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Remembering Sir Bobby Charlton’s involvement in a battle to save hundreds of hostels
Former Inside Housing editor Bill Randall remembers how Sir Bobby Charlton shook up the government with his involvement in a campaign calling on it to reverse cuts that would have affected thousands of homeless people
Sir Bobby Charlton, quite rightly, will be remembered as one of England’s greatest footballers, who really did make the game beautiful.
However, I will remember him also as a thoroughly decent human being who cared about the welfare of those less fortunate than himself and gave a hand to a housing campaign I organised with others for the National Federation of Housing Associations (NFHA) and the Special Needs Housing Forum in 1989.
For good measure, he managed to spoil then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s day.
The Conservative government was threatening to scrap the Board and Lodging Allowance for people living in hostels. Taking this action would result in the closure of hundreds of special needs hostels, the NFHA and others argued, and snatch away a lifeline to vulnerable homeless people at a time of epidemic homelessness.
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Charity Shelter estimated that 64,000 people in London alone were sleeping rough, squatting or living in temporary accommodation. “Many more could be joining their number all over England and Wales, if the Board and Lodging Allowance is scrapped,” it warned.
In response, we produced a report called Back to the Cardboard Box. It looked at the catastrophic effect that ending the allowance would have on already struggling and overloaded hostels in major centres of homelessness. The report carried case studies from six cities and Wales, and in each place, a local figure was asked to express their concerns about the cuts.
In Manchester, we asked Sir Bobby, whom I had approached through his agent. The message came back that he would be happy to help, and if could we provide a basic form of words for him to amend and agree. I sent a draft. Minor alterations were made to the text, which appeared in the report.
Sir Bobby was also one of 70 public figures who signed a Declaration of Support calling on the government to withdraw its proposals and set up an inter-departmental review of the special needs hostel funding. His name stood out among the more usual ranks of opposition MPs, bishops, trade union leaders and other public figures, including Sheila Hancock, Ben Elton, Dawn French, Melvyn Bragg, Timothy West, Joanna Lumley and Peter Gabriel.
Our contact inside Ms Thatcher’s circle told us that she was horrified when she saw Sir Bobby’s name on the declaration. “I thought Bobby was one of ours,” she said.
The following year, Sir Bobby agreed to open my football club’s new clubhouse in Woking on a date to suit him. At the time he was running football schools across England, and he agreed to do it on a day when he was in the area. He told us he could spare an hour and asked in return for a donation to a specified charity.
On the day, he arrived at about 6pm and unveiled the plaque, which was covered by a tea towel rather than a velvet curtain. “That’s a surprise,” Sir Bobby said. “I thought you were all posh in Woking.”
He signed autographs for everybody in the long line of waiting fans of all ages and stayed for two hours, sipping orange juice and making his way through the ranks of the many people who wanted to talk to him. “I’ve never done a day’s work in my life,” he confessed to me. “I love what I do. You can’t call it work.”
It was one of those moments when a hero turns out to be everything you would want him to be.
Sir Bobby Charlton – a great footballer and a great man.
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