How to get a council house -C4

[heyhulahoop]

Anyone watching? It's so depressing. So many zero hours contracts and racist rants.

Sorry, that was a bit long.
Just been on my mind recently.

Girl do you have somewhere nice to live now?

I live in a different are now, in a private rented flat, alone (bliss), and am considered star tenant , pay below market rent cos my landlord wanted to retain me as a tenant (round here I'm in with a much better chance of social housing), and have been offered a 5 year tenancy at the same price. Have been very lucky! I can cope with the artex under these conditions especially as allowed to decorate to my taste and charge landlord for paint. Only managed to get this due to sudden backdated benefit payment that meant I had deposit + rent upfront.

Not so many jobs around here though...

Incidentally, whilst I was enquiring about social housing I bumped into my landlord's agent. (Aka twat who got £200 for handing me a piece of paper to sign.) He was there trying to obtain council housing for an older female relative who'd been left by her husband. His job was to let private rentals and he was in cahoots with loads of local landlords and yet trying to wing it and get social housing when it came to his family!

Missed episode 2, catching up now. Woman imparting bad news about Birmingham has insane eyebrows!

Whitecovers I'm in the SE. Which makes it harder.

I strongly believe that Right To Buy should be stopped and certainly not extended to housing association properties. developers must be made to include "affordable" properties in their schemes, where I live it's supposed to be 50% but developers negotiate with the council and usually pay them off, a pittance compared to what they will make. Our council also "cleansed" it's waiting list a year or so ago. At the time, anyone from anywhere could apply to be in the list and it was massive so they've tidied it up in line with other councils. Then you've got the issue of massive fraud, especially in London and council properties on AirBnB when people go away in the summer or stay with friends to take advantage of the huge sums to be made. I'm just watching Council House Crackdown which is not the sort of thing I usually watch but it's bank holiday . We need more social housing!!

What I don't understand is why in their 10 years in government, Labour did not stop the flogging off of council housing. The HB bill is huge - did I read £23bn a year somewhere? So much of which is going into LLs' pockets, instead of going back into maintaining/increasing stock. And it's no use pretending that all private LLs give much of a toss about maintaining their properties adequately.

Anyone who's watched much Homes Under The Hammer will be familiar with LLs who buy a cheap property and do it up very cheaply, in the knowledge that they are more or less guaranteed £X in HB. I saw one who had turned one of the two small reception rooms into a bedroom, so he could claim a higher rate, and had a woman with 7 kids about to move in. He was grinning all over his face when he said what he was going to get in rent - it amounted to a 14% yield!

10 years of Labour government? 13 actually - 1997 to 2010

Right to buy isn't a bad thing IF the money is put straight back into more affordable homes. The older properties cost the councils a lot of money, but if they are sold there should be stricter rules about reselling and letting

I agree Trixie. I find it pretty shocking that former council properties are being let out at market rent by people who now own them. Just seems pretty bonkers.

I think the right to buy scheme was the worst thing Margaret Thatcher ever did. Why should those already paying a subsidised rent be able to then buy a property at a highly discounted price? So so unfair for those at the mercy of private landlords who will struggle to or never get on the property ladder.

There is still a divide between those who think of it as subsidised rents, or not. I don't believe my house is subsidised rent, I pay fair affordable rent on a house that was paid for many years ago. I also pump lots of money into my home - the council here will d structural work and boiler only. I have to replace and renovate everything else, even down to the windows and doors and toilet. So I'm paying for the upkeep of the home, on the behalf of my landlord basically. I don't see why that shouldn't be reflected in some way if I were to buy the property in the future. (Which I currently don't plan to)

And...re. subsidised rent...what about the many houses across the UK which are provided by large country estates? They're cheap...because the estates have help from the government towards the upkeep! You don't see the residents of those cottages getting labelled as scroungers!

Violet
I work for a trust who owns a whole northern village >600 houses, they are all let privately and there iss no subsidy even though thay are in trust and it has charitable status. Rents are market rents Approx £500pcm for a one bed up to £2500 for a grand 5 bed detached. It is obscene that one organisation owns all this. Credit check all applicants, no HB accepted although tenants whose circumstances have changed are in receipt.

Some elderly tenants are on fair rents (regulated and inspected by a gov agency)as they took thir tenacy up decades ago and pay peanuts but they are responsible for all but structural repairs.
Thay re a good LL om the whole, if you pay your rent you get to stay for as long as you like, properties are only sold once notice is given by the tenant.

My god!! £1100 a month to live in a garage!!

I feel very sorry for the Council employees who are trying their very best to help people. There are simply not enough house to accommodate all the people in need.

I hate the way the housing officers always look up and stare in an accusing/judgemental way when something is said that isn't agreeable to them. They all do it.

The environmental health bloke who went to that couples house with the mould and the two year old child.

He said somewhere like that is not suitable for a child.........fair enough. Agree.

And then goes on to say It would be ok for a single person or a couple though.

Cupid do be aware that these things are messed with in editing. They show a person's reaction to one thing when in fact it was a reaction to something else at another time.

I haven't seen this recently but the comment up thread said 91% of claimants are British born. Does that mean many of the claimants are second generation immigrants. It could make a lie of the constant claim that immigration is good for Uk

No margie, it means that 91% of claimants are British born.

Looking at some of these places it's shocking to think this is going on in 2016!

All these mould / condensation issues- is this inevitable because of over crowding or not knowing about opening windows after showering and airing the place?

I only saw the first half of this but my god

I wouldn't let an animal live in those conditions that that couple lived in, (the ones that had had to send their child to live elsewhere) it was a slum. mould everywhere and what the hell had the landlord done with the gas supply

And don't even get me started on 1100 a month to live in a fucking garage

Oh no that poor family, they didn't get rehoused the LL was just forced to install storage heaters which will cost a fortune to run. What about the damp course? Ffs!

It shocks me what people think is acceptable to pass off as living accomodation. Appalling, not fit for storing furniture in let alone housing a family.

All the people on the show saying immigrants get housed quicker, you're not helping me because i'm white etc, you can see the newspapers etc have done their job well can't you?