Under occupied council. HA property

[tweedysue]

When a woman & 2 children live in a council house and the children grow up and leave, thus leaving 1 woman living in a 3 bed council house do you think they should move into a smaller property ??? Personally I do especially as the rent is subsidised by the tax payer and a family could be living there.

That's true, Titus, social housing is actually very good value for money.

BTW, I do like your username

There isn't anywhere near enough affordable housing in the U.K.

However the answer isn't to expect people to leave their home once their children have left the nest. The answer is to build more homes.

The aim of the Bedroom Tax was to encourage people with a spare bedroom to downsize by making it unaffordable for them to stay put. In reality, though, there aren't enough smaller properties available for them to move to, so all that's happened is people are struggling to pay their rent.

This Government needs to start taking some responsibility for the fact we're in the middle of a housing crises and come up with a strategy to address it.

Indeed. Where the taxpayer pays the difference is with private rents - £10 billion a year in top up payments to private sector tenants claiming housing benefit. Straight into landlords' pockets. Now there's a subsidy. In the sense that actual public money is being put into private hands in order that so called market rent charges be met.

OP where do you think they should go? There is a lack of smaller accommodation especially given how many people have had to move so far due to bedroom tax.

Presumably your single person will now be paying bedroom tax for those spare rooms.

You could argue why would a family have more kids than they have bedrooms for and then there would be less families living in cramped spaces

OP, you are either just being a goady fucker or are just ignorant, ill-informed and making yourself look awful. Anyway, have a

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the OP is right (she's not) and that council houses could be let out at much higher rents. (The fact that they are let out at more reasonable rents STILL DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE SUBSIDISED but I will leave that aside for now.)

So - what would happen? The people who live there could no longer do so (higher rent) so where would they go? How would that affect the local economy? Who would live there instead? How would this benefit anybody?

Op council properties make a surplus.
It used to be that councils had a sort of ‘kitty’ where all the rent went and HAD to be used to make repairs to council houses/ build new houses. This isn’t the case anymore unfortunately and the surplus actually goes back into whatever the HA wants.
Maybe originally council houses were built using tax payers money but realistically with all the rent paid that’s probably been paid off by now? The cost of the land and cost to actually build the houses/flats is a lot less than market value and yet people still pay less mortgage than rent.
Also ‘most’ people who live in council houses aren’t receiving housing benefit ... look at the figures. I’m absolutely tired of people believing so much bullshit about council houses. Yes, they’re more affordable than private rent but that’s only because private rent is extortionate.
Anyway, looks like you’re not responding to reason. You’re ignoring the facts and just looking for a fight. I think it’s absolutely fine to start threads like this but allow yourself to be educated, there’s facts that contradict your OP and you’re just sprouting useless opinions.

I work for the finance dept of a HA rent is not subsidised by the taxpayer we just don't make 'profit' like private landlords do. Most of our tenants are good hardworking people who pay tax just like everyone else. If you want to moan about something go moan about massive corporations dodging tax not poor joe blogs who's just trying to get by in life

I am in a HA property which I got because DS is autistic and I needed a home which did not rely on me working full time.. I needed to spend a lot of time at home with him.

He’s now 15 and after three years I have final,y come off of housing benefit completely. I pay most of my rent from my wage....£400 a month and the rest is contributed by hubby from his income.

Of my neighbours there is only one I can think of who needs housing benefit....maybe two. The rest of us are working in a variety of lower paid jobs providing vital services ...in my case care work for a lady with severe disabilities. None of the jobs we do will make us rich but we nearly all pay our rent without housing benefit. I am 51 and have always worked....I claimed HB for Just the last three years while I supported my child.