Mon 2 Apr 2018, 10:12 AM | Posted by Mark Langabeer
A documentary series on Channel 5, entitled Social Housing-Social Cleansing, highlightsed Britain’s housing crisIs.
In the early 1980s, 42% of the population lived in social housing. Today, it stands at 8% with between one and three million people on waiting lists. Four out of every ten houses sold under the ‘right to buy’ scheme are owned by private landlords. The story of the Heygate Estate in Southwark, South London is an example of what many describe as social cleansing. The estate had 1034 properties. Following redevelopment, 2704 were built. Sounds reasonable. However only 82 homes are available for social rent and the rest are sold as luxury apartment s at £650,000 each. The developers made a fortune and the council ended up making zilch from the deal.
The programme also reported on the situation in Glasgow, where the whole council stock was transferred to a private housing association. Prior to the transfer, 34,000 were on a waiting list. Today, no records are kept and housing activists believe that it’s nigh on impossible to obtain social housing. The main reason for the transfer was that it enabled the council to off-load debt of £900 million that equated to 55p in every £1 collected in rent.
In the programme, there was an interview with a former resident of Balfron Tower in Tower Hamlets. His block was transferred to housing association, following a vote by residents. They were influenced by a promise to refurbish the Tower and they left the Tower, believing that they would return when the refurbishment was completed. The housing association then announced that the refurbishment was too expensive and the former council house tenants would not be allowed to return .The Belfron is listed as a grade-2 listed building and a prime site for gentrification.
The programme focussed on the stigma attached to council estates. Rather than places where working people lived at affordable rents, they are seen as places of failure and the causes of Britain’s social ills. The documentary interviewed Professor Danny Doorling, who pointed out that housing had become places where wealth is parked. He also pointed out that most people were paying over 50% of their income in rent.
2016 saw house-building reach a 24-year low, and most young people can’t afford to buy or rent. Labour must campaign for a mass programme of council house building. Probably my favourite part of this programme was a lady from the Chessington estate in Lambeth. She had lived on the estate for 41 years and vowed to stop its demolition until the last breath left her body. Labour must fight for our class as the Tories fight to protect the interest of the 1% who own and control most of the wealth in Britain.
