London has developed 'Apartheid' style properties

cepheus

This programme reminded me of Apartheid, where the poor are segregated from the rich in the same building! :eek:

The Great British Property Divide: Channel 4 Dispatches

From million-pound flats and luxury mansions to the introduction of separate entrances for tenants of low-cost apartments - so-called poor doors - Britain's cities and streets are changing rapidly. In this programme, Morland Sanders investigates the impact of new state-of-the-art housing developments and asks whether exorbitant house prices are squeezing out poorer residents and transforming communities, meeting the families most affected and examining what impact the new right to buy law will have on the growing property divide.

http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2159876/109024533/the-great-british-property-divide-channel-4-dispatches#.VYkmXflViko

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/

ruggedtoast

They aren't poor doors. These are generally managed apartments where the owners, as well as paying a fortune to live there are also paying a few thousand a year in management fees. The concierge entrance is part of this.

The 'low cost' apartments might be low cost for the socially housed tenants, but they arent low cost for the taxpayer. i.e. working people who can't afford to live in London themselves.

Not much sympathy from me, and the sooner the government stops meddling with private developers having to build social housing the better IMO. They ruin many of the estates they are placed on and are probably responsible for restricting new developments much more than planning restrictions.

purch

Aparteid had nothing to do with segregating Rich and Poor.

It's not something that should be trivialised to generate a nice thread title.

CLAPTON

cepheus wrote: »

This programme reminded me of Apartheid, where the poor are segregated from the rich in the same building! :eek:



http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2159876/109024533/the-great-british-property-divide-channel-4-dispatches#.VYkmXflViko

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/

if there is an element of discrimination, it is because the benefits dependent, drug taking, dysfunctional families, can live rent free in an environment that an ordinary decent hard working family can't possibility aspire to.

chucknorris

cepheus wrote: »

This programme reminded me of Apartheid, where the poor are segregated from the rich in the same building! :eek:



http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2159876/109024533/the-great-british-property-divide-channel-4-dispatches#.VYkmXflViko

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/

Something should be done about those stuck up rich toffs that for some reason dislike people the urinating in the lifts.

michaels

chucknorris wrote: »

Something should be done about those stuck up rich toffs that for some reason dislike people the urinating in the lifts.

Quite right, lifts are for s*x and coke.

paddyrg

If you have a big building, you need multiple doors. It's common for some lifts to go to certain floors but not others (this helps even out the useage so you don't have floors in the middle unable to get into a lift as they're always passing, full). Sometimes floors in a building are owned or operated by separate companies - as seems to be the case here.

Some floors are operated by a premium accommodation management company with facilities akin to a hotel. Others are operated by a lower-price management association. In order to make accommodation available at a cheaper price than the premium flats are paying, they trim away some unnecessary extras (gym, fancy lobby, concierge).

You can fly First Class or Economy Class in the same plane - first class gets you a nicer lounge, private boarding, a bar, nicer food, extra facilities but if you want to save money you can fly economy without the frills. This is THE SAME.

cells

there should be no need for private developers to deliver subsidised housing. why should one industry pay for a specific social need?

The car manufacturers don't need to build buses and trains and gift it to national rail to offer cheap tickets to the unemployed

The farmers don't need to grow free food and gift it to the local church to hand to the poor

why do house builders need to build subsidised homes?


anyway these things tend to move slowly. maybe a first step is to allow developers to meet their subsidised housing quota by paying a fee to the council instead

ruggedtoast

So sick of hearing about "the poor" being priced out of London.

I was priced out of London years ago so I left. And I had a job. Who do I whinge to that my human rights were trampled over by my rent becoming higher than my income - oh thats right no one, because you only apparently have any rights if you are a millionaire or on the dole.

stator

Seggregation is a negative thing, however it is done. Part of the point of building social housing in new developments is to encourage mixing of different peoples rather than seggregation where you end up with huge council estates for the poor and gated communities for the rich. So having poor doors works against this ideal.
I don't believe they put the doors there just for practical purposes, I believe it is done deliberately to get a higher price on the private sales by prooving that the social housing won't be visible from the rich side.

TheBlueHorse

decent people don't want to mix with low life scum. the sooner Govt understands that, the better for all. I used to live on a new development. The Govt insisted on building "affordable" flats and where did all the trouble come from? where were the police every weekend? that's right - the "affordable" flats. Keeps the scum in one area and leave the decent people alone.