No more council houses for life

My present "soft roader" cost over two and a half times that of our house.

Makes you think doesn't it?

But to use a phrase when anyone recalls the price of stuff donkey's years ago, I always say; "Yes, but that's when deck chairs cost seven and six."

But some young people still spend like there's no tomorrow, running up huge credit card bills and paying silly interest rates on them.

It's all "now," for many of them, everything has to be new when they set up home..

Even when our daughter and her other half set up their first home over fifteen years ago they moved into the flat over his dad's surgery, for which they paid rent, they didn't have everything new.

They went to dinner with his parents the Sunday after they moved in.

"Are you all settled in now?"

"Yes thank you."

"Got everything you need?"

"Just about."

Then with a smile, "I thought so, 'cos there's six chairs missing from the patients' waiting room!"

 

I sometimes think that if there was a 'do nothing unless you have to' party, I might well vote for it. No over-ambitious projects to go pear shaped, no initiatives, no tinkering with curriculums or mucking around with the health service, no money down the drain in the name of whatever crackpot ideology is currently in vogue. Just a few years of priceless, blissful peace.

 

As per news-social housing tenats that are already in their homes will find their terms unchanged ( including length of tenure and right to inherit), so it is only the newly dispossessed that somehow have to find 80% of the going rate of rent. In line with my figures above that means that instead of £650 pcm it will now be £520 pcm. Still in deficit I am afraid, the amount given in housing benefit will on the other hand cover the rent PLUS you would get full council tax benefit-something the working families would not get. For those that get a little help with council tax benefit because they work but earn a pittance they can expect a reduction in that help of 10% at least.

The only way a family can afford the rent is by being unemployed. We won't need to worry about benefit cheats for much longer-the amount of those claiming will increase so far and so fast we will never be able to keep up with the legitimate claimants never mind spending time and energy working out who is stealing it.

This is due to begin LONG before any of the alleged new houses are built. I won't hold my breath.

"Those with the broadest shoulders will bear the greatest burden"

Really? Doesn't look like any of the bankers will struggle to cover the rent of a local council house does it.

It apparently takes the tax of 16 families to pay the benefits of 1. I sincerely hope they have plans to find the extra jobs to pay for the increase in the numbers of claimants, because it is coming.

 

Is it time for a revolution do you think? Face it, the last time there was any serious upheaval to the political system was back in 1688!

 

I'm up for that - have been watching the French population on the TV this last few days and think that they may be of the same mind.

The new government have soon lapsed into 'Blair jargon' (look what we inherited is now DC's response to any query just as Blair did all those years ago).

However, am a bit busy with bubble wrap and the greenhouse at present so can we delay for a few weeks................

 

No probs Barnaby - give us a shout when you're free!

First on the list of changes after the revolution - mnay, more allotment spaces required!

 

:hehe:Yes, Barnaby, there is the problem in a nutshell. We would riot on the streets, only it's a filthy day/the hedge needs trimming/the bathroom tiles need regrouting/we're feeling a little peaky and have probably got a cold coming on.

 

Too well behaved, unlike our neighbours currently striking and rioting across the Channel...because their government want to raise the age of retirement!

 

Yep, governments are well known for commissioning reports, inquiries and expensive freelance consultants that cost the earth...and then they ignore and do what they want to anyway!

Shiney, remember the French have an incredibly good welfare system, that they are now in danger of losing, so no wonder they are unhappy. Plus, I think public disorder is in their character. More so than us rather more obedient Brits anyway!

 

You have my sympathy, Lollipop.
But I don't know what the answer is.
I think everybody is entitled to decent, affordable housing - it's a basic requirement.
The only person I have real knowledge of, who lives in a Council house, is my husbands Aunt. She's in her 80's and worked until she was 80. She's not what you would call well off but she's comfortable in her situation.
She's lived in that house about 60 years. It's her home. I would just dread to think that she could be asked to leave.
Maybe the answer is - Council houses should never have been sold, they were there for people who couldn't afford to buy, and maybe now we have to build to replace what has been lost.

What do you see as the solution to your own problem, Lollipop.

 

I s'pose we ought at some time look into equity release, although having over-paid our mortgage to get it cleared by the time I was 58, when I aimed to retire, it's difficult to contemplate. Especially as I invested my "company wedge" when I retired. It isn't my idea, it's the kids who bang on about it as they aren't hard up for a few bob and say "they don't need an inheritance."
There's nothing we're desperate for, nothing in the house is more than eight years old as we moved out for six week and had "everything" done, 'cept the kitchen which was done five years ago. I don't even need a new car, the "soft roader" I bought when I retired I replaced five years ago and it's only done 26K.

Maybe it's just me, but I think equity release is a bit of a rip-off and I'd rather leave it to the kids anyway, than give "more than half away."

But I can't get out of the habit of saving a bit each month, I guess it's a "generation thing." Though for the last couple of years my wife has managed to reduce the amount I save each month quite substantially, with a few; "What I though was's."

I s'pose I could buy another jukebox, but I've "no room."