Single Aspect Blog

He was one of four speakers and a chair, and his talk was such a good summary of what has happened to council housing under New Labour and since that I have transcribed it, with the help of YouTube (upload, wait, download captions), below:-

Okay I’m going to start somewhat differently I’m not really going to talk about the architecture I’m not going to talk about the estates, in a way the concept of a council estate is epiphenomenal to really the fundamental key aspect of what we’re dealing with. The key aspect for council housing for me is that it’s a part of the welfare state.

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“Slum clearances without the Socialism” – Owen Hatherley

I was reading the Guardian online today. This to be specific. Building affordable homes for rent is more vital than new roads then in the comments I found this . . .

Myra Fuller Dikericay

If you look at towns such as Burnley and Blackburn, the infrastructure is already there. 1,000s of two up/two downs have been bulldozed in recent years; some have been replaced by new housing however roads bounded by knee rails are all that’s left of others.

UPDATE: Read Heygate profits north of a hundred million by 35%.org

HT @adjournist retweet

This interview has triggered thoughts I’d tried to bury about the entitlement of leaseholders to be treated as fairly as secure tenants on a council estate, complicated by the fact I detest right to buy but count two leaseholders (second generation) among my friends. I will attempt to unravel the interwoven threads of the conflict with reference to the comments of Peter John in the interview linked above.

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Films

All Our Working Lives – The Shipbuilders.mp4 (download and play)

Original 1984 documentary of one hour then a half hour update programme

British Connection Clydebank – Kelso.mp4

BBC Alba – subtitles in English – Clydebank forms the first half hour

Dreaming the impossible: Unbuilt Britain – A revolution in the City

BBC Four 58m59s

The Secret History of our Streets – Duke_Street.mp4

BBC Four – subtitles – 59m22s

BBC page on the programme

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I keep an eye on various commentators to the Guardian. Presstheredbutton is one of them. I don’t agree with everything they write but when I do I think it’s worth repeating here:-

As the results of the local elections and mayoral elections were being announced, Polly’s colleague, Anne Perkins, identified the Bristol mayoral election as the real test of Corbyn’s leadership. Marvin Rees, the Labour candidate, won handsomely. Perkins’ response? Silence.
When the mass resignation of Labour’s front bench happened, the aim was to cripple Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

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“The problem isn’t that half the country are racists, it’s that the racists now think that half the country agrees with them.” – Anon

Thank you. I am a journalist I also write a column for The Guardian once every two weeks I haven’t really got enough to say to write one once a week.

But I’m not a columnist I think we’ve probably got too many columnists in this country and we’ve not got enough journalists.

[Applause]

We certainly haven’t got enough reporters. [pause] That’s what I do.

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I found this the other day while browsing some Facebook pages I link to. While one hears from time to time about the New Labour Polish influx in 2004 it’s easy to forget about the effect that had on the country unless you go to buy a coffee of course. When’s the last time you were served by somebody British born?

I’m certainly not a racist and I spent half my working life traveling the world so I’m not going accept lessons on foreign cultures and their problems. But I think the text below by Simon Elmer is a well written and timely reminder of how immigration has altered our country.

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The events of the last seven days have been so tumultuous and the determination of Jeremy Corbyn to stay in place for the people who support him so tenacious, in spite of all the forces ranged against him that the situation necessitates a temporary but different emphasis on the blog so I’ve shunted the student reading list off to its original home while I accumulate relevant links and quotes to put here.

“Both mayors elected so far, and the two major candidates this time, have offered the same solution, differing only in degree—a relentless offsetting, whereby the proceeds of runaway property speculation are proposed to be redistributed, usually by a legal requirement that developers build a percentage of “affordable” housing on or off the site, or pay for a bus stop, or fund some nice pavements and benches.”

“All of this relies on trying to inveigle the private sector into behaving more nicely. In a city where for nearly a century public bodies once directly built and directly owned thousands of high-quality homes and let them to people on low incomes at low rent, this is a staggering failure of imagination.” – Owen Hatherley writing in Prospect Magazine.

Once again I find myself reading an important piece about social housing under threat, this time in Streatham, which needs wider publicity but instead is tucked away on a private discussion group. So I’m giving it a wider view at risk of copyright violation. I’d like to make it clear that what follows was not written by me but I agree with it as written and trust the judgement of the author.

This is 269 Leigham Court Road in Streatham, currently sheltered housing, with 45 flats that are home to 50 residents, all over the age of 60, all on secure tenancies. Despite being designed by architect Kate Macintosh specifically to house elderly people, a duty it has performed since 1975, in January 2013 Lambeth Council suddenly declared the estate ‘unfit for purpose’, told residents that it was too expensive to do the repairs and maintenance they had neglected for years, and declared the site was to be ‘sold as cleared land.’

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