Selling off council homes

Teachers used to get preference, as did council workers, firemen, etc. It wasn't just nurses, it was anyone who had to move to a different area, and a good idea it was, too. Otherwise where would those essential workers live?

In London at the moment there is a lot of social cleansing.

www.theguardian.com/money/2015/oct/12/soaring-london-house-prices-sucking-cash-out-of-economy-study-says

're the "social cleansing" Dj if that is so, where are people going?

I think that's a bit of a sweeping statement.

I think what is happening can accurately be described as social cleansing.

In April this year the Independent reported:

"More than 50,000 families have been silently shipped out of London boroughs in the past three years, an investigation by The Independent can reveal.

"Leaked documents obtained by this newspaper expose the true scale of the “social cleansing” taking place across the capital as a result of welfare cuts and soaring rents................

"The spike coincides with the Coalition’s introduction of the benefit cap and “bedroom tax”, both of which have made it significantly harder for poor people to afford housing in London..........

"Official figures – which the authorities have previously refused to publish – show the problem is much worse than campaigners feared. They show that councils are currently moving homeless mothers and children out of their boroughs at a rate of close to 500 families a week, with numbers continuing to rise.

"Some 2,707 families have been moved out of Greater London over the last two years, the figures show, to locations including Manchester, Bradford, Hastings, Pembrokeshire, Dover and Plymouth."

I'm amazed. So "homeless mothers and their children" simply have to go where they are sent? And close to 500 family units a week? That doesn't tie up with the number of 2707 families over a period of two years.

The Independent's figures are rather odd.

500 families a week = 52,000 in two years, not 2707 families over a period of two years nor 50,000 over three years.

Are Manchester, Bradford, Hastings, Pembrokeshire, Dover and Plymouth overflowing yet?

Do they tell us who are the 50,000 new tenants in the London boroughs? They can't all be friends of MPs.

The 2,707 figure refers to people moved out of Greater London to completely different areas of the country. Many more thousands are being moved out of Central London to poorer areas of Greater London or areas just outside the Greater London boundary.

eloethan I understand that now, thanks.

All this makes me think again how vital it is to be as independent as possible, like my daughter's colleague who works at two jobs and tells her 8 year old to only answer the mobile when it says "Mommy" when she goes out to do her evening cleaning shift at the local school. Not an ideal situation at all, but at least she isn't at the mercy of "the system" because she can afford her rent. She has no family nearby because she is an immigrant and a widow. As an aside, the child excels at school .

It's a very interesting conundrum, this thing of relying on "the Gorment" (as Sathnam Sangera writes in his excellent book about growing up in Wolverhampton) to provide support, and the way in which the system is skewed by a multitude of factors.

She may think she is secure Grannyknot but like all renting from private landlords she could find herself priced out of her home if the landlord decides to increase the rent. One of the reasons for the "cleansing" of London is that there are so many young professionals who share property and hence can pay more rent than a family. There was a programme on TV called "How to get a council house" which showed people affected by the lack of social housing. Families were evicted when the rent was increased and then moved from the borough to another area where property cost less. Some with children spent over a year in B&B accommodation. Horrifying!

True, trisher.

Just read this from an email.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/landlord-tory-mp-philip-davies-law-requiring-homes-be-fit-for-human-habitation-unnecessary-a6696931.html

Anyone else think this Tory MP is not a fit and proper person to be an MP?

He talked it out so it failed , swine

If it's such an onerous responsibility being a landlord, one wonders why Mr Davies bothers. I like the way he says "the majority of landlords only have one or a few properties.

He goes on to say “Landlords appear to be an easy target for the Left in this country." Bad landlords should be a matter of concern for everyone - not just "the Left". There is no form whatsoever of rent control in this country (unlike many other developed countries) and no security of tenure - with tenants who ask for essential repairs to be done increasingly being kicked out when their year's lease ends The average UK rent is now approaching £1,000 per month (and much more than that in London). And yet this man speaks as if he, and other landlords, are "victims".

Of course, there are decent landlords - I know some myself. But, from many of the people I know who are renting or who have rented in the past, there are also very many landlords who are dreadful.

Young people on low incomes cannot afford private rentals, have no chance of social housing so even marriage is for the more affluent only
I really don't understand the logic of that Anniebach, could you explain please?

I only ask as I recently went to the wedding of a friend's GD. The bride is a care assistant, and her husband a delivery driver for a supermarket, so neither on a big wage, but the wedding was a delight - a simple Registry Office ceremony, the girl wearing a pretty maxi dress bought from New Look and carrying a single rose, and her groom in his good suit. The reception was in the local village hall and catering had been done by both sets of families. Music and photography were both supplied by friends as wedding presents. The young couple simply glowed with happiness and everyone I spoke to agreed it was a simply lovely day. My friend told me that they (bride and groom) had paid for everything themselves and it had come to less than £400!

That sounds like a lovely wedding day Ceesnan - the young couple are obviously very sensible and make good use of their modest wages.

However, unless one of them is inheriting a property or a large sum of money I'm wondering what accommodation they'll be able to afford to live in.

They already have a tiny one bed flat, Riverwalk. They live in the North West, so some property prices are not astronomical, but even so I should think the mortgage takes up a fair amount of their income. My friend was so imoressed by the way they saved so hard for the deposit, no foreign holidays or tickets to concerts, just a determination to have their own home. Her wedding present to them was a fortnight in Gran Canaria!

Well I'm glad that they have their own property, albeit very small.

Annie can answer for herself but I rather think she was saying that young couples on modest incomes are going to find it very hard to have a home, rather than not being able to afford the wedding ceremony.

We grans (anyone over 50) could afford to buy property when we married but it's so very difficult now.

If much of the social housing is sold-off, just how are young couples supposed to set-up home?

Quite simple Ceesan, not all parts of the country have properties selling for the prices of properties in the N W , I assume they will not have children for a very long time, big jump from a one bedroom flat to a family home .

Do you know how much they bought the flat for ?

When I said marriage was for the affluent I wasn't think of the cost of a bridal gown but of having a family and a home to live in

I have family living on the South coast and I know just how hard it is for young people there to find anything affordable. My sister says that the only way her 2 DC will ever be able to buy is when she has died and they inherit her estate - assuming that there will be anything left if she has to go into care!

And so Ceesnan they are at the mercy of private landlords , how do young couples pay high private rents and save a deposit to buy a home ? They cannot . We desperately need social housing

Couldn't agree more Ceesnan DD and ex couldn't contemplate buying locally to us in Kent when he was made redundant from the army. They rented but had to move 3 times in 2 yrs as the landlords decided to sell.
Before DD left here she was a single parent paying £850 for a 3bed semi. Since moving to Edinburgh she pays £575 for a two bed.

Our local social housing waiting list is 5+ yrs

I can't help feel that somehow we are slipping backwards. "Homes not fit for human habitation" it is appalling. Surely the mark of a civilised society is that it provides adequate and affordable housing for all. Are we returning to the 1930s when so many lived in slum housing, or the Rachman era when landlords could behave as they liked towards their tenants? Thanks for the link durhamjen surely this MP's constituents must find him sickening.

I lived for years as a child in a house that had been deemed as being 'Unfit for human habitation'. I loved that house! My mother, however, was terrified I would knock it down when I played ball against the wall of the scullery that had been demolished years back, together with the third bedroom.

I think it depends what they put in this proposed new bill. If it gets silly it will put landlords off renting low cost property out. And that won't help with the housing shortage.

Anniebach, I think it comes back for discussion in January.

I lived in a house like that, jingl, but I do not want others to live the same way. In 2015, surely it should be better than in the 1950s and 60s.

The actual bill will be updating figures which say that landlords who rent out properties under £80 a week in London will have to ensure they are fit for human habitation. Somehow I do not think there are any.