Category: Counter Propaganda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLJ1sxcIXeE This week Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate for London Mayor, said he had an ‘ethical duty’ to demolish London’s council estates. In justification for his plans, he pointed to a recent report by estate agent Savills and their claim that they could build 360,000 new homes in their place at a rate of 50,000 … Continue reading Campaigning with Khan and Corbyn

The London Housing Commission On Monday, 7 March, the London Housing Commission held a launch for their Final Report to Government on solutions to London’s housing crisis. The Commission, whose chair, Lord Kerslake, is also the chair of Peabody, was set up by the Institute of Public Policy Research, a think-tank that last March published … Continue reading The Doomsday Book: Mapping London’s Housing Crisis

On Saturday, 20 February, from 2-5pm, Architects for Social Housing presented their architectural proposals for the continuation and future of Central Hill estate at an exhibition and meeting held at Christ Church hall, Gipsy Hill. The Save Central Hill Community campaign has been fighting since February 2015 to save their estate and the community it houses. ASH were invited … Continue reading Community Consultation: The future of Central Hill estate

Saturday, 13 February, 2016. As part of a weekend of action against the Housing and Planning Bill, Architects for Social Housing conducted a guided tour of the Southwark and Lambeth streets of Charlie Chaplin's childhood. Chaplin was born in 1889 into a music hall family that rapidly fell into poverty. As with most poor families, Charlie moved … Continue reading MODERN TIMES: A Walk in Charlie Chaplin’s Footsteps

Could you live on this estate? Trapped in a concrete jungle? Surrounded by monotonous grey facades? Isolated by poorly-lit walkways? In homes with no individuality? Lacking in care and love? With badly-maintained gardens? A lack of communal spaces? And no sports facilities for the young? Caught in a poverty trap? With gangs of kids roaming the … Continue reading Central Hill Community

1. Sink Estates Since its regeneration following the 1985 riots, Broadwater Farm has had one of the lowest crime rates of any urban area in the world. In an independent 2003 survey of all the estate’s residents, only 2% said they considered the area unsafe, the lowest number for any area in London. The estate also has … Continue reading Blitzkrieg! Sink Estates and Starter Homes

In response to the Prime Minister’s announcement that he plans to demolish estates that are, as he puts it, home to ‘criminals’, ‘troubled families’ and ‘anti-social behaviour’, Architects for Social Housing has identified the key problem areas:

A wise old man once wrote: ‘Give me a child till he’s seven, and I’ll give you the man’. David Bowie was born in Brixton, where he lived until the age of six. He was also born into the newly created Welfare State that this Tory government is working to demolish. A key tool of … Continue reading Let All The Children Boogie: David Bowie and the Housing and Planning Bill from Mars

Let’s begin with what we know about the Government’s Housing and Planning Bill. We know the Bill is designed not to provide affordable housing but to remove the obligation of developers to build it. We know the Bill is designed not to build homes for the people who need them but to subsidise private investment in housing … Continue reading Where Will We Live?

The Housing and Planning Bill is one of the most dangerous and far-reaching pieces of legislation to be passed in this country in a long time, yet its true impact has been unreported in the mainstream press and is largely unknown to the people it will most affect.  Far from addressing the so-called housing ‘crisis’, … Continue reading The End of Social Housing