Lynsey Hanley explores the history of social housing from 1945 to the present day.

In 1957, a gigantic, futuristic new council block started to appear on the hillside above Sheffield train station. Four years later it was finished and residents from the old slums that used to dot the area started to move in. The building's name was Park Hill and it would become a vessel for everything people hate - and love - about late 20th century council housing in Britain.

In this episode, Lynsey explores the ideas and issues around the trend of building upwards to meet housing needs. She then goes on to discuss the effects of Margaret Thatcher's 'Right To Buy' policy. Because the Conservative Party was so keen on this idea of the "property owning democracy", they prevented councils from building to replace the houses sold off through the scheme. The ideal was that everyone would, eventually, own their own home. But this had unintended consequences and led to a massive reduction in social housing stock. Did that lay the foundations for the crisis in housing we see today?

Lynsey ends her journey by revisiting Grenfell Tower. She suggests that a new future for social housing is possible. Why do we put so much emphasis on health and education, while believing that housing is beyond the reach of the state? She argues that what we need isn't poor housing for poor people, but a national housing service that serves everyone just like our NHS and schools.

Presenter: Lynsey Hanley
Producer: Sara Parker and Joe Sykes
Executive Producer: Samir Shah

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4. Show less