The census, the care sector crisis and Passivhaus – what #UKhousing has been talking about on social media this month

On LinkedIn, Andrew van Doorn, chief executive of charity HACT, asked for more attention to be paid to social care in light of the NHS crisis – which has been linked with difficulties discharging patients into care. “Over a decade of sustained cuts and driving down prices to an unsustainable level brings us to where we are today. A workforce crisis that is resulting in highly skilled people being under valued and under paid. Community social care infrastructure that has been emaciated and supported housing that has been reduced by 80%,” he wrote.

Jane Eckford replied: “There is significant effort by low paid and unpaid carers, and also particularly women who suffer from penalties on their lifeline earnings in order to care, but who form such a significant part of inter-generational glue in our society. Overlooked and undervalued contributions to the support of our most vulnerable. The strain on them (us) is unsustainable.”

@magpieprojectuk posted a thread of meals served at a ‘contingency hotel’ run by Migrant Help, in an effort to show how difficult it is for mums with small children to navigate living in these conditions, with the message: “Which of us would happily feed this to our child day after day?”

More data from the Census 2021 has come out, including detailed information on housing, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender identity. Some were poring over what the information on tenure means.

@J_Elliott94 wrote a Twitter thread about how the distribution of housing wealth has changed in the 10 years since the last census, summing up: “Our perspective is that the current distribution of the ownership of housing stock isn’t working for society, with too many families stuck in unsuitable, unaffordable homes and too many unable to achieve their aspiration of homeownership.”

The census also brought forward more discussion about how the housing sector, along with the rest of society, might reflect on the greater diversity in society. BAME in Property posted ideas on LinkedIn about what this might mean regarding religion – such as organisations ensuring flexibility around taking time off for religious holidays, as well as making sure that not every social event revolves around alcohol.

Scotland will require all new builds to meet a Scottish version of Passivhaus. @PassivhausArch – architect Kirsty Maguire – tweeted: “V exciting times. So many people involved in this result. Great for social (reduce fuel poverty) & climate justice.”

The Scottish government has also proposed ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’ – meaning the planning framework would favour facilities and housing being in a walkable distance, rather than out-of-town shopping centres. But on social media, the plans garnered a bizarre reaction from people who appeared to believe the idea is to confine people within a 20-minute radius. @micheletheil, climate reporter for the Big Issue, commented: “I don’t know how it is possible for people to twist an urban-planning concept for things to be more easily accessible to you within your neighbourhood into apparently meaning that no one can go anywhere further than 20 minutes ever?”

On TikTok, a video by @elgueroingles has picked up over 330,000 likes at the time of writing, with a game of “Is it an expensive room to rent in London, or is it a Swedish prison?” As the set-up suggests, the nice, welcoming rooms are all prison cells, while the shockers are all in the PRS. As one response put it: “So what does one have to do to go to a Swedish prison – asking for a friend.”