in thinking the goverment should have never sold off council houses?

[gingertabby]

there is just not nough to go round.
fair enough if they rebuilt them, but they don't, well certainly not enough.

[SqueakyPop]

I don't see how selling off council housing is divisive.

Before, if you lived on an estate, people would know you were a council tenant.

Now, with council houses intermingled with owned, no one can tell.

[policywonk]

In that John Harris article I linked to below, he also points out that the policy has had the effect of ghetto-ising social housing and stigmatising those who do use it. (You've only got to see some of the thread on here to see that happening.)

[expatinscotland]

'I don't see how selling off council housing is divisive.'

Because a slender few made a huge profit with the taxpayer subsidising their council house purchase at a massive discount.

An opportunity that was extended to a very few which a) everyone paid for b) inflated prices even further so even fewer could afford to a buy a home, council or not, or even secure a protected tenancy on a rented home.

Hence, why I'd never buy an ex-council home off someone who bought it as a council tenant. They're already gotten a big break on my dime.

[SqueakyPop]

But stigmatism about council housing was there in the 1970s before they were sold off.

[forevercleaningwithmybesoms]

they can tell it is ex council, because the first thing that is changed is the front door!

They may have made fairly hefty profits but I suppose people were wiling to pay that price to still be living on a council estate, but that was their choice.

[expatinscotland]

'But stigmatism about council housing was there in the 1970s before they were sold off.'

But back then it was also possible to buy a home of your own on an average wage.

[Earlybird]

But is there still the same stigma? Recently saw a statistic that 1 in 10 now live in some sort of subsidised/discounted housing.

[SqueakyPop]

Not sure about that one. I very much doubt it, otherwise the demand for private housing would have been much higher.

[witcheseve]

Most of our council house stock was sold. They had to build over the designated boundary to meet demand. There is a restriction on resales 'local occupancy' so at least they are not bought as holiday homes or rented out on the holiday let market, A lot are now rented privately to residents, polish worker etc .

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[nooOOOoonki]

Expat - though I agree, I also have a huge problem with people that have bought to let.

Though I HATE the tories I can't believe that a labour gov has been in for 10 years and not done a thing to rectify the problem, in fact they are just selling off ALL council stock, great.

[MsHighwater]

Some tenants buy their council house and live to regret it.

I met one couple who bought their house while they were on the transfer list to be rehoused because of his disability. Not unnaturally, the local housing office took it that they no longer wanted to move. Not so. They had been approached by a company promising assistance to tenants wanting to buy and had been persuaded that it would be a good idea to buy so that they could pass it on to their grown-up family. They still wanted, actually they needed, to move to a more suitable house. Once they'd got that sorted out, they were dismayed to find that they had dropped a long way down the waiting list because they no longer had additional points that a long tenancy had previously earned them. They felt aggrieved that no-one had pointed this out to them although it wasn't up to any of the people they dealt with to do that.

On the whole, I think it has proved to be a bad policy. There is an assumption that the cost of providing and managing social housing will reduce as the number of houses reduces and, of course, it does to an extent but actually all the best houses i.e. those kept in best repair by their tenants, have been sold off leaving a higher proportion of properties in poorer repair and also of the more "challenging" tenants. It screws up the thinking about making alterations to properties for disabled tenants, too. My local authority recently spent a large sum on adapting a property for a disabled tenant. They have already enquired about buying and because of how the discount is worked out, the investment will never be recouped if the sale goes ahead.