alternageek   10 #49 Posted June 20, 2012 The council is doing something, but not very well. Where my MIL was living, there are 4 bed semi attached homes. One of her neighbours, husband has passed away and children have flown the coop. The council offered her a flat, but in one of the worst estates in the city. It wasnt a fair exchange: a home in a quiet, nice and desirable estate for a flat in an undesirable one. Once the council can do comparable exchanges I dont see people willingly downsizing their council homes any time soon. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Vague_Boy   10 #50 Posted June 20, 2012 Housing crisis - moving people into smaller properties not an option!  People are being moved into smaller homes regardless.  'Shoebox homes' become the UK norm Britain's new-build homes are the smallest in Western Europe and many are too small for family life, says a new report by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba). LINK  Also...  RIBA condemns 'shameful shoe box homes' now built in Britain  And before anyone says that Britain is a small island, yadda, yadda, yadda, consider how Japan fares in the following list.  "Typical size of a new build home"  Australia - 206m2 USA - 203m2 N Zealand - 176m2 Japan - 132m2 Greece - 126m2 Belgium - 119m2 Netherlands - 116m2 France - 113m2 Germany - 109m2 Spain - 97m2 Austria - 96m2 Italy - 82m2 Britain - 76m2  (Source: "Homebuilding & Renovating" July 2012)  Consider the following  The population density of the UK in people / km2 is 255, whereas in Japan it's 337. LINK  Japan is an island nation, with a population of about 127,350,000 with an area of only 145,925 sq mi, giving a population density of 873.1/sq mi, making Japan the 36th most densely populated country on the planet. Of the total 145,925 sq mi of Japan, between 70-80% of this land is forested and mountainous, and unsuitable for industrial, agricultural and residential development. LINK  So you've got a country with more than twice the UK's population and about the same land area, but only 20-30% of this you can actually build anything on and they still have houses that are bigger than ours.  We are clearly being shafted here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Ms Macbeth   73 #51 Posted June 20, 2012 The council is doing something, but not very well. Where my MIL was living, there are 4 bed semi attached homes. One of her neighbours, husband has passed away and children have flown the coop. The council offered her a flat, but in one of the worst estates in the city. It wasnt a fair exchange: a home in a quiet, nice and desirable estate for a flat in an undesirable one. Once the council can do comparable exchanges I dont see people willingly downsizing their council homes any time soon.  Anyone who wants to downsize should be offered help to do so. I thought Sheffield Homes had a scheme to help older people do this very thing, but I can't find anything on their website. I'll update this if I do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Cyclone   10 #52 Posted June 21, 2012 Housing crisis - moving people into smaller properties not an option!  People are being moved into smaller homes regardless.   LINK  Also...  RIBA condemns 'shameful shoe box homes' now built in Britain  And before anyone says that Britain is a small island, yadda, yadda, yadda, consider how Japan fares in the following list.  "Typical size of a new build home"  Australia - 206m2 USA - 203m2 N Zealand - 176m2 Japan - 132m2 Greece - 126m2 Belgium - 119m2 Netherlands - 116m2 France - 113m2 Germany - 109m2 Spain - 97m2 Austria - 96m2 Italy - 82m2 Britain - 76m2  (Source: "Homebuilding & Renovating" July 2012)  Consider the following  The population density of the UK in people / km2 is 255, whereas in Japan it's 337. LINK   LINK  So you've got a country with more than twice the UK's population and about the same land area, but only 20-30% of this you can actually build anything on and they still have houses that are bigger than ours.  We are clearly being shafted here.  An over simplification, the average size of accommodation in the large Japanese cities is much smaller. The average figure for the UK build, what number of bedrooms is that? I've been looking at houses recently, and that figure is lower than (for example) the average 3 bed in Sheffield. Presumably the average is dragged down by the number of 1 and 2 bedroom flats that have been built in the past decade.  The two issues here are completely separate anyway, moving a council tenant into a property with less bedrooms is almost completely divorced from the issue of new builds having less living room no matter how many bedrooms they have. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
chem1st   10 #53 Posted June 21, 2012 An over simplification, the average size of accommodation in the large Japanese cities is much smaller. The average figure for the UK build, what number of bedrooms is that? I've been looking at houses recently, and that figure is lower than (for example) the average 3 bed in Sheffield. Presumably the average is dragged down by the number of 1 and 2 bedroom flats that have been built in the past decade.  The two issues here are completely separate anyway, moving a council tenant into a property with less bedrooms is almost completely divorced from the issue of new builds having less living room no matter how many bedrooms they have.  Some of the new builds are shockingly small!  And the height of the ceilings are even lower too. Bang your head if you stand up too quickly! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
fake   10 #54 Posted June 21, 2012 Anyone who wants to downsize should be offered help to do so. I thought Sheffield Homes had a scheme to help older people do this very thing, but I can't find anything on their website. I'll update this if I do.  I agree with the help but the problem is that there is very little single accommodation available to downsize to. Sheffield Council has knocked down most of the Council accommodation that single people could be housed in and not replace any of it. What has been built are private new builds that don't cater for single people. Single people are now effectively forced out of the social renting sector and have to rent privately.   BTW the Sheffield scheme is called Smart Move and so far 151 tenants have downsized and yet only 28 have moved into larger freed-up properties. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Cyclone   10 #55 Posted June 22, 2012 Some of the new builds are shockingly small! And the height of the ceilings are even lower too. Bang your head if you stand up too quickly!  Probably true, but nobody was talking about moving council housed people into new builds were they. They were talking about moving them into council properties with less bedrooms. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
