To think this is a ticking time bomb (people priced out of housing)

[Batmanisreal]

It’s becoming clear that there is a problem with people not being able to afford housing like they used to be able to. This has been made worse by the introduction of right to buy by Thatcher in the 80s which reduced the numbers of council houses. The price of housing is going up and up, so more people are having to rent on the private market.

So what happens to these people who are privately renting homes, when they get to retirement age? If they can’t afford their rent?

I was lucky enough to be able to buy my house. I have young children who, by the time they get to the age I was when I bought my house, will probably not be able to afford to buy like I was. There’s a very big chance they will have to rent, possibly for the rest of their lives.

People who rent on the private market are at the mercy of whatever rents the landlords want to charge for those properties. And with more properties being rent out as short-term lets this is only going to make the situation worse.

I worry that we are heading for a situation where elderly people will end up on the streets, because there won’t be enough affordable or social housing to supply them with housing if they become homeless in the event of them not being able to afford their private rent anymore.

As a parent, I just find the whole situation so depressing.

Right, but we're not in a pandemic, so no concerns about infection control right now. Oh and my Mum's dead.

We need to provide more, high quality affordable accomodation.

We need new, innovative solutions for the increasing numbers of private renting single/couple pensioners to have affordable ways to live in their later years.

You don't seem to want any affordable solutions to exists, just for tax payers living in bedsits to pay more and more taxes so that older people who failed to make provision for their retirement can be subsidised to live in lovely houses with gardens by themselves. That's unaffordable snd completely unfair to the young tax payers of today who aren't able to afford that for themselves.

What do you mean by preparing to have to leave it? People in council/social housing have an assured tenancy. As long as they pay the rent and don't breach the terms, they can stay.

I think you forget that when someone moves in to social housing, they get a bare shell. They have to buy carpets, vinyl, wallpaper etc. They are lucky if there is lightbulbs when they move in.
Why would anyone spend £££ to make a place their home if they are going to be turfed out in 3 years?

It sounds like your landlord could do better.

Out of curiosity, why is a cleaner needed to clean the kitchen or oven? Why don’t residents just take turns at cleaning it?

I know in any house share I’ve lived in that’s what we’ve done. There’s generally been the odd person that needs reminding more than the others but it tends to work!

Found it · 27/07/2020 19:01
Channel 4 news did some pieces on care workers living in cramped shared dwellings and having to share kitchens with several other families.
Channel 4 news did a huge segment on care workers. And how they are under paid , under valued, classed as low skilled and why they cant socially distance due to the appalling places some of them live in.
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Add message | Report | Message Thu 14-May-20 19:14:10
A care worker interviewed lives in one room with her son and they share bathroom and kitchen facilities with ten other families
Hardly an ideal living situation to cook healthy meals
A care worker was ill with Covid for 28 days and was brought a hot meal every day by Hare Krishna She has to walk an hour to get to work and same to get home because she cant afford public transport
www.channel4.com/news/charities-demand-care-home-workers-are-paid-a-living-wage
www.channel4.com/news/charities-demand-care-home-workers-are-paid-a-living-wage
Then on another date they interviewed another zero hours care worker in poor housing.
www.channel4.com/news/nearly-a-third-of-people-have-suffered-health-problems-during-lockdown-because-of-poor-housing

Younger people that can only afford bedsits are not going to be net contributors, so them paying for pensioners rent is a moot point, because they are not.

Typical MN though to have such distain for pensioners.

I gave you an example of a friend of mine who did make provision. How do you know other pensioners in SH didnt do the same thing but were penalized for it. Do you know them all personally

Funny how @mrsm43s wants all things "equal" and everybody to have to live in HMOs (apart from those who have reproduced natch) but i would bet money she wouldnt say Oh private tenants get a place thats already furnished so social housing tenants should too

A lot of them are uninhabitable.

I bet they would be the first to complain if a social housing tenant was given a furnished place. Why are tax payers giving people seating to sit on, and fridges?

My mum is in a council house. When she dies, I will have 2 weeks to erase her entire life and existence from the place. Wont even be allowed to pay the rent to have longer.

yes, that’s the current model. I was discussing the proposed model… see the quote thread if helpful…

I’m not sure what you mean re. shell? That’s how houses come no? Unless the previous occupier has left carpet etc

As to why anyone would spend £££ to make a place their home, because exactly that? They want to make it a home?

My last rental I was in for less than 2 years and paid to decorate it top to better so it was better to my tastes and thus felt more homely rather than living in someone else’s taste.

Your point is irrelevant which I suspect is why it’s being ignored.

All is demonstrates is the inherent risk in investing (in pensions in this case) which is widely known. There is also of course the flip side opportunity, which many benefit from.

Most things in life carry risk. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth doing.

But ppl on here love to remind us that it isnt our home

If you buy a place, and the carpet is left, then that is a bonus (if it is to your taste).

Council/social housing is stripped when someone leaves. Someone could have had new carpet put down 6 months before, but it will all be taken out when they leave. The new tenant has to fork out for flooring.
I remember when my family moved into a council house. Someone had gone in and pulled at the wallpaper. Not removed it totally, but took strips off to make it look shabby.

No one private renting is expected to fully replace flooring and repaper/paint walls when they pick the keys up.
But you would be ok with people in social housing having to spend serious money doing the same, only to be evicted 3 years later. That makes no sense.

I guess that’s because private tenants can fundamentally get anything they’re prepared to pay for?

Furnished
Concierge
24/7 gym
etc

Just because it’s available on the private sector market doesn’t mean it should be on the social market. That wouldn’t make sense would it?

I'm lucky as we have our own bathrooms.

Thankyou for sharing your experience as people need to understand what hmos are really like and how unsuitable they are for pensioners like someone earlier suggested.

You hit the nail on the head . They are grim and depressing.

Come on, you’re going to listen to what folk on MN tell you to the extent you’d let yourself live somewhere that doesn’t feel homely?!

Its because of attitudes like that that i never bought the "all in this together" shit during Covid. I predicted that it would be back to the default setting soon enough and i was proved right.

It’s a rabbit hole. If the system was changed to something different there’d be opportunity to change the “rules” re. furnished or not.

Because basically tennants sign a contract which states a weekly cleaner will be provided along with cleaning products for the kitchen so won't lift a finger. Even getting people to empty the bin is virtually impossible and putting the wheelie bin out for a weekly collection is also seen as below most people.

I wish more people would speak out about it. It is not acceptable.
My partner used to live in a 2 bed flat. The landlord wanted to sell up, and the new owner turned it into an HMO. 6 beds. All shoebox rooms, what was the lounge is now 2 bedrooms.
It is like living in a shitty hotel. But without the lounge and bar downstairs.

Wow. Thats incredible. I’d have thought they’d want to do it and look after their own private and common living spaces given it’s literally where they live!

YANBU

I’m wondering what we’ll do for our DC, they are early secondary/late primary age and we still cannot ‘upgrade’ to a 3 bed semi

Live in SE London, property prices are bloody mental

It would be wonderful to offer them to continue living with us in their late teens/early 20s so they are not paying extortionate rent in some crappy rental

But the reality we don’t even really have the space for all of us now (2 bed split split level maisonette)

Depressing all round

Your example was of someone who had £29k (total, not per annum) in a pension. That's not making sensible provision for maybe 30 years of retirement! It's just over 1 year of minimum wage. That's an example who hasn't made adequate provision (or even close) for retirement. Why do you keep bleating on about this as some kind of 'gotcha', it isn't

Could you please quit accusing me of thinking or wanting random things that I have not said or even shown any indication of thinking.

I've said I don't think that benefit claiming pensioners can expect to have a better standard of living than the tax payers that are supporting them can afford. That is all.

Many people can't make what you consider sensible provisions.
Some people will never earn more than minimum wage.

Yet you expect people on NMW jobs like carers, HCAs, the people delivering your food/parcels etc to put up with the bare minimum of a teeny room in an HMO where they are expected to share a toilet with 8 other people.