There's a real misunderstanding in this thread of what this "social housing" actually is. This is not council housing. This is affordable housing. It's owned

There's a real misunderstanding in this thread of what this "social housing" actually is. This is not council housing. This is affordable housing. It's owned by a landlord and then privately rented. The people in it tend not to be the unemployed, because they can't afford it. The rental prices tend to be set higher than the Local Housing Allowance, and so Housing Benefit (or the housing element of Universal Credit) would not cover the whole rent. The people living in this affordable housing tend to be teachers, nurses, police officers, fire-service personnel, public law solicitors and barristers, small business owners -- the people who help make society work. We need those people, and it benefits us if they live in or near the communities in which they work. There's also a bit of misunderstanding about the other side of these housing developments -- some of them are luxury developments, but many of them aren't. They're just expensive but normal housing, because London happens to be stupidly fucking expensive.