UNLOCKING her front door and stepping in from the freezing cold, Michelle Auckland unzips her winter jacket, carefully hangs it up and turns the thermostat up so her cottage is cosy and inviting.
Fuel prices might have risen an astonishing 59% since 2022 but the 46-year-old mum-of-three, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, doesn’t need to worry about penny-pinching.
But she’s not a millionaire’s mistress or high-flying CEO in the fintech world – Michelle’s actually a primary school tutor in a pretty rural village.
She lives in a ‘council estate house’ – which in reality is more like a cottage – and pays minimal rent of £437-a-month to her local authority.
It means she hasn’t been struck by rising inflation and seen mortgage rates increase. This year her rent has increased ‘by a fiver a month if that’.
Her life seems idyllic now but for years the prospect of living in a council house horrified her.
In fact it took losing her £275k five-bed home to realise she didn’t mind it.
Michelle – who wanted to get on the housing ladder early – was just 18 when she proudly purchased her first home, a £32k three-bedroom with her then-boyfriend who she later married and divorced.
Another three-bed, worth £56k, followed in 1999, and, finally, in 2008, the house of her dreams – a five-bed £275k home.
It was, for Michelle, proof that she, a girl from a council estate in Skelmersdale, Lancs., had finally made it.
“It was a huge house and one I considered a forever home,” she says.
“It had a lovely garden and room to entertain friends and family. It was a dream come true.I’d climbed the housing ladder to success.”
But disaster struck in 2009 when Michelle, then 31, and her ex husband Thomas* split and their huge (and hugely mortgaged) home was repossessed by the bank.
The situation worsened as the couple were in the middle of completing their divorce when the global financial crisis hit, the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of the 1920s.
The housing bubble burst around the world and interest rates suddenly skyrocketed and people were unable to pay their mortgages or sell their homes.
“Suddenly no one wanted to buy our home,” she says.
“We couldn’t pay the mortgage. If we did sell the property, we would have lost more than £100k.”
So, against a backdrop of economic disaster, Michelle and her former husband’s home was repossessed.
Michelle and her three children, now 24, 20 and 19, were forced to rent privately, paying £575 a month.
Homeless and single, Michelle was back where she never wanted to be – forced to live in a council home.
It was a heartbreaking blow for a woman who – since she was a teen – had dreamed of homeownership.
“My parents managed to buy their three bed council house but lost it during the 1980s’ banking crisis,” she says.
“So it was traumatic for me to do the same. I felt like I had failed everyone. I had developed an internalised snobbery around home ownership, which I now realise was stupid.
“I saw council houses as concrete blocks.
“I knew I wanted something different for me and so became obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses.
I’m getting a new kitchen and bathroom free this year from the council
Michelle Auckland
“I realised that we’d been trading security for bigger homes and bigger mortgages. It was heartbreaking and soul destroying at the time.
“Everything we’d worked and saved for was ripped away in an instant.
“Losing the house made me put security and simple things ahead of the quest for the big home. I vowed to never feel insecure again. I needed a sensible approach for myself and my kids.”
She couldn’t afford to continue renting privately so, having been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, applied to join the council house waiting list.
“I was still working but was ill,” she says.
“I had connections in the area and wanted to stay in Grantham but simply couldn’t afford to live in private accommodation.”
In November 2010 she was offered a three-bedroom, semi-detached council home – a far cry from what she was used to.
Rent was £385-a-month – £200 cheaper than private rent and £900 cheaper than her mortgage.
“I’d lived my life climbing the housing ladder,” she says. “Just when I had the five-bedroom house of my dreams it got ripped away.
“I’d gone from having ‘made it’ to suddenly having nothing. It’s terrifying but it shocked me into the real world.
“The obsession with big homes and even bigger mortgages had blinded me to what was important. I realised I’d trade a posh house and hot tubs in the garden for security and the simple things in life.
“I know it would have broken some people. I used it to reshape my future.”
But, getting a council house, she “refused to be ashamed”.
“My kids and I needed a home,” she says. “I was working and battling a long-term illness.
You are eligible to apply for council housing if you are a British citizen living in the UK providing have not lived abroad recently.
Each council has its own local rules about who qualifies to go on the housing register in its area, but it is based on “points” or a “banding” system.
For example, you’re likely to be offered housing first if you:
Once you are high enough on a council’s waiting list, it will contact you when a property is available.
Some councils let people apply at the age of 18, while others let you apply even sooner at 16-year-olds.
EU workers and their families and refugees may also be eligible.
“I was surprised it wasn’t on a council estate but instead a lovely village. It had a ratty kitchen, needed new flooring and painting but I wasn’t going to say no.
“It had a huge garden and was perfect
“I created a wonderful little village home using upcycled furniture, bright colour schemes and a simple way of life.
“I sometimes thought of my old so-called posh homes. My true friends were supportive and I focussed on the future, my kids and my health.”
Living in her council house, Michelle vowed to return to university and in 2023 graduated with a degree in literature and a masters in creative writing from the open university.
It enabled her to train as a tutor – which is why she gets so cross when council house dwellers are slammed as ‘spongers’.
“I have always worked full or part-time,” she says.
And she no longer feels envy for people who own homes – especially as she’s made her home so nice.
“I still decorate,” she says. “I don’t see it as a ‘council house’ but my home and have spent £3k over the past decade making it look homely.
“Everyone says it has amazing character because it’s full of charity shop finds, upcycled treasures and happiness.
“I grow vegetables, I forage in the forest, my garden is filled with flowers and we never waste anything.
“In 10 years my rent’s only gone up a fiver-a-month each year. It beats rising interest mortgage rates.
“I’m getting a new kitchen and bathroom free this year from the council.
“I no longer have anxiety about rising mortgage rates, or sleepless nights worrying about the banking crisis or skyrocketing prices.”
She’s “proud” of what she’s achieved.
“I will never give up my idyllic council house as it would be a crazy decision,” she says. “I deserve it. I have never felt so financially secure before. It’s the best decision I ever made.
“People in Britain are too obsessed with house buying and ‘keeping up with their friends’ – I was too.
“But why spend hundreds of thousands on a home when you can pay £457 a month and get the perfect council house in a village for life?
“I love my council home. It’s perfect. Most people think council properties are in rough council estates or dodgy tower blocks. I know differently.
“When people discover my village house is council, they are shocked. Some people assume I’m on benefits but I’m not. Others think I am ripping off the system.
“People are just awful. I don’t care what they say because I know my decision to ‘go council’ was the right one.
“It was traumatising knowing my parents had lost their house and losing our home. I was determined to work and turn my council home into a castle.
“I gave up my mortgage and home ownership days for the council alternative and love it.”
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Anna Roberts
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