How long are council housing waits for growing families?

[99Samblaze]

Hi
We moved to a one bedroom flat in Stockport a year ago. I had my son and now expecting again near Christmas. How long did people wait to get a council house of flat.
We can’t afford a two bedroom flat on the private market so having council house would help a lot.

Thank you

OP you will be waiting YEARS, so i would suggest putting some things into place yourself, can you partition one of the rooms? (living room or bedroom) so you have an “extra room” i am Band B (southwest) lacking 2 bedrooms for my disabled children and have been bidding weekly for 2 years and not even come close, i know its frustrating but you are coming across as a little entitled in your posts and i think that is what is frustrating other PPs you seem to expect to be moved quickly but unfortunately your situation is one in thousands across the country you will simply have to wait and be patient, apply to your council to be put in the system and just keep bidding, only thing you can do.

If she is on a low enough income, then she has every right to want and request social housing. Why SHOULDN'T the council house her if she fits the criteria? All it sounds like she wants, is affordable social housing for her family. Like millions of others have.

I'm gobsmacked at some of the responses on here. Anyone would think she's asking the Government for a 5 bed detached house in Kensington, and for the state to pay for it, with some of the responses she has got on here!

I'm just at some of the posts on here.

If I were you @99Samblaze I would ask for this thread to be deleted. It isn't going anywhere good anytime soon.

Why didn't you complete the teacher training straight after your PGCE? You could have taken maternity leave during your ECT year and then returned, completed it and gone into teaching ft. Just poor planning really on every front. Now you are having number 2, still haven't got your QTS and now can't afford to move to a bigger house?!

I imagine you will be waiting years as you aren't homeless, it might be a better plan to focus on getting your QTS and back into ft work so you can afford a bigger place privately.

Maybe I am too independent - but when I found myself in similar situation I a) moved to get a better job and cheaper housing and b) my family lived in a small house for their whole life. Now they are leaving home my house is bigger than we had when they were under 18.

I would not rely on social housing or the state - you sound independent already, so time to fight your way up the earning scale and find a solution yourself.

@LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway oh please get off your high horse. you do realise that there is a housing crisis dont you? a one bedroom flat would have been fine had she not got pregnant. her choice to change her circumstances not the local councils. actions, like having another baby have consequences and perhaps thinking about them before hand would be a better way to go.

the criteria are going to have to change. councils know this. they did a rebanding exercise a couple of years ago. they need to do it again. no one in my area who isnt a band a gets housed. no one. because there are not enough properties to go around. there are people earning a lot lot less than 30k who arent in council housing.

When I was working, much of my job was managing expectations. And that is what I would have been doing with the OP. Of course she can apply to the local authority, but she may well find that her husband is not eligible, that she is in a low band, or that what she wants to happen is unlikely. She will only know when she applies what is going to happen, no one here can tell her.

Social housing is not there to 'ease the expenses for a bit'. It is there for those who may be homeless or struggling for any roof. Therefore you will be back of a queue.

You might never get to the top of the housing list. This country is going down the pan. I don’t know where your husband is from, but if I were you I’d consider moving there. Welfare now exceeds income tax, so every penny of tax your husband pays is being poured into a bottomless pit. Taxes are going to keep rising, inflation is at 6%. Jobs are vanishing due to the tax burden in employers. We are in an economic death spiral. I honestly think the opportunities elsewhere will exceed here.

@mummymeister

If you think that me telling you FACTS, (that the OP is entitled to want and HAVE social housing if she fits the criteria set out by her local authority) is me sitting on my high horse, then you keep thinking that. I really don't care.

So the OP is pregnant again, soon after having a baby, and is a one bed flat, so what, it happens! It's ludicrous to say (as a few posters have said) that she should sit there cramped and overcrowded in a one bed flat with FOUR people in it (2 adults and 2 children.) and use the living room as a bedroom!!! No-one should have to put up with that, and that is why you have points for overcrowding on the housing application.

And as I said, if the OP fits the criteria and is on a low enough income, she has every right to have a social housing property. NOT everyone is able to buy!.

@mummymeister I am no longer responding to you on this thread.

Best of luck @99Samblaze I wish you well, and hope you get a 2 bed (or 3 bed) social housing property soon!

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Exactly. That;s what I said, if she qualifies (ie; is on a low enough income) she has every right to have a social housing property. If she's over the threshold then she won't.

@99Samblaze Only you know what income you are on, so we can't help you there, but all the best. Off out to the local nature reserve now as the weather is beautiful. I wish you well.

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I'm sorry people have gone so far right they are telling you to abort your baby, OP.

I've nothing to say to your question. I'm just really sorry this has happened to you on Mumsnet.

Thank you
I think he is on 40k because he works six days a week. But that means he has to pay more tax and fuel prices for his job. We hardly see him as he works very long hours. It would be nice to go on social housing and hopefully he can cut down his hours or at least work five days a week.

No chance! You'll be Band D.

Because we were worried with the financial situation we were in, that was my initial plan but I was already six weeks in and I felt so guilty and was in so much stress. We have cut down drastically because we also need to save for his visa application which costs roughly 5-6k and have to do the same in 2.5 years.

If your living room is not open plan to the kitchen then your flat is regarded as 2 bedroom. With 2 children under 11 or 2 of the same sex under 16 you are not going to get points for overcrowding.
it is only your husband who has no recourse to public funds. You can make a claim for benefits but his income will be taken into account.
Nothing is stopping you making a benefit claim and approaching the council for housing.

if your joint income is low enough you will get help with the rent.

All this information can be found on either your council website or gov.uk. You can also use entitledto or turn2us websites to check what benefits or housing you qualify for.

I suggest as an intelligent trainee teacher you get off mumsnet and do some research

@99Samblaze I would just close this thread. Stop explaining yourself to people who have made it plain they despise you. You don't owe anyone here a justification and they are not offering help. So click remove on the thread and go talk to a human who knows you in real life. In real life people aren't like this.

I'm truly sorry. MN didn't used to be quite so antinatal, but a lot of women have been unable to have as many children as they wanted due to this economy and it fuels ressentiment.

When I expecting our second baby, we were living in a small two bed flat, with our then 9 year old. I asked to see if we could get a bigger place and three months later, we were offered a large three bed house with a massive garden.
This was in the year 2000, and that was how it was.

It makes me so sad to see how bad things have become in just 26 years.
I work with, among others, people desperate for a secure home and cannot get my head around how incredibly lucky we were.

Like I said when I first moved into the flat I wasn’t pregnant and only accepted the one because of my salary at that time. I went from teacher role to TA role because it was causing me too much stress and just wanted to get my life back for a year.
I do wish I had planned things differently but I always wanted kids just wasn’t expecting one after another lol. I do count myself lucky as there is a lot of infertility in my family.

I heard a lot of people say that and some were offered council houses in places like Sale which is shocking. I think when Tories came in power they did sell some social houses to the private market that’s what I heard anyway.
I know things will get better in future as I am planning to get back to work but it would be nice to spend a year or two with my kids since I have always worked and just slow down.
I have cut back a lot.

That's not strictly true, a second reception room may be considered as a bedroom if it's not accessed from the kitchen, but generally speaking a person who is living in a self contained flat would be considered to need a living room as a living room. If the flat had a dining room and a living room one could be used as a bedroom., And natural progression of a family increase, in other words more children being born isn't considered unreasonable. What is considered unreasonable is taking in other people, for example an adult sibling, and then expecting additional priority.

Thank you

I am responsible for his sponsorship therefore we both cannot get UC. I don’t want UC anyway I just asked about social housing.

Then he stays home with the kids and you return to work. Nothing that says it has to be the woman who stays off.