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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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 20:05

oh hello again!

Expat - Just love the way you take my post out of context. Why not use the whole quote in the way it was written?!

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 20:06

because the tenancy is secure, tess, and you're talking about people who will be new tenants, when many people have been living in their council home for years, even before all those point systems and bidding wars had to be instituted.

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 20:08

Perhaps because the rest of the post appeared extraneous, devil.

If you own the home, the equity you build in it is an asset that a renter, or a person who will never be in a position to purchase a home, will never have.

thedevilyouknow · 19/06/2008 20:10

Equity?!!!

Are you having a laugh. not much of that around

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 20:11

so you don't have equity. so you cannot make payments on the home.

then you are indigent and homeless when the mortgage company reclaims its property and therefore a priority for socialised housing.

expatinscotland · 19/06/2008 20:12

PLENTY of people bought long before houses rose in prices so much and have much equity in their homes.

many, including on this board, own their homes outright or have only a small mortgage on them.

for those who in a different situation, when their property is repossessed, they are indigent and homeless and therefore priority for council or other socialised housing.

memoo · 19/06/2008 20:15

Tess, many of us who now work weren't in such a fortunate situation when we were allocated council housing.

7 years ago when i moved in to my house I was homeless after leaving my abusive husband. I had two kids and no home. I was priority for housing at the time.

In the years that have past I decided that I didn't want to be the kind of person who lived off the state for ever so i put myself through collage, got qualifications and now have a good job.

I am extremely grateful that I was looked after by the state when i was desperate and in need but now i feel like i contribute as much as the next person

Tortington · 19/06/2008 20:21

The law states that in allocating housing 'reasonable preference' must be given to certain categories of persons. These categories are:

people who are homeless
people living in insanitary, overcrowded or unsatisfactory housing
people who need to move on medical or welfare grounds
people who need to move to a particular locality in the district of the authority, where failure to meet that need would cause hardship to themselves or to others

MadamePlatypus · 19/06/2008 20:24

I thought that the whole point of council houses was that a working person could afford basic accommodation regardless of the ups and downs of the housing market/demands of dodgy landlords.

If council housing didn't carry a stigma, if there were more available, perhaps we wouldn't have the mad housing market that we do. Council houses aren't supposed to be means tested.

Original poster

mrsruffallo · 19/06/2008 20:42

30 years ago you could have a choice of two or three council properties. Thanks to Thatcher, things are much more difficult now!

I think we have a bit of an obsession about owning our own homes in this country, which I have never really understood

OP posts:

Original poster

mrsruffallo · 19/06/2008 20:43

Agree MdeP

OP posts:

yoursurroundedbyarmedbastards · 19/06/2008 22:07

"What I do see is a small amount resentment of the new breed of HA homes on the new build estates mixed in with private homes and people not qualifing for them because they work or don't have enough kids. I don't subscribe to it but I do hear it. For example, there are some lovely new homes on a Barrats, Bryants and Persimmion estate near me and as per current legislation a certain % are social housing. The 2 beds costs 250k to buy and about £900-1000 to rent privately and you could be living in the same house and same road as a HA tenant who gets it much cheaper/free. Now personally I am happy for HA homes to be available to people who need them and don't feel the resentment, its important to me that in a civilised country we should have a safey net but some people I know do, they work hard and couldn't dream of affording to even privately rent those homes yet they see people getting them for free/well below market rent. I can understand their feelings to a point, private housing is so expensive and HA housing is restricted so much that many people who could do with it don't qualify. The points system means in our area basically means you tend to have to be unemployed/single parents/existing tenant to get these homes. Very few people in these houses are not in receipt of benefit/have been moved from another council house, simply because to get enough points to get a house you have to be."

I've just moved into a 3 storey new build house it has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. It is a HA house. Theres myself, my DH and our 3 kids. Atm my DH is on the dole (crappy work situation . Quite a few of our neighbours have bought there house for around 200k I think and they have been quite openly snobby about the fact that we are HA tenants and on the dole. And while I can see it from their point of view, they don't know jack shit about our situation.

We previously rented privately, the house we lived in was in a regeneration area and all the house were issued with compulsory purchase order by the council. Our landlady had to sell the house (which honestly was falling down around us and was riddled with damp and mould - we were very glad to move)and the council had to rehouse us. We didn't want to move to far from the area we were in as my dd1 is in a very good school and we didn't want to move her. We got offered our house by the HA.

So I really think these snobby people should think twice before they judge. We were being made homeless by the council, why should we have to be moved to a far away area and uproot out lives because they wanted to knock our house down.

howmuchchoccanIeatb4iexplode · 19/06/2008 22:24

3 BATHROOMS!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, how brill that must be!

SmugColditz · 19/06/2008 22:31

How have council tenants directly caused this county's housing crisis?

How have their actions directly (or even indirectly) caused houseowners to be priced out of the market?

How is it our fault that A. E. Taxpayer cannot afford his or her mortgage?

Do you think for one second that if every single council tenant in the counry and their dependents were tuerfed out, made to live in poor houses and given 'light work' similar to that given in the launderies of the 1830s, do you think for even a nanosecond that your tax would go down?

yoursurroundedbyarmedbastards · 19/06/2008 22:41

howmuchchoccanIeatb4iexplode I know I nearly fainted when we viewed it. One of them is an en suite.

lilacclaire · 19/06/2008 22:53

I too am finding the thread a bit confusing.
I was allocated a council house when I was a single parent and was extremely grateful for that, I worked full time and have always paid my rent in full.

Now im with DP, we both work full time and there is no way on earth we could afford a mortgage at the current market prices and he is in a management position.

I do agree that there is a bit of an obsession with owning your own house nowadays. Im quite happy to pay my rent and stay in a council house.

There is a shortage of good housing at reasonable rent and I realise I am very lucky to have a secure tenancy (basically for the rest of my life).

I think it is terrible for the people who are in private rentals with sky high rents, I mean its nearly a monthly salary now for a months rent and the same for a mortgage.

Rachmumoftwo · 19/06/2008 22:58

Interesting thread. I live in a shared ownership property. There has been a bot of snobbery about this on our development, but the affordability criteria is much tighter than many full mortgages.
We couldn't get a council house, as we didn't have enough points unless we had been prepared to live in a hostel, but to qualify for shared ownership, you have to be on the waiting list.

Rachmumoftwo · 19/06/2008 22:58

A bot of snobbery? Hmmm. I mean a lot (probably).

fortyplus · 19/06/2008 23:13

I work in housing for my local council. We have about 10,600 properties and there are about 4,000 people on the waiting list. Average wait for a single person is 9 years.

Council housing is seen by most tenants as a step up from Housing Associations. The rent is currently lower but the govt is forcing councils to bring it into line with HAs.

In our area about 65% of the tenants receive means tested benefits, which of course means that 45% are paying rent, council tax, utility bills etc and not getting a penny from anyone. Many of the remainder are elderly and/or registered disabled. About a quarter of all our tenants live in elderly people's accommodation.

BexieID · 19/06/2008 23:37

I grew up in a council house. My parents regret not buying it when they had the chance. Oh, and my dad used to get the Daily Mail everyday.

fortyplus · 19/06/2008 23:42

I remember years ago you could get about 70% discount off the price. Where I work it's capped at £34,000 now so no one can afford to buy them anyway. We only sold about four last year.

MadamePlatypus · 20/06/2008 07:50

I'm sure that this point has already been made, but is the cycle supposed to be:

Get council house
Earn too much money to live in council house
Get turfed out of council house
Become homeless because have no chance of being able to buy /rent house.
Get back on council house waiting list and live in B&B's for a while, perhaps loose job.
Get council house.
Earn too much money to live in council house
etc. etc.

stickybun · 20/06/2008 10:17

Think imminent/ongoing houseprice slide could make people re-evaluate renting. Think in 1950s/60s when huge amounts of housebuilding going on, the idea was that they would be homes that a wide variety of people would want to live in. Don't think it was meant for only people on benefits. Think there should be more social housing built and just as a certain % of new housing has to be rentable/affordable could be a good idea to do it the other way round. I.e. certain % of council/H.A. could be reserved for non-benefits people at market rate this could subsidise less well off and generate income for council. Many council houses are fab quality with bigger rooms and gardens. We are currently living in private rental whilst waiting to buy and altho we are v. happy there is little security of tenure once initial 6 month contract is up. I think there will be many people who will have to live in areas/houses that they would not have chosen but in time could be some positive things to come out of it. Easy for govt.s to get away with not investing if a certain proportion of people think it's nothing to do with them.

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