Thursday 28 April 2011

Housing in Hard times

I went to my first academic conference a couple of weeks ago at the Housing Studies Association Conference at York University. It was called Housing in Hard times: Class, poverty and social exclusion. The fact that class was actually in the title really excited me. Having worked on the equalities scheme and our inclusive design agenda at the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment I quickly learned that class was almost impossible to talk about. It was like the elephant in the room while we talked about sexuality, race, gender and disability.

The conference kicked off with Dr Gerry Mooney from the Open University, who talked about the language  of 'Broken Britain' used by the Coalition government, how it stigmatises working class people and borrows from the Victorian idea of the undeserving and deserving poor. The welfare state is presented as a failure, creating dependency, and instigating a ‘moral’ crisis in working class people. The solution is seen to be the pulling out of welfare provision, with what remains based on sanctions rather than help. I thought Gerry’s argument was really thought provoking, accessible and real. For me, he showed the need to constantly question the language of blame, while also developing the evidence to show how increasing inequality cannot be blamed solely on the individual but that there are broader social, economic and political forces that shape people’s lives.

From this point onwards, I found the conference quite challenging (this is probably a good thing!) Discussions about class seemed to fall into academic language and theory that is useful but at the same time out of the reach of most people and - dare I say it - pretty elitist. I felt uncomfortable, partly because I couldn’t really engage in the argument, but also because I’m not sure what this type of academia actually does. It could be argued that it doesn’t have to do anything, academia doesn’t have to be about practice or change outside of the pursuit of knowledge within the university. However, the conference wasn’t just about academia, it was about influencing policy and practice too.

Several academics called for action and there was some level of agreement that housing researchers have a responsibility to try and influence and change things. In fact some of the same academics who had written very theory heavy papers criticised Shelter for becoming part of the system. But there seems to be a bit of a contradiction here? Should housing academics really criticise organisations who are very active in tackling issues around good quality housing for everyone? And further, how far can this criticism be answered when it is turned back on academic researchers. Are we really that radical?

The Golden Lane Estate

I live here so I thought I should blog about it. The Golden Lane Estate was one of the first high rise social housing blocks in the UK. Built in the late 50s the estate was a precursor to the iconic modernist estate the Barbican which is located just next door, and was designed by the same architects Chamberlain Bon and Powell. Unlike the Barbican though, it was built to provide general need Council housing at affordable rents, rather than to affluent city workers. Many of the flats were sold off as part of the Right to Buy policy that began in the mid 1970s, but there continues to be a mix of council housing and private dwellings.


[Image by Tim Crocker, via Walking City]














The estate is the one of two council housing estates within the City of London, and makes up some of the 8000 people living within the City. It is sandwiched between one of the UK’s most deprived wards, the extremes of wealth in the Square Mile, and the media and arts centre that is Clerkenwell. In other words its a really interesting place that has seen a lot of change and continues to.

One of the lovely things about living here is that unlike a lot of other places in London its actually really easy to get to know your neighbours. Its just a really friendly, welcoming place to live. Anyway, earlier this week, when we were down looking at the fish in the pond at the bottom of our tower block, we got talking to our neighbour and his 5 year old son. We live on the top floor so we invited them up to have a look at the view. We got talking about the estate and as a result he pointed us in the direction of a film on YouTube looking at the construction of Golden Lane Estate in the post-war period. Panoramic views from Great Arthur house show the extent of bomb damage suffered during the second world war. It also shows the optimism and belief in modernist architecture to offer good quality housing and a community life for its residents. Interestingly it still seems to work. I wonder why it continues to succeed while other housing estates of a similar era have failed? 


Housing associations past and present

I've been reading a fantastic book by Peter Malpass  called Housing Associations and Housing Policy: A Historical Perspective. A fantastic potted history of the social housing movement that draws out some comparisons between the first housing trusts and modern day housing associations.

[Image of Octavia Hill via BBC]
Early housing companies were either constituted as charitable trusts, like Peabody or the Guiness Trust, or raised finance through shareholders who asked for less than average returns on their investment, like Octavia Hill. These early trusts had a duel purpose, a social aim to improve the physical and moral health of the urban poor; and a financial one to show that good quality housing for the poorest could make financial sense.

Extensive bombing in many of England’s cities during the second world war, led to a housing crisis, and to the first large scale construction of council housing. As a result housing associations became marginalised and retreated to the role of almshouses, as providers of housing for older people and other vulnerable groups. Interestingly, because of their routes in middle and upper class philanthropy, housing associations did not appeal to the Labour Party.

It wasn’t until the 1974 Housing Act that the fortunes of housing associations were really turned around.  The establishment of the Housing Corporation and the allocation of grants to housing associations for the first time, led to growth in the sector. The arrival of Thatcher in the May 1979 election, led to significant cuts to public expenditure on housing, and the selling off of a large quantity of council stock through the Right to Buy initiative. Housing associations sold off stock too, but they also took over the management of previous council housing development through transfers from local authorities as part of the 1988 Housing Act. In the mid 1980’s many housing associations began to raise private finance. Since 1988 they have become dominant providers of new social housing, hand in hand with the deconstruction of local authority stock.

In his book Malpass rightly points out the differences between original housing trusts and modern housing associations including their size, structure and funding routes, but some parallels can be drawn too.  The fact that housing associations are increasingly reliant on private finance begs the question do they, like the early housing trusts, need to show that their financing models can generate returns while meeting social aims? Further, just as Malpass questions the moral and social priorities of Victorian philanthropic housing providers, who in an era of reduced council housing provision, sets the moral and social agenda today and where does accountability lie?

Tales from the fifteenth floor?

Two months ago I started a PhD looking at social housing in London and Newcastle. News that I’d deserted the world of paid work, in favour of the student life, spread quickly amongst my friends, colleagues and family, with mixed response. Some congratulated me, others scoffed at the thought (assuming a PhD is a cop out), current and past doctoral students warned me of the dangers of getting to close to my project and of its isolating potential, yet others felt the need to commiserate me on my choice.

All this aside, I feel emensly privileged to have the time to read, reflect, research and write about a subject I’m really interested in, and one that impacts upon people’s lives at a base level - you don’t really get much more fundamental than a roof over your head.  The aim of this blog is to share some of the things I learn along the way and to provide a space to explore my ideas outside of the constraints of academic writing.

I’ve called it tales from the fifteenth floor because that’s where I am, sitting on my sofa, typing away on my laptop, looking out at a view of East London from my flat in Great Arthur House, a residential tower in the middle of the Golden Lane Estate, in the City of London. Living here not only provides me with a comfortable space to work and a seemingly endless supply of tea and biscuits (for good or bad), but as a social housing estate that has seen and survived the rapid changes to housing provision over the last 50 years, I’ve got a lot to learn from it too.