Thread: Council house life tenancies to end

New council house tenants are to be offered contracts lasting as little as two years, under plans to be announced by the Coalition to end the practice of lifelong tenure.

People who are given council houses are currently awarded an indefinite 'secure tenancy' after a 12-month trial tenancy Photo: GETTY

Despite protests, David Cameron is to push ahead with a wider-than-expected shake-up of social housing.

Lifetime tenancies for new tenants will end. The Government instead will give councils and housing associations the freedom to grant fixed terms.
Tenancies will be reviewed after two years and tenants can be evicted if councils find their financial circumstances have improved. Tenants will be given six months’ notice to leave if it is decided they no longer qualify for the taxpayer-funded house.
People who are given council houses are currently awarded an indefinite “secure tenancy” after a 12-month trial tenancy. They can only be evicted through the courts if they fail to pay rent, cause serious problems for neighbours or in other exceptional circumstances. If they die, the tenancy can be passed to a partner or child.
The Government will claim that the changes could create up to 1.35 million extra lettings over the next 30 years
Ministers will also announce next week that those who lose their own homes will no longer be able to rely on councils to find them a house for life.
When tenancies come to an end, some will have to stay in social housing, but others will be expected move on to low-cost home ownership or privately rented housing, freeing council housing stock for more needy people.
Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, is expected to say: “The current system of social housing is ripe for reform. With so many people in need of decent housing, it’s bonkers that an asset that has had billions of public money invested in it is not used to its full potential.”.
The moves will cause anger among Liberal Democrat MPs, while Labour’s opposition to the plans will intensify.
The Coalition has countered criticism by pointing to the five million people waiting for a home.

Council house life tenancies to end - Telegraph

Hmmmm, won't be much incentive for people to look after the property then. Likely to be a lot of spite damage done by departing chavs and somalis.

Was a time when a young teenage girl who wanted a pad of her own only had to get pregnant and she was set for life. Times change.

If you ask me, they should put them in nissen huts.
Thats exactly how my family was accomodated when we first migrated to Australia, and no complaints from me.

good move by the government.

should put an end to the galling sight of council houses with brand new audis and suvs parked on the front.

sounds a very similar situation to that in the great welfare state of New Zealand, huge numbers of State houses have been occupied for 30 years or more - originally for families of 5-6 or more, they are now occupied by single elderly widows/widowers who refuse to budge from 'their' home, while genuine family cases are crammed into two-bedroom units on waiting lists for decent housing.

^ Throw them out. They are there on charity, lets face it, so have no right of tenure.

found the article here, from October 25 2010

briefly . . . numbers may seem small compared to UK, but it's a small population 4m.

*********************

State house tenants would face eviction if a review decided they no longer needed public housing, under a plan proposed by Housing Minister Phil Heatley.

About 22,000 people, or 32 per cent of state house tenants, have been in their houses for at least 10 years.

...some tenants no longer needed state homes because their circumstances had changed - their incomes had risen, or their children had grown up and left home.

There were 2700 people in four-bedroom state houses with only one or two people living in them, he said, and more than 10,000 people in state homes who were in better circumstances than people on the waiting list.

"There are 4000 on the waiting list in significant housing need."

"When there are people on the waiting list who are desperately needy, and others in state homes earning $90,000 a year, we can't go on with a 'house for life' mentality."

Originally Posted by genghis61

"When there are people on the waiting list who are desperately needy, and others in state homes earning $90,000 a year, we can't go on with a 'house for life' mentality."

You have to wonder why anyone making $90K a year would even want to stay in a tax subsided state owned house. Anyone with any drive or ambition would surely want to own their own. I once rented a council house in UK when I got out of the military. I never had the slightest intention of living in it for more than a few years. I was out in 2 years as it turned out. Could not imagine wanting to live there permanently, although it was quite nice, there was no pride of ownership, no equity no nothing. It's that kind of cradle to grave welfare mentality that has damaged society so much in UK and other places.

This is a ploy using what sounds like a reasonable principle, but one that will be discarded early on in favour of expediency.

In practice, the meek and timid that fall within a window of ineligibility will be bullied and harassed out of council homes, to make way for the thick skinned vocal and militant.

Anyone familiar with Britland and the direction it is moving, will also know this is so obvious as to be barely worth a mention.

Only being done to make room for the mussies with their dozens of children.... fucking idiots.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

mussies

what part of the EU are they from ??

This is typical of the Conservatives, they have a history of creating an uncaring intolerant out for yourself and fuck the rest society.
Expect to see house squatting rise fifty fold, more children taken into care, the return of new age travellers roaming the country, a rise in petty crime and muggings, more displaced people living rough on the streets and subsequently more drug addiction problems.
I can only see this as the prelude to another Conservative big social housing sell off and at a time when more people are in need of state than in the last thirty years.

uncaring intolerant out for yourself and fuck the rest society.

do you mean the conservatives, or the tens of thousands of people taking advantage of and milking the out of control benefit system for their own selfish gain.

council housing and the rest of the benefit system is there for those with a genuine and temporary need, it should never have been allowed to become a lifestyle and career choice.

it needs to be reformed.

Sometimes i think these new policies are written up and sold to ministers by civil servants to create more work..jobs, in the public sector.
Whilst i agree the present system is abused, this new idea will cost millions to administer.

Originally Posted by taxexile

uncaring intolerant out for yourself and fuck the rest society.

do you mean the conservatives, or the tens of thousands of people taking advantage of and milking the out of control benefit system for their own selfish gain.

I mean the conservatives. Social housing isn't a benefit, it's a right.

Originally Posted by taxexile

council housing and the rest of the benefit system is there for those with a genuine and temporary need, it should never have been allowed to become a lifestyle and career choice.

it needs to be reformed.

I disagree, despite the benefit system overload, which is a totally different question, many millions of people are unable earn enough to pay the inflated mortgages and private rentals in the UK, many people simply dont earn the kind of wages needed to do either and displacing these people as soon as they hit a level 1p above the bread line will cause massive social problems, one of which and rather ironically wil be an increase in housing benefits to private landlords to pay the shortfall in rents, something this government is also keen to avoid but at the same time is creating more of, lack of thought and foresight doesn't even begin to describe this hickledy pickledy mess of a coalition government.

Reducing the social housing stock isn't going to help a society already in dire straights, it's going to create more of what I've already posted, victims of an uncaring society.
Social housing does so much more than just put a roof over a dossers head, millions of decent working folk also need access to it.

Social housing does so much more than just put a roof over a dossers head, millions of decent working folk also need access to it.

And they can't get it because priority is given to 'stanis, gypsies, other economic migrants, welfare scroungers and teenagers who deliberately get pregnant

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Social housing does so much more than just put a roof over a dossers head, millions of decent working folk also need access to it.

And they can't get it because priority is given to 'stanis, gypsies, other economic migrants, welfare scroungers and teenagers who deliberately get pregnant

The new restrictions aren't designed to keep these people off of social housing, if anything it will open up more opportunities for them to gain access to it.
That being said single parents are no longer pushed straight to the top of the housing list, homeless ones are though, think about it

Who else will be at the top of the housing list and who else will gain better access to social housing under these new rules

many millions of people are unable earn enough to pay the inflated mortgages and private rentals in the UK

if some of these many millions of people managed their money better then they would be able to afford rents and mortgages. but when people prioritise expensive holidays, expensive cars, expensive home theatre systems, etc.etc. and all on credit, rather than budget for the necessities first then of course there wont be enough left over for rent, and then they go cap in hand to the state.

make benefits harder to obtain and people will then have to draw upon their own abilities more to look after themselves.

necessity is the mother of invention.

Social housing rents in Britain are at least half market rents in most areas,
thus giveing a huge advantage over a year ,and a lifetime , hence the nice cars outside.
Then after several years they have a right to buy , at a huge discount , getting alot of the rent 'back',
so its good they are stopping the same few people benefiting ,
A better idea would be to kick all the immigrants/ gays out ofsocial housing and, also build lots more for indigenous Brits.
that would also end these crazy house price bubbles , that help get our economy in a mess.
At the moment , theres a huge housing shortage , but governments are afraid to build , because the house prices would fall, and affect the economy , which is based on continual high house prices.

Originally Posted by blue

gays

Why, do they have too many children?

sadly yes
they started letting them adopt
so yes , they do,in fact one is too many

gays are a powerful group in this liberal sickhole , so they can barge to the front of the social housing queue

Originally Posted by Sdigit

Do you not understand that social housing is not a benefit?

.

the rents are half the private rents - its a 'benefit ' in all but name, they can even swop ''thier'' accomodation , with others also in social houses , in different parts of town or Britain