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24 Jan 16
16:29
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Date Joined:
23 May 09
How did they they justify the 25% discount?
Not at exactly a free market policy was it with a 25% benefit.
Not at exactly a free market policy was it with a 25% benefit.
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I thought it was more like 50%.
It was a very socialist policy, lost on those who advocate such things. Can't say I agreed with it. Overly generous and did nothing to encourage people to work hard and save. She should of course have replaced the housing stock. |
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Socialist?
 taking what everyone owns and giving at under market value to one person?gerrymandering, paying for votes. |
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The discount depends on how long one had been a paying tenant. The longer you have been a paying tenant, the bigger the discount. So I think that chucking rent at the council for 40 years justifies the decent discount.
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If I were to rent privately should the landlord sell it to me at a discount?
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So it's only middle-class sprogs who are allowed to get a windfall when their parents depart by inheriting what mummy and daddy have been paying off throughout their lives?
Typical champagne socialism... Inherit some property in Hampstead themselves and then keep the scummy council house renting rats in their place by having them pay rent for life with no payback! |
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Some went with a near 50% discount. Some will now be bought back under compulsory purchase orders I think.
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It was mostly relatively poor housing stock which under most circumstances many buyers wouldn't have bought.
Designed to be a vote buyer to council house dwellers, whilst crapping on non-buying council house, or future council house, dwellers. Because at the same time caps/bans were put on councils to stop any further house building and to allow for the incorporation of 'housing associations'. A huge proportion of the population grew up or lived in council housing. As a result of the right to buy 'programme' there isn't enough council housing to go round and quite a bit of what was sold off has now gone to career landlords, rental yield which would (without the history of right to buy) otherwise have gone to councils, (meaning less council tax?) and rents would have been a bit lower. |
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A case study to help the debate. I grew up on a pleasant Sussex village council estate. After I married and moved away, it took me about 18 months to persuade my dad to accept the offer he had to buy his house for £10k (at a 60% discount). Most of the houses are now owner-occupied, largely by second move couples with children (which is good as we still have our village school) but these couples are relatively wealthy. My dad is still in his house (aged 88), and the identical semi next door is currently on the market for £380k.
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Was a fantastic opportunity for people who otherwise couldn't afford it to buy a home of their own.
Those who feel the world owes them a living as per normal didn't make the effort. |
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Akabula - Was definitely a fantastic opportunity for those buying a national asset at a huge discount
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Everything in this country is sold off to investors at a discounted price, why should housing be any different, at least this time it might be British people making a profit.
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do they have to be british or just in council housing?
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Think you reading into my post too much, what i meant was most british companies are now foreign owned. I have no idea what the nationality of the council house buyers were in thatcher years.
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blackbarn • January 24, 2016 8:34 PM GMT
Akabula - Was definitely a fantastic opportunity for those buying a national asset at a huge discount A national asset that they had bought through paying rent hence the massive discount. |
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Akabula - that is one way of looking at it, and you and I will have that perspective, but there is very little doubt that your average Council House tenant (including my Dad) thought of it in that way. My parents were hugely grateful to get a council house in the village in which they both grew up and worked. Couples in the same boat today have little chance of finding themselves so well treated, because the council houses they might have got have now been sold off.
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Akabula - not sure where you live but.................. here in this village in rural mid-sussex
3 Bedroom Semi Detached ex-Council Houses make 350k+ and the few 2up 2down terraced cottages we have make £300k |
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1.5m homes been sold this way since 1980, thats a tidy sum
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I'm in a similar location but up here on the west coast of Scotland in the Highlands where house prices are much lower. Prob about half that.
We inherited a second house (ex-council) which I'll soon be selling. Tried renting but nearly got the jail because of my tenants.  Can't really go into detail but no matter how tenants abuse a property and no matter if they fail to pay rent the law is on their side. I resolved the issue or at least a family member did.  |
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I hope yer son didn't play them at poker for the house
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Thatcher sold off the council houses, and the revenue went toward paying off National Debt..None of the revenue was used to rebuild more social housing, thereby reducing the opportunity of those unable to buy from renting council owned properties.
One of the worst decisions ever made in this country, and we have reaped the social cost ever since, And this Tory government are carrying on this legacy, with the plans to tear down social housing estates , with promise that houses will be built to rehouse current tenants, whilst also offering opportunity to buy ' affordable homes ' More and more people will find themselves unable to afford to buy, will have no social housing to rent, thereby forcing them into the hands of unscrupulous private landlords, who will continue to provide awful living conditions for exorbitant rents. A total joke - except it's far from funny. Just one more step in the capitalist strategy to deprive the poorest of our society of even a roof over their heads. Obscene. |
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... council houses that were bought (and sold on ) have tended to improve over the years as more of those estates have become owner occupied, some 'council estates' today look far tidier than a lot of private areas, with better kept gardens and improvements etc.
Where houses or flats weren't bought because the tenants didn't like the area to start with (too many problem families) and have remained in the councils care have deteriorated on the whole . You could say that the bought houses with all the add ons have gone up in value as a result of the purchase ,and in turn the area has become more marketable. So the discount isn't as great as you may think. Also most increase on property is inflation and not because the discount is huge . So a 20,000 house in 1980 council sale price 10k - 10k saving x 4 inflation +40k. improvemets say 20k 20k cash gain in todays market - hardly a massive windfall |
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in fact there is a greater gain for youngsters today on this silly help to buy scheme ,but thats another story
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Mrs H has strong views on this, as she tried to stand on her own two feet and buy a small house and struggled to pay the mortgage.
Some of her contemporaries ponced off the state in a council house and then were given massive discounts to buy them. |
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re: state of ex council houses in private hands and those still owned by council
Opposite is what I see, private landlords not wanting to pay for fixes. Council owned by far the better state in my area |
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A lot of these properties were sold off as a lot of the council home owners
had fragile employment and a job loss would mean the house being sold off. Where I live there is a Landlady who took advantage and owns 100 such properties in the local estate... |
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Many of the people who bought would have paid as much in rent that others had paid buying their properties. It was a very good thing to do, I believe, putting the wealth in the hands of the people.
Also, I'd assume that some of the property or proceeds from it will be used when elderly occupants go into care. The alternative to this, is the rest of taxpayers being saddled with the cost of care for those that have no assets. |
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Council house rents have always been at a considerable discount to those in the private sector so the council tenants had been living in a subsidised environment before any right to buy.
One of the problems with right to buy was that people were encouraged to buy who were not owner-occupier mentality and who were used to having the council as a financial and emotional prop. When things went wrong they were not used to having to sort things out themselves and many ended up in financial difficulties. Too many tenants, like lambs to the slaughter, over burdened themselves with mortgages encouraged and arranged by dodgy mortgage brokers. |
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Well built houses,solid interior walls and many with gardens much bigger than today's new builds.
As Blackbarn says, they gave their tennants the opportunity to but a place locally, often in villages. I live in Sussex too and the old council housing stock is in great locations and very popular if you can afford them. I do fear for the youngsters today and the ones after. One bed flats here at 150k if you're lucky. Can pay 180k. The 70s generation had it very, very good when it came to property. Here's a thought to throw out there. Why can't the Govt buy up housing from the private sector and rent it out at say, 40% less than market value? |
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With the housing benefit bill at £25bn, I would say the government is already footing the bill for more than enough private housing.
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Thatcher sold off the council houses, and the revenue went toward paying off National Debt..None of the revenue was used to rebuild more social housing, thereby reducing the opportunity of those unable to buy from renting council owned properties.
One of the worst decisions ever made in this country, and we have reaped the social cost ever since, And this Tory government are carrying on this legacy................... Of course you have conveniently omitted the 13 years of Labour Government when the opportunity to rectify your perceived problem was not seized. |
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But by buying private sector housing stock they have a long term asset.
Housing Benefit is money down the drain. It encourages low pay and zero personal ambition. |
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We all know that HB and unemployment pay is undesirable, but what would you put in its place?
That is the question which is never answered. |
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Just a thought but the Govt could buy up private sector housing and rent it out cheaper than the market rate.
1) It would shake up private rents which are often unaffordable. 2) Reduce HB bill as many of its recipients would be given these properties. 3) The Govt would have a long term asset in what it's purchased. It can sell these off in due course or keep for 100 years. 4) With cheaper rent, people would have more money to spend in the economy. |
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just build them, whats benefit of buying them already built?
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just build them, whats benefit of buying them already built?
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brendanuk1 25 Jan 16 10:36 Joined: 12 Jan 02 | Topic/replies: 28,505 | Blogger: brendanuk1's blog
re: state of ex council houses in private hands and those still owned by council Opposite is what I see, private landlords not wanting to pay for fixes. Council owned by far the better state in my area Rate reply: ________________ not sure where you live ,but towns such as Ipswich ,Derby,Blackburn etc all have similar style housing stock - a lot of terraced housing which in the inner city parts is far ,far cheaper to buy than a house on a council estate , for rental yield the landlords like the old style private terraces - a bit run down , a snip for 100k and rented out to doley families - council houses generally go round here for around 135 -150 - possibly because of the bigger gardens ,and most are on the better estates . So no ,not that many ex council are in rented hands here . |
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Land.
The Govt can buy them close to hospitals, schools, transport and jobs. |
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Injera that would be the same as nationalising the rental sector.
Why not go the whole hog and nationalise everything if nationalisation is such a good idea? |
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i will
also add that since the council no longer build and the stock has depleted most modern estates are housing associations - and the newest of these estates have a lot of social problems - some are very good mind. Apples to orchards and all that . |