Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the last twenty years, the overall investment in
social housing has fallen dramatically. It has been
estimated by the Chartered Institute of Housing
(1997) that the additional expenditure required to
tackle the backlog of council housing disrepair
currently stands at £20 billion. The main reason
why council housing has fallen into disrepair stems
from the public's apathy to public expenditure
cuts in housing. As Hills and Mullings (1990: p.
144) observed,
future benefits, while reducing both present
borrowing requirements and future debt
interest commitments. They do not entail
withdrawing benefits from current service
recipients or sacking public sector employees.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, investment in
housing maintenance has borne the brunt of
expenditure cuts. While overall public expenditure
on services increased in real terms from £191.2
billion in 1994/5 (an increase of 34.6 per cent),
housing expenditure has been cut from £11.7
billion in 1980/1 to £5.4 billion in 1994/5, a
decrease of 53.9 per cent (Wilcox 1995: p. 88).The
cumulative impact of these expenditure cuts has
been accentuated by government legislation
encouraging council tenants to buy their own
property. In practice, this meant that the most
desirable properties have been sold, while flats on
unpopular estates remain under the control of
local authorities.
However, there are examples of individual estates
that have benefited from investment; for example
the Holly Street Estate in Hackney (see Box 28.1).
The approach adopted by recent governments is
that the problems on council estates cannot be
addressed successfully solely by physical renewal of
the properties and that a more holistic approach is
required. As a consequence, government-funded
initiatives now entail an integrated approach,
including investment in the stock, housing
Housing as an issue has moved down the
political agenda—the public reaction to the
substantial reduction in public spending… has
been much more muted than the reaction
against constraints on a health budget whose
cost has grown in real terms. Unlike education
or the National Health Service, the extent of
the problem of council housing disrepair has
not become an important political issue, and
rarely features in the election campaigns of
political parties.
Neither the housing profession nor tenant groups
has been able to protect spending on council
house renewal at a time of fiscal restraint. As
Bramley (1997: p. 395) recognised,
housing expenditure comprised a large element
of capital investment, and it is well known that
capital expenditure is easier to cut in a crisis
than current expenditure. Such cuts defer
Box 28.1
The Holly Street Estate, Hackney, London
The Holly Street Estate in Hackney, built in the early
1970s, consisted of a complex system of nineteen
system-built, five story blocks and four nineteen-storey
tower blocks. In the early 1990s, 30 per cent of those
potentially economically active were out of work. As many
as 80 per cent of those residing on the estate had applied
for a transfer, and voids and squatted properties
amounted to 25 per cent of all properties. Between 1990
and 2003, the estate will have received government
resources to the tune of £200 million. The modernisation,
when complete, will provide a mixture of different
tenures, including new housing association flats and
private properties for sale.
In contrast to earlier initiatives to tackle housing
problems, the renewal of Holly Street has entailed a
partnership with a range of government and private sector
agencies. Initiatives such as this have, over a short space
of time, become prototypes for future housing
developments. In addition, considerable effort is
undertaken by housing officers to engender tenant
participation to encourage tenants to play a role in the
development of the estate. The holistic approach now
being adopted can be contrasted with earlier interventions
by local authorities and government, where there was a
tendency to pursue housing policies in isolation from other
social policies.
In some respects, it is too early to undertake an
assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention taking
place on the Holly Street Estate. Clearly, the renewal of the
estate, including new street properties to replace the system-
built housing and tower blocks that have been demolished,
will provide a significantly better environment than before.
