Of all the criticisms* of David Cameron’s Big Society, the one that makes least sense is the notion that while it might be fine for wealthy parts of the country it’s of no use in poorer communities. Nothing could be further from the truth. If it’s anything the Big Society is about untapped “social capital” and there’s more of that, in more communities, than the scoffers and titterers on the News Quiz would have you believe.
Nor, really, is it a new idea. Take this example cited by Lesley Riddoch in her Scotsman column today:
In 1988, Glasgow Council was given £6.6 million to refurbish this run-down estate on its southern outskirts. West Whitlawburn had hard-to-fix high rise flats. So the council spent the repair money instead on the easier-to-fix low-rise blocks of East Whitlawburn. Outraged, the tenants’ association in the West opted out and set up a co-operative to own, improve and manage their 540 homes. Phil Welsh MBE chaired the first Co-operative; “People fae miles away sit on a Housing Association Board. Only folk fae the neighbourhood sit on a Housing Co-operative. It was an opportunity to do things for ourselves.”
Personal contact replaced distant bureaucracy. Dampness, security and renovation were made priorities. All homes were refurbished, an old school was turned into a healthy living centre and a team of concierges was hired to monitor 28 external and 185 internal CCTV cameras and 70 homes fitted with alarms. Elderly, disabled or vulnerable tenants can buzz down to the concierge base if they’re lonely, frightened or ill, and can have a chat, a basic health check or a cup of tea with company – even in the middle of the night.
Eleven deaths have been averted by swift responses from the camera/concierge team. The Co-op refuses to turn its health success into cash savings. But they know higher-than-average management costs must be defended in straitened times. So they’ve produced social accounts instead which list the ways in which a well managed, self regulating community protects dignity and saves cash.
Perhaps there are missing details that would complicate or compromise this happy picture but here, I’d say, is one example of the kind of thing the Prime Minister keeps banging on about. His idea is not really his own, nor is it a province owned by any one political tradition, but it is, nevertheless, a real idea the worth of which is demonstrated by many people who might be surprised to discover they had anything in common with Mr Cameron. But they do and across the country, operating beyond the media’s gaze, there are countless examples of local enterprise succeeding where the old certainties of central planning and control have failed.The West Whitlawburn Housing Co-operative is the salvation of its tenants and the envy of its council neighbours.
*Its biggest problem? Culture, not policy. The Great British Public’s view is: I don’t know what it is. It sounds like a good idea. It probably won’t work.
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