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The Big Issue

‘Estates brought people together’

or council house kids of the 1980s like me, by Madness was an anthem and an affirmation. The Conservative government was flogging off social housing and celebrating ownership – slowly, paying rent to the local authority became something to be embarrassed about. A perception of estates as crime-ridden slums occupied by broken families seemed to grow in that decade. When I saw Suggs on singing: “Our house it has a crowd, there’s always something happening and it’s usually quite loud” I felt seen. Social housing was about community, fun, love and all of those things that didn’t seem quite so prevalent in tidier suburban streets occupied by the curtain-twitching middle

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