General Chat

Have just read in a local paper that one of the women that was in this programme has been successfully prosecuted for housing fraud. She has been fined £400.00 court costs and sentenced to 6 months community service.

The charge was that she gave false information in her application that made her a priority for housing. :-|

Wonder if Channel 4 will be revealing this in subsequent programmes.

When I got married in 1973 I tried to get on the local council waiting list.

We were both born in the catchment area but the council put as on a list of people that had no points and would never get on the main list.

In the 1980's there was a chap who would go around moaning about how he waited for the birth of his twins before getting a council house. BUT what he omitted to say was he was in a council flat for years and that was because he worked for the council as a bin man.

In the 1990's I was a local councillor and sat on the Housing Committee. Heart breaking decisions had to be made as to who got the one property that was available.

I watched it on catch up....I did wonder what this bidding lark was all about as my daughter recently got her own two bed bungalow after only waiting a few months. I would imagine she was in band 2 (overcrowding) not that I would have said they were overcrowded myself compared to some of them on there

I suppose it depends where you live as to how long the wait is, and what they think is priority

I recorded it and watched it later, it was interesting to see. Some of the people were a bit too picky, that woman who was going to turn the flat down because it had no parking space but she didn't even have a car. She really ruled the family didn't she? Glad they took the place in the end altho it might have been because the council told them they were changing the rules and if you turned down more than three properties then you went to the back of the queue. It was like that with our council years ago. I was lucky when I needed social housing, got a brand new flat the first time and then when I asked if I could have a two bed in case I started a family (was still single at the time) they gave me another brand new one with two bedrooms. I did manage to buy my own house later on so didn't live in that one for more than 18 months or so.

Things are different now, my son and his gf are trying to find a two bed place so they can live together, son doesn't want to come out of social housing, (he has a housing association place which he can exchange with another h.a. place or a council owned place but they have to find their own exchanges and then get it approved. His gf lives in a privately rented upstairs flat over an optician's on a very busy road, no where nice for her little lad to play out.

Heaven knows when they will get somewhere but how upsetting for the people in Tower Hamlets who have little hope at all.

I hope the couple with the autistic son get a place soon before he manages to give the parents the slip and climb on the balcony and fall.

Lizx

It's back to Tower Hamlets for the third one Sue, but I'm sure they could have done the programme in all areas. I know here, having looked at the local HA 'offers' list. that the short list can be anywhere between 5 and 150 depending on the size of property and restrictions.

Then the next will be Birmingham bet you a pound to a penny it will be the next after Manchester.

on Channel 4 just now

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-get-a-council-house

I thought it was a balanced programme ( for once) featuring 'ordinary' people from a good cross section.

"This episode follows some of the council officers and families in Tower Hamlets in East London. Each week there are 24,000 people hoping to get one of just 40 properties available."

next episode is Manchester