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A Capital Concerns exhibition at the Museum of London 28 May – 9 August, 2004
Fifty years ago, low income Londoners could expect to find a home through the council. Today the number of council houses is shrinking. House prices are rising. Low income families are caught in the middle and London has a housing problem.
This photographic exhibition, part of the Museum’s Capital Concerns series, peers into the heart of London’s housing crisis. Dramatic colour photographs of buildings, estates and inhabitants illustrate real stories of change from across the London boroughs: from mass demolitions in Brent to regenerated tower blocks in Hackney; from displaced tenants in Shoreditch to elderly Asians in Streatham. The photographers whose work is represented in the exhibition are Mike Seaborne, curator of photographs at the Museum, Michael Donald and Jason Wilde and Elisabeth Blanchet.
The exhibition also offers a beginners guide to the policy jungle that council housing has had to pick its way through since 1980. Change began with the Right to Buy legislation. In the 1990s a succession of government initiatives tried to regenerate run-down council estates. Even if you don’t know what the letters ERCF, EA, SRB and NDC stand for, this exhibition will show you the results.
Today council housing is at another crossroads. Bringing every home up to the decent homes standard needs massive investment and cash-strapped councils must choose one of three options to raise money: transfer the stock to an RSL – a registered social landlord such as a housing association; create an ALMO - an arm’s length management organization; or raise money through a PFI - private finance initiative. This choice is controversial and the exhibition voices some of the views of tenants and professionals caught up in the debate.
The future of London’s council houses has a knock-on effect on all Londoners, whether tenants, home-owners or people with special housing needs. Whatever Happened to Council Housing? provides everyone with an opportunity to contemplate this critical issue for London’s future.
Last modified: Thursday, 27 May, 2004
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