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54% of social housing has GONE in Sheffield

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A Labour run council wanted to demolish a council estate that was 90% council owned, they could have but a demolition notice on the houses to prevent their sale. They didn’t and as a consequence another 20 houses were bought for an average of £10K and then sold back to the council within two years for an average of £60K. The ex tenants that bought and then sold were mainly people that didn’t pay rent, because of their incomes, the council have now moved them into other council properties and demolished the houses. This has made the tenants £50k better off and the council a million pounds worse off. There have been no new houses built on the site.

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A Labour run council wanted to demolish a council estate that was 90% council owned, they could have but a demolition notice on the houses to prevent their sale. They didn’t and as a consequence another 20 houses were bought for an average of £10K and then sold back to the council within two years for an average of £60K. The ex tenants that bought and then sold were mainly people that didn’t pay rent, because of their incomes, the council have now moved them into other council properties and demolished the houses. This has made the tenants £50k better off and the council a million pounds worse off. There have been no new houses built on the site.

 

Councils have always struggled to run council housing because rents are too low. There's many examples of this. They have to knock down perfectly reasonable properties because they can't afford to maintain them. There's always debates about where the subsidy should be. Either increase rents and let HB take the strain or subsidise the rents to keep them low. One of the reasons the sector is in a mess is because the rents have always been too cheap. If councils were allowed to; the money received from the RTB scheme could have been reinvested in improving the current estates or build new, but they're not...The RTB scheme has raised more finance than all the other privitisations of the last few decades put together.....

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But how can the needy get the social housing that they need, if it's been sold off?

Do you think the landlord should kick out the people who aren't needy?

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And gave the lower paid people of this country the ability to own their own house, something many of them wanted to do but couldn’t afford.

It’s surprising how many people think these houses would be available to rent if they hadn’t been sold.

 

Some would have continued to be available, as there were a lot of people who bought their council house who previously would have bought on the open market.

 

Back in the 1980s there were tenants who had well paid jobs, including professionals, who traditionally lived in council homes for a few years, then moved into owner occupation. But, after RTB was introduced, the attraction of the big discounts was obvious.;) And many of those tenants, because of the way people used to be vetted, were in the nicest homes in pleasant areas.

 

Council sales through RTB haven't been spread equally across areas. The better built houses in the most sought after areas have all but disappeared from council ownership, whilst estates which were less popular still have large numbers of council properties.

 

Just saying 54% of social housing has disappeared gives a really false view of the changes in people's aspirations about housing over the years since RTB was introduced. Its also worth mentioning that the Manor, Shiregreen, Wisewood (and some other estates) are all still social housing, but now under the ownership and management of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs). Or, as they are better known, housing associations.

 

I've been a private tenant, council tenant, and an owner occupier. I've worked in social housing and I'm still doing it albeit as a volunteer. I remember the decline in demand and the rising costs of having hundreds of empty homes in Sheffield (and in most northern cities). Councils had to make decisions about the number of empty homes. And some decisions were made to demolish properties that weren't the best quality to start with like these: http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/planning-and-city-development/regeneration/neighbourhood-regeneration/your-neighbourhood/swan/swan-background

 

Planning for the future would be simple if we had the benefit of hindsight! :roll: Whilst I understand the OPs frustration at the lack of council housing, I'd like to know what he would have done over the last 30+ years to ensure supply met demand, but also demand was always there to meet the supply? Surely no-one would have thought that keeping large numbers of empty homes, at a huge cost to taxpayers, was a good ploy?

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From following threads on this Forum it appears that most of the better social housing stock has long been sold - to the employed/employable. Many argue on here that the estates that are left are plagued by anti-social behaviour and intergenerational worklessness. If this is true, why would anyone want to live on these estates? Or bring up children in this environment?

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I belive there are plenty of council properties empty.

 

Where are these empty homes - and do you know why they are empty?

 

I'm sure Sheffield Homes or the council would like to know if tenants haven't moved in if they hve been let. I'd hate to think a responsible social landlord would leave habitable homes empty for no reason. If these properties are not earmarked for demolition, or waiting for major, expensive repairs, then I can't imagine there would be many standing empty.

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From following threads on this Forum it appears that most of the better social housing stock has long been sold - to the employed/employable. Many argue on here that the estates that are left are plagued by anti-social behaviour and intergenerational worklessness. If this is true, why would anyone want to live on these estates? Or bring up children in this environment?

 

People have to live somewhere, and if all they can afford is some dodgy run-down estate in S2, then so be it.

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Do you think the landlord should kick out the people who aren't needy?

 

In a word yes ...........

 

If people can afford a mortgage to buy a council house they can afford a mortgage to get themselves on to the bottom of the housing market and start at the bottom like the rest of did ……………. Then again a suppose they will want a 3 bed semi with a garden wont they.

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I live on a brand new housing estate have paid alot of money for my house work full time as does my fiancé and the builders of our estate are ordered by the government as are all builders developing over a certain amount of properties in one area to sell a proportion of houses to the council to house people who don't work for a living but yet when my parents were made redundant they got no help despite paying tax since being 16. It frustrates me and if I had know the houses opposite me were going to be given to the people that have been

Housed there I wouldn't have bought my house as they live off the £500 tax I pay every month.

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Joffandanmum

I quite fancy a new house and a few bob in the bank. Can you explain how it's done?

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Joffandanmum

I quite fancy a new house and a few bob in the bank. Can you explain how it's done?

 

Is this to me?

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