Why are English flats so shit?

[OneMentalBastard]

For a fairly populous country short on space, you'd think one thing we could get right is apartments. But, there are problems at every turn. The entire ownership model is all to cock, for starters. Freehold, management company charges, restrictive covenants on self employed/small business owners - all completely patrician and feudal.

Then there's the design of the damn things. Quite aside from deathly cladding, half of them don't have balconies and precious little outside space, so you're just shut in a box. The new ones don't even have bloody walls - who the fuck wants open plan living? Apart from those 23 year old wankers at Foxtons whose only possessions are a futon and a smart speaker? Where is a person supposed to put their bookcases, in a flat with no walls? Who wants their washing to smell of cooking? (Which it will, in a flat with no balcony, no walls and no space in the "kitchen" (aka a lino floored corner of the living room with a sink and two cupboards) for a separate tumble dryer.)

And what's with this "low car/no car" development craze? Our public transport outside of London is shit. Anyone with a job or any kind of regular commitment (ie most adults) is going to have a car. If they can't park it outside their flat they're just going to rack up council charges to park it elsewhere.

Apartment living should be, and in other countries is, the smart choice for people who want a hassle free low maintenance urban life, but instead it's an almost sure path to penury, inconvenience and tripping over stew-scented clothes horses in the living room.

Why can't we get it right?

Spouted like a fervent nationalist with no intelligent nuance whatsoever. There was a lot more to Scottish housing policy since the Act of Union than "English oppression".

I live in a 1930s mansion block and it is really obvious compared to modern flats how it was designed with longer term living in mind - large rooms, built in cupboards, a garage, large balcony, separate kitchen.

We are a resident owned freehold but to defend rules and leases for a moment - flats have shared services, infrastructure and space - sometimes flat owners don't realise that an alteration in their flat or their behaviour can impact the building or on others. You also need a mechanism for funding and making repairs to common areas. I have a friend who owns a flat in Scotland and their troubles in collecting money to carry out essential repairs to communal things like the roof sound horrible.

Yanbu at all, hard agree

Resident-owned freehold, with sensible saving funds for the maintenance of common areas (roofs and staircases) are probably the right way to split the huge costs of maintaining a big building. Not many people could afford the costs themselves/individually, but they all want a watertight roof and sound foundations.

Because our politicians local and national roll over for developers, who then take their profits leaving people with the consequences of dire planning!! Council flats in the 50s and 60s had more space!