Here because they want to be

However she, like so many, suggests that homeownership is the desired status.

She compounds this by suggesting that “only the most vulnerable can squeeze through the eligibility criteria [for social housing]”. It’s a common view, but has it been tested? Should we not recognise that many tenants wish to remain in rented accommodation?

I cannot understand why social housing tenants continue to be so blatantly discriminated against. It seems self-defeating to keep denigrating our customers as if we are somehow superior.

The original eligibility for a tenancy is a transient thing. Relationships change, families grow up and employment prospects are volatile in every income bracket. So the fact that some people remain in social housing may, therefore, be seen as being a matter of choice. To be labelled as poor unfortunates is insulting.

Poverty is not linked to postcode and has very little to do with rented housing; it merely moves in with a particular family. Look around: our estates have too many cars to fit on the road, satellite dishes sprout like mushrooms, children walk around with mobile phones and the latest trainers, there are televisions and stereos in every bedroom. Is this the poor social class, as some would have us believe ?

Isn’t it time we celebrated the fact that we have a part of society that actually chooses to live in the homes that we rent?

George Brown, tenant board member Southern Horizon Housing, East Sussex