Presented by The Architecture Centre | Is council housing the best way of providing people with a home? In the past 100 years, the fortunes and reputation of council housing has waxed and waned.
Did the ‘Right to Buy’ signal the beginning of the end for state-owned housing? Could the current housing crisis see a renaissance in council housing?
Celebrating the centenary of the 1919 Addison Act, join Designer Wayne Hemingway, journalist Kieran Yates and Cllr Paul Smith for an exploration of the past, present and future of council housing.
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About the speakers:
Wayne Hemingway spent 6 years as a Design Council Trustee. He spent a decade with CABE (as Chair of Building For Life), served as a Mayor’s London Leader and currently supports the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan as a Design Advocate. Hemingway is an advisor to the House of Commons Select Committees on coastal regeneration, and received an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of 2006. He is a Professor in The Built Environment Department of Northumbria University, a Doctor of Design at Wolverhampton, Lancaster and Stafford, and an Honorary Fellow of Blackburn College, the University of Cumbria and Regents University.
Kieran Yates is a freelance writer on music and politics for the Guardian, NME, The Metro and Dazed and Confused. She is the co-author of ‘Generation Vexed’ and is the co-host of The Guardian Music Weekly podcast.
Cllr Paul Smith was appointed as Bristol City Council Cabinet member for Housing in May 2016. He has worked in the housing sector since 1989. Paul is charged with meeting the new build development of 2,000 homes per year by 2020 of which 800 should be affordable, overseeing the management of the council’s 27,000 homes, private sector regulation and reducing homelessness.
