Intermediate housing

I have housing problems that cannot be addressed by intermediate housing, I seem to have "slipped through the net" & surely can't be alone in this. I am 48 & have complex chronic health conditions which mean that I cannot work & hence am on benefits, I never had any children, in 1994 I joined the Council's housing register & was removed against my will in 2011 having never been made an offer of accommodation, I live in a private rented flat & my landlord is one of the small minority of landlords that accepts tenants on Housing Benefit, this flat is in need of a lot of refurbishment/modernisation which the landlord won't do - it's no use saying confront him over this as I am a vulnerable person & hence unable to do that - plus he may not be able to afford it anyway, the Council are paying my rent through Housing Benefit & could save themselves a lot of money by allocating me one of their own properties as the rent would be somewhere in the region of £70pw less; due to my age & the fact that I'm unwell I need somewhere secure to live & private renting is not secure - what on earth would happen to me if say the landlord wanted to sell this flat?

Key workers are important but, with the growth in self-employment and casualised industries and the insecurity which comes with it, this is not the only priority. Efforts should be made to ensure anti-social behaviour is not a problem in intermediate or social housing.

Average earnings should be treated carefully as a measure of affordability because very high salaries can distort this and still make housing above social rented unaffordable to those who need it.

And the right to buy needs looking at in terms of what it would actually cost to buy, not discounted, at public expense, without replacing enough social housing. Perhaps more along the lines of what the rent would buy over time, until it's paid for. Then the issue of how it would be replaced and how a lot of these properties are just used to charge others much higher private rents.

I'm not sure that intermediate housing solves at all the housing problem. Shared Ownership, for example, ends up being more expensive and difficult to afford than buying outright and paying only a mortgage when you add up the service charges and increases in rent (which are based on market hikes) and your ground rent and taxes. All to put the money in someone else's pockets, instead of your own. The only thing it sorts out is to have an assured rent with a smaller deposit than it would cost to buy outright.

I think another type of scheme backed by the government that sorts these issues should be in place instead. In Spain, for decades they've had a "Officially Protected Housing" scheme (Viviendas de Proteccion Oficial). Under this scheme hundreds of thousands of new owners and families have been able to afford outright their homes at a low subsidised cost, while accepting some restrictions on the status of their home in the market. This scheme is aimed to protect family homes, and builds communities over longer periods of time, while still allowing young people and new buyers to afford their home outright on their own, without always having to rely on the Parents' Bank.

THAT, making each individual and family independently able to afford their residence that suits their needs on their own outright, is the goal that any scheme should have. Anything else is not solving the issue.

In the UK 5% of the people own 90% of the land. The reason for extremely high house prices is land monopoly.

Do a land reform break the monopoly. This the only way to have fair free market and decent house prices.

The UK is the only country in Europe that you can't buy land a build your own house. Houses are build by huge developers only which can afford to buy big land parcels and that drives the prices up. Stop the big developers speculations by land reform.

Also in England land registry we have only 65% of the whole country. Seriously in 21st century? Do a fair tax on all land and houses based on size and value. Again the UK is the only country in Europe without property tax. That makes possible Chinese and Russian oligarchs to buy whole buildings in London and keep them empty.

Fair property tax say 0.2% means me leaving in 400k house (80% of people live in houses less then 400k) and paying currently £2400 per year, a tax reduction of 70%! I will pay £800. The guy living in 5m mansion will pay £10 000. That is fair and will stop all BTL and property speculations.

I heard that in Denmark anyone wishing to buy property has to have lived in the country for four years previously.  Other countries have similar requirements.  However, the history of landowning in this country is quite different, and much less equitable.

Crazy thing is renters are forced to pay huge prices for poor accommodation and yet the mortgage would be less than the rent...access to mortgages isn't fair...renters paying rent all their lives could have bought their home in lieu...Housing system biased from start towards wealthy to make more wealth.

Rents that are dictated by the market regardless of the quality of the housing is criminal. One persons 'pension' is another persons wage is  a ponzi scheme..we all fail. Who monitors landlords or the quality of the housing?  The retention of deposits extra fees for 'search'...students  being used as cash cows. The money that they have to pay back over their lifetime is spent over their heads whilst they struggle to support themselves. Housing in London is disasterous for the community at large, dividing generations-we need to rethink it. We punish londoners with  cost.

I recently applied for Intermediate Rental for it to be pulled off the system due to demand. This shows there is the need for it, but my concern is that people applied for it to abuse it (I.e. they can afford the private rental, but Intermediate rental means they have more money in their pocket at the expense of those who genuinely need it).

I think the whole council house situation needs reevaluating, as I've heard of cases where it's being abused (e.g. sub letting, passed to dependents, as "safety nets", as well as "I need to stay in London because my support network is there"). Regarding the last point, I'm more or less being forced out of London to be able to afford a house (rented or mortgaged), away from mine, my wife's, and my kids friends and family, so others can live rent free.

Severely limit the number of properties someone can own and there will be more available properties. Also require that property owners live in the UK at least half of the year. There are too many rich people sitting on multiple properties and renting them out for extortionate prices. 

Introduce a minimum size requirement for rented properties, that isn't a glorified hotel room masquerading as a '1 bed flat'. Ban studios.