Last night BBC4 hosted a programme documenting the rise and fall of social housing within the UK, focusing on the wide-scale development of Council Houses and Estates. In this programme, journalist and author, Michael Collins explored the history of "one of Britain's greatest social revolutions"- from its infancy as a project to appease a disgruntled social underclass, to its peak where social housing provided accommodation for over a third of the British population, and to its rapid decline 80 years on.
The programme focuses on a grand tour round the country, recounting the personal experiences of many of the estate's first residents. While such an account provides an emotive and engaging watch, it would perhaps have been interesting to see more attention given to the political and economic reasons behind the changes in the council estate's fortune, with such analysis coming second to the nostalgic focus of the documentary.
The programme is available on BBC iPlayer until 10:59PM Tuesday, 21st June 2011.
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