AIBU to totally disagree with 'the right to buy'?

Good idea Elegran especially with the restriction on the potential profit. It is just wrong to profiteer at the expense of other needy families deprived of reasonable housing.
Councils are among the first to be blamed though for taking the easy way out , they have passed the buck to the housing associations and nobody can deny the appalling shortage of fair rent housing. Surely it was also a source of income to local authorities?
However to put all the blame on immigration is to miss the point. And however unequal our society might be regarding who can afford to buy a house or not, that is just the way things are. What you earn, where you live and work, all play a part and ironically I suspect the onward sale of local authority housing at a huge profit is a major factor in the unavailability of affordable starter homes.

Re maintenance of council houses - I said I know that these are automatically maintained. I also know from experience that many tenants do their own maintenance, keep house and garden immaculate, and are never behind in paying their rent, so I hope that no-one in this thread starts implying anything else.

I will repeat myself - If they pay an amount which will build a replacement for the person in the queue who will not be able to get a house at a reasonable rent when that one is taken out of stock, and if councils have a policy of building more - that is OK.

This housing is needed, it doesn't make sense for an authority with a long list of people waiting for a house to sell without replacing. No car hire firm would do that.

But if they get it at a knockdown price which will not pay for replacing it, then they are standing on others to get it. Not on the wealthy, but on those who could be living unexploited in these houses that are maintained for them automatically. (The quality of the maintenance is a whole new subject, I know that authorities vary on this)

The question of people selling on as soon as possible at an enormous profit could be solved somehow - already there is a limit in the contract on how soon they can be resold, perhaps that could be made longer. There could be a clause that if resold within a certain time they must be first offered back to where they were bought from at the original price plus the average house percentage price rise in that area. That would keep them in the housing stock.

'Take take take and sod everybody else'
Wow! We really don't live in the same world!
What an unpleasant start to the day - I'm out of here!

I think the point is that living in a council house (or housing assoc) is fine. You get a lower than market rent, you get all your maintenance done and unlike the private sector, you have a decent landlord who won't rip you off (many private ones do e.g. keeping deposits for trivial reasons, not to mention failing to deal with damp etc). If you don't like the street you're in you can apply for a swap.
I know there are council estates that are not great to live on, but people still stay rather than launching out into the private sector.
So why should these relatively lucky people be given what is effectively a cash gift from the public purse?

We brought our house in 1982, paid for it in 4 years, enjoyed tax relief and now I'm told that the house is worth £180,000.

Why am I telling you this, "Get in first, because if you don't others will".

The amount of ideologist on this forum is pleasing but not in the world that I live, here you take, take, take and sod everybody else.

MOnica is the only one dealing in facts, Long may she post.

Why can't a working class person who works just the same hours and probably more be able to buy their own house? Or is that only for the affluent
Maybe because some people earn more than others, some people have 2 wages and no children, some have several, some only have 1wage -have you never asked yourself why some people earn more than others?

If what they pay for it will be used to build a replacement that someone who DOESN'T want to buy can rent, no reason at all.

All those chips must make it very difficult to get your shoulders into your clothes.

Oh dear I also forgot to mention that wealthy people have accountants that help them dodge so many taxes its laughable.

Why can't a working class person who works just the same hours and probably more be able to buy their own house? Or is that only for the affluent?

Lots of piping ready in place too, DJ The wine would have to be piped through quickly into the water supply system and not allowed to accumulate and sink the flask(s) Drink up!

This could be interesting for London housing.

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/24/footballers-400m-social-housing-dream-unveiled

But that's my point stillaliveandkicking, money isn't being put into building more properties and I don't agree that those wishing to buy their council houses should do so at below the market value.

In the midst of all this vitriol perhaps you'd explain why you find it necessary to criticize a poster for writing in paragraphs.
How does a lack of punctuation enhance the discussion?

ok then you read an "article" what about all the genuine workers that want to buy? why aren't the government putting money into building more properties? Oh I think that might be changing.

Well, if the article I've read is accurate stillaliveandkicking and Arthur Scargill can buy a London flat for 1 million, when the going rate is 2 million that to me is well below the market rate.

Of course, if the money raised from the sale of these properties had been used to build more that would have been something, but as it is there's a severe shortage of social housing and yet the right to buy continues.

I don't agree that the price of council houses should be discounted at all. In the private rental market, if a landlord decided to sell a rental property and a long time tenant wanted to purchase it, they wouldn't expect to receive a discount and in all probability wouldn't receive one.

These look big enough to hold quite a lot of wine.

www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/our-green-electricity/and-the-sea/seamills

Unfortunately if they were full of wine, they would sink, so not do the job properly.

Must be a man.

Apologies to all those kind and thoughtful, caring men on here.

Who's facts? Stats? fudging figures? Ok then. Im going to my grave knowing that we are finally getting out of the European government. That to me is priceless.

Our 2 responses were posted in seconds. I accept that you have made up your mind, I will not confuse you with facts.

SAAK and your credentials are?

No not rude just real. Do I know anything about this subject.... I live it.

Are you just gratuitously rude stillaliveandkicking?? Or do you actually know anything about this subject?
Your comments about "blowing smoke up people's arses" seems extraordinarily technical and erudite. Do sentences containing words of more than one syllable constitute "up their arses paragraphs"?
Perhaps it is past your bedtime (^yawn, yawn^) but M0nica does seem to have the benefit of knowing what she is talking about - presumably gleaned from "the real world" but perhaps that is not "your" world?

Dont start me off on the stupid turbines wasn't there some sort old boy network that started them off?