Mayor's advisor slates 'joke' housing estates
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London mayor Boris Johnson’s housing director has branded quality of life on social housing estates a ‘joke’.
Nearly half of social tenants love their dogs more than their neighbours, Richard Blakeway told yesterday’s British Property Federation conference.
And he proposed a new ‘social offer’ for the teenaged children of social tenants, to encourage them into private rented housing instead of social tenancies.
The voluntary scheme would offer 16 to 25-year-olds an assured lease in the private sector, combined with employment advice and training.
Mr Blakeway said families in social housing were locked in a ‘vicious circle’.
‘Intergenerational poverty is staggering, with children never seeing a parent go to work in the morning,’ he said. ‘Worklessness is rife, with 70 percent of tenants having no qualifications, easily double that outside the sector.
‘Quality of life is a joke. 46 percent of social tenants on estates love their dog more than their neighbour. Why? Largely because of the total absence of the market.’
Readers' comments (6)
Terence J Edwards | Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:21 GMT
does Mr Blakeway not realise that the selling of council housing under the right to buy option, not only as this stupid unreasonable system allowed unscrupulous buyer to let landlords and moneylenders to prey upon people who buy rights should be living in social housing, obviously Mr Blakeway is an uninformed and caring Thatcherite who knows exactly nothing about housing his comments are an affronts to all the decent people who live on social housing estates, I'm sure that most working people will be terribly impressed with
Mr Blakeway's comments after all we know how much we can trust people such as he for over 20 years rate capped local councils so they were unable to carry out the repairs needed on council estates, and how bankers and mortgage bloodsuckers can be trusted to look after people's money and give them a fair deal, don't we? David Cameron and Boris Johnson I am sure will be delighted with the comments made by a Tory adviser, just one last point, I'm sure you all the people who live on council estates who do untold charity and community works for the benefit of the living conditions of their neighbours, would certainly love their dogs much more than an idiotic person like Mr Blakeway who makes such stupid and uninformed comments.
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David Bartlett | Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:53 GMT
As Chief Officer of the Rochdale Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations I worked for 8 years with the best informed, most committed Board I have know in my working life - all tenants and residents of the social housing estates Blakeway is cynically slandering in his reported speech.
The issue is not the the alledged failures of some of those living on these areas but the unwillingness and inability of the major service providers to engage with them on the basis of mutual respect and understanding.
We keep hoping - but Blakeway is not worthy of the position he holds if the remarks attributed to him here are accurate.
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ronny | Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:00 GMT
Is this not similar to the points made not so far back by Caroline Flint when she was (ever so briefly) Housing Minister. She cited the intergenerational poverty and disadvantage, backing it with housing offered as part of a rights and responsibilities package.
I dont think we can ignore some of the facts - mainly that things could be a lot better, - we need to find solutions and fund them
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sj_am@yahoo.co.uk | Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:49 GMT
I know, let's have another meeeting, or better still an enquiry, where we can all sit around and discuss endlessly the state of council estates and their tenants! Then we can go home and sit on our warm soap boxes. Bahamas anyone?
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hughT | Mon, 2 Feb 2009 10:34 GMT
I've heard this guy speak. Its obvious he is just a crony appointment - what had he ever done in housing before he got this job? And I bet he hasn't set foot on a council estate since he got the job. Its comments like these and people like this being put in positions of power that make you realise the Tories still aren't fit to govern.
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Tom Brown | Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:46 GMT
Mr Johnson is indeed correct, the minute you push all those people who for whatever reason are short of money into a council estate you automatically brand them as second class citizens and leave them at the mercy of the local unemployable bullies. Far better for housing associations and private landlords to mix their housing stock in amongst home owners and bring to an end the formation of more vile council sink estates. The only possible reason for their existence in the first place was as a vehicle for left wing labour control freaks to totally control the population in order to retain political power for ever. By any measure council housing has been a disaster for British society, if you must subsidise let it be the person, not a house or even better stop taxing low incomes so that they can help themselves.
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