Ben Reeve Lewis Friday Newsround #62

[Ben Reeve Lewis has a head full of stuff, but still brings in the news stories  …]

Not been sleeping very well this past week, my head’s been too full of ideas.

I’m in the middle of writing 2 books on landlord tenant stuff for publications at the end of summer, been training housing officers in Cardiff, 2 days in court with mortgage repossession cases and pondering why one of our office managers has suddenly taken to walking around with his hands permanently in his pockets.

It used to be just one hand and now it’s both. Various theories are doing the rounds about what they are doing in there but all have resolved not to shake his hand until he stops doing it.

In fact new and interesting ideas have caught my eye in my news surfing too.

The bigger picture

Most notably a story in ‘New Start’,  an online magazine for CLES, the Centre For Local Economic Strategies, of which I am big fan. Although admittedly a housing geek I also realise that housing is only part of the picture of how we live.

Our environment and the way that we interact with it is just as important. A point I raised in last week’s newsround on Deptford. The phrase “Its only bricks and mortar” must be one of the most misguided aphorism’s in the English language.

The article reports on a trend called ‘Pop-up urbanism’, whereby projects are set up that take charge of empty spaces or buildings temporarily and create unique initiatives to enhance the lives of the people who live there.

The aim of pop-up urbanism is to attract creative types to a city. Many councils are building them into their regeneration projects but the author of the article Oli Mould argues that they are becoming more narrowly defined and homogenised as a result, with projects concentrating on night time shopping or cafes.

Community initiatives

Instead Oli points us to more interesting initiatives that emanate from the community itself rather than creative consultants being brought in.

For instance the Orestad development in Copenhagen, a half finished building project waiting for more investment to get it finished, has been turned into a ‘Plug and Play’ site, a temporary playground, where gym equipment has been deposited, basketball courts and in line skate tracks have been fashioned in the full knowledge that they aren’t permanent.

Artist Luke Jeram placed pianos in city centres inviting people to just sit and play. Oli argues they could even be more permanent and states:-

“there should no top-down governance attempts to curate these interventions; this flies in the face of their raison d’être. But there is a middle ground that can be occupied.

By allowing planners and architects the opportunity to create rough edges, design spaces that don’t have any specific commercial operation and to facilitate places that encourage engagement; cities will become places less about security concerns and consumerism, and more about citizenship, creativity and play”.

These are recurring themes for CLES. A website worth watching for it’s intelligent and thoughtful views on how we live.

Doing it for ourselves

And while Oli Mould urges governance to back off and let communities do it, the head of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Robin Lawler, opening this week’s CIH conference in Manchester pointed to the lack of governance in housing that means housing organisations are going to have to step up to the mark and devise their own solutions.

He said:-

“this needs to be a decade of sector-led solutions where housing professionals must look critically at themselves and their performance”

His words, recorded on the Housing Excellence website are very in tune with what is going on, so much more so than any misplaced, daft utterances of Shapps, who just doesn’t seem to get it.

Robin went on to say:-

“there is now an overwhelming sense that we have reached a tipping point for housing and that the scale of the crisis is now recognised across the UK.

With governments, the media and the public now accepting that we are facing a housing crisis that needs urgent action if we are to deliver a functional housing system now and in the future.”

It is time to nudge the bumbling Mr Shapps aside and say “Oh get out of the way and let me do it”. To be fair to the government they have gifted us localism which allows us to do that very thing, so I’m not going to complain too much.

Dealing with hoarders

I read a curious story in the Guardian about the problem of dealing with people who cant stop hoarding things.

Over the past few years there have been many documentaries on the subject, presenting people as curious, harmless eccentrics but as the article points out, hoarding isn’t isolated behaviour, it’s a symptom of other problems such as depression, past traumas, OCD, etc, and these problems have other spin off effects on life and communities.

The Orbit housing group have formed a care and repair team to tackle the problem. Now what I love about this kind of thinking is that to the untrained eye this can seem like a mad waste of money, typical leftie, bleeding heart stuff, as many call it, but there is actually a real practical reason why these kinds of projects are worthwhile.

Hoarding often brings with it disrepair problems that can be dangerous to the tenants and costly to the council and money spent helping people who hoard is usually cheaper than dealing with the fallout in way that doesn’t see the whole picture.

Holding on to the cash

A point not lost on Eric Pickles this week with his announcement that he will give money to councils who adopt their Troubled Families initiative.  The aim is to cut the real cost of coping with numerous multi agency involvement to tackle those families who are a big headache in an area. He said:-

“We cannot go on spending so much taxpayers’ money on such a small amount of families without turning their lives around once and for all”.

He elaborated further:-

“Everyone will benefit from getting kids off the streets and into school; getting parents off benefits and into work; and cutting youth crime and anti-social behaviour. But it is also right that we will only pay councils in full if they deliver the results that we require.”

For years councils had a variety of teams and units, specialist little groups who often did this work already but the rapaciousness of government cuts to budgets meant these teams who used to work with these families got ditched. Now we have to deal with them anew just to get back the money that they took off us in the first place.

Maybe our office manager is actually holding on to bundles of cash given by Pickles. That’s why his hands are really in his pockets lately.

Ben Reeve Lewis

Ben’s runs Home Saving Expert, where he shares his secrets on defending people’s homes from mortgage repossession Visit his blog and get some help and advice on mortgage difficulties, catch up with him on Twitter and check out his free report “An Encouraging note on Dealing with your Mortgage Lender” and have it sent right to your inbox.

Picture : Deptford HIgh Street