Right to buy – Richard Blyth
October 31st, 2018
Council housing 1976 – 2017 – C4 News
July 6th, 2017
In a section about the CIH Conference last week C4 news included a few statistics …
Subsidy II -> this from ASH
May 28th, 2017
Far from being subsidised by the state, the rents on most post-war estates paid off the cost of their construction and debt interest years ago, and are in fact making a profit for councils and housing associations. It is the Right to Buy council homes, the Help to Buy affordable housing, the housing benefit paid to private landlords, …
Read the whole thing, all the ten points. I know ASH have made enemies but they mostly get it right and I respect their intentions. The Guardian not publishing the ten points says more about the Guardian’s rightward drift than it does about ASH.
Peckham leaseholders face a difficult choice
May 1st, 2017
Southwark News reports that leaseholders in Peckham are facing a large bill for major works. This has always been one of the downsides of being either a first (got the discount) or second generation (didn’t get the discount) right to buy leaseholder. I made a comment below the article in the hope of starting a discussion but this hasn’t happened and so I’m going to repeat the comment here:-
“Refund those leaseholders who so choose the money they paid for the flats in the first place and change their terms back to those of a council tenant. Both parties gain. The leaseholder gets a lump sum, keeps their home and the council gets a property back on their books.”
That’s what I think. This is a very clear cut and specific case. This is not like regeneration where a leaseholder tackles a loss of home and the estate, this is a case where there ought to be (in my opinion) a straight foward buy back option by the council so that a leaseholder not able to afford the major works bill can return to being a council tenant by a refund of the money they paid for the flat.
The alternative is worse in that they would probably be repossessed and made homeless and I fear an application to the council for emergency housing under those circumstances might go badly.
The whole thing is a mess created by right to buy but we are where we are.
Peckham estate leaseholders to be hit with £115,000 ‘major works’ bills by council
Our Friends in the North – random thoughts
January 31st, 2017
Jules and Geordie on a bench in Regents Park in London
The character who seems to me the least successful and yet most likeable is Geordie played by Daniel Craig, who by accident or design is a drifter. Of the four of them his life appears to be the least planned out, and the least fortunate, especially given that his earlier success in Soho was based on criminal activity, which was never likely to end well.
Our Friends in the North [1995] – a personal view
January 30th, 2017
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Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1987] – a personal view
January 29th, 2017
Felix has dementia
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1984] – a personal view
January 28th, 2017
Scabs
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1979] – a personal view
January 27th, 2017
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.
Our Friends in the North [1974] – a personal view
January 26th, 2017
Claud Seabrook – Arthur Fieldson – Ron Conrad
Four friends in Newcastle have the strands of their lives interwoven with the political and economic events over three decades. Superficially it’s a nine hour film about housing, but it’s much more than that.
The Labour Party, corruption in public life and housing, the rise and fall of T. Dan Smith (Mr Newcastle), John Poulson and Reginald Maudling, sleaze in Soho, corruption in the Met, the Tories rise to power, the violence and politics of the Miners’ strike in 1984 to name but a few of the political events covered.