ASH on the Housing Bill
May 5th, 2016
I copied what follows off the ASH FB page. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done I don’t know – but what I do know is that every word of it rings true. This is a fight for the survival of council housing in the UK and if you think that’s an exaggeration then watch the Housing Bill pass and the housing crisis worsen inexorably.
Well, that was worth it. Further proof that the fight for council housing won’t be won in Parliament by the verbal outrage of landlords and company CEOs, but on council estates and by the direct action of the residents whose homes are threatened.
We need to stop asking the people and institutions that want to demolish our homes to give us the means to stop them doing so, and start organising our own resistance on the ground. That starts with the political awakening of every resident to the reality of what they are facing, which is not a policy disagreement between Tory and Labour but a class war being waged by the rich.
I’ve said this from the time we first read this Bill and I’ll repeat it again now. This Bill is not ‘badly thought through’, ‘written too quickly’, a ‘hodgepodge’, or ‘half-baked’ – as the Labour Party and its press have endlessly dismissed it as.
It is carefully designed to do exactly what it intends to do, which is bring about the end of social housing in this country. The Labour Party should understand this better than anyone, as it has been, and will continue to be, its councils that will implement the Bill’s legislation.
It is this truth that we need to face, and quickly, if we are to organise mass resistance to its attacks, not in A-B marches to Parliament, submissions to the House of Lords, or faith in the Second Coming of J.C. to miraculously reverse what’s going to happen to council housing over the next four years.
These measures, which have wasted the time and drained the energy of what limited opposition to the Bill there has been, have only served to divert our attention from what is really needed to oppose it, which is collective resistance by the hundreds of thousands of residents whose homes will be sold or demolished by the Housing and Planning Bill and the mass estate regeneration programmes its legislation will enable. – Simon Elmer
Calling leaseholders on estates under threat
May 4th, 2016
I found this by ASH (Architects for Social Housing) on their Facebook page and it’s too important to leave there so if you are a leaseholder on an estate threatened with redevelopment against your wishes then read, mark, and learn what follows:-
Apart from all this mucking about, one thing that came out of the presentations and discussions, and which was backed up by advice from a barrister and a leasehold lawyer, is that collective resistance by leaseholders forcing Councils to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders against them is one of the most effective ways to resist estate regeneration and save the homes of all residents, leaseholders and council tenants alike.
It costs the Council shitloads, allows us to question the consolation process at legal inquiries, put forward alternative plans and argue that they better represent the needs of the local community, and delays their demolition plans by years. It also casts an uncomfortably bright light on the Plato’s cave of illusions in which the public is imprisoned by the press.
If we can show every leaseholder on every estate in London why they should do this, then the Tory Government, Labour Councils, Savills, and all the other housing associations, building companies and property investors feeding at the London housing table might start to think again about whether estate demolition really is the easiest route to a quick buck. – Simon Elmer
Housing discussion at Tate Modern April 13th 2016
April 15th, 2016
I attended a showing of Estate: a Reverie by Andrea Luka Zimmerman on Wednesday evening at the Tate Modern. Following the film an interesting discussion took place among six interested parties and from a poor quality recording I have transcribed some excerpts as shown below.
Bankers and Blair
February 29th, 2016
In defence of Council Housing – Guardian
February 12th, 2016
Just seen a comment in the Guardian underneath an article about owners who decorate their homes artistically.
A troll calling themselves FloodZilla jumps in and complains about the “wealth” of these tenants and is then shot down in flames by the poster below. Wonderful!
The Housing Bill – read Architects for Social Housing
January 6th, 2016
If you want know all the reasons why the present housing bill will mean the end of council housing then read this.
https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/where-will-we-live/
. . . and other articles on the same blog.
English Social History – a programme for schools
January 5th, 2016
If you missed history in school as I did through unfortunate timetable choices there is a way to catch up in short order thanks to a wonderful programme broadcast overnight for schools some years ago. I’ve watched it several times over the years and never cease to wonder at how much he packs into two hours and how well he covers the subject.
English Social History – Andrew Chater – BBC2 – DEAD LINK
It’s on YouTube divided into sections, my upload is simply the whole programme in one go albeit missing a few seconds from the beginning.
If you prefer to watch it on the original website, it’s here:-
Where we live now – 2016 uploads
January 5th, 2016
This post is redundant and forwards to a new article.
Why sink estates exist II – linked article
December 16th, 2015
Five years ago I wrote “Why sink estates exist” in despair at the course right to buy had taken and the growth of buy to let mortgages. Now Stephen Farrall of the University of Sheffield has written a similar piece only based on data rather than hearsay. I’ve reproduced it here with permission under the Creative Commons Licence. The article was originally published on The Conversation.
Stephen Farrall, Professor of Criminology, University of Sheffield
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Loss of lifetime tenure – Karen Buck
December 16th, 2015
Five years ago I attended Progressive London 2010 at which Karen Buck was speaking, among others. She identified then the problems that will come to pass with the Governments recent attack on tenure.
Karen Buck was superb with a long talk about the possible loss of secure tenure of council tenants should a Conservative Government be elected and implement the plans outlined by Localis in Principles their now infamous document on Tory proposals for council housing.
She drew a parallel with the experiences of black migrants from the American South coming to Chicago in the 1940s and becoming the victims of slum landlords while suffering the indignities of being “frequent movers”, people unable to take their place in society for want of a stable home address. [The Promised Land – Nicholas Lemann] Karen put forward the view that in the absence of secure tenure and having only an AST with two months to quit, council tenants would become a transient population, unlikely to be registered with a GP, their children changing schools, unlikely to be on the electoral register and to vote. She pointed out that Conservative think council tenants are second class citizens.
Karen Buck is always worth listening to about housing.
Council tenants lose lifetime right to live in property – The Guardian