Why is there social housing in luxury areas?

Question

I walked past an upmarket area in London the other day and saw that there is a new social housing development.

Why are these placed in very nice areas? The area is one where 2 bedroom apartments cost 500k to 800k.

Answer 1

Wow, Carina, Maid, and others, way to blurt out hysteric drivel....

I understood the asker's question to refer to the price band of the area - i. e. the asker assumes that building social housing in these areas is much more expensive than in other areas, in other words: why build 20 social housing flats there, if you could have built 50 elsewhere for the same amount of money, thus helping more people.

I don't know if Dion's assumption is technically correct, as I don't know how the whole system works, but the consideration behind it is very valid and does not deserve any of the insults or hysteric reactions I have seen here.

Answer 2

Here in London both rich and poor live in the same streets.  Take a walk through Mayfair and you soon become aware that not everyone is rich and that there are many ordinary folk living there too.

The Duke of Wesminster owns a number of blocks of flats which are rented out exclusively to the London working class.  I might even say that unless you are working class, His Grace is very unlikely to ever rent you a flat in one of his blocks.

Where I live here in SE London, where house prices range from £400K to £1.5M we have lots of council houses and estates.  Greenwich is a very wealthy borough.

This modern idea of rich folk living behind high walls is entirely new and one which Londoner's do not aprove of.

Anyone who buys a flat or house in Docklands must know by now that the place still has a large community of the working class.

Answer 3

Because it's the law.

No new builds are allowed to be carried out in London on a large scale unless a certain percentage of it is given over to low cost / social housing.  This stops the market being totally saturated with luxury flats and pricing key workers out of the market.

Answer 4

SNOB!!!! I brought 3 lovely kids up in Council housing, 1 is a teacher, 1 is a hotel owner, and the youngest is now married to a South African vineyard owner. I am a teacher, my husband is a manager for the local Council, NON of us has ever been in trouble with the police, non of us are "chavs" and NON of us has ever been out of work. What makes YOU think that decent people are not entitled to live amongst the rich and successful???

We now live in the most gorgeous village in Cornwall, that inspired Kenneth Moore to write "Wind in the willows" and "Tales of the riverbank" we have worked hard to get where we are now, and to "better "ourselves, and STILL live in Council housing, but our next door neighbour, who owns a half a million pound house, has EXACTLY the same panaramic view over the Cornish countryside as WE do. We pay £32-00 a week for our cosy little bungalow, which is band "A" council tax, he pays a whopping mortgage, and is council tax "E"  YOU TELL ME WHO IS THE MOST CLEVER OF US BOTH???? We are laughing at our "posh" neighbour, we pay approximately £20-00 a week for fuel bills,(coal or wood burner which heats the water, and runs 4 radiators, we collect our own  free logs from the woods)

Both my husband and I were brought up in foster care, so have not had the help of inheritence, or family "hand outs" to help us own our own home, but it doesn't mean we are not capable of bringing our kid's up decently. We ARE now in a position of owning our own home now, but WOULD YOU????

It REALLY pisses me off when snobs like you expect people that live in Council or "Social" housing to be "low life" "scumbags". Have a look where I live, and tell me WE are not lucky, AND clever????

http://www.themagicofcornwall.com/pages/...

Jealous yet?????

Answer 5

Because these 'upmarket' areas still need the service industries, schools, hospitals etc.  and the people who work in these have to live somewhere.  Most of us want to live near to where we work, near where are children go to school and a school where the staff have some link with the area they teach in.  Maybe the question should be what is the moral justification for someone charging up to £800K for a small, city centre flat?

Answer 6

Areas that are "nice", as you put it, are highly profitable for those who acquire land and build dwellings, because they are capitalising on the inputs and care that topography and previous craftspeople, councils and occupiers have bestowed upon the area. Many occupants will have inherited homes there, so you should not make assumptions about the character of residents from land values or house prices, or the number of fine trees visible there. Clearly where prices are now relatively high, the need for some social housing is greater. When homes were built in the Victorian and Edwardian age they often incorporated rooms for servants. Now that we have realised the social and humanitarian benefits of not living within premises controlled by your employer ("tied cottage syndrome"), there is a much greater need for neighbourhoods to be configured for a wide mix of talents, age groups and personalities. In the language of a sociologist, stratified or segregated communities fail to satisfy our future needs. Incidentally, many attractive neighbourhoods evolved in the south west quarters of cities simply because prevailing winds blew smoke away from them. Now that we have tackled industrial pollution for some 60 years, surely we should try to re-balance our cities somewhat, but clearly we should nurture and safeguard the best features of ALL localities, regardless of whether they are perceived as "desirable" by influential sub-cultures. The alternative would be to aggregate wealth and concentrate poverty. The tragedy of affordable housing in the UK is that its geographic distribution is decided largely "behind closed doors" in the Housing Corporation, but this will soon be wound-up. Every neighbourhood has good features - its just that some are easier to spot than others. Areas with a history of deprivation often have stronger social networks and a bedrock of voluntary organisations than places that look privileged! Don't be deceived by appearances or land value variations into thinking some places are inherently nicer over long periods.

Answer 7

The only answer I can give to this, is why not? All sorts of housing and all sorts of people enrich an area.

Answer 8

do you think there should be a ban on the lower class life forms that inhabit social housing rubbing shoulders with decent upstanding citizens who have the income to buy upmarket properties

the decent upstanding citizens have probably made their money by extorting it from the lower class life forms anyway

maybe you should build a ring fence around good neighbourhoods to prevent the lower classes from casting their dirty eyes on the betters

Answer 9

Social housing in good areas of the Country are intermixed

saves ghetto of either side of the housing market and lets the area live and not become a Monday-Friday bed and breakfast   so often an area of 800k houses is like the second home syndrome areas DEAD

Answer 10

Why have upmarket Londoners priced me out of the housing market in my home town in Devon?

Answer 11

Why do yuppies move into downmarket areas & price the rest of us out of the property market?  London is like that areas of poverty shoved up against the posh bits.  Subsidised housing is also made available to key workers such as the police, social workers, etc who work in affluent areas but can't actually afford to live there ordinarily

Answer 12

And why not, all property is theft any way