Council house looks like council house

Council estates have a look, and those who are denying so are being pedantic.

Not all council housing is on estates, though. It never was.

We think of the typical ugly, uniform looking “estate” council houses as being the archetypal “council house” but actually you’d be surprised which homes are social housing or ex-council.

I worked as a housing officer on a lovely 1950s council estate that had a few detached houses, most of that estate has been sold via RTB. I've also worked in blocks of flats that were dank and dismal, same LA.

I'd have loved a council house in the 70s when our children were young. We had to make do with a private rented hovel until we could buy a house. We had the nerve to move a couple of hundred miles, didn't go down well when we tried to put our name down. How times, and lettings policies change.

Around our way they all have those small concrete porch squares over the doors

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

A dd has an ex council, most in the road are owned now but you can always tell those - different front door and often a porch added to what was a more or less identikit brick flat front.

They are very good houses IMO, relatively spacious compared to so many new builds. Even the 3rd bedroom is a very good sized single.

Incidentally the former owners bought it from the council in 1971 - well before Thatcher. They paid almost exactly a hundredth of what dd paid.

Why do they always have tiny windows? Not every window, but at least one window will be the tiniest window you've ever seen.

I have a friend who lives in a new build council house and the rest of the homes are private development they are all identical and you’d not know it was council. There is no way to tell them apart.

However on saying that there is a council house look and many people and most folks can identify many council houses just by looking, I’m not sure why anyone is pretending otherwise. For many of them you can tell they are council or ex council immediately.

Whenever we drive through a nice 60's/70's estate with solid brick houses, good sized gardens, wide roads and pavements, and green areas I know it was built as a council estate. They are fantastic homes and environments.

Ones built since then tend not to be, although there are exceptions. I used to work for a housing association and we had new homes on a very fancy new estate. Yes, they were grouped together at the edge, and had cheaper fittings, but in some respects they were better as they had to meet our minimum standards eg bedroom sizes. Our surveyor snagged them early on and had all the windows replaced - the ones built for private sales kept those same windows.

My grandparents council house didn't 'look' council. They had a lovely little porch, a beautiful and lush front garden, and the inside, as a pp said, was like a Tardis. They did have flats behind them, one block was very ugly and grey cladding, the other was a small building that looked a bit like an office block (not particularly ugly for its time).

I hate the look of terraced estates to be honest. They look awful, a load of cheaply built 2up2downs privately bought and not maintained in the slightest. Give me 'council look' any day, even with cladding (hopefully the non-flammable kind ).

The only way you know they are council round here is everyone has the same door.

More and more private/non-HA/non-ex-HA houses in our town are having their front doors changed for these new dull brown corporate-style ones with the long bar rather than a handle/knob. Not only do they look like the door to an office block rather than a family residence, but the more people go for them, the less unique they get!

By contrast, we had a large local business close some time ago and the land was acquired by the HA. They've not long finished the new flats and, every time I drive past them, I'm really taken by just how attractive they are - for any private housing, not just HA.

Well I hope it’s not flammable blue cladding?

Op, I've had this in my town. Lovely new new street was built. Thought they were all finished and looked nice from the outside. Then a few weeks later - blue cladding on the houses! Like what the hell! To me looked like an added extra cost for no bloody reason. Doesn't bring anything to the house - actually looks really crap now.

I live in a council house with cladding too. I hate it. We bought the house off someone who bought it via the right to buy for 3x less than what I paid for it!

In any new mixed tenure housing development being built by a developer, the cost of building the social rented properties is cross-subsidised by the intermediate rent / shared ownership / outright ownership properties, so making them as desirable as possible is part of the business case. Social tenants pay a much lower than market rent to rent a lower specification property, just as in the private sector you’d pay a rent or purchase price which reflects your property’s specification. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

A house a house. Those new builds being chucked up are horrible anyway.

I grew up on a council estate and all the houses looked the same. Now live in a council house as an adult. It's in a row of houses built on a new morris homes estate as part of affordable housing. You can easily tell we're the council houses. Theyre built as small as legally possible and the neighbours sit outside and talk with each other when the weathers nice. Nobody does this on the bought houses or shared ownership ones 😆

To be honest, when you see some of the hideous new build estates being thrown up around here, they look worse than all but the worst council housing.

Early council housing (low cost housing for t'workers) tended to be well built with large gardens then as it became more of a numbers game, they shrank massively.

My new build council property has drive, turf and a patio. You can’t tell it’s a council property. It’s the exact same as all the private houses in the street. My neighbour and I are the only council.
My old council estate is a mess and looks horrible. Houses all run down with no maintenance done for years. So glad to be off of it now.

All the HA houses on my newly built estate have different doors and windows from the private houses.

I’ve often wondered why they felt the need to differentiate.

Council estates have a look, and those who are denying so are being pedantic.

OP what do you mean, blue cladding? I can't picture what it is you mean?

We have loads of new builds being thrown up around here at the moment.

If the developers are selling some privately and some to the council / HA, they will want to make the private ones seem 'better' so the individuals purchasing think they are getting something a step up from the council / HA ones. Same with the interiors - sometimes they deliberately choose fittings or finishes that are ugly for the HA (even if they cost the same as the ones that look better) so the private purchasers will feel they are getting a much better deal.

🙄 Why do you care op?

Probably to do with some awarding of large contracts which are supposed to provide value for money in some mysterious way...

I think some of the council/ex council houses in Central Scotland are absolutely hideous and depressing to look at. The ones which are very square, and to a block and covered in a dismal grey-brown harling with very obvious exterior guttering. It just seems such a deliberate signal to make them obviously council housing and set apart from other styles. Some of the more modern ones are pretty nice.

I live in a council house on a council estate. My house does indeed look very council.

I wish it didn’t, so you are not being unreasonable.

They will probably knock them down soon for new builds which will be nice but we will absolutely have less space.