Social animal

The right to bury

A local authority in London may have come up with an innovative way of making sure the right to buy doesn’t nibble at its housing stock. News has reached Social Animal that one of the capital’s councils is reducing the strain on its stock by killing off its tenants. Well, metaphorically at least.

One London tenant who had decided to buy his home was disappointed to learn that his application had been flatly rejected by the council. The reason? According to its records, he was dead. After checking his pulse, the hapless tenant assured the local authority that he was very much alive and a prolonged battle ensued to decide which side of the pearly gates he was on. We understand the tenant is still fighting for his life.

A single single-storey story

What’s the secret of true happiness? Living in a bungalow, according to research carried out by the Halifax Building Society.

The Halifax surveyed more than 1000 homeowners to find out which factors made them feel happy in their home.

The Halifax Happiest Home Report concluded that there were 12 elements which influenced homeowners’ feelings of contentment. They were: the crime rate, space, community spirit, privacy, garden, light, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, occupants, noise, neighbours and state of repair.

Bungalows topped the charts of delightful dwellings, scoring a happiness rating of 8.15 out of 10. And where are the most blissful bungalows located? According to the survey, the epicentre of happy habitation is … Spalding, Lincolnshire.

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Three thousand residents in Edinburgh got a nasty shock last week when they were sent a letter from the council saying their housing benefit had been stopped. After a flood of complaints from outraged tenants, the council acknowledged that the letters had been sent out in error due to a glitch in the housing department’s £15m computer system.

Red-faced council staff were forced to issue an apology regretting any distress that the letters may have caused. The staff have assured tenants that they will receive an amended letter confirming that housing benefit is still being paid within the next two weeks. Well, that’s the idea anyway...

Really rubbish collection

People who moved into Pleasant Street in New Brighton, Merseyside, are beginning to feel they have been duped. Locals are fuming about the build-up of bulging rubbish sacks left lying on the pavement outside their homes. Wirral bin men have only collected rubbish twice since Christmas because, they say, the road is too narrow to get their wagon down. “This street is anything but pleasant,” one resident told the local newspaper.