What was worse was/is that the local authority only gets to keep a fraction of the money. So not only did they lose housing stock, but they didn’t have the money to buy new stock or development land. And local authorities can’t compete with private developers for buying most land, they don’t have the deep pockets and no longer have the expertise to develop and build. So most social housing now built by housing associations, who have developed that expertise, often in partnership with private developers.
However this government’s scrapping of the affordable housing requirements and tearing up the housing standards for minimum space and energy efficiency means the situation will only get worse.
The tenants in those houses would not have been able to bear “very near or at market value”, and councils were restricted in the amount of property that they could build by government policy.
This one is down to Thatcher (not that a subsequent Labour government did much to reverse it) although it at least partly falls to “unintended consequences”.
Even within the last couple of years my disabled cousin and his wife lived in local authority housing especially adapted for him. When they were splitting up even though she had been a good tenant for nearly 30 years, was in an unbearable position and he obviously couldn’t move ,she had to go down the private rental path
A horrid experience for you and your children Vanessa.
I last set foot in the UK when I brought my mum across to live with me, over 20 years ago now. Didn’t think that things could get worse but after reading your post they obviously can !
I have no desire to ever return to the UK … I would sooner be homeless here !
Long may you continue to enjoy your own little paradise too …
Not quite . I worked in the housing loan department of the UK’s central bank. Many of the staff at the site I worked in lived in council properties. Yes council properties could be bought at a discount but there were limits on the amount of the discount and rules on resale by the purchaser. If the property was sold in the first year the full amount (100%) of the discount had to be repaid. There was a sliding scale and a percentage of the discount was repayable (ie 80% if within 1 year ) then 60, 40, 20 until you’d lived in it for more than 5 years after which the discount wasn’t repayable .
Oh goodness - that old chestnut . And your previous comment that “the rest of us are paying for it”. Well “the rest of us” - in actual fact all of us , indirectly pay for education, social services, welfare benefits, emergency services etc etc yet many of us may never have children or use those services. It’s called civilised society . A society that cares for all, not just for itself . Social housing is, like all the other services a safety net. There to provide a home for those less fortunate or able to provide one for themselves or who find themselves in difficult circumstances-homeless - as indeed I did, with 2 small children so if you’re going to judge then you’ve chosen the wrong person.
Back to the discount. At risk of stating the obvious it was an incentive to buy. An inventive for those who had fallen on hard times and needed a roof above their heads but who’s fortunes had subsequently improved and yet didn’t earn enough to get finance to buy in the housing market .
As I said in my previous post there are conditions on the right to buy. To begin with not every tenant has the right to buy. Then they also have to have lived in the property for a qualifying period. The amount of discount is dependent on the number of years the tenant has lived in the property & it’s also capped at a monetary limit. In my area where house prices are extremely high (average price of a 3 bed semi is £370k) it was £72k when I last checked. The property is valued at commercial prices based on what similar properties in the area have sold for before the discount is applied . The tenant had , in order to qualify, probably paid the discount sum in rent over the years they’d lived there. I personally think it’s a fair scheme . Over their lifetimes those who live in social housing have probably paid many times over in rent what their house was originally “worth”. I say worth in quotes as in truth a house is really only worth what it costs to build . Inflation, greed and perceived lack of supply have led to the high prices currently placed on properties. When I was moved into our “hovel” - it certainly wasn’t worthy of the word home , it was probably worth about £25k. Over the years I paid about £150k in rent. Sadly many people , me included, for various reasons , were never able to afford to buy their council /HA property . By the time I was eligible I didn’t earn enough to get a mortgage . I’d been repossessed so I doubt any of the usual companies would’ve touched me and I was of an age where I didn’t want to have a mortgage that would last into my retirement. There are those who no doubt thought I should no longer be in social housing , that I should have moved out or downsized when my children left home. Perhaps I should’ve but it, by then was my home , I’d made it so. And eventuality it did, thanks to my dear dad’s legacy, go back into the “housing stock” when I inherited part of his estate & moved here last year.
Sadly the people who’ve been given it don’t sound like they will take care of it like I had. We’re still in touch with our ex neighbours who are good friends and helped us to move here. Over the years I’d worked hard to improve the property and it’s large garden. At my own expense I had new flooring & shutters installed, the whole house decorated and with help from the various landlords had turned it from a hovel into a pleasant and comfortable place to live. When we handed it back the inspector said it was one of the best kept properties she’d ever seen. Sadly the new tenants don’t even look after their children & animals.
Mat - indeed you are not. I think each and every one of us has (possibly) asked “why is so-and-so getting that…” (whatever benefit “that” might be).
In any country - it is only human nature to wonder why one section of society is perceived (rightly or wrongly) to gain an advantage over another.
Until one is on “the other side of the fence” - a situation might well be considered “unfair”. From the other side - the view will doubtless be different.
With regard to selling-off Council Housing:
Many families breathed a sigh of relief when they were finally able to own their own homes. (Good for them, I say…)
Many families viewed the purchase merely as a way of making money (albeit with certain restrictions). I wonder how many of us can say, with hand on heart, that if we had been offered a similar opportunity - we would not have taken it ???
Same thing with my parents. They rented all their lives, always kept the property impeccable. When the ‘right to buy’ arrived my dad was too scared to go for a mortgage despite the fact that they would have in fact been paying a few pounds less than rent and they would have had some stability…
Doesn’t make them right or good though. Speaks volumes about the people who hold them too. Perhaps it’s one of the reasons why the U.K. is now such a divided nation. Maybe if people had thought about others as much as they did about themselves they wouldn’t have inflicted 3 years of uncertainty & all the consequent damage that has wrought onto those who didn’t hold the same point of view .
Perhaps my life experiences have given me a different perspective although I’ve always believed in a society that helps those less fortunate & benefits everyone in equal measure .
I WAS made homeless . It was without exaggeration one of the darkest times in my life. Not for the material loss but for the sheer uncertainty of not knowing when it would finally happen - see a similarity with something else emerging ? It didn’t happen suddenly. It took months, years. Not that I need to nor will I justify how or why it happened, but I wasn’t irresponsible. I perhaps made some foolish life choices but that’s easily said with the benefit of that awful word hindsight. I had a good although not highly paid job . Suffice to say it happened and I was never thereafter in a position to buy even my HA property let alone pay a private rent.
It can and does literally happen to anyone. I tried every avenue I could think of . I wrote to every organisation could think of to avoid being homeless. Many people are less fortunate and don’t have the wit or wherewithal to even try . The judge on the day possession was granted actually told me to give up trying as I’d done all I could possible could have done.
I for one was very very grateful I was re housed and allowed to stay in Social Housing even though the house I was given was initially almost uninhabitable - I really am not exaggerating . Legislation has in one respect
Improved the quality of such Housing over the years at least . Sadly it has also made it incredibly difficult for people who now find themselves in the position I was in.
None of us can predict the future . We can’t possibly plan for every eventuality. I would like to think that others would be afforded a helping hand in their hour of need and I for one don’t resent paying towards that help .
There IS sufficient housing available in the U.K. What in my opinion is shameful is that Government figures show there are more than 600,000 homes across just England currently vacant, with a third empty for six months or more. Why is nothing done to house the homeless in these properties ? Because people have sought to profit from buying houses and letting them out or worse they buy and do up property which they seek to make large profits on or even just leave empty waiting for the price to rise . Hopefully legislation is changing which will stop this in future . One such is that is significant changes to the rules on property tax relief are currently being phased in, which may have implications for those looking to rent out or purchase additional properties.
