Council Housing Now

Exploring the past, present and future of council housing in the North East and beyond.

17% of the UK population – or just under 12 million people – live in social housing: both council houses and socially-rented homes now managed by housing associations. Council housing is one of the principal legacies of the post-Second World War social democratic consensus and the belief that everyone should have decent, affordable housing, and that if the market couldn’t provide it then the state would.

From a peak of over 200,000 council homes built per year during the mid-1950s, last year just 2,260 were completed. Meanwhile, the total number of council homes has actually decreased over that time. This reduction has occurred through the Right to Buy policy introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1980 and still in place in England, as well as the transfer of council housing stock to housing associations or arms-length bodies, though some councils, including Newcastle, have brought their stock back in-house.

In this event, we discuss the current situation for council housing in Newcastle, the North East and nationally, exploring the key questions of provision, management, maintenance, location and supply. With now well over 1 million people on waiting lists for a council house, we explore how we can deliver more council housing, where this is already taking place, and what’s preventing it from happening more broadly. Alternatively, should we be pursuing other models of affordable housing? Our panel address these questions and more.

Speakers

Richard Cook is Chief Development Officer at Clarion – the UK’s largest housing association. Richard leads development business and is responsible for the group’s sustainability strategy. He joined Clarion in February 2019 from Lendlease where he was head of residential, delivering over a thousand new homes each year. He also played a key role in the delivery of the London 2012 Athletes’ Village while at Lendlease. He has more than 25 years of experience in the property sector having previously worked at companies including Mace and Taylor Wimpey.

Will Mawson is Co-founder and Director at MawsonKerr, an employee owned design studio based in Newcastle and working across the UK, focused on creating inspirational sustainable buildings. The practice is experienced in various building sectors including residential, heritage, education, commercial and leisure. Among many current projects is The Vaux housing neighbourhood that forms the first phase of Riverside Sunderland’s transformation, which is being designed as an exemplar of high-density city living and working.

Julia Heslop is an artist and Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) Fellow on Cities and Place, based in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University. Her work examines relationships between land histories, landownership, land values and housing precarity and she often works on long term participatory projects with groups and communities to examine these issues.

Chaired by Owen Hopkins – Director of the Farrell Centre.

About the series

This event is part of our Where We Live Now lecture series, tackling the big questions facing housing in Newcastle, the North East and beyond.

Image credit: Mawson Kerr, Vaux Housing, Sunderland. Image courtesy of Mawson Kerr