Council housing query

[user13842]

When there is a council housing shortage, why do Council’s not manage those living in the homes they have better? For example, I know of someone who lives on their own in a 3-bed council house in my area as their children have now left home. I also know of a family of 4 (2 parents, 2 children) who are living in a small 2 bed council flat. I appreciate this won’t cater for everyone but why do Council’s not routinely check up on who they are housing in what and encourage swaps where appropriate so that everyone is housed according to their needs? Appreciate it isn’t as straightforward as all that but surely it would be relatively easy to create a system to flag suitable swaps when they came up based on regular checks on circumstances.

I also know of a couple who were in council housing for a couple of years despite suddenly earning a lot of money and was very surprised the Council didn’t do regular checks on this to identify those who could afford private renting and move them on for those in need.

@Toddlerteaplease but they will have a lifetime tenancy a home for life which is what council houses were
where do you think they should go to a 5th floor flat or what?
they will have paid enough rent to cover the house costs over, there is a lack of suitable properties for people to move to
also maybe they cannot afford it, moving costs, removals , new carpets , decorating new home, maybe making garden nice etc
the answer is to build more suitable housing not force people to move who don’t want to or can’t

All the people wanting people to
move and downsize are always those who own their own properties.
throwing people out of their homes goes against what council houses were built for. They are not quite as cheap as they used to be, but for me its the security.not having to move every 18 months.
don’t blame those living in Ha houses blame successive goverments for bot building enough and for allowing houses in many areas to become unaffordable for those to buy. Campaign for more social houses rather than trying to force people out of their homes

@sometimesmovingforwards disgusting attitude , not everyone has well paid jobs, peoples situations change sometimes for the better
you do realise council houses were built for those who worked ? Not every country has a fascination with owning a property either. Don’t look down on others , anyone can fall off a pedestal. Your attitude says more about you than the vast majority who work and put a lot in to their council / HA house. Many councils sold to HA , not all who live in HA houses pay social rent, many pay affordable which can still be £1000 a month etc.
read up and learn a little

@CrotchetyQuaver your a but behind the times as lifetimes tenancy’s are back and the shorter ones not so common. As where you moving people to when you reassess ? They don’t build enough. Also many councils sold out to HA. In the area I am in hardly any LA own any houses , mostly social housinh

I think if he had been supported by a solicitor he would have been rehoused to a one bed. But he was 19 and grieving.

Well, people aren't lego pieces.

In a good quality council estate people tend to be very static for generations and invest in the community. They keep their homes and gardens well and invest time, money and effort into maintaining the property. Move people frequently and they won't invest or give a shit.

All second homes should be seized and turned into social housing. No one needs more than one property.

They do. And they offer cash for people to down size. If you are on benefits you will be paying over the odds for a 3 bedroom place.

Councils even pay people to move towns sometimes, I'm in Wolverhampton, a few years ago we had an influx of people from London. They usually swapped a flat for a house with at least the same number of bedrooms eg a 3 bed flat for a 3 bed house with a garden.

My next door neighbour downsized from a 3 bed house to a 2 bed bungalow, he had lived his whole life in the next street, his father still lived there, as @Dogaredabomb said lots of people like to live in the same area.

Council estates are one of the few places that actually have communities.

@healthadvice123 yes they should mine once they don't need a large house.

What corruption is going on in housing associations? Do you have evidence of it?

I am so so lucky with mine. They've been amazing. I tell them regularly.

But my older neighbour, she is not as able to fight and advocate for herself. She's living in filthy mould invested hell.

It's not right it's this way. I try not count my chickens.

My worst experience was supporting vulnerable people in one job of mine. The behaviour of certain private landlords was just appalling. Tight fisted, greedy and disgraceful behaviour.

Agree. The system is outdated and not fit for purpose. They should reassess and move people to one bed apartments once kids are gone.

Yet people in council housing are claiming that they are paying for their housing and not being subsidised by the tax payer.

The rent paid by social tenants should cover the cost of maintaining the properties. The system should be self sufficient. If it's not, then they aren't paying enough for their housing.

They're not though, because councils can't afford to maintain the properties with the rent they are getting.

It's not the 1950s anymore. Anyone can apply, but most stand virtually no chance of being allocated it. It is allocated based in need. The system needs to be updated accordingly.

It's not a lottery though, because not everyone stands an equal chance of winning. It is allocated based on need, and therefore that 'need' should be continually assessed.

@MidnightMeltdown
Where I live , the local
council are currently refitting kitchens, doors and windows and have rough casted & reroofed most houses.

I don't know what to say but I do know my next door neighbour ( council , we own) has been housed in a 2 bedroom upstairs/ downstairs house and he lives alone.

Because he has kids he was given that. Kids don't come much. They are older/ teens And never stay long on the odd occasion I see them.

Me and my family are crammed in same size house , it's all we can afford. Oh and he doesn't even work due to mental health and smokes drugs so place stinks.

But... it is ... what it is. I'd love to have been given a council house but never " had priority " ended up buying an ex one and hate the ares . Neighbours have turned it into a dump on all sides. Mix of council and private / rental.

Our Horizon!!!

"OneSanctuary SAP is the name of a multi-million pound software system brought in by Sanctuary in 2016, designed for use by all areas of the business. It has been an unmitigated failure, and is a huge drawback of working for this company.
The issues caused by SAP are staggering and difficult to keep track of. Because SHA tried to implement SAP in a cost effective manner, they ended up vastly under-investing in critical elements. There is no tailoring of the generically presented system ('vanilla SAP'), which is an issue as social housing is a unique environment from a service delivery and CRM perspective, whereas vanilla SAP is more geared towards providing a solution for manufacturing industries. Thus, the system uses corporate nonsensical buzzwords and methods of handling accounts which absolutely do not reflect industry practice.
Here are just some examples of the more specific issues faced by staff:
No rent statements have been issued since it was implemented in August 2016, and if a resident insists on a rent statement it has to be prepared manually in a spreadsheet
The rent and calculations for accounts are hard to use, and often completely wrong. Mostly because the system was never designed to understand housing benefit payments, and this has a very convoluted workaround which a computer cannot make sense of.
SAP cannot interface with Local Authorities Housing benefit systems so payments are missed, lost or misattributed
Direct debits do not work reliably, and for a long time following the implementation did not work at all. Front line staff are now preferring standing order.
The front end system of SAP requires far more testing and money spent on it. Each customer account is a total mess of information, with no discernible way to separate notes left between differing departments, with information left by staff often going into the wrong account entirely. This needs looking at as from a compliance (DPA) point of view the breaches are serious
From a usability point of view, the view of a customers account within SAP CIC does not display appropriate information to the user (as stated before this is likely because the system was never designed to be used by a HA) and the user often has to go trawling around back end systems to find obviously relevant data (e.g tenancy start date, account balance, property type etc). This is a seemingly minor but considerable waste of resources"

I know you wernt asking me but you"re welcome

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5109616-to-think-social-housing-tenants-need-their-horizon-moment-and-lessons-have-not-been-learned

the postmasters had evidence dear. Didnt stop them going to prison did it!!!!

Hope their scaffolders are more careful than they are at my friends

That's not corruption though. It's incompetence. It's wasteful and it's poor sustems implementation, and it's very annoying. But it's not corruption. Corruption would be where someone is deliberately profiting from it, and I can't see that happening in your post.

There are areas of social housing provision which are susceptible to fraud and corruption, but that doesn't mean it's actually happening. I'm interested in whether people have specific examples of corruption which is actually happening, as opposed to the general belief that there are brown envelopes and backhanders going on.

That's not corruption though. It's incompetence. It's wasteful and it's poor sustems implementation, and it's very annoying. But it's not corruption. Corruption would be where someone is deliberately profiting from it, and I can't see that happening in your post

Would you call what happened to the postmasters corruption. They were accused of stealing money that they havent.

Sanctuary tenants were/are accused of not paying rent when they did.
Post Office pretended there was nothing wrong with Horizon
Sanctuary Housing pretend there is nothing wrong with their system.

Oh hang on a min There hasnt been an ITV drama made about it yet so it cant be classed as corruption till then MY BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Genuinely aghast that there are some here who think council housing is 'subsidised' and also aghast at how utterly patronising and offensive some of you are.