Why Council Homes Chat...?

In recent years there has been a torrent of misleading, sensationalist reporting in both the print media and on television programmes. Recent examples include ‘Benefits Street’ and ‘How to get a Council House’. Each of these programmes had its own special brand of reporting, which failed to depict a balanced and thoughtful picture. Instead they opted for heavily biased journalism aimed at boosting ratings and creating a ‘moral panic’ amongst its viewers.

If the TV programmes and skewed reporting amongst the print media weren’t bad enough, the Twitter hashtags created by such programmes are quite frankly scary! You only have to look at the ‘twitter storm’ created by Wednesday’s ‘How to get a Council house’ to get a glimpse of the hateful bigotry and at best massively ill-informed views created by such media reporting. We’ve had enough….

Growing up within council housing gave me the best possible start I could have in life. It was safe, secure and enabled my family to feel part of a community. It meant I had a happy and healthy childhood and I still hold great memories and fondness of my time there. Likewise, as a housing professional, I get to see how social housing brings out the best in people. Having a home shouldn’t be dependent on someone’s income or ability to pay.

Put simply, a house is someone’s home, where they can grow roots, build a community and have a family. A stable home provides people with a solid foundation for good health, employment and happiness. The tenure of the home shouldn’t matter. It is only right to have a good menu of tenures to suit different needs; however, this does not make one more important or desirable than the others. This is why it’s essential to start challenging the stereotypes created by the mainstream media.

Council Homes Chat was set up to challenge the status quo and to act as a platform for people to tell their stories, especially the ones that the media refuses to report because, dare I say it… they’re positive! The benefits of good, decent and secure housing have been well-documented, both in terms of an individual's health and wellbeing, but also to society as a whole. These are the stories that we need to start telling…

How can you get involved?

If you believe in the right to have a safe, secure and decent home regardless of income and would like to get involved in our campaign, please get in touch. You can find out more about the campaign on the Council Homes Chat blog.


Cheryl Tracy
Community Investment Coordinator, Monmouthshire Housing

‘Council Homes Chat’ is managed and coordinated by Cheryl Tracy, Elisa Faulkner and Michala Rudman and you can get in touch with them on Twitter: Council Homes Chat.

Challenging the Benefits Street stereotypes

The Channel 4 documentary Benefits Street focuses on people living in one particular street in Birmingham – a city where we, the Accord Group, work.

It has immediately become the subject of hard hitting headlines, the hot topic on Twitter and Facebook and reignited a topic that polarises Britain – the benefits system.

Having worked in social housing for 25 years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of people in Birmingham and across the Midlands from many different walks of life.

I’ve met pensioners, young single mothers, women who have fled domestic violence, ex-offenders, people with disabilities and people in low paid jobs, just to name a few.

What do all these people have in common? They’ve all, in some way, needed state support to get by in life and a helping hand at a difficult time. Should they all be labelled as 'scroungers' as a consequence? We don’t think so.


Here are some facts you may find interesting:

• In 2012, 18% of working-age households were workless, but only 2% of cases demonstrated that no one had ever worked – dispelling a myth that we are overrun with generations of feckless families who have never had gainful employment.

• It is estimated (for 2011-12) that 0.8% of total benefit expenditure was overpaid as a result of fraud, again challenging a common view that benefit expenditure is high because of fraudsters and cheats.

• Interesting, the proportion of housing benefit claimants who are in work is rising to fast approach the one million mark. These are those people who work but are on low pay. A sign perhaps that wages are not keeping up with the ever increasing cost of living?

• It is estimated that over 55% of the local government workforce are entitled to some form of in-work benefits* and yet help to provide some of the most essential services in the country.

There will also be a significant percentage of health services workers also in receipt of state benefits. Are these people 'scroungers' too?

It’s time to put down the labels and challenge the knee-jerk assumptions and stereotypes about people who claim benefits.

Concentrating on creating sustainable, well-paid jobs, economic growth and affordable housing that really is affordable, would be far more profitable than constantly attacking those individuals and households for whom a benefit claim is the only way they can survive.

Dr Chris Handy OBE
Chief Executive of the Accord Group (www.accordgroup.org.uk - @theaccordgroup)


*New Policy Institute Report - TAX CREDITS: POLICY ISSUES FOR UNISON