Council house change is socially divisive

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/13/council-house-change-is-socially-divisive

Version 0 of 1.

The proposed removal of council housing secure tenancies is yet another of this current government’s socially divisive policies. Ministers and their supporters in parliament and the media have no recognition that for people living in council houses (or “social housing” as it is now euphemistically called), a house or flat is as much a home as it is for owner occupiers.

For those of us like Deborah Orr (We cherished the estate I grew up in because it had a secure future, 12 December) who were brought up in council rented property, our houses were the homes in which our parents invested their lives. In the immediate postwar period, council building for rent was supported and championed across the political divide. It raised the standard of accommodation to a level never before seen in this country.

Related: Council tenants lose lifetime right to live in property

That cross-party consensus is broken. This proposal to remove secure tenancies will reduce even further the stock of decent rentable public housing. It will cause further damage to our society’s poorer children. Ultimately it will condemn them and their families to exist in standards of accommodation the like of which has been not seen since the earlier part of the last century.Harry Bower Rotherham

• That must have been some interesting estate that Deborah Orr grew up on, where residents were allowed to tear down walls, put in loft extensions, driveways etc. My memories of my parents’ experience in living in a council house in Scotland was that other than papering the walls and keeping the garden tidy, almost nothing was allowed to be changed. You were expected to return it in the same state as when you moved in and you certainly wouldn’t be making major structural alterations.Geraldine BlakeBrighton

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com