Housing policy should make people proud of the places they live
SIR – Whoever coined the phrase “social housing” did council houses no favours. Both my sets of grandparents moved into council houses after the Second World War and brought up their families in them. They remained in these houses until their deaths.
The houses were solid and wellmaintained, with neat gardens. My grandfathers had vegetable plots; one bred roses and the other loved topiary. They and their wives had jobs until pension age.
By contrast, modern social housing looks tatty and gardens are a mess; occupants seem to be young, fertile and economically inactive. Turning the clock back is impossible, so how do we engender pride in places to live?
Or do people no longer care? If not, why is the Prime Minster wringing her hands about people “looking down” on social housing?
SIR – I feel that Theresa May or her advisers are out of touch with the desires of council house occupants. Looking around council estates, it is clear which are owner-occupied.
Those owned by individuals are well presented with neat gardens and often have external embellishments. Mrs May is wrong. Pride flows from being in control and making one’s personal statement in the style of one’s house.
I suspect Jeremy Corbyn will make hay of this patronising reinvention of one of the Conservative Party’s most successful policies. J RB all
Hale, Cheshire
SIR – We support Theresa May’s commitment to long-term funding for social housing. To call the £2 billion announced yesterday “new money” only tells part of the story.
The affordable homes programme of Homes England (the national housing agency) has had a budget of £9 billion for the five years up to 2021. It is crucial that the money announced will not mean reduced funding for this programme. We also need assurances that rural housing associations will receive their fair share. Rural communities feel the effects of the housing crisis just as acutely as cities.
Lois Lane
Research and Policy Adviser Campaign to Protect Rural England London SE1
SIR – The politically correct refuse to acknowledge the blatantly obvious: uncontrolled immigration puts a demand on housing that no building programme can ever meet.
They conflate controlling immigration (which is not racist) with persecution of immigrants once they are in the country (which is).
The United Kingdom is the second most densely populated country in the EU after Holland, and is projected to become the most densely populated.
If young people, who are affected most by the housing crisis, are to get on the housing ladder, it is imperative that “free movement” should end.