Britons ‘to be priority on council house lists’

orly

nanna8

Well who else would be priority? Americans? Italians? Can’t see a problem.

Immigrants obviously though I expect to be "cancelled" or called a racist for daring to say it.

Well yes, but the proposals conveniently forget the migrant workers currently staffing the NHS and doing the jobs that Brits don’t want to do. I don’t think anyone has a problem with that, or genuine asylum seekers who have fled in fear of their lives. Blaming the problems with social housing on immigration is simplistic and divisive, and these proposals IMO are nothing more than a sticking plaster because the government don’t want to tackle the issues that are really to blame.

Witzend

On a similar theme, Calendargirl, there was a trade union leader - can’t remember his name, he died some years ago - who was earning £150k a year, but was still occupying a council house ‘on principle’.

Bob Crowe and Eddie Dempsey - RMT union - both live in subsidised council accommodation. Mick lynch defended their right to council housing despite their high salaries. Going back a bit, Arthur Scargill was given the use of a council owned flat in the Barbican in 1982. He tried to use the right to buy scheme to buy it in the early 90s but was turned down. He managed to buy it using the scheme in 2014 - the flat was worth around £2m at the time and he got it half price. And that was despite the fact that he actually lived in a £600,000 three bedroom house in Yorkshire !!

I think this is yet another attempt to divert attention from what’s going on. Rather than admitting to and actually addressing the problems with social housing, it’s easier to blame it on immigration. Typical Tory divide and rule.

they are replacing council homes near me every inch of land is being built on

there are several threads on air fryers.
search through google.

Has anyone got an air fryer? are they any good? And for one person should I get the one or two drawer type?

bob crow, rmt.
he was born in a council house and said he would die in one, which he more or less did, but far earlier than anyone might have expected, when he collapsed suddenly one morning, never regained consciousness.

nanna8

Well who else would be priority? Americans? Italians? Can’t see a problem.

Immigrants obviously though I expect to be "cancelled" or called a racist for daring to say it.

I think of course people on the waiting list should get a house, but at the same time .... you're not serious you want to leave refugees, fleeing from war and disaster, living under a tarpaulin with their children? They should at least get temporary housing, a roof over their heads.

On a similar theme, Calendargirl, there was a trade union leader - can’t remember his name, he died some years ago - who was earning £150k a year, but was still occupying a council house ‘on principle’.

Witzend

I think one of the reasons so often given, Calendargirl, is that there often aren’t any smaller, suitable properties in the same area.
But I agree, it does seem wrong, when families with children are crammed into small flats.

Yes, there just aren’t enough smaller properties.

I’m going back a few years, but particularly remember an elderly widow in a little village, her children long grown and left home, she wasn’t paying her own rent and flatly refused to move from her 3 bedroom council house with garden.

A family could have been installed there, and back then, there were decent council flats available.

If she had been paying her own rent, fair enough, but she wasn’t.

I think one of the reasons so often given, Calendargirl, is that there often aren’t any smaller, suitable properties in the same area.
But I agree, it does seem wrong, when families with children are crammed into small flats.

Dodging the issue we need more housing especially social housing and whipping up prejudice.

We have a massive housing problem interest rates and rent prices are becoming unaffordable, what are they doing about building more houses and flats except the more expensive ones?

I don’t know if things have changed, but it seemed wrong to me if a single person stayed in a three bedroomed council house when it could be utilised by a family.

I know the bedroom tax caused a lot of controversy, but it still seemed wasteful to have vacant space if tenants lived in subsidised property.

I think social housing should mainly be for people who cannot work and earn sufficiently to survive for whatever reason. I don’t think it should be for anyone just wanting a cheap rent. In the old days a lot of people used to run very expensive cars because they were in subsidised housing and I think that is wrong. There are very few housing commission houses here, you have to be really,really on your uppers to get one.

Given that Labour in general have always been so critical of Right to Buy, I do wonder why they didn’t repeal that law during their 13 years in power.

And it was Gordon Brown who helped to fuel the massive rise in buy to let - partly because of his raid on pension funds, which reduced people’s faith in them and induced them to turn to a ‘solid’ investment, and partly because he abolished mortgage interest relief for owner occupiers, while retaining it for landlords. Which was grossly unfair. I can only assume that Labour thought a huge rise in private rentals would absolve any govt. from the need to provide more social housing.

To be entirely fair, this was all before house prices (and rental costs) started soaring into the stratosphere.

The Elephant in the room is the lack of social housing in general, the roots of which actually go back to the Thatcher years with the massive sell-off of council houses with no attempt to provide any workable, affordable alternative on the rental market. Successive Governments of whatever political persuasion have consistently failed to grasp the nettle, and to properly fund and develop a credible social housing policy. As for this latest "initiative", I see it not only as little more than a shallow, right wing attempt at vote-catching, but also as simply unworkable in practical terms.

I can see no argument for allowing tenants to buy social housing. Thatcher had the idea everyone could be a house owner. What’s needed is more good quality social housing, affordable rents, secure tenancies.

Grantenow I think some of you are unaware that Housing is a devolved issue. One of the few things that I now agree with the Welsh Assembley is that a ban was put on the sale of Council Houses/Social Housing ( which seems to be the more prominent partner in Wales) a few years ago.
There is still a shortfall for family type housing. Our local authority seems to think the answer is to tear down old dilapidated shops and turn them into flats. Flats by their very nature attract single people. Only families can turn a space into a community in my opinion.

I disagree, Mrs Nemo. If a tenant wants to own a properly they can buy on the open market and leave the council house to someone who needs it. It's too late now though, as it's unlikely that we will ever get back to having the level of secure housing for all which existed before the great bribe that was the Right To Buy. Now we have generations of people struggling to find a home that can't be snatched from under them if the landlord wants to sell, and many are paying so much rent that they can't save to buy somewhere of their own.

Good! I hope they follow through with this, we do need more council houses but those up for grabs should always go to our own citizens first, many of them have been on waiting lists for a long time.

There is an argument for selling council houses; if the tenant likes their home enough to consider buying it, then it is unlikely that they will be moving out, and the property won't be available until the person whose name is on the tenancy agreement dies. The sale proceeds should go toward building more homes, but whether this happens or not, there won't be more of the present housing stock available if families stay in a desirable home for a generation - and who could blame them?
Regarding the priority now being discussed, The Times today states that in 2021-22, 40% of new social housing in Brent was given to non UK citizens. That is a statistic likely to cause negative feeling.

I agree. The sale of council houses was a national disgrace. It transferred public money to private hands in the same way as the sale of utilities did, and we've all seen how that turned out for energy prices.

I remember the days when council houses were good on the whole, and provided secure, cheap accommodation for those who couldn't afford or didn't want to buy. Now they are expensive to rent, often grim, and denied to many who need it in order to line the pockets of those who bought cheap and now rent out at huge profits.

Iam64

My understanding is that people get points, those with most points I’d greatest needs, get priority for social housing. If you’ve been given asylum after fleeing death in wars in your country of origin, i expect your scores on the points system will be high.
I can’t find it my heart or feet on the floor mode to feel that’s wrong
What is wrong is Thatcher ‘s government selling off council houses whilst not allowing councils to use the revenue raised to build much needed social housing
The cost of rent/mortgages is increasingly beyond the capacity of most to find somewhere to live.

This. Absolutely.

My understanding is that people get points, those with most points I’d greatest needs, get priority for social housing. If you’ve been given asylum after fleeing death in wars in your country of origin, i expect your scores on the points system will be high.
I can’t find it my heart or feet on the floor mode to feel that’s wrong
What is wrong is Thatcher ‘s government selling off council houses whilst not allowing councils to use the revenue raised to build much needed social housing
The cost of rent/mortgages is increasingly beyond the capacity of most to find somewhere to live.

Racist propaganda from the right wing, IMO.. Slyly put, as the vast majority of social housing is housing associations etc. not council houses.

For me it’s both undesirable and unworkable