Election result explained from @Sheff_socialist
December 25th, 2019
The only sensible thing I’ve seen written about the election result since the day it happened.
Taken from @Sheff_socialist with link at the end:-
A long thread about my own personal experiences during this election dealing with my Labour voting family deciding to out themselves as casual racists by voting Tory / Brexit Party in traditional Labour “Red Wall” heartlands
I come from a genuine working class family .
Grandparents were miners and domestic cleaning staff
Dad was butcher , mum was a cleaner and when she remarried after their divorce she married a miner .
I grew up in a two up two down terrace house that my parents rented from the local Co-op society and then moved into a council house in Kendray (Barnsley) when my mum remarried
Public Works Loan Board – notes
November 23rd, 2016
Start here -> The_UK_Public_Works_Loans_Board.pdf
As Phillip Hammond outlines his Autumn statement in the HofC with some news on housing I continue to worry about how we (England) can dig ourselves out of the housing mess we’re in with a lack of housing for rent most people can afford. Some years ago I read about the PWLB which seemed to be a wonderful thing and I have thought ever since that this may be the answer if councils ever go back to building housing for rent on a large scale.
Stats
June 10th, 2016
Since the Dan Cruickshank programme on flats, visits to my blog regarding scissor flats and dual aspect have shot up and these are the top ten at the of writing.
In the above image scissor flats are page 5595, crap flats page 884 and dual aspect page 5779.
Bankers and Blair
February 29th, 2016
Five more years of Tory rule?
April 14th, 2015
Update 2017 Volunteers help preserve London’s parks as funding withdrawn
Tax the rich: an animated fairy tale
A while back when I was still on Twitter (yes I know) I came across this animated video about unrestrained neo-liberalism. Despite retweeting it at the time it didn’t take off. I was surprised because to me it is an accurate graphic representation of what is and has been happening to our society in the UK since 1979.
It ties in with an analysis I did a while back of a Stuart Hall paper where he examines what will happen if neo-liberalism is allowed to continue to dictate policy in public life.
Estate Regeneration – UDG – Wed 23rd April
April 12th, 2014
Architectural audio – podcast list
March 21st, 2014
This list prompted by Tom Dyckhoff @tomdyckhoff on Twitter
1) I wish every architectural and political campaigning organisation would find £50 to buy one of these and use it.
2) Royal Academy podcasts, some but not all -> RA-Architecture
3) History Spot, these are good -> https://historyspot.org.uk/podcasts/latest
4) World Service Archive -> Housing podcast list
5) Politics of Architecture -> Jonathan Glancey
Talks about architecture – Royal Academy
December 3rd, 2013
UPDATE: See this page for the programmes -> Programmes
The Architects Who Made London with Maxwell Hutchinson: Series 1
Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, Robert Adam, John Nash, Sir Charles Barry RA, Sir George Gilbert Scott RA
Architects who made London with Maxwell Hutchinson – Series One
Architects who made London – with Maxwell Hutchinson – Series One
Is this the future of UK student accommodation?
September 21st, 2013
UPDATE: Oct 2016 Property Week award boycotted by angry student judges
“Unless all students have access to safe, affordable accommodation at every institution and the means to pay for it, there is no cause for celebration, nor the ability for us to award a for-profit sector failing so many of our peers.”
UPDATE: July 2016 I received another email recently, again from Aspen Woolf, only this time I decided to pursue it. Feigning interest in Kingfisher Court I booked a call which occurred the following morning. I was very honest with the bloke, told him I write a housing blog, told him I had heard there is “no exit” (see comment end of page) and what did he have to say?
In short order he told me the product is “more suitable for people over 60 as an investment”. “Not suitable for people with a mortgage”. “A long term investment”.
When asked directly if there is an exit he told me “Yes of course, but they are harder to sell and there’s a £3000 out fee”.
So essentially the guy who wrote the comment at the end of this post was right. There’s an exit in theory but you’re not encouraged to use it and if you try it’s going to be more difficult than selling a house because you have to wait for somebody in a smaller pool of investors in student accommodation to buy you out.
Avoid like the plague would be my advice.
Cameron on housing
October 6th, 2011
Here are a few links I gathered together last year on Cameron’s attitude to housing. I’m loath to delete them so here they are (again) as a reference point of 2010 in politics and the Tory approach to those in need of a roof over their heads. It seems quite apt to post them again given that the Tory conference 2011 has just finished and the only thing we’ve heard is the utter stupidity of widen right to buy.
Johann Hari: Welcome to Cameron land [5th May 2010] (yes I know, but it’s still a good article)
David Cameron announces plan to end lifetime council tenancies [3rd August 2010]
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/03/lifetime-council-tenancies-contracts-cameron
London housing crisis: the roots of David Cameron’s council tenancy debate [5th August 2010]
Any Questions discussion about the Cameron comments [6th August 2010]
BBC Any Questions clip on council housing – YouTube
Any Answers discussion about the Cameron comments [7th August 2010]
BBC Any Answers clip on council housing – YouTube
David Cameron’s council housing plans opposed by majority of Lib Dem MPs [8th August 2010]
https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/08/david-cameron-council-housing-plans-opposed