Discrepancy between social housing rents verses private sector rents - how is this legal/fair?

[floffy]

I cannot understand how the discrepancy between the cost of social rents versus private rents is not breaching some kind of equality/discrimination/human rights laws .

My neighbours live in an identical sized property to ours, they have the same number of kids with no disabilities and roughly the same income as our household, yet they pay 1/3rd (or less) of what we pay and have a secure tenancy, whereas we have to always wonder whether our landlord will extend past 6 months. How can this possibly be legal or fair?

Never forget alemci you have the right to turn up in Poland etc and claim benefits etc. That is the thing with Europe. Do you propose we close our borders. Your point is grossly offensive. It might be the elephant in your room but not in mine. I rent to a Polish family (who work) and are topped up by HB - the work very hard and contribute with their taxes and have every right to make a claim for help.

Yes immigrant bashing, how completely regressive

My mortgages are interest only, if i swapped to repayment the profit would be wiped out! My profit before tax is about £400.

and of course interest rates are very low - that is £400 a month of course

but why are we not allowed to discuss this situation. It is a relevant point. I'm not bashing them just stating that it puts a strain on our social housing.

Poland maybe, not Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, china, USA ...

People have a right to claim asylum as you do. Like I said should we close our borders?

I'm not sure if you can still ask a rent officer to assess your rent to see if it is fair? I think you can if you receive HB

and makes no difference to the difference between social and private rents.

If you get HB it is done automatically because they have a Local Housing Allowance for each area and will only pay to that level.

Our Local Authority have some 'Affordable Rent' houses. That is, private landlords who offer 7 year Assured Shorthold Tenancies for no more than 80% of Market Rent.

bedroom tax part of the welfare reform bill pinged back to the house of lords

this is what the govt plan to do to solve the underoccupation issue

It's correct to say that plenty of people owned their own homes before Maggie came along but generally these were private builds and NOT social housing being sold off. So yes I would say Maggie has a huge amount of blame to accept for the current situation.

I pay a relatively high amount of rent , in excess if £1000 a month. I am fine with that as we choose to live here ad we could rent somewhere cheaper . I do not want a subsidy and it reflects the high mortgage. I would like to see lower house prices so that if people want to buy they are able and this in turn would bring down rents.

I certainly do now want to see social housing become more expensive , I would like to see more social housing for those that need it .

tories are selling off your houses with the thatcher right to buy being re introduced by turdfucker grant schapps

Open borders are good thing, I just doubt how popular our open borders would be without the Nhs and a welfare state.

My, this thread really has it all, doesn't it?

No ones mentioned a 52 inch plasma yet.

BINGO!

This is why I think council houses all need sorting out.

No more "this is your house and you can have it forever".

Do up all council houses so that they are suitable to be let out.

Let them out at market rate.

Give everyone enough housing benefit to afford "market rate" - means-tested.

If you need full housing benefit you pay nothing.

As you earn more, you receive less housing benefit and so pay more towards renting your house - no matter if it is a council house or a private rental.

No huge gap between the two.

If you do well for yourself the housing benefit will dwindle away to nothing, but there will be no shock because it has done it gradually.

Do you really think I should then be chucked out of my house just because things had improved for me?

Not 'chucked' but given we have a massive shortage of social housing, these need to be targeted at those who have the greatest need.

So whilst you see it as unfair that since things have improved you have to move out, the family who are in desperate need may see it as unfair that you are living in a house you do not NEED.

Yes, another solution would be to build more social housing but in the current climate, where would the money come from? Even if we did find some money, I sincerely doubt there'd be enough cash to build a home for everyone in need. Meaning we still have to prioritise.

We cannot simply build our way out of this problem anymore than building more motorways would solve traffic congestion.

@tether What do you mean has it all? Do you mean a fairly broad range of views, most of which are pretty valid?

No tardis. I don't mean that at all.

My father aged 81 and blindl ives next to me, on his own in a three bed rented property, he has lived there for 26yrs.

If this numty Government make him move, so be it,they can bloody well look after him in his new one bedroom flat.

I'll be too busy meeting the new requirements to quality for universal credit to travel far to look after him.

People don't need to be forced to move or starved out of their homes, there has been a wilful neglect and underinvestment in affordable homes since thatcher.

"Give everyone enough housing benefit to afford "market rate"

The Government is capping benefits inc HB because rents are too high. So people are already being forced to move from private housing where rents are high to other areas and still they have no hope of finding affordable housing, because there isn't any or they move to cheap areas with no work.

If you then move people out of HA and council housing and into the private sector, you are simply playing pass the parcel because people who work but are on modest incomes would then NEED to claim HB to pay these rents.

If you inflate council housing rents to market value this will inflate the market value of all housing.

The only answer to the problem is not to cut HB or move people, it is to regulate the private rental sector and cap rents, otherwise low waged workers in inner city areas who perform menial but nessasary work will be forced to leave their work, who will serve coffee in costas or empty your bins?

Even if this forces private landlords to sell up, this will help to drive lower house prices anyway. Invest in the building of affordable homes/council homes and give people who are house blocking on higher income a financial incentive to move out/buy/rent somewhere else.

@tether well what do you mean? It's a slightly pathetic form of argument to just smugly point out that everyone else is wrong but refuse to explain why.

No need to get upset, tardis- I didn't say that anyone was wrong.