Doing good

Channel 4’s ‘How to get a council house’ broke free of its dodgy title and format last night, butt the same cannot be said for the reaction on Twitter.

The second episode in the series was set in Manchester and followed tenants and staff of Northwards Housing as the bedroom tax loomed earlier this year (watch again here). It gave some real insights into the way the system works and the good job that housing officers do in very difficult circumstances.

As I blogged last week, I thought the first episode also did well at showing the impossible situation in Tower Hamlets, where just 40 properties a week become available as 60 new families join the 24,000 others on the waiting list. But I criticised the trivialising commentary and the lack of any context that might have explained why. Matthew Warburton of the Association of Retained Council Housing was much kinder in his blog here.

Last night, though, the positives far outweighed the negatives. True, the commentary still made my teeth grind with irritating comparisons between council rents and house prices. True, I still wondered whether some of the editing was designed to hit the Shameless stereotypes and stir up the reaction it got on Twitter (the same production company was responsible for Benefit Busters in 2009).

And while there was some attempt to explain the context of the bedroom tax, an uninformed viewer could still have come away with the impression that if the tenant on TV could successfully downsize then so could everyone else. In fact Northwards has 3,000 facing an under-occupation penalty and only 58 of them have moved to date. Another 207 have registered to move but three quarters of them need a scarce one-bed home.

But for all those criticisms, and the way that reality TV techniques like the commentary end up distorting reality, there was a real human story and a genuine documentary that did break through. Council housing and the ‘spare room subsidy’ look very different seen through the eyes of people in desperate need of it and with no choice but to pay it.

Above all, though, it was the professionalism of the housing staff involved that shone through. Where the star of Benefit Busters was the scrounger-haranguing Hayley Taylor, the star last night was Lisa Jenkinson, neighbourhood housing manager at Northwards.

I’m guessing she will have spoken for a lot of people dealing with welfare reform when she told a team meeting:

‘You’re always depressed. You’re no longer doing anything good. I mean you are doing good but you’re not doing good because every door you knock on you’re just giving them bad news. We’ve just met a family where he’s lost his job, benefits are all messed up, wife’s going to lose disability living allowance and now the bedroom tax. What else, what other bad news could I possibly think to give them?’

The last bit of the programme brought some better news for the downsizer I mentioned earlier. Alan, a tenant facing the bedroom tax on his two-bed flat in a tower block, was facing up to the prospect of having to abandon the tenancy and move back to the box room at his parents’ house. Finally, he got a call with the good news of a smaller place. His old flat went to a single male who will not face the bedroom tax because he is working. The spare room will still be spare.  

And the final scene saw Lisa Jenkinson again expressing what must be the feelings of many people. ‘I find it quite a frustrating topic to talk about,’ she said. ‘To me personally it doesn’t make sense but we’re left to pick it up and deal with it. But at least someone who’s working’s got a flat… which is good.’

Fair play to the TV producers: that was a perfect ambivalent note on which to end the programme. It also strikes me that picking it up and dealing with it is unfortunately a pretty accurate description of what many people in housing do. The staff of Northwards Housing showed last night that it is a difficult, sometimes impossible, job that can still be done with professionalism and respect for tenants.

If only the same could be said for Twitter. If you do take a dip in the cesspool that is the hashtag #howtogetacouncilhouse make sure you have plenty of hot water and disinfectant handy. Yes, the title of the programme provokes that reaction, but it also reveals the scale of the ignorance and bigotry that is fuelling support for welfare reform and antipathy to ‘scroungers’. Those who believe everyone has a right to a decent home at an affordable price and that this cannot be left to the market alone have an uphill struggle on their hands. 

Away from the TV cameras, the work continues, the unintended consequences of the bedroom tax continue to kick in and the housing crisis keeps getting worse. With How to get a council house and ITV’s Tonight earlier in the evening, at least housing has the media spotlight and the chance to get its message across.

Next week’s final episode focuses on the homelessness service in Tower Hamlets.