Britons ‘to be priority on council house lists’

In 2021, according to Kim van Sparrentak, an MEP, and some un-named OECD experts, the whole of Europe is facing a housing crisis.

Access to housing is a fundamental right, and one that is guaranteed at EU level. But it has become painfully clear to me that today, European rules are often better at protecting those making profit on the housing market than people who need a roof over their head. This has to change. (The OECD Forum Network)

We, together with Greece, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, and Romania, are the most overburdened by the cost of housing.

It's quite obvious that unless affordable accommodation is built - accommodation that cannot be snapped-up for investment opportunities, the crisis will simply get worse.

All the short-term schemes by governments to help first-time buyers, and the tacking-on of so-called affordable housing to new developments, are just fiddling around the edges of the problem.

We need to build houses and apartments that people can afford to buy or rent. There is no other solution. IMO.

Indeed. Not a good move IMO.

I really don’t know know what’s going to happen to the renting sector when Section 21 is scrapped in 2023.
Landlords are selling in record numbers.

We in the UK have long been big drinkers/substance misusers. It’s now an epidemic and at the root of many of the problems listed here, with neglected homes and scrap yard gardens. A group of mavericks who contribute little positive to the country/their community and take disproportionate resources.
12 years of austerity has done nothing to change this. The separation between those who do and those who dont gets bigger

Germanshepherdsmum

I speak from experience, having bad to threaten a housing association with litigation because of the behaviour of some of the occupants of rented housing on a large ongoing development. They had been relocated from slums and continued to behave as though they were still living in slums, not brand new homes with gardens. The gardens were untended and used to dump rubbish. Imagine buying a new home off plan and when it was ready finding that next door.

This is what has happened in our small market town. A new development has attracted occupiers from some considerable distance away. Moved on from the city they previously lived in, and it’s easy to see why.

These brand new homes now have gardens that resemble Steptoe’s yard, anyone local who was rehoused there ( I’m thinking of one family with several children who needed a larger property) must have thought they were so fortunate to get offered one.

I bet they rue the day they moved to this ‘no go’ area which keep the police busy with drugs and related incidents.

If I sound judgemental, I make no apologies. It’s fact.

What has happened here is people have moved further and further out from the city centres because property is cheaper. Lo and behold, all those cheap properties have now doubled in price whereas the city ones have dropped or remained the same. There isn’t much of a sense of entitlement towards housing commission houses, you can’t get one so you have to be independent or share houses.

I speak from experience, having bad to threaten a housing association with litigation because of the behaviour of some of the occupants of rented housing on a large ongoing development. They had been relocated from slums and continued to behave as though they were still living in slums, not brand new homes with gardens. The gardens were untended and used to dump rubbish. Imagine buying a new home off plan and when it was ready finding that next door.

Germanshepherdsmum

Housing Association tenants don’t have the right to buy, thank goodness, though it has been suggested.

There is very little private affordable housing. The vast majority of the affordable housing built as part of private developments is transferred to housing associations or local authorities. There is considerable resistance by developers to provision of social housing for rent on private developments because - and working for developers I’ve seen it before someone calls me a snob - the behaviours of people buying shared ownership housing and those renting social housing, and the way they look after their properties, can be very different.

My daughter lived in a terrace of 5 properties, new build, rented social housing GSM, as a single parent it was all she could afford. All beautifully kept and they all got on well, I think yes, that is being a snob and tarring a specific group of people with a very broad brush

Foxie48, join those of us who share your view.

Sorry but I've only read part of this thread, surely subsidised housing should be given to those in greatest need? Does it matter if they are British born or if they have been accepted as a legal immigrant? Doesn't the "need" matter most? Surely children matter more than time serving?

It’s only viable for a housing association or local authority which can take a long term view. It’s certainly not viable in the short term.

I really don't see how cheap housing is to be achieved. Building costs are high. How can it be viable to build a house to be rented cheaply when the initial costs are high? Cheap council homes for poor people are a thing of the past. If nothing else, this concept would cause resentment among the vast majority who are stuck with high rental costs.
Slightly off-subject, I was interested in Prince William trying to help homelessness in the Duchy of Cornwall. There will be a lot of homelessness in the future, I fear.

Housing Association tenants don’t have the right to buy, thank goodness, though it has been suggested.

There is very little private affordable housing. The vast majority of the affordable housing built as part of private developments is transferred to housing associations or local authorities. There is considerable resistance by developers to provision of social housing for rent on private developments because - and working for developers I’ve seen it before someone calls me a snob - the behaviours of people buying shared ownership housing and those renting social housing, and the way they look after their properties, can be very different.

It's another version of this but instead of jobs/money, it's homes. There aren't enough council properties due to the great sell off but it's easier to blame 'immigrants' than admit that the previous governments (Con and Lab) have caused it or allowed it to continue. The only way to solve the housing problem is to introduce a massive building plan of social housing (not private 'affordable' housing) and get everyone back into good quality accommodation. If a social housing tenant wants to become a home owner then they'll have to go out onto the open market to buy and not pay a knock down price for the house they live in. I lived in a privately rented house for 15 years and, if my landlord had wanted to sell, I'd have had to pay the market value. Why should social housing be any different?

You’re not alone. I considered reporting but thought it better for people to be able to read and judge.

Germanshepherdsmum

Doodledog

Do people really want to force people like me to sell our property?
Has anyone said anything of the kind? Unless I've missed something, in which case I apologise, people are talking about the folly of letting council tenants buy, not saying that anyone should be 'forced to sell'.

stillstanding Doodledog - said tenants should go on a rent strike, the courts wouldn’t be able to cope with all the evictions and property prices would crash - her dream, she said. Nasty doesn’t come close to describing it - and the racism.

I was beginning to think it was just me that thought stillstandings posts were racist and blatantly nasty.

Doodledog

*Do people really want to force people like me to sell our property?*
Has anyone said anything of the kind? Unless I've missed something, in which case I apologise, people are talking about the folly of letting council tenants buy, not saying that anyone should be 'forced to sell'.

stillstanding Doodledog - said tenants should go on a rent strike, the courts wouldn’t be able to cope with all the evictions and property prices would crash - her dream, she said. Nasty doesn’t come close to describing it - and the racism.

Dd2 bought a ex council house - a probate sale - that had been bought by the former owners in 1971 - well before Thatcher. I was surprised that such sales had evidently happened long before Right to Buy.

It was around 7 years ago and she paid almost exactly 1% of what they’d paid - dh had a good old nose on the Land Reg to find that out.

What happened at y MIL’s estate might solve the problem of downsizing when the family have left. It was an estate built fort war veterans and their families. After the families grew up, the three bedroom houses were turned into two flats. This meant the original tenant could stay near friends and the locality they knew.

Being born in one country and having only that nationality does not equally mean you work and/or pay your taxes

Some European countries have houses or apartment blocks for all the generations to live in. I know that in the expensive areas near me this is happening already.
I don’t know if this makes for a happier life or not.

Shinamae

AGAA4

The two bedroom flat next door to me has been rented for £1000 per month. Renting is not cheap now.

My daughter is renting a two bedroom flat for her and her children in St Albans. The rent is £1400 a month!

Even before inflation, St Albans was and is one of the most expensive parts of the country to live.

AGAA4

My mum and dad bought their council house around 1970. My outspoken DH said it wasn't right that council houses were being sold. My parents took it personally and held it against him for a long time. I believe he was right. Far too many properties were sold off.

It was the huge rebate they were given too. That certainly was unfair. If a private landlord were to sell , as my brother did, moving abroad, no rebate for the time they were renting. The tenant had to buy at market price.

GrannyGravy13

Stillstanding I find your posts racist on many levels.

Oh and we are a ^Forces Family^

Still standing was talking about an illegal let. I do not care what race the person is who sells their flat keys to the highest bidder, because we had so many illegal tenants on my patch two of us would do night visits to those estates with real problems to try to stop the practice. We were in court every week to get our property back, so I am sick and tired of people throwing the “racist” accusation about. Just think that it matters to those on a waiting list for years. And that list is from all races of local residents. You would have hurled the same accusation at me. I had a wonderful 4 bedroom house which we did up thinking of the lucky family would get this prime property. It went to a Middle Eastern family who were very critical of the house. They actually asked me who I would send to tend the garden. I felt so let down. They were probably refugees and so were on the top of the list. I did not care about their race but I did care that this was a wonderful house and all they did was to moan! Years of experience taught me a lot about the people we served. I cannot forget one old lady living alone who fell into arrears. She paid the arrears of at 50p a week, while others with high debts of thousands had their arrears written off but that was not my decision. I lived in a Council house all my life in Liverpool and in Australia until I moved to Govt owned property in the wilds of the NT. in fact it was not until I came back to UK that we owned our own home. I have a lot of sympathy with Council tenants and I agree that the money earned from selling Council property shoukd have used to build new housing. The Conservatives should have introduced it but as they didn’t why didn’t Labour change it after 1997?

As landlords we only charge LA rates which are the same as Housing Associations (HA). When I lived in an HA property it was amongst Council Properties. Despite living in the same houses, we paid an enormous amount more to the HA compared to the Council Tenants. Then, if they chose to buy their houses, they got up to 40% off to buy it. I'd lived for years paying sky high rents in private properties as did a lot of people who couldn't get a Council House but no allowances were made for them! It struck me as being a give away the country could ill afford whilst moving the rest of the housing stock over to Housing Associations so they could charge much higher rents.
I have no problem with residents in Britain being given properties first as eventually immigrants would get the same privileges. I don't think it should necessarily be done by nationality but length of residency and then need. I actually think it would be more to the point if legal asylum seekers were given temporary accommodation villages where they were assessed to see what their needs are. If you have been repeatedly bombed, seen people killed, lost loved ones and been driven out of your home, you are likely to have mental health needs which need specialist help. If you've been forced out of your homeland, you are likely to need help with the English language. You might need help in how to integrate and how to access the systems we have or get back into training so they can work at jobs they may have loved or retrain. Let's not throw these poor people into the midst of resentful people before they are able to cope.