Should older people be "encouraged" to move out of their homes?
 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...ing-homes.html

And this from "The Telegraph":

There’s somebody at the door. Oh, it’s the Property Police. They’ve come to arrest me for refusing to move out of my house, which they’ve decided is too big for me. Any minute now, someone will burst in to measure my floor space; too much square footage and I’ll be forced out and into a broom cupboard or an attic.
I am spitting feathers at the most bullying, patronising and downright offensive report by the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) – a bossy charity whose contention is that “British policymakers have given undue advantages to the older generation at the expense of younger and future generations”. Which translates as “Get the oldies!”.
The report accuses pensioners of “bedroom-blocking”, and suggests that older people in big houses must downsize and move to smaller homes to free up the stagnating housing market. Quite aside from the cheek, this argument doesn’t make sense.
If those of us with big houses move out and buy smaller ones, surely we’ll be depleting the stock of more affordable housing available to younger buyers? And if we try to sell, who is going to buy the bigger houses?

I remember my great gran living in a sizable three bed council house, really was a decent size, for one very old lady who lived downstairs anyway. She was there for twenty plus years on her own.

I think there should be some encouragement for council tennants to move to more suitably sized accomodation given the shortage of available social housing, I am all for not kicking people out of their homes but really if you dont own it then you are subject to this, maybe it isnt fair but see how far you get with a bank as a private tennant that decides they cant afford to pay the mortgage any more or someone renting who cant pay the rent.


One old lady in a family home is not right as it still has the same associated costs for the council but houses a quarter of the people, so they have to find more.

I also think we shouldnt be hosuing anyone who arrives from abroad, lets look after those who live here first, not those who arrive slung to the bottom of the Eurostar.

If they are fit and well enough to move, and they are given proper help to move their belongings I do not see too much of an issue. If they do not have the need for a three bed semi, then it is fair that someone who needs it, should get it.

However, some of these older people may have lived in these houses for 30+ years. Uprooting them to pastures new could cause them a lot of problems.
I am not just talking physical problems hers. I'm talking emotionally. Where are these elderly singletons going to be put? It's not going to be a comfy bungalow in the suberbs now is it?!
They will most likely be put in a flat, or even more likely a home.

Public or privately owned property?

My mate used to like in a 5 bed council house with his family and when they all grew up and moved out he was on his own in the house, The council aproched him with the offer to move to a smaller house, a 2 bed to be exact, so he took the offer and moved home. A month later he spoke to his old next door neighbour who told him that around 8 or 9 Polish folk have moved into the house and ripped all the doors out and the back garden looked like a dump.

I don't think they are referring to Council properties. What's got folks up in arms is, they are implying older people should sell their larger homes and buy smaller.
WTF has it got to do with anyone else?? Older people have as much right as anyone else, to enjoy the property they have worked hard to purchase. :thumb:

YUP!:)

Surely if a married couple have spent their life together getting the sort of home together that they like and in an area that suits them, it would be wholly unfair to order them out of it into a lesser home which they would not get the pleasure out of it that they worked so hard to do in their original house.

It has the flavour of unfair state intervention that that might expect from the old USSR.

Most of us had to scrimp and save to get on the housing ladder and I would object intensely to some government employee ordering me out of our home.

Les

Does this mean I will have to give up the stately home now I am old?

You and Mr Lewis can share the 40 bedrooms between you ;)

I think it's a bit of a joke, my grandparents have been in there house for years, it's a fair sized place and they own it and have spent most of their lives in it. Couldn't ever see them moving out, it's their home and full of memories. To ask them to leave it is completely unfair

In soviet UK house owns you.

In a word - NO. It's their house and are entitled to do with it as they please. It's bad enough the government sell houses on folk when they are permanently moved to a care home.
It could be us in years to come, I'm damn sure I'll be giving up everything I've worked for!!!
Be careful what u wish for!

Has anybody stopped to ponder if these young people who are to take posession of these large houses can afford the mortgage or upkeep of such properties?
If so then why aren't they buying all the houses that are on the market now?
It's not been thought through has it? :Whatever_

Lol.

I think as a society we should think about things like this.

If when my dad dies my mother is at home in a large house with large gardens that she can`t cope with I would suggest to her to downsize. She hasn`t the 3 children running around, is less able to look after the house, the neighbours she lived next to for nearly 40 years have changed. And she wouldn`t need such a large house.

Where the situation still exists which made my Father and Mother make the decision to buy the house as a wreck to make into a family home. And the money that she will get from downsizing will obviously come in handier than the pensions, and also a smaller house is cheaper to own and run.

But it would be her choice, but she`s even said she`d downsize as the house would be too big.

Exactly. :thumb:


The clue is in the word 'home'. It's not just a house.

I suppose they all come back on the market eventually !

The inference is that responsible family units will be moved to smaller accommodation

What is even MORE worrying is the flipside to this.

Irresponsible serial sprog producers would then be deemed worthy of large multi-bedroomed accommodation!

The answer is simple, IMHO.

High density housing / Dormitory Accommodation for those who can't / won't provide for themselves.

Free choice for anyone who cares to fund their own lifestyle.

End of.

This suggestion really p,issed me off. It is completely f,ucking stupid and absolutely unworkable. A non-starter.

dl (old person)

They chucked an old grannie pikey out of a 10 berth caravan this week ....... shame :)

If they want to try and 'persuade' MrsD & I out of our 4 bed house, they'd better bring numbers :Suspiciou

And come armed :thumb:

Stupid me! I thought it was about council housing.

In that case, I would tell them they can fook right off!

All that happens now when old people move out/downsize, the house goes on the market, the only people who can afford to buy are landlords who immediately split the house up into multiple bedsits and then rent them back to the council.

So we are left with a lovely old house/ family home that will never return to its original condition, a landlord who is getting richer at the tax payers’ expense, a council who have their housing problem solved without having to build new or renovate old properties and accommodation provided for immigrants and serial sprog producers.

Sorry to hear about your gran Lewis :mad:

dl

:lol: :lol1: :D

Funny you should say that!

Les :)

LOL, that is amusing :0



To be fair though, who are these old people going to sell their 5 bedroom homes too? Its much harder these days for people to get on the property ladder let alone upsize. ( I appreciate SNet is the exception here as we're all so terribly rich what what)

Theres a big problem where I live in West Wales. Lots of homes up for around the £250K - £300K (for a med size 4/5 bed house - ours is a standard 3 bed semi at about £150K it is still cheap here but even £150K is tough when average income is like 25-35K) mark but no one to buy them as the "executive class" doesn't exist down here. You either work away or work for the refineries or LNG or the council (funnily enough) to get the big houses.

Bit of a nonsense story tbh.

We could take a leaf out of Mugabe's book and just sling out the whities :)

dl

It appears that Angus Hanton's parents live in a £1.5m five-bedroom des res (warning, this link contains a particularly ugly photograph of Tessa Jowell, not that there are any nice ones!).

Angus, being a 52 year old on the Advisory Board of the Intergenerational Foundation, that so-called "charity" who propose that older people are forceably kicked out of the houses that they have legitimately bought and paid for!!!

Still, maybe he will surrender his £850,000 pile in a few years time to accommodate some dole cheats in "affordable" housing???

Although perhaps, in these austere times, we need to re-assess the definition of a "charity" :rolleyes:

mb

What a stupid woman she really is!

Les