Shipping containers 'used to house homeless children'

These shipping containers should only be used for the briefest of times. They can never be homes - they are temporary shelters. Better than living on the streets, but in no way what so ever should they be for more than a few weeks, 3 months at the very most. The housing situation in this country is in absolute crisis. Private and unscrupulous landlords are on the rise and this government shot down any attempt to ensure housing standards are safe and acceptable. We have become very much an 'I'm alright jack' country. Soon all those smugly voted in this government will be the ones suffering. Turkey's voting for Christmas.

I know of a person who was approached by a developer who had built a social housing complex somewhere in England. (Sorry to be mysterious but I can't reveal location.) Apparently the local authority didn't want it. It was then offered to the neighbouring local authority but that was blocked by the local authority it was situated in. Result? Developers left with white elephant but high quality block of social housing that they were casting about for anyone to use. My acquaintance runs serviced apartments so I expect that's what will be done. Fine for hotel type guests but could have helped the housing crisis.
Madness!

I'm a bit puzzled, Jane10. Why did the developer build a social housing complex without knowing who would be renting it? How did it get planning permission? From what I know, it's usually the other way round and local authorities commission social housing complexes (or not). There are covenants placed on the properties, so they can only be used for certain categories of tenant. Sorry, but this doesn't seem to add up.

SirChenjin, I understand that my council reviews tenants' circumstances on a regular basis.

That's a positive growstuff - I wonder if all Councils do? Does your Council also have a sliding scale for rent do you know?

While on the subject of poor quality housing, remember to check how your MP voted when there was a proposal to make all rented housing subject to minimum space and safety standards before housing benefit would be paid. A 'surprising' number of MPs voted against the proposal. Also, it is worth noting that the B&B accommodation is a very nice earner for those private individuals who run them and charge local authorities eye watering amounts of money for a double bedroom with shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.

similar to prefabs in the old days. It is down to the user to make them homely, they are provided with all the basics and some of them in photos look like very decent homes, much nicer and healthier than the grotty dwellings provided by some landlords at extortionate rents.

Why have we a housing crisis? Because we have so many people coming here to join us in the uk and also because people are allowed second homes and outsiders buy homes as unlived-in investments

No, they don't. BTW I should have mentioned it's only for new tenants, who are given limited tenancies. There are plenty of families (some now retired) living in family-sized homes. Unfortunately, there's a shortage of one and two bed properties, so there's nowhere they could move, even if they could be persuaded to do so. There just isn't the money to build the accommodation needed. Most of them are, in any case, quite happy where they are, which is hardly surprising.

Have you actually been inside one, craftyone? The ones I've seen are normal-sized shipping containers and sometimes house three or four people for months. As I wrote before, they make quite a bijou holiday home, but living in one long-term is a totally different matter.

And I can tell you have never been involved with the planning and NIMBYism of most councils. But, hey, let's blame immigrants! Are you aware that the UK is building fewer houses now than we have done for decades?

Growstuff sorry I don't know more about this housing complex. It was the potential serviced apartment person who told me about it. He was pretty perplexed too!

I live in an area where council houses are for life,most folk here worked in factories and distilleries and there are few of those left .Our council sent out information before they raised the rents ,there was a scale ,if the rise was a wee bit higher it meant that extra maintenance and upgrading could be done.If people voted for the low rise then the grass wouldn't be cut as often or the closes painted .
The vote went for the higher rise.Contary to what some people think the occupants of council houses dont want to live in a slum and having been in many of the homes in the area I can assure they are not only well looked after but beautifully decorated.
However ,because they can afford to look after the house they're in doesn't mean they should hang a mortgage round their necks most are happy with where they are .Councils SHOULD earn enough from their housing stock to not only keep it in decent condition but add to it .
There are around 300 new council and housing association flats and houses being built here .old blocks of flats demolished and being replaced with new stock as well as a huge number of private homes .Money from the government(Holyrood) that has been earmarked for housing MUST be spent ON housing or its taken back and given to councils who are building the council houses needed .A walk or drive through Dumbarton and the surrounding areas will show the good quality new homes being provided for lower income families and some who just dont want to buy .It was never looked down on to live in a council house and why should it be .

The shipping containers shown on the news had windows and doors like normal housing. Some housing units were made up of several trailers.

That is not to defend them, but in other places they have been used to make trendy starter homes www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/07/20/shipping-containers-affordable-housing-215400 and there was a Grand Designs episode about a rural home in Ireland built from shipping containers [[www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2768293/I-m-desperate-gorgeous-girl-I-just-want-happy-explains-Channel-4-Grand-Designs-team-turn-cover-project.html}}

The real problem with LAs using containers to house people is that they see them as temporary homes, put them on sites on industrial estates away from shops, schools and services, cram them in and do not support them.

Container homes built properly and insulated properly on small sites in residential areas, could, and I emphasise 'could' provide decent medium term houses for families and single people.

It is not what the LAs are doing, but the way they are doing it.

Rosie, your post was disgraceful, showing no compassion and putting the blame on the victims of efailed and disgraceful policies by the Tory Government.

I honestly don't know why RL is allowed to post. Take a look at the comment on the thread about Prince Andrew. Surely a line has to be drawn somewhere?

We live in an area near the coast where property prices have risen enormously since we moved here.
There is a lot of building going on but most of the homes are
‘Executive’ type with only a few affordable houses.
Most of the larger houses are bought as second homes. The owners pick up their shopping at Waitrose on the way up from London. They keep the gastro pubs going so I suppose we must be grateful.
The sad thing is that even the affordable homes are too expensive for the locals, even the council houses that our council is still getting rid of.
The council sold off a sizeable piece of land that now has about 10 large town houses on it. About 200yards from the centre of town, it would have been perfect for small starter homes or accommodation for older people.

I don’t understand why the Government doesn’t get it. We don’t need to build houses just to tick boxes we need homes for those who really need them.

The thought of just piling people into containers just seems appalling. I'm sure they can be made into nice homes, but a homeless family who have lost everything won't be in a position to make any sort of improvements. The idea of using office blocks seems reasonable. They come with electricity and water laid on and could be converted into long term accommodation. The big problem is that the government seems obsessed with building "affordable housing" when they should be building houses for people who will never have enough money to buy a house however "affordable"

The problem is that the Govt doesn't build affordable housing, the developers do, and that means affordable is anything but. There are all sorts of shared ownership schemes, but there's nothing to stop the developers buying them back and then selling them on at a profit. Here in Scotland (not sure about the rest of the UK) developers applying for planning permission have to show a certain percentage of the development (25% iirc) as affordable. They then get the planning permission but instead of building the affordable housing they pay an amount to the Council 'pot' for the Council to build new Council houses or maintain their existing stock - but that amount doesn't equate (nor is it required to under Scottish law) to the cost of the house were it to be sold on the market. There were huge changes made to the planning laws recently and instead of addressing issues such as this it's become a developers charter.

I agree with you MOnica. It's possible to make containers into bijou homes, but the ones I've seen are single units with no outdoor space and some of them are housing families long-term. I wonder how many Gransnetters would be happy to live in one with two or three other people.

i agree with you in a sense ,as the woman said that its worse living in britain than in syria.she should be lucky she got a roof over here head ,it is temporary.....theres plenty of english/british etc been on the waiting list for housing for years..her fella and her both served in armed forces ,yet they still in bed & breakfast with two children. where is the fairness that people from syria should be homed first.then again porta cabins are not ideal,,,,,,,,

friends of mine from armed forces. sorry missed that bit out..

knickas63 said, 'The housing situation in this country is in absolute crisis'..... The reason for that is there are too many people in the UK chasing a finite pot of money

Actually, while the Tories have been in government, they have overseen the building of more homes than Labour did under Blair and Brown, but let's not let petty facts get in the way.

Also, Roseleah is entitled to her own opinion, as well as any one else is entitled to theirs. I expect she lives in the real world though and has seen a thing or two.

Yet another one...

I hope the posts aren't deleted. People should see what the people responsible for keeping this despicable government are like.

No, the reason is that the government isn't allowing local council to build enough social housing.

I don't recall a hoo ha when homeless people were being housed in freezing cold caravans on canvey island.
This was 3 years ago.
The owners of the site recieved £4million in housing benefits in 2 years. Nice little earner ? on the back of other people's misery.

Deedaa it sounds like a good idea, doesn't it - turning unused office blocks into nice homes for homeless families.

However, I saw a programme about this a while ago and it looked far from ideal. Cramped conditions and families housed in the same building as drug addicts and ex-prisoners so they were frightened to let their children out.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-47720887

It looks as if other councils were just 'dumping homeless families there.