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Original poster

Councils offering up to £30,000 to get tenants to move out. Would you?

56 replies

HecateQueenOfGhosts · 07/02/2009 16:36

story here

If you are in council accomodation, would you take it and move into private sector, or use it as a deposit to buy a house?

Do you think you'll take them up on it?

OP posts:

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 17:43

a bigger house??? Yes I suppose ours was slightly bigger than rent (and in a shitter area lol). I can see where you're coming from but not everyone that has bought a house bought it because they had capitalist dreams or wanted a bigger house. Some of us just wanted to pay less for our housing each month.

The figures quoted in that article are quite scary, 1 in 10 families will be on the council waiting list by the end of this year. Are there really that many people living in bigger social housing than they actually need who will accept the 25k to downsize?

And tbh if it was me being offered 25k to move into private or mortgage (where I could end up with a mortgage I couldn't afford) I wouldn't take it, not if I was given the money knowing that if things went Pete Tong in the future and I found myself homeless that I wouldn't be housed....

I can't see into the future, so wouldn't like to predict that I'd always be able to afford the private rental/ownership that I'd used the initial 25k for.

Also how many people can't afford to stay in their current home and currently rent privately? So can't be accused of capitalist dreams/wanting bigger houses. I was at the council offices last week handing in my HB form. The "booths" aren't very private and you can here the conversations going on. I heard several people saying that they were private renting, and could no longer afford their rent/or were in arrears so being evicted so needed to go on the counci housing list.

It's a difficult one but I really don't think that throwing £millions away in this way is the way to go.

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 17:49

actually I find it quite amusing that people automatically assume some that can't afford the mortgage anymore overstretched themselves to buy a big house - especially in the current economic climate

violethill · 07/02/2009 18:29

Agree with Lisa

expatinscotland · 07/02/2009 18:35

Only read the OP.

NO.

For one, £30,000 isn't a desposit on a 'home' of any sort in London with the way banks are lending now.

Private rentins SUCKS. It's not secure.

And then this council has said they won't house you again if you become homeless.

I'd tell them to go piss up a rope.

expatinscotland · 07/02/2009 18:37

As for people who can't pay their mortgage, well, that's tough.

If I can't pay my rent and don't qualify for HB - which may not happen to private renters who are made redundant and then forced onto contribution-based JSA first (don't usually get HB if you're on contribution-based JSA), then you're fucked.

Why's the situation different for homeowners?

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:04

This is aimed at elderly people currently over occupying houses that could be used for families, freeing up those properties and moving them into one bedroomed over 55's accomodation would be cheaper than building new family homes I suspect hence the policy.
Here's another idea, I personally do not think that HA or council accomodation should be available in London.
It's the most expensive and over crowded city in the UK and therefore if people want housing benefit they should be forced to move to cheaper area's after say giving them 6 months to find work.
A lady on another forum was up in arms that a private landlord was allowed to be charging £2,000 a month for a 2 bed flat to a young girl and her child, the lady had signed the benefits "proof that the girl was in education form", I think she rather missed the point what the hell are we doing paying for that ?

nancy75 · 07/02/2009 19:07

so where do you think all the council tennants in london should move to?
oh and as a large % of the revenue generated in the country is generated in london, why should some of that money not go towards khelping the people that actually live here?

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:08

you can get HB on contribution based JSA........

expatinscotland · 07/02/2009 19:12

In some councils you don't, FAQ.

Are you for real, sorrento?

What about people who do service jobs in London and can't afford market rents there?

If they live outside London they won't have the money to pay transport costs to come into London to work.

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:13

They should go to cheaper area's where the rent is not £2,000 a month at council tax payers expense.
I agree a large % of wealth is created there which is why it's an expensive place to live but you have to admit £2,000 a month is a lot to be handing out in housing benefit, the same flat would cost £450 a month in Birmingham for example.

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:14

People who do service jobs won't be getting housing benefit will they ?

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:15

really - that sucks, surel the same rules should be applied nationwide!!!

Sorrento that's a mad idea, so we'd move all the lower paid workers out of London to cheaper areas and then who would do the low paid work????

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:15

Sorry I missed a bit out of the post, social housing of course, but not private rents paid for by housing benefit was what i meant.

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:18

well given the distinct lack of social housing you'd still end up losing a large number of lower paid workers if you didn't pay their and expected them to move to cheaper areas..

ilovemydogandMrObama · 07/02/2009 19:19

And the Council will enforce this how?

I thought Housing lists is based on legislation, so the Council is asking people to contract out of their statutory rights...

Don't think that's gonna fly...

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:22

You'd also save a lot of money by moving out those who don't work, a student in London getting £24,000 a year in housing benefit is a fucking joke in my opinion, what a kick in the teeth for anyone on minimum wage trying to do the decent thing and work for a living.

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:25

perhaps she was like me - in education so that she can find a job when her child is older?

So we move all the unemployed out of London and do what with them exactly??

sorrento · 07/02/2009 19:29

More than likely but living London is quite a luxury that most can't afford.
If you already live there then fine 6 months to sort yourself out, if you don't work at all then there are thousands of new build flats in Leeds available at a quarter of the cost to the tax payer.

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:30

right so they're given 6 months to find a job that covers their rent in a recession.

Then who pays the moving costs to Leeds??? And why should some other council be lumbered with the costs of housing/benefits for them?

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:31

and if they're already working but still qualify for HB what are they supposed to do??

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:33

and surely those flats in Leeds should be given to people currently living in Leeds who need housing??

expatinscotland · 07/02/2009 19:36

Living in London is a luxury?!

LOL.

Where was your last abode, Manila?

FAQinglovely · 07/02/2009 19:39

"Where was your last abode, Manila? "

PMSL

Indeed if it's such a luxury I wonder why the "commuter belt" has extended from Bedford where it used to "end" up to Welingborough and beyond..........damn if London is a luxury this place must be a real let down for them

expatinscotland · 07/02/2009 19:48

i'm still trying to suss out how in sorrento's london, employees who provide essential services, like nursery assistants are going to be brought in to service their patrician superiors, given they can't afford to rent privately and pay full whack, much less buy anything.

nevermind the other unessential hoi polloi like streetsweepers and hotel staff.

Peachy · 07/02/2009 19:56

Mum and dad would ahve- actually I found a out a few weeks they had been planning to, to 'buy a nice bungalow'- before the pension tingg scuppered that.

I agree it should be implicit in the tenancy that when you can you downsize, but those people who are already there haven't made provisions. Mum and dad spent every penny they ahd making the aplce habitable for their old age; they wuldn't have if they ahdn't been planning or able to stay there. But yes, where people are amde aware at time of signing on, absolutely it should be like that.

But teh Councils should make sure they rehouse poeple in the same community- back home LA housing is way out of town now; for those elderly people with mobility issues that or a flat would be a life sentence of loneliness and distress.

The diea you can't come back if youa re homeless though is bolcoks, truly it is! What if you become disabled or a crer, or something similar happens? Life isn't that simple. There should be an extenuating circumsatnces caveat at the very least.

And yes, right to buy was a terrible idea in the way it was implemented, caused so much misery.

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