Council Houses

This brief post is prompted by a Brian M comment and recent developments regarding the subject of  evictions from social housing owing to riot activity. I agree with Brian that stigma should never be attached to social housing tenants just because they are in such housing; after all, council houses cum social housing resulted from a need for such dwellings and many [but of course not all] tenants of such properties were and are hard working upstanding people; such a mix reflects society as a whole.

We have been celebrating our memories of Victoria Court and Whitehouse Court and rightly so. In those days such property was council housing  and  full of hardworking, loyal and decent families.

Local authorities that evict  whole  family members because of criminal behaviour by one member of that family are idiotic, vindictive and short sighted. What about the situation where a six foot seventeen year old refuses to obey his mother? That [single] mother may be unable to assert herself and might be unaware of where to find help to resolve such conflict.

Some people really are victims of  ‘non riot’ exploitation;  many  private landlords rip off their tenants;  many MPs were found guilty of stealing; Banks are not always ‘friendly’ and it will take more than clever ‘reassuring’ advertising to change that perception.

Yes adopt a new and very tough approach to professional gangs that use violence but refrain from kicking the financially poor and the powerless. The elite do get it. They get too much. And that is not  the  politics of envy.

WB