Council house looks like council house

This varies a lot between Councils some Councils are extremely good at insisting affordable housing including Council Housing is not of any lesser quality and should be indistinguishable at street level from it's neighbours.

There are local elections today - its one of many things your local Councillors have a say in!

Yes, our house has the cheapo council doors & crap windows, but it’s our home. Lots of flowers in the front garden & a neat hedge. There’s always a way to make your home more appealing, council or not.

Lots of flat owners have crap coloured facades of plastic that they’re being charged an arm & a leg to change after Grenfell. Tens of thousands of pounds.

Do they scream council too? Would you have the balls to tell them?

But thank you for picking us council tenants out & pointing at us on your travels.

You’re so kind.

I said the same to dh in the week and he called me a snob! But yes why do they have to look unattractive?. Is it a way of keeping people in their place and reminding them it’s social housing?. It doesn’t make sense to me to have lovely houses one side of the street and quite unattractive houses on the other. It hardly creates a sense of community does it?.

I personally think that it is much better design than the 1960s mock Tudor houses at the other end of the village.

I grew up on a council estate, in fact it was the biggest in the country when I was born all the houses are mostly bought from the council and private now but its a beautiful area and now very expensive to live in.

They didnt knock down the houses, they are still the exact same ones that where always there so no idea what you mean by 'council looking' because they sell for hundreds of thousands to the type of people who have never lived in a 'council house' in their lives easily lol.

My house is privately owned but it still looks like a 1930s council house, which is what it is or was, and I'm happy with it that way.

It's easy to spot a Council house, they all have a clapped out Ford Cortina in the front garden

Sorry, what?

Round us (SW London) they’ve just pulled down some ugly council brutalist high rises and low rises and replaced them with, guess what... almost identical buildings just built in brick and/or glass. But they’re still so ugly! I couldn’t believe it! They’re almost the same just with slightly different (but still very ugly) materials. I don’t think we’ve learnt anything from the 60/70s in terms of building beautiful things that people won’t want to tear down in 40 years. In cities especially the number of huge concrete and glass blocks that will date in the same way the ones from the 60/70s did is crazy, how can no one in planning see the similarities? And it’s not that all high rises have to be ugly - there’s a couple of red brick, slightly more “industrial docks warehouse” style ones near us that are 15+ storeys and still quite nice.

I think all the cheap new build housing estates are similar, just not as bad. But council houses from previous decades are much better, I lived in an ex council flat for a while and it was so well designed, think it was 1960s and low rise. I also like the 50s houses, although when you have a lot of them together it’s obvious they’re council, but they’re still nice houses.

Oh, and on our private housing estate, the vast majority all have the same doors too.

There are some councils flats in central London in buildings that look exactly the same as private ones where flats sell for a million pounds. (Paddington to be precise for example).

So it's not always the case.

Professionally I work on many construction projects which have a mix of HA and private residences. For the vast majority, the only difference between them are the internal fit out. The external fabric of the building is the same no matter who is the end user. A developer will use the cheapest of materials to construct the home whether it is HA or private. Someone coming to buy the house won’t look at the windows or external walls to decide whether the house is worth paying for, they look at the quality of the kitchen and bathroom fittings.

The reason the look of HA/Council estates can be different, is because many have bought in to initiatives such as “places for people” which is quite specific about requirements for buildings and communal spaces. They often focus more on sustainability and environmental issues so the lack of a garage or driveway is because they are looking to reduce the number of cars in the area, not because of any legislation that says new private homes have to have garages (they don’t - that is market driven) These areas are more likely to have the planning gain aspects like amenity buildings because the council can’t be seen to be trying to avoid them being part of a project. This changes the look of an area too.

The look of the buildings externally is driven by architectural trends and planning. These colourful cladding panels are all the rage at the moment and are common to pretty much any resi project I’m on both public and private. Perhaps the reason you’re seeing them more on council projects is, these types of housing, more flatted or multiple occupancy buildings are currently more likely to be council led at the moment. Developers are focussing more on larger semi or detached developments as profits are better and its where the market currently lies.

It isn’t being done to somehow “badge” these buildings, but more because of individual HAs having the same architects who design for them across multiple projects, and the HA having their own preferred look. It’s the same thing as a Persimmon estate looking different from a Barratt estate or a Taylor Wimpey one.

Why are would any council or any builder use cladding on any building after that horrendous fire?

Because not all cladding is created equal. Cladding is a perfectly acceptable external wall finish if the correct spec is chosen and it is installed properly. The failings were not in the choice to have cladding, they were in the choice of which cladding, the checking and sampling process, and the final check of the installation.

It's easy to spot a Council house, they all have a clapped out Ford Cortina in the front garden

Council tenant here, living in a street of mainly privately owned homes bought from the council years ago. All of us council tenants have had our steps and windows painted bright red without any say in the matter, basically branding us so people know which are the council houses!

NB should say that some of the newer housing can be built differently because councils can sell land to developers on condition that X % of the homes are handed back to the council as affordable homes. These are built in the style/materials of the private homes, but usually with some differences eg lower spec kitchens and lower quality communal areas in flats, because the service charges will be much lower for the upkeep.

It's cost. The council's have to prove value for tax payer money, so they are required to go with the most basic options that the contractor offers, which is why it always ends up being the same/similar materials.

To the pp who asked about tiny windows, same reason! Glass is more expensive than bricks, smaller windows are cheaper.

For those lamenting the change from Victorian architecture, that was only possible due to us exploiting the colonies. The cost today would be billions.

This is all from fascinating comments my architect DH makes on car journeys btw

Cheaper kitchen installed
this is incorrect. They actually go for the high end of quality, much better then what many home owners buy for themselves.

I've got a new build council estate Close to me. They look like lovely houses. I envy want one who has one!

Here in Scotland i feel for those that have to live in the "4 in a block" housing that is everywhere. My BF lives in one, it is hellish, the noise from upstairs when the walk across the floor is so loud, if you happen to be in the tiny 5x6 bathroom at the same time upstairs is having a wee it sounds like rain hitting a tin roof, you are sat there feeling like someone is weeing on your head. As the bathroom is beside the shared path nothing is private. You hear everything from the house next door and from above, you hear them turning over in bed, having sex, placing their knife and fork on a plate etc. You hear every ping of a text and every conversation, my friend knows her neighbours bank details because she has heard them on the phone, you can't help but hear. Bloody awful way to live, the buildings should be demolished. Shameful way expect people to live.

Building standards for HA properties means they are actually often far larger and better quality than privately built ones. (I'm in Scoltnad, may be different elsewhere).

My first house was a privately owned Victorian Terraced two bedroom and a bathroom type of place. Everyone chose their own front door and what colour they painted it was entirely their own business. The street had character and a sense of Community, some people lived out their whole lives in the same house, and everyone knew and helped each other.
Then along came a regeneration project for the whole area, the council offered a package of upgrades and Modernisations to all the homeowners for a bargain price, and those who refused were given a compulsory purchase order and helped to move into alternative accommodation, mostly a rented council house.

The destruction then really began, every house had the same white plastic window frames and front door, every kitchen and bathroom were identical cheap utility standard bulk buy rubbish, all plastic fronted kitchen Door units with imitation wood design and a grey worktop, gone were the lovely old Belfast sinks just ripped out and thrown into the skip. Every house stripped of its wallpaper, replastered and left with Magnolia internal walls and white gloss wood work.

The previous character of the street completely obliterated, until it was difficult to remember who once lived where, or for the older folk who remained to find their own front door amongst this sea of White. The council had turned the place into a mainly Housing association owned and Maintained community, destroyed the heritage and long relationships between neighbours some more than half a century long, my parents included. So sad to see a place so badly destroyed all in the name of so called Community regeneration.

Maybe the council got the cladding
from someone’s pal at a knock down rate. As soon as I hear the word “cladding” I shudder