profits when they sell.

all courtesy of you.

you buy them their TV licenses, the new £30,000 kitchens in their london homes, even their wives' taxi journeys to go shopping. or, and for their nannies, whom they claim are secretaries, too.

and you're bitching about people living in old wrecks they don't even own.

haahahhaahahaahaahaahaaa.

NotDoingTheHousework · 19/06/2008 19:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:27

well said expat!!

LittleMyDancing · 19/06/2008 19:28

Quite MsDemeanor.

And besides, if you pay for a new kitchen for a house you own, you have invested in something you own and it is now worth more.

If you are in rented accommodation, the landlord, whether that's the council or a private one, has to keep it in a fit state to live in. Which debatably, many council houses are not.

So yes, it might be subsidised, but implying that living in a council house is some kind of lovely freebie with new kitchens and heating all round is just plain odd.

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:31

so, the MP's, fat cat shareholders, employers and council tenants all make themselves very comfortable on everyone elses taxes. Lovely.

So, maybe now you understand why taxpayers in private houses get fucked off with the system!

Everyone gains, except the common or garden working taxpayer struggling to keep their own head above water. Superb

memoo · 19/06/2008 19:34

thedevilyouknow. As i have already pointed out not all council tenants ""make themselves very comfortable on everyone elses taxes""

I'm really starting to believe that you are being deliberately inflammatory, your post's are agressive and you seem unable to accept that anyone elses point of view might be correct

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 19:35

'So, maybe now you understand why taxpayers in private houses get fucked off with the system!'

We're working poor taxpayers in a privately rented housing.

Having lived in council housing, I'm hardly bothered by council tenants. It's hardly a luxurious accommodation by any stretch.

I'm more pissed off at not being paid a living wage so the select few can get even richer.

me23 · 19/06/2008 19:37

hear hear expat!

LittleMyDancing · 19/06/2008 19:37

Speak for yourself, thedevilyouknow - I am a taxpayer in a private house and I'm not nearly as fucked off as you.

I am annoyed with people who think that those in social housing should live in squalor for daring to live in social housing.

Council tenants pay rent. Private tenants pay rent. And both have the same rights to a decent place to live.

Whether the rent comes from benefits or not is a completely separate matter. Many people on benefits are also private tenants.

You may not have anyone putting in a new kitchen for you - well sell up and start renting, then you can ask your landlord to do it. Or you could realise that the house you own is an asset which tenants, whether private or not, don't have, and which is worth a lot.

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:48

There are a great many people who have their own private accomodation who do not have any funds to maintain it. They cannot sell as the market is bad.

Just because they may own their own property most certainly does not mean they have the funds to maintain it.

Look at the soaring repossession rate. It appears to me on this thread that you are wealthy if you are in a position to own your home.

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 19:54

AMEN and goodnight!

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 19:56

'It appears to me on this thread that you are wealthy if you are in a position to own your home. '

You are, especially compared to millions of people in this country.

And if you become otherwise and have to have your home repossessed then you are homeless and a priority for council housing in many places.

Tess321 · 19/06/2008 20:04

I'm really confused about this thread. Where I come from houses are allocated on a points basis and you also have to bid for them. So the persons with the most points tend to be single mothers made homeless, prisoners being released from prison, the unemployed and the severely disabled. So in effect if a person who was employed but in need due to an inability to afford housing applied for social housing then they would be expected to wait on average 9 years to be housed.

So what i'm confused about is why people who live in council houses on this thread are going on about 'stereotypes' and making out that council housing is available for all when it clearly isnt.

My point is meant to be pragmatic rather than judgemental. This thread just seems a bit weird.