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[Lid]

what about the council tenant whos rents are paid to a landlord (through housing benefit) who charges over inflated rents to house a family in private accommodation because there isn't enough social housing?

Although you may feel rents are over inflated, all rents can be challenged by tenants and set by the council rent officer. I have been on both sides of this process and the level of rent deemed officially fair is quite high.   

[Mighty Hatfield]

I mean the over inflated rents that private landlords charge.
 
Council rents are siphoned off into housing benefit that ends up in these peoples pockets.
 
If there were more council dwellings, this wouldnt happen.

[Lid]

I mean the over inflated rents that private landlords charge.

The Rent Act fully applies to private landlords. Any private tenant or landlord can apply to the have a fair rent set and the landlord or tenant have to comply. However as I said, the rent set is often higher than you'd expect.

[Mighty Hatfield]

I mean the over inflated rents that private landlords charge.

The Rent Act fully applies to private landlords. Any private tenant or landlord can apply to the have a fair rent set and the landlord or tenant have to comply. However as I said, the rent set is often higher than you'd expect.

Yes of course. If it was a piece of legislation creating realistic rents for all, thereby negating the goldmine that being a landlord can be, then itd be far more "famous" than it currently is.

[Lid]

I've been on both ends of it. As landlord in Oxford, we had the rents we wanted to charge lowered (slightly), and yet as a tenant in the same city, the council increased our private rent more than the landlord asked for in their two yearly increase requests.

[Hatfield Girl]

I knew an old lady who moved from a three bed house to a place like the one Kay described.  It's off Wellfield Road - Burfield something?  She said it was the best thing she'd ever done.  This place has it's own flats as well as a lounge type room all with in the same building.
 
I think Council housing should be reviewed regularly.  But it's not just elderly people living in houses which are too big for their needs.  All the time people are saying that there isn't enough family sized homes but I think that there is, they are just being miss used.  What is missing are the one and two bed houses for people to downsize to.  I wouldn't want to move to a flat with no outside space if I'd had a house with a garden, but when smaller properties are built, they all seem to be flats.
 
GT says that Social housing is a right not a privilage.  I don't agree.  I think housing is a right, but how can it not be a privilage when only some people can get it?  And then once they have it, they are able to keep it for life.  What about the rights of people who don't get given a cheep home for life?

[Mighty Hatfield]

GT says that Social housing is a right not a privilage.  I don't agree.  I think housing is a right, but how can it not be a privilage when only some people can get it?  And then once they have it, they are able to keep it for life.  What about the rights of people who don't get given a cheep home for life?

I think you are both right. If only some people can get it, look at why that is, stop selling them thereby making the issue worse, and build more!

Better that than sell them off wholesale as grant proposes in his housing policy.

[Martian]

For once I am in agreement with MH on the issue of social housing. I know of one couple quite wealthy who pay the mortgage of £30,000 on the mothers spacious flat near Regents Park bought on the right to buy scheme.
 
When the mother who is now very elderly dies they will make a killing. This is not an appropriate use of social housing.

[jonmorris]

You don't want to know about the right-to-buy housing around central London (including Mayfair and over towards Kensington). I know people who have to maintain and do CP12s for them annually (Gas safety certificate) and so many of them are totally empty. Some people use them for a few weeks a year as their 'London base'. They've been snapped up by very rich foreign investors and families.

All that space totally unused - it's outrageous! Of course, once sold, the owner can do what they like - it's not illegal but arguably immoral!

How could you ever build new council owned housing if you have to let people buy them. In certain parts of London, people made a KILLING from right-to-buy. Meanwhile, anyone buying their flat in a tower block in Edmonton will probably be completely stuck.

[Geoff]

This has always been, and will no doubt continue to be, a difficult conundrum.
 
I agree that everyone has an entitlement to decent, affordable, accommodation. I also agree that it is unreasonable for a single person to live in a subsidised, two or three bedroomed home that families on the waiting list are crying out for. But, of course, then we have to consider if it is moral to forcibly move someone, possibly to accomodation some distance from their friends.
 
The simplistic answer is to build more homes. But, hey-ho, haven't we got another debate about green belt land being used for housing?  The truth probably is that there is no answer.

[Kay]

Build some of the holuses in Stevenage!  they have enough land there which could be used for building.

tt4n - Kay

This has always been, and will no doubt continue to be, a difficult conundrum.
 
I agree that everyone has an entitlement to decent, affordable, accommodation. I also agree that it is unreasonable for a single person to live in a subsidised, two or three bedroomed home that families on the waiting list are crying out for. But, of course, then we have to consider if it is moral to forcibly move someone, possibly to accomodation some distance from their friends.
 
The simplistic answer is to build more homes. But, hey-ho, haven't we got another debate about green belt land being used for housing?  The truth probably is that there is no answer.