Council Estate: Difference between revisions

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In the '80s, the Thatcher government created the "Right to Buy" scheme, which allowed people to purchase their homes at a discounted price after a certain period. This is resulted in much of the former stock disappearing into the private market and "council house" becoming a pejorative term.

Council estates today are perceived as places of [[Wretched Hive|high crime and deprivation]], populated by asylum seekers <ref>there is no evidence that they jump the queue at all, although their homeless status can buy them a few more points on most housing associations' scales of need</ref>, the long-term unemployed, and [[Teen Pregnancy|teenage mothers]] who got pregnant just to get a council flat. This has not been helped by the recent Shannon Matthews case, where a mother pretended her own daughter had been kidnapped (her lover was in fact holding her) in order to [[Missing White Woman Syndrome|gain publicity and money from the press]].

Council estates today are perceived as places of [[Wretched Hive|high crime and deprivation]], populated by asylum seekers,<ref>there is no evidence that they jump the queue at all, although their homeless status can buy them a few more points on most housing associations' scales of need</ref> the long-term unemployed, and [[Teen Pregnancy|teenage mothers]] who got pregnant just to get a council flat. This has not been helped by the recent Shannon Matthews case, where a mother pretended her own daughter had been kidnapped (her lover was in fact holding her) in order to [[Missing White Woman Syndrome|gain publicity and money from the press]].

Many councils have decided the best way to solve their housing problems is with the judicious use of high explosives, demolishing tower blocks and building better houses.

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* Denmark has them, too. Usually, they're in the form of apartment blocks, not houses. Gellerup, in Aarhus, is the most infamous, being a ghetto with a high crime rate.

* In [[Stroke Country|Northern Ireland]], [[The Troubles]] has led to many council estates becoming almost exclusively populated by either a Catholic/Nationalist or Protestant/Loyalist community.

** A 2012 BBC NI documentary series profiled life on one of these estates; the mainly Loyalist Ballysally in Coleraine. While one of the programmes featured an Orange band from the neighbourhood marching on ~~12th~~ July, the series generally avoided portraying the estate as a hotbed of sectarianism.

** A 2012 BBC NI documentary series profiled life on one of these estates; the mainly Loyalist Ballysally in Coleraine. While one of the programmes featured an Orange band from the neighbourhood marching on 12 July, the series generally avoided portraying the estate as a hotbed of sectarianism.

== Theater ==