No need for council housing or social housing for that matter, if all else fails we’ll just all live in hotels! 
I’m not sure governments ever built houses, some big companies did and of course local authorities (who might or might not of been helped by the government of the time).
The situation has been dire for a long time yet the focus is on the nasty familly who the council (through obligation) has to put up in a hotel taking public funds.
It’s just soo crazy that even now this problem will not even be considered worthy of an utter within the civil service let alone government.
People need to wake up but they won’t as the vast majority can still afford a holiday so it’s not their concern.
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Private developers have always been around but local authorities/government funds built houses for decades but seemed to stop in the 80’s or 90’s and that is when they allowed developers take over completely.Even now i would imagine there are tradesmen employeed full time by councils for the upkeep of social housing,but not to build them.In order to right this problem governments need to reinstate building departments to tackle the lack of social and affordable housing.A difficult thing to do when private developers will be offering higher wages to tradesmen but if the will was there then it could be done.
When I said big companies I wasn’t thinking of developers but companies that built houses for their workers (example mining companies).
Do not confuse local authorities and government. Please do enlighten me and find a housing project put forward and developed by the government.
Council houses were just that.
For when local councils stopped building houses look at Thatcher and the changes made during her premiership.
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Not only did the evil bitch sell off a great swathe of council houses, she also changed the regulations with regard to land sales, so that developers could get increased access to formerly publicly owned land.
For instance school playing fields were sold off to developers for private housing estates.
Not only did that policy line the pockets of her developer mates, from the public purse, it also meant that school sports were reduced and curtailed to accommodate the reduced facilities.
I hope she is still burning.
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I think that deal is for eternity isn’t it?
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I couldn’t swear to it but, all the (Council) housing stock here on the Wirral seems to be owned/maintained by housing associations? We live in an ex Council house. Mrs CDO bought it through the ‘Right to buy’ scheme. There are many privately owned houses on our estate. The ‘Council’ housing has been administered through three different housing associations in recent years. Each time it changed hands it was through one association being absorbed into a bigger one.
I know that the standards of maintenance have fallen each time the properties change hands. Getting repairs done is a nightmare. The housing associations use contractors, but different firms for different tasks. The contractors wouldn’t be out of place on the BBC’s Rogue Traders programme. I won’t bore you with the saga of my Brother in Law’s kitchen. Suffice to say that the "Three week works programme’ is now in its eleventh week and ongoing. 
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Contractors and consultants do that now. I was involved in some of it from time to time. Councils carry very little in the way of labour now. All contracted out to demonstrate cost savings because they can choose when work gets done over having to pay someone full time.
But they have legal obligations which oddly enough means that the consultants / contractors end up working full time.
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Would this be at higher rates than if they employed their own tradesmen fulltime?
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While the local authority may decide where to spend it,does the money not originate in the same place? Maybe it’s too big or small of a job for downing street to be involved in but should it not be government policy to ensure there is enough housing for all citizens?Should they not be instructing local authorities to provide more social and affordable housing for those who need it?
One thing that’s stood out for me in the fiasco concerning my BIL’s kitchen is that there seem to be no odd job men about nowadays. We revamped our bathroom two years ago. A lad came and stripped everything out then built all the units, plumbed in the sink, shower and toilet, lined the ceiling in plastic planks, put a new light in, tiled most of the bathroom and plastered two walls and laid the floor. He did this all by himself and it took three days.
Throughout the eleven weeks that my BIL’s kitchen has been worked on I’ve lost count of the number of times that the job has been held up because “there’s no joiner available” or “I can’t do that until the plasterer has been”. There seems to be zero co-ordination between the different artisans. I hesitated to use the word artisans as the lack of workmanship on display has driven me crazy.
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Ever employed somebody? The costs are astronomical and the headaches are ridiculous. I’ll give you an example. Once a year the hedges at the front of our premises are cut by the council. 2 Transit tippers, 4 men and a morning to do something I do in about 2 hours. More time spent having breaks and lunch than actually doing anything. I mentioned it to the landlord. “Yeah, they do that” was the response. But then that’s just another of my pointless anecdotes that have no reference to the rest of councils across the country… I’d post the CCTV footage but it would still be sneered at.
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Went to the supermarket a couple of weeks ago only to find no large boxes of eggs on the shelf. Went again with the wife to some other supermarkets over the course of the next couple of weeks and again saw a distinct reduction in the number of eggs on the shelves.
Just saw this from the BBC website.
"Some shops including Asda and Lidl have started to ration the number of boxes of eggs customers can buy due to supply issues.
Asda said customers would be limited to buying two boxes of eggs until further notice, while Lidl is limiting customers to three.
UK poultry farmers are facing rising costs and an outbreak of avian flu.
It has started to affect the supply of eggs, and led to concerns of a shortage of Christmas turkeys."
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I would have thought avian flu is the biggest driver of any shortage. I think this affected free range eggs a while ago.
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You put a tyre onto a Swiss motorway and they want a pile of ££££. Should be the same here. The number of wagons on the roads that pay no tax is ludicrous.
Probably because private company wages are higher than public sector. But council has no sick or pension liability for those privately employed workers even though they pay for them indirectly.
Note that the rates are contract dependant and will likely be priced on the basis of time plus profit or cost plus profit. There then be a separate rate/ cost for contractor management to “manage” the work etc.
Councils then win by having a fixed budget and then delivering what they can within that budget. Make your own view on whether they deliver more by paying the private sector to deliver it or whether they could do it with their own staff. To my mind they don’t, and I’ve seen this again first hand over the last 11 months.
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Bird flu?
Yeah it’s going that way. Some councils in North Wales still have some housing stock.
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