What’s affordable housing?

Council rents are also much higher than they used to be. Both are still considerably lower than private rent. This is the reason such a lot is spent on housing benefit.

I so agree about the cost of rental housing - we have a family member paying £500 a month for a house which does need things doing to it. Reported faults ( such as a bathroom tap not working unless mole grips were used to operate it) took ages to be rectified. As they have a young family and they are in minimum wage jobs - nothing else available where they live - it is the Council etc who make up the difference.
I know that there is a market rent for these places but it does seem a high percentage of earnings are needed for rent - often they are higher than the cost of a mortgage for a similar property.
With rents so high it must be very difficult to get enough money together for a deposit unless parents can help out.

Housing Association's are only allowed to charge the market rent of the area I think ? my DD pays £91.00 per week for her 4 bed house to a HA but if she rented with a private LL she would expect to pay about £600 per month,she manages to pay without the help of benefits at this price but if she had a private LL she would struggle and have to apply for HB towards the cost of her rent,that is if the LL would accept a HB payment which many do not now.
It is hard to get a deposit together along with the extras entailed when buying we helped our 2 x DSs with their deposits or they would never have been able to buy their properties,the only thing going with the HA property DD has is that she is not responsible for major repairs where as the 2 boys always have to have a repairs fund saved for emergencies.

A 4 bed house with private landlord in my area would be £950-1000.
£600 would maybe get you a 2 bed flat. HA are less but not much.

I understand that the government requires LAs and HAs to charge the market rent for accommodation. The argument is that those on low incomes can then apply for Housing Benefit.

nina interesting difference just a few towns away ... Average 2-3 bed here is £850.

My dad pays over £126 per week for his little local authority bungalow. It probably doesn't matter to those on housing benefit.

average 3 bedroom private let here around £450-£475,just under £400 for council property .We're north of Glasgow .There are loads of affordable homes being built in my area,In fact the scottish government last week stated that local authorities who failed to use the funding for housing would have it taken off them and given to the councils who DO use it as intended .The target for low cost housing is currently being met here with older housed being refurbished too

I hope I'm misreading the intonation in your post, gillybob. I'm on housing benefit and we don't always get all our rent paid. There is a limit to what can be paid out in each area. The housing allowance limit for a one bedroomed property (this is all a couple are allowed without punishment) in this area is £69.73 a week. We live in a two bedroomed property so get punished by losing 14% of our entitlement. Our rent is £425 but we only get £156. Being on benefits doesn't mean that the amount of rent isn't a problem.

I'm lucky. My landlord hasn't increased my rent for years. I'm hoping he'd rather had a good tenant than more rent at the risk of losing me and waiting who knows how long to get who knows what.

I only live in a little two up two down but the rent around here for that should be nearer to £600.

If I where a LL I would much rather have a really good tenant than an increase in rent.

I so wish council housing had never been sold or, if it had to be, that the councils had been made (never mind allowed) to invest the money from house sales in building more homes. We have a couple of large council housing areas locally, built either in the 40's or 50's - great 2 or 3 bed houses, large back gardens, smaller front gardens off the roads. The kitchen areas are generous. Needless to say, all the homes in more desirable/better school catchment areas were sold and are now either privately owned or rented out by private landlords.
I do recognise that tenants will have paid large amounts to their landlords over the years but Mrs T never suggested that those in private tenancies should have the right to buy did she.

As I live in London I am amazed at the prices quoted here for rents. The cheapest privately where I live is £500+ per month for a bedsit or flat share and around £1200-1400+ per month for a 2 bed flat with maybe £2000 for a 3/4 bed house. You can be on the waiting list for years for Council or H.A. housing.

I'm so sorry vampirequeen I probably should have posted more than I did . I have posted many times on this subject. My dad is the most stubborn man there is ! He and my mum sold their ex council house for way less than value to a young couple they "felt sorry for" my mum died last year after using almost everything they had to pay their rent on an LA adapted bungalow. My dad has no savings left (£65,000 didn't go far when spending over £120 per week in rent) over many years and he blankly refuses to apply for housing benefit ! It makes me angry tbh as he scrimps along and I try and tell him that he is probably the only one paying full rent in the entire close when he probably has one of the lowest incomes !

Again my original post should have been clearer , so sorry if I have offended you vq it was not my intention. x

Don't worry, gillybob. Text is so difficult because there is no intonation.

My OH and I pay £725 a month for our two bedroombarn conversion. It hasn't been done up since the 1970's and we managed to get the shower replaced last year. We love the area but I have been looking at social housing as I am now 64. The problem is space - the bungalows seem very tiny and although I haven't been in one they look very small from the outside. Does anyone live in one of these homes?
Maybe I just need to get rid of stuff!

My grandma used to live in a local authority bungalow. They are on the small side but plenty big enough for two people. That said I think you'd have to get rid of a fair amount of stuff if your house is quite roomy.

With the change to Universal Credit some private landlords who have accepted DSS tenants in the past will no longer do so. Most private landlords want to make money with the minimum risk and they have adduced that DSS tenants;
*have extremely limited financial means
*receive payments that are no longer paid direct to landlords
*receive payments four weekly rather than pcm
*cannot guarantee rental payments
*require additional funds to 'top up' rents
*are subject to having payments messed up

Therefore DSS tenants are too high a risk for them to take.

Gosh, amongst other things this thread really does highlight differences in rent across the country. At least in London, people get additional pay which goes some way (probably very small) because accommodation costs so much, but here in Oxford the rents are eye-watering and there is no location allowance.

we have DSS tenants and we will be happy to keep them ,if they are paid 4 weekly we'll amend the rent so it can be paid 4 weekly too.It works out the same over the year ,we dont object to a tenant paying late at christmas or holiday time as we understand the pressures of a young family and the tenant who has done this over the past 5 years has always caught up with her payments by Easter .If you have a good attitude towards your tenant they will play fair with you too grannyactiivist sadly some landlords are a bit inflexible

I agree mostly with your post Iam64 and think it was a big mistake to allow councils to sell their houses.
The only thing I would say, is that Mrs T couldn’t do anything for people who rented privately, so did the only thing she was able to do, by letting long term council tenants buy their homes at low prices.
She thought, that for those people who had always paid their rent and been good tenants and had saved their money, that they should be rewarded.
I think it was an admirable thought, but a wrong thing to do
Overall, as it reduced their housing stock so drastically.
She probably didn’t realise just how many would be sold in this way.

A young family that I know, with 3 childrem , pay £1350 for a 3 bed semi in North london. They get some help. I find this eye watering.