Social Housing
At the beginning of the year in one of our regular You and Yours ideas meetings I suggested that we make a series of reports on social housing. To be honest I wasn't expecting my pitch to be greeted with whoops of excitement and as I guessed I saw people's eyes glaze over! Fair enough. The vague term "social housing" makes people wonder: "What's that got to do with me? Why should I care?" but still, I thought, the topic is very "us", and it's my task as a reporter to make a dull sounding subject come alive.
Months flew by but I hadn't given up on the idea. It needed more flesh on the bones however and a good place to start, I thought, was attending a conference last month called "Affordable Housing in the Age of Austerity". It was for finance experts attached to Housing Associations who were discussing in great technical detail what they could expect from the new Coalition. It didn't look good they admitted. A new government would have to cut spending, and the axe was likely to fall on affordable housing and benefits. And then the newspaper headlines started appearing. Last weekend's Observer, spread out on my desk, has the headline: "Cuts Threaten Slump In Homes For Poorest". The Daily Telegraph declared on its front pages a week or two before: "Housing Association Chief on £400,000 a year". And the Evening Standard wrote: "Councils Are Set To Put the Brakes On New Homes."
In true multi-tasking fashion, I'm planning a visit to Harrogate at the same time as I write this blog. I'm not going to "take the waters"; instead I'll be reporting from a larger and busier conference on Social Housing which will be attended by Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister. One challenge I've set myself is to get an interview with a Chief Executive of a housing association. Bearing in mind that, according to the Daily Telegraph, more than 50 executives at housing associations earn more than the Prime Minister, what do you think I should ask them?
Siobhann Tighe is a reporter on You and Yours
You & Yours is on BBC Radio 4 at 1200 weekdays. Listen to today's episode on the Radio 4 web site.
Comment number 1.
At 19:19 23rd Aug 2010, grumpypowys wrote:Of course, there is a need for social housing but it needs to be targeted.
In rural areas, it should be directed towards young couples with children.
If a small cul de sac was built for this group, there would be a number of benefits. Nobody could complain about other peoples children, it would be safer for them, they could swap and share clothes, toys etc and one of them could set up a nursery for others to go to work.
Again for old people it could be set up around a large old house to act as a hub with small residential units set around it.
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