Thatcher and the Grammar schools

[cailin maith]

You taking notes there Churchill?

You too!

[Solidec]

Those that benefitted from the Great Council House selloff of the '80's, would be keen to get your opinion on the comparison to todays first time buying professionals, degree educated, 5-10 years work experience in the private sector and who will forever struggle to buy even a 1 bed Flat in some towns and cities around this country without yesteryears 125% mortgages!

Whilst the council house sell off benefitted many thousands of families who were otherwise looking at a lifetime in social housing, the knock on effect has been a burgeoning housing market and todays middle class professionals are now the sorry sods who, despite their hard work and dedication to academia/gainful employment, are WORSE off than those in todays council houses!

[DimPrawn]

Are these the same hard-working professionals who voted New Labour?

I do hope so.

[Platypus]

Many of the people who exercised their right to buy their council house promptly sold it when the market improved and there was a fast buck to be made. Private landlords then bought those houses for BTL.

So the current occupants of these ex-council houses are renting, as before, but from the private sector instead of the public sector. They have fewer rights than the council tenants they replaced (such as a guaranteed tenancy).

Ergo these new tenants have even less pride in their properties than the ex-tenants, deepening the urban decay rather than driving it away (one of the key points of the right-to-buy was to instil a feeling of pride in ownership thereby driving up the "quality" of the neighbourhood, reducing crime and decay, etc).

Discuss.

[DimPrawn]

Change the law. Remove short term tenancy. Bring in a minimum tenancy (from the landlord) of at least 5 years.

In this way it give time for a sense of community to exist, rather than a constant flow of tenants every 6 months you see in most private rental estates.

[Solidec]

Change the law. Remove short term tenancy. Bring in a minimum tenancy (from the landlord) of at least 5 years.

In this way it give time for a sense of community to exist, rather than a constant flow of tenants every 6 months you see in most private rental estates.

I wouldnt rent a place for fixed 5 years without the peace of midn that the landlord will keep it in adequate decorative order!

[vetran]

Maintenance

Used to have loads of friends living in really nice houses as council tennants, their parents had good jobs yet still paid a few quid in rent.

For the pittance they paid in rent there was a workman round every Friday fixing something. The cost of maintaining the housing stock was bankrupting the council.

Something my parents and their peers subsidised while scrimping and saving to buy a house and sitting on orange boxes (yes we did).

Maggie offloaded the costs to the private sector. The landlord ensures decorative order, however as its almost impossible to get your costs back from DHSS tenants when they wreck their rental property no private landlords wants them. Which is why the council has to find alternatives.

They should have placed a restriction on sale of the council house for say 10 - 20 years, any profit made selling it should be shared with the council. So if you get 40% discount 40% of profit from sale goes to the Council if you sell it tapering over the retained period. If you didn't like that then you pay full market value.

They should have used the money to buy new more suitable stock for the needy (modern basic build, not repairing grade 1 listed buildings for welfare tenants). Mixed the decent needy in with private tennants and build more prisons for the scum that turn estates into no go areas.