Wednesday 20 April 2022

Public Housing.



I am writing this out of sadness; not as criticism.

I thoroughly approved of Mrs Thatcher's programme of selling Council Houses to long term residents. It brought people into the property market who otherwise would never have found it possible.

What I couldn't understand, however, was why she then refused to allow councils to reinvest the proceeds in new public housing. It didn't make sense, but I presume there was some logic behind it.


This short row of five nearby houses (above) is typical of local affordable council housing, but the one at the far end has been totally trashed, and is no longer habitable; I cannot tell you how much this saddens me. I walk past them very often.


Back in about 1980 I watched a TV documentary about a similar build of social housing in Liverpool. They were not built in a terrace like the above, but arranged in what the architect described as 'Resembling a Cornish Fishing Village'. It was a beautiful development, and rightly won prizes for the designer. I would have been very happy to have lived there myself.

Sadly it didn't take long for the new residents to completely destroy the 'village'. At the time of the TV documentary, the houses were boarded-up, old cars and mattresses were dumped in the gardens, and everywhere was sprayed with graffiti. About 90% of the homes had been treated with the same contempt as the one illustrated above; some had been burned down. It was a depressing sight.

Three of the above are still in a good state, one is a bit tatty, and one is now boarded-up. Brighton Council says it would be too expensive to restore it to its former state. What a shame.

Public housing is an essential part of any caring society, and it's shocking that so often it's the very people who need them most, who end-up wrecking them. I guarantee that those who bought their homes under Mrs Thatcher's scheme didn't trash theirs. 

I don't want this to sound too much like criticism, but I do find this lack of respect EXTREMELY SAD. Of course, the vast majority of people in public housing are perfectly respectful of their homes, but, as we all know, it only takes a few to give the others a bad name.

19 comments:

  1. Remember too the Liverpool Street condemned..but then sold for very little to individuals to renovate and live there...now that succeeded. Something in that?..Buy to let was not on the cards there.
    The not allowing reinvestment was crazy..as we do need homes for low income residents.
    The description of affordable needs to be looked at too. In our nieces village near Canterbury apparently £350k is affordable...not by locals it isn't

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    1. I could never understand why councils were stopped from reinvesting in more council homes. I would have thought it was the most sensible thing to do!

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  2. Some folk I knew who obtained homes under Mrs T's scheme sold them as soon as they were able for a handsome profit (particularly in central London Boroughs), trashed the cash, and joined the merry-go-round again. I'd like to think that was a tiny minority, but knew a few that did it.

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    1. If they wasted the money, more fool them. Back to square one!

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  3. In Newcastle mega profits were made by those who snapped up public housing at obscenely low prices under the policy, but I grant it did help a lot of people.

    A politician here was once condemned for saying 'You can pick the rented houses when you walk along a street'. There is some truth in what he said.

    My only sensible thought is that people need to feel a sense of ownership and community, whether they rent or own.

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    1. People should respect their homes whether they own them or not.

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  4. Why would a person choose to destroy a home? Possibly the owner hit hard times and could no longer afford to support themselves and the home. Still, destroying a home seems wrong. In my area, mixed housing developments have been built. That is, a complex where some units are sold at market price and some are affordable units. Affordable, today is often still out-of-reach for many and not really affordable. Some mixed complexes set price based on personal income and only a percent of the entire complex is set as affordable. The concept of mixed is thought to diversify residents in a complex; some being low-modest income and others higher income. In Massachusetts, towns/cities are held to Chapter 40 B which states a certain percent of homes must be affordable.

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    1. I think most of these properties are trashed by people who feel deprived, and have nothing to lose. Destroying gives them fleeting power.

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  5. In villages where there are small council estates or just a few council houses in a row, residents seem to take pride in their homes. The main problems seem to be on big, sprawling council estates on the edges of cities.

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    1. Unfortunately such estates can become dumping grounds for life's misfits.

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  6. When there wasn’t a new post from you early this morning as usual , I feared the blood pressure had got to you !!!!! I’ve just got in and was so pleased to see you are still with us !!!
    Such a shame those houses have been trashed. There will always be a few that ruin things. Re letting people buy their council houses , I was really annoyed with a friend of mine who bought her Mothers council house in the East End for a song and sold it for a healthy profit who has always slagged off the Tories and despised Margaret Thatcher and her politics with a passion , who went on and on about how little she cared for the poorer people in society but was quite happy to swallow her beliefs for money !!! XXXX

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    1. My laptop died, and I had to rush off to PC World (who open at 10am) in order to replace it. I'm now typing on a bright new shiny silver one.

      I hope your friend spent, or invested, her money wisely.

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  7. 100% agree with all these comments
    Not long ago I purchased an ex council house very much for market value as it has been privately owned since 1989. The only reason I purchased a property was because my partner's is so dilapidated we have been living there for years and various things conspired against him improving the place so now have a comfortable non damp abode that we can keep clean and he can take as long as he likes with his renovation or sell it and buy a house boat. Anyhow I was gratified to learn that some of my neighbours are still renting off the local authority- so some people without the means to purchase or rent a decent place privately are still eligable for a decent place to live. thank goodness

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    1. And may that continue; although I don't see many council houses being built these days.

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  8. As you know, Margaret Thatcher was, and never will be, a heroine of mine. She hoodwinked many people into believing that there was no such thing as society at the same time as having us believe that the 'wealth creators' were the saviours of the society she claimed never existed. She cared for nothing but growth and cutting national expenditure. Please don't delete this one, it needs to be aired.

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    1. Tom, she wasn't perfect but did her best in a troubled world. She made our country worth fighting for.
      I doubt it is now so bugger cheap housing.

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    2. Mrs T was simply pointing out that 'society' is made-up of individuals, and doesn't really exist as an entity. Nothing to shock there! People have very different views of her, but she still remains one of the most admired politicians (along with Churchill) amongst the world's fellow politicians.

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  9. What bothers me about trashed houses is the people who trash them then complain their home is "unliveable" which is certainly true, and they get offered another property, which they then also trash. So there are new rules here now, trash your property three times and you don't get another chance. I think they shouldn't get another chance after trashing once. There are so many people on the waiting lists who would care for their homes, yet they wait and wait and wait, some become homeless when their private rental homes become too expensive.

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