Council house looks like council house

[OdiesMum]

Why do councils insist on making their properties look like council properties?
I’m referring to a council estate in my city. It’s a terrible estate, bad reputation, horrible place to live (I used to live there). Anyway they pulled down the high rise flats and the crappy 70s council houses on the main road going through the estate and started building new houses. They looked lovely, modern new builds, you would never have known they were council ... really improved the look of the area. Once they were finished guess what the council did? They stuck bright blue tacky cladding all down the sides of them that just screamed out “council”. Ruined the look immediately. Why do they do this? Why put crappy cladding all over everything?? Why do they insist on council properties LOOKING like council properties?

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 would the private purchasers be looking round the HA homes? What nonsense.

What they will do is deliberately choose fittings which are more durable, but still low enough cost and those tend not to be the prettiest options on the market.

There’s a new build estate near me that has lots of cladding, so hardly ‘council looking’ 🙄

I live in an ex council flat. You wouldn't necessarily know as one side is a council estate where a lot have been bought. One side is retirement flats and a park. One side is another block of flats and the last side is owner occupied houses. Quite spaced out with grass etc and plenty of parking.

I lived on a owner occupier estate before this which looked more like a council estate than here tbh.

Both in same town.

There are some council flats in another area of town which have these huge name signs on which makes it more obvious. And a lot of council properties in my town have solar panels on the roof. Not mine however.

To be honest I would rather have a council house with larger rooms and a large garden than a new build with poky bedrooms and often tiny gardens. Near me I think most council houses are now in private hands.

Oh dear.

Why have you resurrected a 3 year old thread Raresun?

Both architecture and town halls were afflicted by various ideologies. Although the older designs were pretty decent in terms of space, they were built at a time when people were expected to know their place. I suspect that had a lot to do with the uniformity of appearance.

The lack of accountability for past mistakes is shocking. When you look at all the resources wasted in the post war building boom and the utterly crap new towns which were thought of as modern utopias by their designers but which turned out to be quite the opposite. It's a greater travesty that English Heritage believe some it worth preserving, and not just as a warning to future generations.

I think you are spot on OP, I don’t know why they do it but they do… I live in social housing and whilst it’s a lovely house it has ugly wood panels on top of the brickwork at the front and bright red window frames… the owner-occupied houses two minutes down the road do not have any of this despite them being built around the same time.

Why are you bumping these old threads?

Not the only one either. Think someone's having a boring Sunday.

Our council are quite good re double glazing modern windows, new front doors re-rendering. But rent in this area is more in line with private lets so they have more money to play with.

What they can't do is create kerb appeal. If tenants don't bother cut the grass, put in flowers so be it.