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“superb blog analysing social housing policy”.
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Welcome to Red Brick, a blog edited by Tony Clements and Steve Hilditch as a housing policy forum open to anyone interested in progressive debate about homes, housing and communities. We are linked to the Labour Housing Group but the views expressed here are those of individual authors and are not necessarily the view of LHG.
Join the Labour Housing Group here: http://www.labourhousing.co.uk/join-lhg
Steve Hilditch worked as a housing consultant for 20 years, having previously been assistant director of housing for a London borough and head of policy for Shelter.
He has advised a number of Select Committees, including a major inquiry into homelessness and inquiries into the implications of the credit crunch for housing. He worked on the review of the council housing finance system and drafted the London Mayor’s Housing Strategy (Mayor Livingstone, that is). He chaired the government project group that established the National Tenant Voice, regrettably closed down by the new government shortly after its birth.
Steve has been a Labour Party member since 1972 and chaired Paddington constituency party and the Labour Housing Group in the 1980s. He was a leading Westminster ‘objector’, helping expose the Homes for Votes scandal under Lady Porter.
Brought up on a council estate in Newcastle, Steve studied economics and geography at University College London and housing and planning at LSE and has been visiting professor to the University of Westminster. His hairshirt is that he is a lifelong supporter of Newcastle United.
Tony Clements is a public servant turned consultant. He worked as a policy advisor for Labour’s last Housing Minister, John Healey, and before that in local government at Newham Council in East London.
He is a Labour Party member holding the exalted position of Chair of De Beauvoir Branch Labour Party in Hackney. He lives in Hoxton, though not at the trendy end where the White Cube Gallery and stuff is.
Tony went to his local comp and fluked his way into Cambridge, spending the customary 3 years there, before settling in East London, first Brick Lane then Hoxton.
He once swam the English Channel in a team with 5 friends and still oddly enjoys swimming outside in cold water.
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I am deeply concerned that the move to 80% market rents, and the ending of Council tenancies for life will undo all the good work that has been done in creating mixed communities. Given the underlying uncertainty that fixed term tenancies creates new Council tenants will probably be reluctant to “put down roots”, which is something all good landlords would wish them to do. A sense of place and continuity are what marks out all good places to live. Council estates seem set to become transitory neighborhoods, and housing of last resort rather than housing of choice. The full social impact of this will only unravel over time, but we do need collectively to be highlighting this issue and getting this message across as a key them for elections on 5 May.
I worry about ‘affordability’ in the brave new Shapps world. It seems to me that on the route we are being forced down ( 80% of market rents) that there will inevitably be a sharp increase in people needing to claim housing benefit, exactly counter to what the Tory led Government espouses.
Kerry – nice to hear from you.
Not only forced to claim more benefit, forced into the benefit trap too.