| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 4:42:03 AM |
council estate v home owners
What about the forgotten group inbetween? i.e those who can't afford their own home but because they are responsible and don't have kids they can't afford to support, stand no chance of getting a council house? | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 4:50:08 AM |
I have no truck with the poor being housed at my expense, I am a generous sole!
Odd, because some people who live in council housing aren't poor and pay their own rent.
What difference does it make whether someone takes on a mortgage or pays rent to the council. As for people out of work and in benefit, are they to be expected to take on a mortgage just to satisfy other people even though they wouldn't qualify for one?
All this being done at taxpayers expense, loads of things get done at taxpayers expenses, not just paying for other people's Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit. The same old argument gets trotted out time and time again, there are some people who may have started out in council housing and then bought it, there are people who rent their council house and pay full rent (like my 84 year old gran), there are some people who pay some rent and some who won't pay any.
There may also be people for whatever reason have had to sell a home and move into council housing. But to suggest that everyone who lives in rented accommodation is poor and that people in work are paying for all of them is a load of nonsene.
Everyone might need the benefits safety net one day.
What about the forgotten group inbetween? i.e those who can't afford their own home but because they are responsible and don't have kids they can't afford to support, stand no chance of getting a council house?
I took a council house in a hard to let area because I would have waited 15 years for a house in other areas, I didn't fall into any of the priority groups. I know a few people in the same situation.
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 4:59:01 AM | Agree Pauline, of course we need the safety net and of course taxes should be used to help those most in need.
BUT - our benefits system needs a big overhaul, because currently it encourages the most irresponsible people in society to have the most kids and that is basically what has led to the decline in society that has happened in the last few decades.
I don't know the answer, maybe we need to look at how other countries do it - but Britain is one of the most class-divided countries in the developed world so we are clearly doing something wrong. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:09:57 AM | I was raised in a council house with 5 brothers and sisters.
We've gone on to own businesses and our own homes.
Our children are doctors, solictors, policemen and actors and most are parents themselves now. We knew right from wrong, we installed it in our children.
Its not your surroundings its your parental skills im sick of hearing about "latchkey" kids.. my mum raised us and various foster children without any help from the state and working 4 jobs. I was changing foster kids nappies age 6 myself..im fed up of excuses for the dross of this country you pull yourself up from anywhere with hard work its not your address thats the problem its your attitude.. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:20:20 AM | You know, I think it's right that this is a very class divided country. Why people are looked down on because they live in council housing I don't know. You will get people who live in big homes who are awful parents but there is somehow the connotation that council housing = scum.
I was brought up in a council house, my mum still lives there, she bought it 15 years ago and has just paid off her mortgage. She did so because when she retired, her pension would still have taken her over the housing benefit threshold and she would have had to pay full rent. I never felt growing up that I was less of a person because my mum didn't own her own home, loads of my friends lived in council houses, some didn't.
It didn't make me achieve less academically or behave worse as a human being.
Yet when I say where I live now, people are always surprised because there is a name attached to the scheme I live in and not a good one, even though there are some decent people who live here.
I rent because the line of work I was in isn't secure and it's getting worse. I live in a scheme full of people on benefits, many of whom have kids, but yes as already said, it is the benefit system that is at fault where people are worse off working than they would be on benefit.
As for social housing, well there should be more affordable housing available for rent for people like me and others who don't fall into priority groups. The scheme I live in has been flattened partly and there are new houses being built a five minute walk away that technically doesn't fall into the same name as the place I am in, but some people are being decanted out into the council houses, some are to buy, the cost? £120 000 for the cheapest home.
For the last 14 years no one has helped me pay my rent or council tax, I've paid for that myself. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:26:43 AM | I too was brought up in a council house, which my Mum now owns and I don't consider myself or any of my family to be council scum or chavs. We're all well educated, have good families and better morals than some I know in private housing.
I rented when I lived darn sarf and, due to an abusive relationship, had to come back here with nothing, including nowhere to live. So, due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm now in a council house. I may live among chavs, drunks and druggies, but I still live my life responsibly and bring up my kids the same way.
Unfortunately, living in a council house seems to have this stigma attached and we're all tarred with the same brush when we are certainly NOT all the same.
Some of us are here out of sheer desperation. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:29:37 AM | Making sweeping generalizations based on whether people rent or buy (yes buy, you don't become a "homeowner" until you've paid your mortgage off) is pretty low, there are good and bad people in both groups and a lot of homebuyers are paying less on the mortgage each month than council tenants pay in rent so that blows the snob theory out of the water, you don't become a better person simply because you once managed to pass a credit check and get a mortgage.
It's the council tenants who will ultimately have the last laugh anyway in thier elderly years when thier care fees are paid for and homeowners have thier property stolen by the state to pay for thier care fees. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:42:24 AM | True shabba - about owning property isnt ultimately the best thing with regard to paying for care in later life.
I bought my council house, and I loved where it was. I dont live there any more and I must admit missing the hustle 'n' bustle of a busy estate and the friendliness.
Now I am in quiet area and people not so friendly and my neighbours keep to themselves. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:47:09 AM | I was brought up on a council estate in one of the 'New Towns.' The Eastern Badlands, as they were known, had a really bad reputation but in all the time I was there, I never, ever had any problems. There were council estates and private estates all mixed together.
The people I grew up with are scattered across the globe. As far as I am aware there are none in prison, none idling their lives away.
Funnily enough, the OP of this thread grew up in the same area as I did, the only difference was she went to a different school. I neither know nor care whether her home was owned by her parents or by the council.
It was when I had my own home that I had more problems with neighbours and theft. My car was stolen from outside my house and apparently used as a getaway car.
I'm now back in social housing. I couldn't afford to buy now and wouldn't on principle if I could. House prices are grossly inflated and I don't intend to spend a fortune to line the pockets of more greedy bankers.
I'm happy where I am, the neighbours are no more and no less of a problem because they live in rented accommodation or because they own their own homes. I have far more stability being in rented accommodation with than assured tenancy than I would in any other kind of housing. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:59:41 AM | | its not so important, i was raised in a sarf west london ghetto and its done me no harm, ive got a personalised stab vest and know a good driveby shooting when i see one!! Would i have swopped it for somewhere else??? nah, its part of me and who i am. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 6:05:38 AM | I own my flat for the simple reason that my other option was to rent privately.
Nothing wrong with renting privately either but you are at the whim of the owner who may decide to sell and I didn't want that uncertainty. My mortgage is peanuts compared to renting too. Its not about snobbery but stability for me and my girls. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 7:25:17 AM | | One of my best friends lives in a council house ,that she and her husband bought ,they are lucky in the fact that their neighbours on each side of them have bought theirs also ,but as she says the houses across the road are all tenants with a big turn over of people moving in and out some pretty rough ,they used their length of time as tenants to get a discount when they bought it , I personally do not agree with people buying council houses ,it they want to buy they should buy in the private sector and leave the council houses for people who can not afford to buy one | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 7:29:26 AM | Well i used to live close by a big council estate in Leeds...from day one we had the local scum traipsing thru our gardens at night looking for stuff to pinch..cars getting vandalised and stolen, houses burgled etc etc..it was non stop.
Even when we got their faces on cctv the plod did f**k all yet said they knew em off the council estate.
Just glad im away from that area with all the low life scum wondering about....
If ya ever think things can't get any worse then take a drive thru a bog council estate on an evening an see the fat flumps sat round drinking cheap lager..smoking hooky tabs an sporting 'ten men tatts'..an thats just the females! | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 9:25:17 AM | I live in a council house , brought my kids up on a council estate . They are doing very well , one is at university , one going into 6th form and the eldest has a very good job.
I dont think its fair to class all council house tenants the same just as its not fair to class all homeowners the same
I grew up in a private home , my parents still live there, it makes no difference where you live , but how you live your life.
Some families near me are noisy, the kids are ruffians , other families are quiet and the kids are well behaved , Some come from council houses , others from private houses . | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 9:41:56 AM | I'm a northerner living on a council estate up north and I'm not a chav, I barely ever drink apart from special occasions, I don't do drugs, I'm a good mother and my kids are well balanced, polite and intelligent.
As my oldest child has Aspergers, I'm currently a carer so don't work but will start volunteer work and maybe a college course in September when they go back to school.
We're not all thick, sponging layabout chavs and I really do wish people would stop with the generalisations  | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 10:48:19 AM | | does it matter if someone lives in a council house or their own, dsnt make em less of a person | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 10:59:22 AM | im a home owner but have worked in many many council houses over the last 8 yrs.(plastering) i have seen some very nice people in very nice council houses in that time. i have also met many absoulute discusting people in down right hovels in my time aswell. in fact some have been so bad i have had to walk out due to the rat and mouse infestation. ive seen houses where the tenants have removed the living room door and placed a garden gate on hinges in its place and used the room just to house there dogs. ive seen young childrens bedrooms where there is only a urine stained sheet on the bed, no pillow or quilt, i commonly see young babys crying for attention or food maybe while the parents are laying on the sofa stoned out there nuts. ive had tennants ask for money so they can go and buy a light bulb, as they dont have any in the house anywhere but got 400 fags sitting in the kitchen and a 50 inch plasma tv on the wall . ive been spat at,kicked, pushed up against walls, half the time because the tennant is so far gone by booze or drugs they dont know what there doing. being a father myself it saddens me deeply to see some of the sights i do witness. oh what a joy it is when i turn up at a house and the tennat answers the door with a "morning come in, would you like a cup of tea"
but i also know many home owners who are complete tw@ts aswell, many who are down my road | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 11:39:56 AM | I'm really struggling with this thread. No one on Earth has to justify themselves, because of where they live, wether they own their own houses, we all make choices within the means we have. I'm sitting here looking out onto my gorgeous garden, and am happy with the path that fate has guided me along. Be happy peeps
Just go get another drinky poo now. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 12:09:11 PM | I don't give a shit where peeps live but i do think the silver spoon thing is lame.
I own my own home but wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth - I just worked hard and made the right decisions for me | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 12:18:42 PM | | I don't think people should be judged for living in a council property, after all, in the present economic climate a person may only be a redundancy letter away from becoming a council tenant! | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 12:22:27 PM | | I would love a council house but they have all been sold off and there aren't many council houses in London anyway. I am very lucky to have a council flat but wouldn't have got that unless I was homeless with two young kids after being repossessed. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 4:41:30 PM | Gawd, it seems that I have to be a different person depending on the housing I live in.
I have lived in service accommodation, council, private rented, had a mortgaged house in the countryside and now have an ex housing association house.
People do not change or become different because of the housing they live in, a slob in a council house will be a slob in a private house.
Anyone who has their own personal standards will stick to them, by and large, no matter where they live | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 5:06:11 PM | I think Shabba put it very well, the difference between someone in a council house and not can simply be that the person with a mortgage has been cleared by the bank.
As for people buying or not buying council houses, I know my mum had reservations about buying her home, buying a council house didn't sit easy with her. However, she's been in the home she was in since she was 26, she's now 60, her rent on retirement would have been 300 quid a month plus, compared to having a mortgage being paid off.
She'll live in that house all her life then it will be passed to me and my brother and one of us will probably live in it, not sell it for a profit. There should be more council houses built but as for saying people who buy should do it in the private sector, my mum got her house for less than 25 grand, to buy elsewhere, the equivalent would have been about 90.
There are also plenty of council estates that are half or less than half full. Mine being one of them. There should be cheap and affordable council housing for people who need it but when people do buy, there should be a programme of rebuilding and that stopped during the Thatcher years. There have been a lot of homes/flats built in my town but they have all been Housing Association, not council housing, I cannot recall any new council homes being built in the last 30 years or so. | |
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| council estate v home owners
Posted: 7/23/2009 10:36:26 PM | I own my own house now but i lived in a council house many years ago when first married and had the children, there was no shame in it and i'm no different now than i was then!
I wasn't brought up in council property but i have to say i loved living on a council estate, everyone looked out for each other and i miss that, this is a nice area that i live in now, nice schools etc but the neighbours either keep themselves to themselves or are interferring busybodies. | |
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