WEA Talkshop on Housing Crisis - A Punter's View

The Workers Education Association have organised a series of debates in the run up to the election. They have proved very successful with their aim to encourage real engagement with politics. The most recent event focussed on the Housing crisis.

By Paul Tarpey 23/4/2015

‘I don’t know anything about the housing situation.’

When trying to bully friends to come along to WEA’s most recent talkshop event I heard these words over and over. Then I repeated them myself when the idea of getting directly involved cropped up. It didn’t take that long into the event to realise that everyone there had an insight into the issue that was invaluable.

During this election campaign we have again heard the ‘right to buy’ motif. It won many people over in the past despite a more aspirational than practical appeal, but how relevant will it prove to be to a generation used to scrabbling around for liveable rented accommodation.

Changes in housing policy dramatically affect our health, security and freedom and decent, affordable living once seemed as achievable as free healthcare. It has now become a privilege and political solutions seem to be scarce.

So I did engage with this event and I went away without an answer but with renewed faith that people can be involved and can influence decisions. This didn’t happen by accident as the promoter of the event Matty Mussell explained.

“It is not our aim to push a party line but to encourage political engagement and debate. That is why this format works well for us. There is maybe a little bit of apprehension because it is a bit different, but by the end of the event I think people can see what the format is all about and what we are trying to do.”

The format involved the presentation of four different solutions to the housing issue which were debated in groups and then common ground and understanding developed. It is a method that reveals how much we already know and how much we can still learn. Everyone had radically different experiences and all of it seemed crucial. Matty believes this format can become a blueprint for the future. “There is less pressure here, you don’t have to be an expert.

People can come away having learnt a lot without one or two peoples’ views being forced on them. I would like the events to become more frequent and attract more people. What I would love is if the people coming to the events started to use the format for things which they may be involved in as well.”

Chris Allan is a university lecturer on housing and introduced the event. His role was to use his knowledge without leading those involved to any pre-conceived conclusions.

“I tried to give a flavour of each option and highlight one or two aspects of each. As a teacher you often take an opposite position from the one held by a student just to get them thinking about their views. You have to jump inside the clothes of someone else.”

One of Chris’s aims at the event was to expand his own knowledge.

“You can study housing for a whole career and only get a specific understanding of it. You can’t just come along to an event like this with an academic theory because people bring an incredible diversity of experience. No theory can capture that diversity and it shows to me that you have to think across all the different policies.”

Although Matty and Chris’s main aims at the event were educational, its success still owed much to a belief that we need real change driven by the people on the frontline.

Chris explained; “There are a number of issues that define where we are at the moment and I think housing is right up there. Most of our wealth is now stored up in houses and the inequality is such that wealth is gravitating towards the top and people underneath are being squeezed out. The more expensive housing is the more it cuts out the choices we have in life. We become a slave to work just to cover housing costs.”

If you want to know more about the Talkshop events and the format used then the best way to do it is to turn up at the next event and see it in action. It takes place on Wed 29th April at The Brink, Parr Street, Liverpool (7pm). The issue will be Immigration. Whatever your experience I can guarantee you will become an essential part of making this work and making a difference.

www.nw.wea.org.uk/blog/uk-immigration-debate-free-event

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Sorry Comments Closed

Comment left by Kai Andersen on 16th January, 2016 at 14:08
Hi, I've was a housing/tenant activist since 1992, campaigned tooth and nail against the abolition council housing in Liverpool and the undemocratic takeover of private housing companies, trusts and HAs, which increase rents annually, demolish neighbourhoods and break up communities. Additionally part of the ideologically driven abolition of council housing was the mass demolitions and break up of working class communities since the 1990s. It's a story that been excluded from the media and plenty of us tenant and housing activists were ground down and politically attacked, police sent to harass as when we tried to peacefully oppose Stock Transfers against all the money, resources thrown to get a YES vote. The reality is that mass homelessness is ideological and was created in the 1980s to reduce housing availability obviously to the working class, that helped push up the cost of private mortgaged housing and it drove the creation of the private rented sector, which includes the regulated 'social' sector of RSLs, HA, Trusts. That were used to replace democratic/accountable council housing, they are now being undermined as council housing was. Abolition of council housing has also increased housing waiting lists nationally because supply was reduced and demolished. Tens of thousands of council houses and flats across Liverpool, Merseyside and nationwide were purposely rundown (funding slashed) and then demolished, working class communities were rundown as part of the process. It's tragic, but now it has become an talking piece within academia, contextualised by the middle class who led the ideological destruction and who profited from it. Where's the working class tenants voice and housing activists or story in all this? Was there even just one given the platform at this 'talk shop'. We've been kept out because the monumental injustices have been denied and our neighbourhoods, family and lives were destroyed! Solutions to the politically created housing crisis have to begin first with understanding fully the socio-political background. That began in the 1980s with national government policy and accelerated in practice in the 1990s. The Labour Party in government from 1997 to 2010 continued the Tory party policy of mass privatisation (Stock Transfers) of council housing. My home estate, the Norris Green Boot Estate was run down under a Labour council and demolished under a Labour government all driven by free-market capitalist ideology and severe class bigotry against us council tenants and an ideological hatred of social provision of affordable housing for all citizens. Take a search on Liverpool Indymedia and you'll find lots of my articles/reports/photos on housing demolitions and community/housing destruction.

Comment left by Kai Andersen on 16th January, 2016 at 14:11
Hi, I've been a housing/tenant activist since 1992, campaigned tooth and nail against the abolition council housing in Liverpool and the undemocratic takeover by private housing companies, trusts and HAs, which increase rents annually, demolish neighbourhoods and break up communities. Additionally part of the ideologically driven abolition of council housing was the mass demolitions and break up of working class communities since the 1990s. It's a story that been excluded from the media and plenty of us tenant activists were ground down and politically attacked, police sent to harass as when we tried to peacefully oppose Stock Transfers against all the money (millions all in), resources thrown in to get a YES vote, the NO vote campaign had tens of pounds and few resources. The reality is that mass homelessness is ideological, just as mass unemployment is, and both were created in the 1980s to reduce housing availability obviously to the working class, that helped push up the cost of private mortgaged housing and it drove the creation of the private rented sector, which includes the regulated 'social' sector of RSLs, HAs and Trusts. They were used to replace democratic/accountable/affordable council housing, they are now being undermined as council housing was. Abolition of council housing also increased housing waiting lists nationally because supply was purposely reduced and demolished. Tens of thousands of council houses and flats across Liverpool, Merseyside and nationwide were purposely rundown (funding slashed) and then demolished, working class communities were rundown as part of the process. It's tragic, but now it has just become another curiosity and talking piece with bourgeois society and academia, contextualised by the middle class who led the ideological destruction and who profited from it. Where's the working class tenants activists stories in all this? Was there even just one given the platform at this 'talk shop'. We've been kept out because the monumental injustices have been denied and our neighbourhoods, family and lives were destroyed! Solutions to the politically created housing crisis have to begin first with understanding fully the socio-political background. That began in the 1980s with national government policy and accelerated in practice in the 1990s. The Labour Party in government from 1997 to 2010 continued the Tory party policy of mass council housing privatisation through Stock Transfers. My home estate, the Norris Green Boot Estate was purposely run down under a Labour council and demolished under a Labour government all driven by free-market capitalist ideology and severe class bigotry against us council tenants and an ideological hatred of social provision of affordable housing for all citizens. Take a search on Liverpool Indymedia and you'll find lots of articles/reports/photos on housing demolitions and community/housing destruction.