Woman with 1 child being evicted from her 6 bedroom council house ....

[Disenchanted]

Im really torn over this.

It was in my local paper.

Obviously as someone who waited 3 years with 2 children for a 3 bedroomed council house, who had to sleep in a single bed with DH, DS1 and have DS2 in a cot next to us in my mums box room I think its right that this woman should be asked to leave her home in order to house a family that needs it.

There are currently 507 'large' families In South Manchester waiting for a 6 bedroomed home. All who actully need 6 bedrooms unlike this woman who on;ly has 1 child.

However that is her family home. It was her mothers home who had many children and was justified living there, the tenancy was passed onto this lady when her mother died and now there are only her and her son years later.

The reason Im divided is that my granny lives alone in a 3 bedroomed house, she has lived there for over 40 years and by ratios if a 2 bedroomed house is too big for two then on the same principle they could move my Gran out of her 3 bedroomed house.

But I dont think they should IYKWIM. Shes lived there years.

When I needed a house I complained constantly (to myself not the council obviously) about all the old widows/ widowers living in 'family homes' but they have every right to be there.

Or do they?

Should 1 person be allowed to stay in a 3 bed house?

Should this woman and son be allowed to stay in a 6 bedroomed house?

She has been offered a 3 bedroomed house BTW, but not in her 'area'.

To me it seems obvious the woman should be moved but then where does it end IYKWIM.

That is because people are too picky, there are affordable houses but they are either in a 'bad area ' or 'not right' or would mean relocating.
Personally I would try my best to have my own bricks and mortar , and if I did have to rely on social housing I'd certainly never bitch about what I was offered.
It is not a right, as I said before.

expat I haven't insulted anyone.

feeling insulted or being insulted and over what is a subject thing, Devil.

i'd say some people find your comment insulting, Devil.

sleepycat and i certainly do.

slo whilst you may not think you've insulted anyone, you have.

My grandmother turned down her right to buy the 3 bedroom council house where she raised her three sons. In fact, as soon as her three sons had grown up and bought houses of their own and she was sure they wouldn't get divorced and return to her, she asked the council to re-house her into a 1 bedroom property. She was a very principled woman, my grandmother, but her three sons were annoyed at the time because between them they could have paid for the house outright.

It is a hard one, but with their being so many families waiting for bigger accomodation it is only fair that it becomes someone elses new home. As long as this person was offered other accomodation in the same area then it is fair enough. I know when i used to be in a housing accomodation you were told that you were housed according to your needs.

I am now in a different housing trust which will not ask you to leave as long as you can pay the rent for the size of property you are in. Which would would be a huge no no for us! ( and besides..dusting all them extra rooms if i didn't have to..no thank-you)...lol

excuse me Devil - we bought a crap house in an exceedingly bad area of town for our FTB.......we were "lucky" that house prices went up, our mortgage was (relatively) low (about 45k) we'd lived there for 2 1/2yrs or so and we sold it for £87k.

There is absolutely NO WAY we could have afforded to buy this place without the (relatively) huge profit we'd made on our old house.

If (before we split) we'd been looking to buy as a FTB we COULD NOT have afforded anywhere round here = even in the shit area we first moved to.

I work in a land and new homes office and every developer that wishes to build a large development HAS TO by law have 17% social housing included in the build, so things are being done, but a lot more could be done with old workers cottages that are left to rot, instead of building new, why can't they utilise the buildings we already have that are going to rack and ruin.

I also find it insulting, even if I got a fairly decent job "now" I could NEVER afford to buy a house anywhere in the surrounding area towns or villages. If I could I would happily move to the shittest area of town just to get onto the housing ladder..........but I know I will NEVER be able to do that - not without working so much that I pay ridiculous amounts on childcare and never see my children - mind you even then I may not be able to afford to!

but is it cheaper just to knock down the existing abandonded properties and build new ones, or rennovate?

It is not her house it belongs to the council and so she should accept teh alternative regardless.Sentimentality doesn't come into it when so many families need housed and this country is so f**d where housing is concerned.

the other problem with this is that these for many of these elderly folks, the home will not suit their needs should they become disabled.

then what?

then there's not enough suitable bungalow or ground floor housing for them to go to.

Sorry but to try to make out that people who don't won there own homes are just being lazy & are not bothered where they live is ridiculous!

Believe me if we could afford to buy a house we would even in the "shittiest" part of town.

We have had to move county, move ds out of his school just to be able to afford to rent & we still are struggling, believe me life is not as rosy as your making out.

My dp works all the hours god sends most weeks, sacrifice is he hardly sees his kids, i am starting work but obviously am having to pay some childcare for dd so won't warn as much as i would like to.

It's not as easy as your making out devil.

I would love to see teh empty homes initiative really take off.The figures quoted for bringingg a wreck up to standard are always ott imo I have been renovating for years and if you are careful and use good builders and aren't too bothered about the latest but want basic decent refurb it can be done.The councils make me mad when they say 65k to bring a terrace house up to standard

I think that she should be made (yes made) to move. If there was enough social housing then fine, people could stay put and of course that would be better. But the reality is that there is a terrible shortage and people are in b&b's, or hostels, or large families are crowded into 2 bed houses, or sleeping in the living room of their parents while other properties are under-occupied. It should be a clause in all social housing tenancy agreements that you may be required to move into smaller accomodation if it is assessed as more suitable. But they should pay your moving expenses and some little compensation.

I'm in a HA house. We were very lucky - well, not really, we went straight to the top of the list because of our dire circumstances, but the house we are in became available because the family who were in it finally got a bigger house after 7 years waiting for one!!! 6 (or 7, not sure) people in a 2 bed for 7 years because there's such a shortage of family homes. Awful for them.

It really is a balance but in the end you have to make hard choices - who has the greater need? If keeping a single person in a large home with 5 empty bedrooms because they've lived there for years means keeping a family with young children in a bed and breakfast or hostel or parents sleeping in the living room while the kids are 4 to a bed, then the single person has to move to smaller accomodation.

Message withdrawn

not everyone can afford to buy a property, no matter what the area or how small the property. A bedsit in the worst area of the city here is still expensive enough to be out of reach.

Building up a deposit means having some disposible income - not everyone has that - many having only enough to cover bills.

Getting a mortgage means have a good credit history - something which is almost impossible on a tiny income.

Council housing is for those in need - some will always be in need. Not cos they don't try, but because there is no choice.

Yes you can aim higher, but it doesn't always mean you'll reach it.

Plus owning a property isn't the be all and end all for everyone. Covering repairs/buying and moving costs and all the other incidentals can put people off even if they managed to get a mortgage.

It is incredibly hard these days to get on the housing ladder. Particularly if you are single. Both my brothers had no chance. They both work in the public sector and while they earn reasonable salaries, they work and live in London.
Fortunately for them, dh and I bought this house (my family home) from my mother. She bought our house. We paid the difference, and she gave all the profit to my brothers as deposits.
This would not have happened if dh wasn't helped by his parents when he first bought, 12 years ago, and if we hadn't been able to sustain out mortgage.
Where we live there are not enough affordable new builds, even though the planning policy is pretty robust, sites are generally small infill sites where below the threshold number of units will be built (out of necessity - not enough space). Plus, until the GLA stamped hard on the local authority, there was a tendency to avoid having affordable homes because of the snootiness of the borough. That's one good thing (among others) that Ken Livingstone has done. he came to the local council to meet residents, who were kicking up a fuss over the affordable housing policy potentially "lowering the tone". And responded by saying: "where do you want your children to live? Do you want them to move away, to go east, to go to Barking and Dagenham? To take your grandchildren away? Or would you like them to be able to afford to live in the borough they grew up in, near their families?"
It is an absolute disgrace that all the council properties here were sold off in the 80s to housing associations, and that barely any new ones are built.
But back to the OP, council housing should be allocated on need. If the need no longer exists, the housing should be made available to those who have that need.

Hatrick, while my previous post says that there are not enough new affordable dwellings being built, it is not for want of trying - just that where space is limited, the threshold above which affordable units are built is not generally reached. Most development here is small scale, usually less than 15 units. But where more units are proposed, the COuncil does make the policy be applied.

By TheDevilWearsPrimark on Tue 25-Mar-08 15:23:36
I'm just asking why not aspire to more, rather than complaining about the handouts you are getting and doing nothing to lift yourself out of it?

How the fuck is it a handout? Where am I compalining?? We pay FULL council rent and FULL council tax for our council home!

You HAVE insulted me ALOT.

FFS some people.

Lets hope you never fall off your fucking pedastal into a council house

Actully, ignore my last comment TDWP. Ive just realised which thread I remember your name from and don't really want to get into any kind of discussion with you.

Thanks.

To answer the OP, yes a woman and her one child should not stay in a 6 bedroom council house. I know her mother lived there before her, but the 6 bedroom house could be put to better use. My Grandma lives in a 4 bed council house that she lived in with her kids when they were still at home. She still lives there with her youngest daughter who is 42. When my Gran dies my aunt will be rehomed, probably in a 1 bed flat. This is only fair I think.

I grew up on a council estate and my parents still live there although they bought their house. It really annoys me when people say you should aspire to more, blah blah blody blah. Life is not the same for everyone, people have different opportunities - some more than others. So expat and disenchanted I can totally understand why you are offended - I would be too.