Selling off council homes

jingle If you didn't suffer ill health when living in unfit accommodation when you were a child then I should think you were one of the lucky ones.

In August 2014 the Guardian reported that the Building Research Establishment estimated avoidable disease and injuries caused by poor housing costs the NHS at least £600m a year.

Poor housing has a long-term impact on physical and mental health and disproportionately affect older people living isolated lives, the young, those without a support network and adults with disabilities.

A cold home increases the risks of cardiovascular, respiratory and rheumatoid diseases as well as the worsening mental health. In 2009-10, there were an estimated 25,400 excess winter deaths, over 21% are attributable to the coldest quarter of homes.

Damp and mould have been linked to respiratory problems, allergies and asthma. Research found people with asthma were twice as likely to live in homes with damp as those without.

www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/22169

I think we are, Annie, complete with rats.

We are back in the Rachman era

Actually, Anniebach they are both in Social housing. As for your query about how much my friend's GD and husband paid for their flat - I have no idea - it never occurred to me to ask.

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.

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.

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.

Our local social housing waiting list is 5+ yrs

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.

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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.

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!

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?

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.

He talked it out so it failed , swine

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?

True, trisher.

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!

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.

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.

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.