My neglectful council is fixated on pronouns while my family lives in disrepair

[IwantToRetire]

... for residents in Wandsworth council housing, where roofs leak, lifts break and bins overflow, focusing on fringe gender views when basic services are falling short feels misplaced.

Chris Georgiou, 36, has lived in Wandsworth, south-west London, her whole life and moved to the Winstanley estate with her two daughters three years ago. “People here don’t care about that,” the teaching assistant says of the pronoun guidance. “It’s not time or money that should be spent.” ...

From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/01/22/taxpayers-money-on-bin-collections-not-pronouns/

Can also be read at https://archive.is/poUir

Are they worthless, or do the council actually understand their community, and that pride alone contributes £30m to the local economy?

incidentally, Brighton has been a haven for the lgbtq community since the early 19th century (hardly the ‘woke agenda gone mad’ hysteria of 2025/6) , and also has a significantly higher than average proportion of degree holders, make of that what you will.

I agree re. the long lasting and ongoing effects of Tory austerity. I have lived in Wandsworth for forty years, the last twenty in an ex-council flat on a mid-size estate. For years and years the Tory led council took pride in barely increasing council tax. Now it is left to the Labour led administration to sort out the backlog of repairs, whilst being unable to raise tax sufficiently to enable them to do so effectively.

I do not doubt that there are estates where the scale of necessary repairs is huge. Generally these are high rise blocks that were poorly built and maintained and are in dire need of a complete overhaul and renovations. My own estate is very different - low rise, solidly built apartment blocks in a leafy environment, with a large proportion of flats now owner occupied. No huge repairs needed and what is broken invariably gets fixed fairly quickly.

I am hoping that Labour won’t be votes out at the next election so that they can continue to improve housing in the borough. I have never seen any reference to gender politics in the borough’s actions or communication and doubt this is an issue to an extent where it affects estate management.

(Using one of my old names as outing.)

A much bigger problem than pronouns is massive underfunding of councils and generally the way all the wealth that flows into this country seems to flow straight out of it again.

Try renting from a landlord where the rent is three times council rent and still nothing gets fixed at least if you rent from the council it’s easier to save money to fix things yourself. I don’t think pronouns cost anything although it is extremely cringe to see adults walking around with “my pronouns are they/them” badges

Yes they are worthless.

Pride doesn't contribute that much because if Pride was not on, every hotel would still be booked out the entire summer.

It's one weekend, not like, for example, the month long festival which also books out every hotel.

The degrees you will find in Brighton are the sort of degrees that baristas and co-op shelf stackers have. The sort that start with decolonising the Nursery agenda and 21 way to wear a keffiyeh.

yes.

But I can be angry about both.

Ah, those entirely made up degrees to go with your entirely made up data points- quite the credible orator, aren’t you? Could give Mark Carney a run for his money.

Bless you went there.

Please supply your address and opening hours.

Do you let randoms off the street into your house to use the toilet? That’s kind and very trusting of you.

Do stick to the substance of things I say rather than moving on to your next point.

Let me sum it up for you. The vast majority of the planet and country know sex is binary, unchangeable and sometimes, important. And, they are fucked off with people telling them what to think, what to say and trying to shame them. The authoritarians (that you would likely refer to as "the left") have over stepped, due to the nature of purity spirals, where everyone tries to be more puritanical than the party member standing next to them, and this is the backlash.

Unfortunately that backlash has elected Trump, is going to elect Reform, is likely to destroy same sex marriage in the USA, and will probably cost us the planet because climate friendly policies are being rolled back.

All because of authoritarian puritans and their desperation to be the thought police.

Can you post your address please?

My bro needs a piss, and he might be near yours?

So kind of you to declare to declare your facilities public.

Yes in my experience of working for a large local authority, there isn’t a DEI role. Bits of it are tagged on to people’s main jobs and it is will inevitably be far down the priority list aside from meeting statutory obligations. The idea of a whole department is laughable.

Councils are spending their time talking about this stuff.

It's always going to be an issue that when government, especially at the lowest levels that people interact with daily, is struggling to meet their most fundamental obligations, time or focus spent on bs luxury shit is not going to go over well. And I don't mean stuff like public art - many people can see the value in that. But they see stuff like pronoun policies as posturing and virtue signalling, at best.

It's a mistake being repeated up the line too, from local levels right to the top. It doesn't matter if it's just a memo, people's taxes are paying the salary of the person who took time out of their day to write it, and probably the people it was circulated to as well.

Absolutely.

Every FOI request they have to deal with, every training workshop they need to attend, every time they need to add a dozen poorly thought out questions to a survey, and a thousand more things.

It is a constant drip drip drip of friction, slowing things down, costing money and ultimately it is a huge opportunity cost, by doing these things they are NOT doing something else, like filling the damned pot holes or collecting the bins.

You know, the essentials.

It was the "invisible" costs

Join Stonewall for £££
Hire a DIE trans specialist ££ /£££
Review and rework all policy across all Departments
Work that up the chain untill the elected LA votes and approves the changes
Retrain staff on the new policy
Create new internal audit to check policy is being followed.
Apply for the Award on the DIEs KIP
Pay extra fee to Stonewall
Set up a system to prove the LA qualifys for the Award.
Audit each Department to prove the LA qualify
Make changes to provision to improve chance of winning award.
Eg
• Pronoun badge £££
• Convert single sex public spaces into mixed sex spaces ££££££+

One of the reasons the US turned against EID is that the costs for big business to run the systems began to cost lots of money so less profit and visable KPI targets which the CEO and co had to meet or they got smaller bonus. And big money funds ads etc.

I posted about Wolverhampton housing survey here
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5386944-i-need-help-taking-a-complaint-further?page=4&reply=146346655

The staff includes 2 gender questions neither IMO qualify as lawful collection of data.

One Q was excess collection which adds zero value and staff have to spend time examining the answers and applying it to any change the housing policy.

End of day policy is how many houses where and to whom with our budget.

They did not collect any data on pregnancy and maternity which is a clear failure in the LAs legal obligation and it only directly impact women.

Your housing need changes if you are pregnant or have a baby.

How many houses : which will be suitable for a woman who is likely to end up housing her baby.

Where : If you are poor you are more likey to use public transport and have a minimum standard contract (not get paid if you go the GP)
So if the LA is buying housing they need to look at stuff like
Eg Using public transport
□ Can you get to work (non-residential areas)
□ Can you get the GP / hospital
□ Can the bus load a buggy
□ Is there a local childcare.

If the LA are not look at pregnancy/maternity women can be allocated the exact same house as a men but be disadvantaged because men can never get pregnant and dont have to access services which are not local to the house.

Wolverhampton did not see the lack of collection as a problem.
They fail to adapt the housing policy to meet the possible likely needs of women (from ages 10-50).

If men really just wanted to pee in peace, they'd pee in the men's room.

Off track but I’ve never understood why living in a council house is seen as harder and poorer than privately renting not to sound like the oppression olympics but even after living in a homeless shelter for years with my kids I failed to get a council house and now spend most my income on private renting. I see people in council houses with bucket loads more disposable income than me I’m not hating or jealous just an observation.
Have you also noticed whenever a washed up Z lister publishes their sob story/autobiography it starts with “I grew up in a council house” like it’s automatically a terrible thing ? Never a mention of private renting although it’s infinitely worse? I don’t get it.

Anyway the biggest cost that’s going to come from trans ideology will be when the people who were hoodwinked into taking puberty blockers aged 12 and transitioning way before they could even vote drive or drink realise it was a huge mistake. Keira bell is just the start. A lot of them are early twenties late teens now. This is going to be massive when the shit really hits the fan and the law suits begin.

Wandsworth Council have introduced a licencing scheme for private landlords - (in effect an additional tax which is then passed on to tenants) and claim this is to ensure that private landlords comply with the law and their responsibilities. At the same time they fail to comply with the law and their responsibilites themselves. You could not make it up!

How do you think they should set priorities?

Let's stop the gender woo and get on with reality.

Reminds me of people asking no one to gather in groups of more than six and then having parties.

Council House

Feudal system and Christanity

King owns the land
Everybody payed to live on it
Serfs paid by growing food and other work
The Poor cant work/ pay then starve or be killed for stealing

Christians could earn a place in heaven by charity

Post Industrialision
Serf became the working class
Charity created workhouses for the Poor

Working class was paid in slum Factory housing and a Factory Store goods
The Workhouses are paid from local taxes (and charity)

Cash income became a legal obligation and is taxed

"Charitable givers" said the State/LA should house
the Poor in Workhouses in houses for 'free' (charity)
and
provide non-slum housing for low waged at peppercorn rent (not for profit)
and
let Ex-Factory housing be upgraded or knocked and be part of the private rental market (for profit)

At the start of social housing
• The Poor moved from Workhouse in 'free' LA housing
• The worker in peppercorn rent LA housing
• The worker in market value rental

Or ^ in poverty classes for rental value
Very Poor > loose money always
Rather Poor > breakeven (smal loss)
Not that Poor > profit never loss.

Then political parties did not like the idea of paying for social housing...

And biggest loosers will include women.
In 2025 the biggest employer in the UK decided that a woman had a contractual obligation to provide (to any male employee who choose ) a strip show.

Teach the children

Being a woman has nothing do with having babies.

Men can have babies (no they fuckn cant and abortion is a woman only right.)

Then Women (and men) can choose to not have babies why should there be laws which give them maternity protections.

Women having babies (all the future workers) has no economic value so they dont need womens rights.

Women in Third World countries can supply the future workers.

Welcome to the Great Replacement Theory

Should point out if given a choice between 2 exactly the same houses
LA build for housing stock
And
Builder built for sale

I would buy the LA one as it designed from the ground up to be a hold forever (and maintain) and built with that in mind.

Yes some designs were first round of new methods and are crap but in general the LA s learned from mistakes and design them out of the next round

I would too I know two people renting pretty much the same flat same layout and size but the council one is a quarter of the rent (I’m not exaggerating) and the landlord one also has to put up with micromanaging rules like not even being allowed a goldfish.

Hence I’ve never understood when reading Z lister biopics why they talk about growing up in a council house like it’s the worst thing possible. I mean I do get it if it’s in the middle of the worst part of London. But a small normal town? Come on 🤣

There speaks a Reform voter if ever I saw one

I think the reactions to the quesiton about council housing being used to imply a deprived childhood have totally missed the point.

Council housing, like railways, water etc., are in the state they are in because of the asset stripping by Thatcher.

And the now stupid remarks about council housing is a result of the very sucessful campaign by the tory led press to mispresent the purpose of social housing. And everyone paying a higher rent to a private landlord is the victim of this deceit.

Social housing, used to be aspirational and intender do allow those doing worthwhile jobs, that were under paid such as nurses etc., could have decent homes.

And became something the country was proud of as part of the "homes fit for heroes" post WWII.

Only in a snobby country like the UK would this reversal of social values by the Tories and the media take whole. Not forgetting that it was based on what turned out to be a flawed capitalist approach to housing in the US. The housing crash had one of the biggest impacts on western economies and still continues to do so. The pattern is mirrored acros Europe. It is only in of all places, Austria (a relatively conservatie country) that stuck with the principles of social housing to create a stable and cohesive society, that you can see we could have had that but we didn't. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/10/the-social-housing-secret-how-vienna-became-the-worlds-most-livable-city

Not just because of Thatcher but all those dimwits who bought into the deliberate attack on the state, to allow free marketeers to rule our economies.

Not forgetting that Blair's "Labour" continues this trust is commercial values through PFI which led to superficially glossy new schools and hospitals, but are now falling apart. And we are still paying the interest on the loans.

And yes older council housing was well built and also of decent proportions ie the Parker Morris standards, so that if a room was said to be a double bedroom it could bit a double bed and other furniture and have room to move. Many modern buildings now say a room is a double bedroom but once a double bed is in there you can probably only walk down one side of it. And yes it was the Tories who abolished this on the basis that social housing tenants should accept living in "rabbit hutches".

So when some idiot mouths these silly reactionary statements all it tells you is that most people are just unthinking sheep.

Just a people watch tv and because they see kitches promote with fake marble kitchen islands, and nobody thought to check how they are made and people are now dying from silicosis.

Its just part of the false narrative that we take on as fact feed to us by the media. Our culture (whatever that is) isn't being over run by migrants it is being over run by purile US standards and life styles because we are choosing to follow the US in politics, life style and aspirations.