Woodberry Down – Koos Couvée
November 2nd, 2012
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicohogg/164474440/sizes/m/in/set-72157600403732490/
Woodberry Down has slipped under my radar in the sense that despite having lived just up the road for over a year, at Stamford Hill, in the 1970s, I have never walked around it or given it much thought. However, a recent article that came to my notice this week is above average and a wonderful description of the goings on there so I think it deserves a mention here.
Subsidy – misuse of the word
October 2nd, 2012
One of the words used by right wing politicians with no interest in housing anyone who can’t afford to buy a house or pay ever increasing private rent, is the word subsidy. It is almost always used in a perjorative way to suggest that the supposed beneficiary is in receipt of some favour, advantage, or benefit bestowed upon them by a benevolent society when there is no such thing as a subsidy being granted, only misuse of the word.
Right to buy – Frank Field vs Keren Suchecki
September 22nd, 2012
I found this article in the Guardian by Frank Field from January this year. I vehemently disagree with it and I’ve given my reasons below interleaved with the original article, paragraph by paragraph. As bbeth says in a comment below “housing associations are private and charitable bodies. Frank Field has NO right to be telling them what they should do with their assets”.
Following it is a much more reasonable article by Keren Suchecki of New Start whose views are like a breath of fresh air.
Jon Snow speaking at the Guardian Open Weekend
March 30th, 2012
I have rarely heard so much truth about the present housing situation spoken in so few words, in one place. I wasn’t there but transcribed this from the Guardian video.
The housing crisis is personal to me because the first job I had after University was to work in a day centre for homeless and vulnerable young people sort of 16 to 21, and I’m still the chairman of the project now, 40 years on.
There’s far more sleeping in doorways in London and in Manchester and in Birmingham than I can remember, we’re back somewhere in the late 1960s.
Hammersmith & Fulham council – Great lies of our time
November 25th, 2011
Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council today welcomes the return of Right to Buy, but says that local authorities should have the freedom to be able to retain all of the proceeds from the scheme so that they can build more affordable homes.
http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/Councils_should_retain_all_the_proceeds_from_Right_to_Buy.asp
Next week on the evening of November 30th there will be a planning meeting http://www.saveourskyline.co.uk/index.php for a scheme that will include NO affordable homes.
“The right to buy council homes remains iniquitous”
November 23rd, 2011
I do love my readers. So often somebody will type something into Google which sums up the situation better than I have so far and either leads me on to new knowledge or summarises a situation very well. Such is the above (from Norwich I think). If it was you, thank you and I hope you enjoyed reading through the long exchange between myself and Mizzentop the other day at http://www.singleaspect.org.uk/?p=9450
Council Housing RIP
November 19th, 2011
Millions of council tenants would be allowed to buy their homes at half price under government plans to extend the right-to-buy. The discount, double that currently available, is part of the government’s long-awaited, and much delayed, housing strategy paper, due to be published on Monday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/19/council-tenants-buy-half-price
Of course it remains to be seen if they actually implement this, if those council tenants so entitled can afford to buy, even with the discount, but clearly Cameron and Co. are determined to finish what the Iron Lady could not.
Guardian comments – right to buy
November 18th, 2011
I’ve spent the day bashing seven bells out of the keyboard in support of council housing and against RTB in a discussion on the Guardian website with a gentleman from South Wales.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/16/margaret-thatcher-meryl-streep#start-of-comments
I’m Piecesofeight.
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16 November 2011 8:26PM
Thatcher was guilty of the greatest sin in my book of selling off council houses. She caused the housing crisis we have now and for that I could never forgive her.
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Right to buy III
October 5th, 2011
I’ve written articles on the subject of right to buy in the past. They are Right to buy II, Right to buy and Why sink estates exist. They have been part of a journey towards understanding what’s gone wrong with council housing since Mrs Thatcher was elected in 1979.
Adam Gray has written a short article that encapsulates the reasons for the demise of public housing provision in the last thirty years which covers all the reasons I’ve found and more and is well worth reading.
http://adamgraysjournal.blogspot.com/2011/10/right-to-buy-2-damaging-policy.html
UPDATE: 6/10/11 This today from Inside Housing
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/ihstory.aspx?storycode=6518252
UPDATE: 18/10/11 This very relevant article today from the Guardian
World’s End Chelsea
September 19th, 2011
Great estate, love the burnt umber bricks, so much better to look at than raw concrete. Lovely use of communal garden space within the courtyard level above the car park at 1st floor level. Have some doubts about the – bordering on – single aspect tower block flats,but they have at least been designed so that every flat has a SW facing window even if it’s only one, and they are popular.
