Thursday, November 30, 2006

Little House Quite Contrary


There is a housing problem in this country that no one seems to be facing up to. In our town and the town next to us, in fact in every town in West Lothian, hundreds upon hundreds of houses are being built.
Unfortunately these houses are now priced so far out of our league we will never get on the housing ladder and I don't know how people are able to afford these houses. Worse still, and in an Emperor's New Clothes moment, the houses are not worth the price they are asking for them!
So we are stuck in the frustration of renting hell.
We have been on the Homeswap site for nearly 2 years now. That is 2 years without promise of a move that would improve our lives significantly and we have lived here for 5 1/2 years now, it is like living in purgatory. You would think we were asking for £1million (actually that would be nice too, please.) Thanks to the right-to-buy scheme and the cooncils apathy in allowing single older people to remain in 3-4 bedroom houses the whole situation is stagnant and will remain so until someone somewhere has a bright idea.
That bright idea would be to make the system fairer. Amazing concept I know.
In Britain now, particularly in Scotland, the only way you can get anywhere in social housing is by not working, having no intention to work and never having had a job ever. That and the ability to fake illness (back ache, depression, stress anyone?) for points. And yes, that would be the points system they supposedly stopped using.
If you become a lay-about not only do you not have to worry about rent or council tax but you also get support to have as many children as you wish and to have enough money to enjoy yourself. Don't believe me?
How many people do you know that are truly struggling on benefits? If they are then at some point they probably were working and therefore don't fall into the professional scrounger league, they missed the training on how to get as much money as possible out of the system.
How many people do you know who work like navvies just to pay a mortgage? Indeed, Noo Labour punishes those on low wages particularly harshly.
It is a ridiculous situation. And what will happen next I wonder, or should that be worry? But for now my biggest concern is for the Hobbits, we need to move nearer their school, it would make life so much easier especially for them. They are missing out on so much and I really try to compensate but when Husband needs the car for work and we are stuck in this town it becomes really hard to see the positive side of anything.

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