Did you buy your council house?

[MrsT]

How many of you took up my excellent offer and bought your council house? Are you glad you did? Do you still live there? Did it induce you to vote Tory when you normally would not have? Did you later get seduced by the Tony Blair show?

[rojash]

Or are you a young person who can't afford to buy or privately rent a house thanks to the unregulated housing market, and can't get a council house because I sold them all?
Did your parents get seduced by the greed and avarice of the 80's?

[Jemisa]

We bought our council house. 5 years later we sold it & moved to a farrr better area.
The council estate has now more or less become a ghetto and it was the best thing we ever did. All thanks to Margaret Thatcher.
But we never voted for her or her party.

jem

[rojash]

"The council estate has now more or less become a ghetto"
"All thanks to Margaret Thatcher"

[ummmm]

Why is she responsible for that?

[123everton]

There are two things in life you can't choose, your family and your neighbours.
The trouble with ex-council properties is a simple one.
If you buy a house for £80,000 then the other houses in the area will be worth roughly that and the people around you will be earning a similar income or paying a rent that is comparable to the area, with council property it's different, you can get a family of smack heads move in.
The thing is that the money raised from sales has not been invested in new housing or fixing the existing stock, what I do find galling is the sight of tower blocks that were formerly council owned by Sefton Park (Liverpool 8) that have now been privatised.
Slightly off the question but there's also the Edge Lane widening scheme, people who've lived there (owners) for years are being forced to move away to other parts of town.
They've suffered all the hardships and now the investment is finally being made in the area they're getting evicted.
There's one word for this policy, gentrification.

[welshlibranr]

Yes we bought our council house, lived there for a further 5 years, sold it and made over 60,000 moved onward and upward, always the plan!...........worked hard all our lives, only thing the government past and more recent ever gave us!.............never voted Tory! never was seduced by the Blair show either, we just looked after us and ours!.............

[craft1948]

I've never rented a council house............got married and bought a brand new house.but we voted for you anyway.

[MrsT]

Well done craft, that's what I like, people who don't think the world owes them a living.

[Ric.ror]

I told my Mother to buy her council flat approx 9 months ago - she had lived in it for 30 years so the rent combined with the money she paid more than covered the value of it. Our LA passed all property to a private company and I was not satisfied with the way they were treating the tennants - substandard repairs etc.

As for Baroness Finchley -
I would rather eat my own vomit than thank that women for anything!!!!

[cathfromsaron]

my grandad bought his for £9,500 in 1979.
we sold it for £260,000 when he was hospitalised.
he earned every penny he ever had and never took from the system.
they would have robbed it back soon enough to pay for fees, so i say good on him!