COULD YOU LIVE ON £7 .50 A DAY

[nick]

a little reading regarding housing costs to the public purse, you might well find that the social housing sector is a net contributor to the treasury!

 

The article is from 2008, but the factual basis of the piece has not changed in any meaningful way:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/03/socialhousing.tenanttax

[chesters1]

Our council wanted to form a housing association which in the small print removed a few rights council tenants have at the moment ,they tried to sweeten it up by stating you will get this and that but in law they had to provide anyway but as yet not implemented.but to do it the tennants had a vote yey or ney

Anyway all that would in reality happen was a name change everything else would remain the same at the council end.

Anyway the vote didnt go well for the council people would rather have the devil they know not the one they dont.

 

This miffed the penpushers a great deal these scummy council tennants had stopped them in their tracks ,so to get even they decided to form a housing association in parallel with the existing council ,now theres two housing depts running from the same building ,same staff and no doupt higher cost.

 

But you say where does the housing stock come from? Well if a council property becomes empty it transfers from the council to the association ,these bastards get their own way in the end

 

The sweeteners ? We got them anyway as the law says we should it was just double glazing but in the process they removed all the gas fires when they updated the central heating just to show who,s boss when theres a power cut and the central heating wont work you can remember the day you stood up to pen pushers

Edited April 3, 2013 by chesters1

[chesters1]

I've clicked the like button for you Dave, (thats Dave Chesters, not Dave H ) About the most sensible thing you have ever posted

 

I was brought up in council houses, my parents having been rehoused after being left homeless due to being bombed out, and losing everything except the clothes we were all wearing.

 

Den

Now now Den dont spoil things !

My old man always rented privately and i can remember several real dives as a kid ,its amusing now to remember i was given a bit of paper with an address on which would be the place to go to after school as i think now my parents had to do the odd moonlight flit!

Guessing now (hes long dead as is my mum) i think he may have got a leg on the buying ladder when his mum died as despite a family of 14 she had some money and a huge house on the edge of blackheath park (the time he bought his first house on retrospect fits with her death) ,that house was a dump it still had its copper and outside bog ,but he did it up installed a bathroom (we were not allowed to use it) and they ended up buying a very nice place in folkestone then i left home and started on my own occupation of rented craphole rooms until we hit rock bottom and ended up in this council house ,somedays back then i would have been glad of £7.50 a day ,like myself my poor kids when without food just not as often as i had at their age thank goodness

Edited April 3, 2013 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

Renting at actual cost is not a subsidy. A subsidy is a an amount given to enable a service or product to be given at a reduced cost. There's a difference between a subsidy and not making profit.

 

Like I said, it's a semantic point around how you define the word "subsidy".

 

The effect on the bottom line of the balance sheet of earning less on an asset than it is actually worth is exactly the same either way. There is no difference in practice.

[nick]

Like I said, it's a semantic point around how you define the word "subsidy".

 

The effect on the bottom line of the balance sheet of earning less on an asset than it is actually worth is exactly the same either way. There is no difference in practice.

 

pleased to see you agree that more housing benefit needs to be paid out Steve, your coming round to the right side of the argument.

[chesters1]

I think the council base their rents on "fair" rents for each property in question the reason its different to private rents is the greed of the landlord and the hold they have over tenants, rather than the council charging less the private landlord charges more

If you visit aldeshot you will be amazed by the amount of himilayan types you see walking about or even just taking a bus only to come straight back ,in large groups as well ,buying nothing in shops but filling them up and looking at books they can never read in the library ,why is that you cry joanna lumley ?well maybe but the real reason is is they in the main are in bed and breakfast accommodation, they get booted out in the morning and can only go back at tea time.

Why on earth theh would choose to come here and be treated like this is anyones guess but i presume its better than home but i have never seen one smile

I have lived like it for a while weve even been homeless but their life wouldnt be my choice however bad i got if i had the slightest chance of bettering myself ,they are mostly pensioners and its a sad way to go into the autumn of your life for anyone

When the country has an obligation to look after you and theres not the social housing the council pay for private housing and that (as theres a huge demand) will not be cheap

Edited April 3, 2013 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

pleased to see you agree that more housing benefit needs to be paid out Steve, your coming round to the right side of the argument.

 

How so?

[nick]

you appear to suggest that social rents should be raised in line with private rents. Higher rents = higher benefit payments (that is the reason the housing benefit bill has rocketed of late, high private rents, far higher than costs justify).

[Steve Walker]

Not at all - you don't have to disagree with a subsidy to think that it is one!

[nick]

did you read the article I referred to describing how the excess income is siphoned off from Local Authorities to the exchequer, subsidy is to the state, not from it! But lets not let facts get in the way of semantics.