30/05/2026
Is £60k REALLY still classed as housing need?
I sat reading through Dorset Council’s new housing policy with a cup of tea going cold beside me, and by the end of it I wasn’t just confused, I was angry. Because when you strip it back, what it seems to say is that someone like me – working, paying tax, raising a family in Dorchester – could quite easily be subsidising housing for someone earning up to £60,000. £60,000!
Social housing is scarce, and we all agree it should be there for those who need it most. Yet somehow, in a system where waiting lists are long, earn £58k and you’re still considered eligible? That £60k figure is roughly double what many people around here are actually bringing in. So someone on an ordinary local wage could be competing with – and effectively subsidising – households earning far more.
I don’t see how councillors can defend that with a straight face.
And then there’s the local connection. It used to be five years. Long enough to build a life, put down roots. Now it’s two. Two years?
That’s barely enough time to work out the school catchments, never mind establish any real connection. And once someone has been here for those two years, they become the ‘local connection’ not just for themselves, but for their families as well. You don’t have to be cynical to see how that might be used.
Meanwhile, families who’ve grown up here – whose parents are here, whose childcare depends on being close by, whose lives are tied into this place – are being pushed further down the line. I’ve got friends in exactly that position – one couple, both working, both local, trying to stay near their parents so they can keep their jobs and raise their children.
They’re not asking for anything much. Just a chance to stay where their lives already are.
But under this new system, they’re competing with people who have been in Dorset since 2024 – probably on incomes most local families will never reach.
And we’re told this is about fairness.
Everyone agrees we need to reduce homelessness and use housing stock properly. But when our local policies start to lose sight of the people already living and working here – the ones keeping shops, care homes and businesses going – something has gone wrong.
Because if ‘local’ no longer actually means local, and ‘need’ stretches as far as a £60,000 income, I’d like to ask who this system is actually working for.
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