I sometimes think that the price of liberty is not so much eternal vigilance as eternal dirt. There are some Corporation estates in which new tenants are systematically deloused before being allowed into their houses. ibid.
I have a wonderful house crammed with beautiful things. I did this house myself. I did a great job … Not many people would respect the choices I made … I don’t need a living. The War of the Roses 1989 starring Michael Douglas & Kathleen Turner & Danny DeVito & Marianne Sagebrecht & Sean Astin & Peter Donat & Heather Fairfield & G G Spradlin et al, director Danny DeVito, Turner unhappy
As well as the money, there was the will to build on an industrial scale. Andrew Graham-Dixon, Art of Scandinavia III: Democratic by Design, BBC 2016
The truth behind the UK’s chronic housing shortage that is pricing out a generation. We investigate allegations that big developers are on a deliberate go-slow prolonging our shortage of homes to make more profits themselves. Dispatches, Britain’s Housebuilding Scandal, Channel 4 2016
‘My estimate is that we’re between 1.6 – 2.3 million shortfall of buildings over the last twenty years.’ ibid. Professor Paul Cheshire
Imagine this is your home: for many in social housing, their homes are barely fit to live in. Once the reserve of councils, today more than 60% of social housing is owned and managed by housing associations and they are not necessarily an improvement. Dispatches: Landlords from Hell, Channel 4 2019
Tonight we investigate one of the biggest housing associations to see whether they’ve become the new landlords from hell. ibid.
All over the country people are battling to put a roof over their heads. The cost of living crisis means more and more families are struggling with eviction and life in temporary accommodation. But with only 2% of private rents now affordable for those on benefits, finding somewhere else to live has never been harder. Dispatches: Britain’s Evicted Kids, Channel 4 2022
Councils are increasingly reliant on housing in other areas. ibid.
The day to day problems of living in tower blocks have been carefully chronicled for more than twenty years … Many of the blocks were not built properly. Adam Curtis, The Great British Housing Disaster, BBC 1984
A crucial part of their 1964 election campaign was the promise to build 500,000 houses a year. ibid.
The government had introduced a system of subsidies to encourage councils to use industrialised methods and to build as high as possible. ibid.
Eventually many councils gave up on piecemeal repairs; they began to evacuate the tenants and demolish the blocks. ibid.
Many were built like houses of cards; the blocks have no central frame … In many cases those connections are just not there. ibid.
‘About 80% [bolts and ties] were missing.’ ibid. construction worker
Tenants in this block in Hammersmith London have reported cracks opening up between the floors and walls. ibid.
‘The panels didn’t come made properly.’ ibid. construction worker
Rainwater penetrates the walls and wherever the metal reinforcement is too near the surface it rusts, expands and forces off large pieces of concrete. ibid.
‘There had been no adequate supervision on the site.’ ibid. Hackney housing geezer
More than two and a half million people have no choice but to go on living in system-built blocks whose structural safety must now be regarded as questionable. ibid.
Rich parents moved in the areas of the best schools which then caused house prices to spiral keeping the poor out. Adam Curtis, The Trap II: The Lonely Robot, BBC 2007
Under New Labour the country is even more unequal than it was under Mrs Thatcher with an ever increasing share of the wealth going to a tiny 1% of the top of society … The social divisions in Britain are hardening and deepening. ibid.
This is the normal world. You go to work in a city. All around you are enormous new buildings. They look alike. But you will never be able to afford to live in them. Because they are not really homes. They are blocks of money bought by global investors whose money had nowhere else to go. Adam Curtis, Living in an Unreal World, BBC 2016
Peter Rachman was far more than the brutal gangster he was portrayed as. He had lived an extraordinary life … The English judged him: he was hated with an overwhelming disgust as the face of evil … On the surface there was the overt racism against the immigrants that Rachman was bringing into Notting Hill … Rachman’s property empire was a brutal and violent one but it was doing something that polite English society completely refused to do: he was giving people on the very margins of society – prostitutes and black immigrants – somewhere to live … They hated him for it. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head I: Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain, BBCiplayer 2021
‘This is Peter Rachman: one of Britain’s big-time twentieth century racketeers.’ ibid. BBC Panorama
Behind the polite veneer of the middle classes there was a hard ruthlessness and a suspicion of others. DeFreitas [Rachman heavy] gave it a name: he called it Englishism; it came he said from both an anger and melancholy at the loss of their empire. Then, Peter Rachman died of a heart attack. And Michael DeFreitas suddenly found that he was the new face of evil. ibid.
Unconventional homes in demanding locations … World’s Most Extraordinary Homes I: Mountain, BBC 2017
The Santa Monica mountains where one home owner built her dream home from the most unthinkable reused building material … built from the wings and tailfins of a disused 747. ibid.
Tucson mountain retreat: DUST architects … the walls are made from rammed earth. ibid.
Otago, New Zealand: ‘A series of spaces that are beautifully lit with fantastic atmospheres.’ ibid.
Swiss Alps: a holiday home perched on the side of a mountain. ibid.
Madrid: to an ancient pine forest … an unconventional four-bedroom home … right amongst the trees in the forest without damaging them: Casa Levene. World’s Most Extraordinary Homes II: Forest
US: Minimising the footprint within this densely wooded plot … a tree-house with a twist … the living space at the top … Tower House was entirely clad in glass. ibid.
Upstate New York … Shokan by Jay Bargmann … continuous bands of tinted glass wrap around the building … stainless steel surfaces are featured throughout this house. ibid.
Auckland, New Zealand: bringing the forest right into the house … Under Pohutukawa by Herbst Architects. ibid.
Kristiansand: the family escape on a thirty-minute boat ride to their very own remote paradise island: Cabin Lyngholmen. World’s Most Extraordinary Homes III: Coast
Southern Spain: Costa Tropical: built into a steep cliff-face with a 42 degree incline: House on the Cliff by Gilbartolome Architects. ibid.
Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand: the challenge for the architect was to design a house which would sit on a narrow strip of land between the shore and protected bushland: ‘a dream-like state of sensory bliss.’ ibid.
Nova Scotia: a three-bedroom holiday home set on the edge of this wild coastline: Two Hulls by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. ibid.
Building a subterranean house embedded in the Earth can provide an intriguing and magical living experience. The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes IV: Underground
Antiparos, Greece … Vals, Switzerland … an underground den as a holiday home … Queenstown, New Zealand … Dutch Mountain House by Denieuwegeneratie Architects. ibid.
It’s also the first major housing project in Britain to be built entirely by characters from nineteenth-century English literature. Monty Python’s Flying Circus s3e9: The Nude Organist, BBC 1972
These homely looking canal houses became its best-known landmark … Amsterdam’s houses are tall and thin because they were taxed by width. Alastair Sooke & Janina Ramirez: Amsterdam: An Art Lovers’ Guide I, BBC 2017
More and more Americans are struggling to find a place to live. With the government spending billions to help, why are so many left behind? Frontline: Poverty, Politics & Profit, PBS 2017
‘Only one in every four in need of housing assistance gets it.’ ibid. Diane Yentel
Rent has been getting more and more difficult. ibid.
There are more than 40,000 evictions in Dallas every year. ibid.
I’ve seen skilled builders, I’ve discovered spotters and burglars, I’ve noticed interior decoration, I’ve found store-rooms and air-conditioning and even en-suite bathrooms, I’ve visited animal cities and huge communities. Wild home-makers are special creatures. Natural World s30e6: Animal House
Scaled up to our size termite mounds would be almost a mile high. ibid.
The greatest animal houses in the world are caves. ibid.
The families who have been ordered out of their homes: the tenants evicted but not told why. There were more than 24,000 of these no-fault evictions last year. The landlords say they are the ones getting a bad deal. Britain needs its private landlords but the system is forcing thousands into homelessness. So should tenants be evicted when they haven’t done anything wrong? Panorama: Evicted for No Reason, BBC 2018
Tenants in the UK have fewer rights than almost anywhere in Europe. Most are on short-term contracts. ibid.