Lifetime Social Housing Tenancies

[RowsOfFlowers]

Am I wrong or being unreasonable to think that this new policy that Labour are bringing in is very unfair?

I come from a poor-ish background (as in no one in my wider family has any money). However, my mum and Dad did fairly okay and managed to move up the property ladder (through sheer hard work and sacrifice). My dad died a few years ago and so now it’s just my mom. We never received any benefits - and now my DH and I live in a house and pay a high interest rate (thanks Truss) and I don’t know if we will ever pay off our house (if I am to have children and go part time), so we will need to downsize. We don’t qualify for any benefits either but we are in the squashed middle, so we really feel it when anything rises in cost and don’t get any help.

I feel really cross that someone can benefit from social housing for a lifetime, no matter how much they go on to earn, and then if they pass away, they can pass it down as an asset.

I have a friend who’s parents came to this country, got given social housing, their children paid it off (40% discount) and now they all get to keep a £650k house in London. It doesn’t seem fair to me at all. I feel really disillusioned living in the UK.

I just read on the Shelter website that as of September 2024, 164,040 children are homeless with their families in temporary accommodation in the UK - up 21,650 (15%) from last year.

This is one reason why periodic means testing of social housing should happen.

It is so boring to read responses like this. They simply aren't rooted in reality. It's like people saying that all children should receive a fantastic education, no person should live in poverty and that everyone should have access to excellent healthcare. It assumes that there are no constraints and there is infinite money and resource.

NIMBYism isn't the only reason why we don't have enough social housing. Not even by half. You might have noticed that not enough housing is even being built for profit, let alone social housing. We are a country that is an enormous amount of government debt. We pay 2/3rds of the NHS budget just to service this debt each year. We don't have the money to fund all the social housing that people want. We don't have the skilled labour require to build the houses. Landowners won't just give away their land for free, materials are expensive and skilled workers charge an awful lot. This is why I'm many areas of the country it is hard to get a developer to sign up to developing the land with a large amount of non social housing on it that they can sell for profit. Even in this context there isn't the profit margin in it for them. You are dreaming if you think we can just put up a load of social housing.

So in this actual real life context, what do we do with the limited amount of social housing we have? Who do we allocate it to? If we give it to someone for life then there are potentially multiple other families who will miss out on social housing when they most need it.

MN is an odd place. On here, people who buy and live in houses that others deem “too big” for them or who own second houses are vilified. Selfish, greedy, ruining society. My house would definitely be described by some on here as too big for me, I also own a second home. But I have bought and paid for both, with my own money, no inheritance, no family wealth at all. I am the first generation in my family to own a home. I pay enormous amounts of tax both on my income and then in stamp duty, second home stamp duty, second home council tax etc etc. and my second home isn’t empty, we spend 3 nights a week there, every week, longer in the holidays. But I am criticised to death. But someone who remains in social housing, even when they can afford to leave, to free up a safe secure home for someone in entirely unsuitable temporary accommodation? That’s seen as perfectly fine. I agree that everyone should have access to a safe, secure home and we need more social housing to be available to more people, but the double standards just create more division.

I know and I agree with them

I think this country needs to decide whether it wants Austrian style social housing for all or red in tooth and claw capitalism. The prevarication between one and the other is frankly more harmful.

Duh - it’s a council house
he is on the tennancy
makes no difference if she goes into a care home
he is on the tenancy as a joint Tennant with his Nan
when she passes away he will be the sole Tennant of the property

he can stay there or exchange for somewhere else
but he can’t add or pass on this tenancy to anyone else
so if he was to marry a partner or let a partner move in they couldn’t be added to the tennancy

Completely agree.

It’s not a ‘new policy that Labour are bringing in’ - the article you posted refers to policy in one London borough, which happens to be Labour-run.

I live in a HA property.
The area is terrible, my kitchen is falling apart as it’s over 25 years old and my house is very old.

My rent goes up every year but my tenancy is secure as long as my rent is paid.

I work full time and would love to move to a different area but I know that the private rental market is so expensive and fluid that I’m better off staying put.

My HA is prioritising building new shared ownership houses rather than making improvements.

If I owned I could make the improvements but I can’t afford to.

Yes, it's wrong and unjust, but it's been going on for years. UK is (still) a very rich socialist country with never-seen-anywhere else free health service and a very generous benefit system. But things will probably change gradually over the next 20-30 years due to the unstastainable budget deficit, the ongoing immigration and a growing pressure on NHS due to aging population.

I think you are coming across very holier than thou. My husband earns well thank you. We have not over extended. I live in the SE of England. I also work in healthcare - a much needed profession. I think you ought to be more critical of blaming the pittance that is statutory mat leave rather than blame myself or my poor husband. What a horrible person you are.

edit: this was aimed at a pp that has now been deleted

Thank you!!!!

Calling a respondent “a div” is out of order, OP.

Absolutely agree with the last paragraph. I feel like it’s perpetuating a problem. If you can afford to rent or buy a house, you shouldn’t be in social housing. We just don’t have enough right now.

She called me far worse.

Rise above it.

I apologise but that particular poster has personally attacked me and my husband?!

I’m not sure how this would work in practice though. Would it be based on income or savings and what would the threshold be?

Did I? I assume you’re talking about me, and if so, I said social housing tenants are not to blame for you overextending yourself and taking on a mortgage you can’t comfortably afford, and that you should probably spend more time thinking of ways your husband can increase his income so you can have more than six months of maternity leave rather than wishing worse circumstances on other people because you’re not happy with your housing situation.

I know from personal experience with a person who thinks and expresses their discontent like you, that it’s very tiring to be around. They always have it worse than everybody, and so instead of spending their energy advocating for better for people like them, they bitterly wish ill on others who they see as having it “better” than them in a specific area.

Why should I pay towards the council tax of people who own their own property?

If they don't like it they can always sell up and apply for social housing.

It’s not secure. It’s dependent on two people working full time, for longer than that is likely.

It’s unhelpful for social housing to be so much cheaper than private. It’s one of the things making life so tenuous. If the costs were closer, more social housing would be built with the excess income, more people would be housed and all rents would then go down.

You won't be paying to their council tax. You would be reducing the subsidy you take from them.

It's not social tenants fault op bought a house she cannot afford. I need to work fulltime to afford my house too. The difference is I won't end up with an assest worth hundreds of thousands after x amount of years.

My rent won't ever be paid off. I will be paying for my house until I die or move.