Is it a real oddity that some of the best designed housing neighbourhoods in the UK are among the least popular ones? 

Many former local authority housing estates were built by local authorities with a strong, almost utopian vision in their minds. House types were varied to cater for small families and large ones, the young and the old. Diversity was designed in. Open space across the neighbourhoods was often generous, done so to encourage a sense of space and to enable play. Homes were often given large gardens to encourage growing and mental wellbeing. Hedgerows acted as boundaries, encouraging wildlife and greenery. Some even had pubs, churches, shops and community buildings at their heart.  In fact, many still do.

Contrast these features with the bland, high density, mono tenure neighbourhoods that most volume housebuilders tell us we all love, and you will be left wondering why so many of our former council estates are often perceived as unfashionable. Some are even highly socially stigmatized.

The reasons for this are many and complex. Worklessness, poverty, low skills, poor health are all issues that are prevalent in many ex-council estates, and undeniably more concentrated than elsewhere. Solving these problems is also complicated and far beyond the reach of housing policy makers and landlords. 

So, what is in their grasp, what can be done, and what will really make a difference? All the evidence from our recent housing history will tell us two things: 

1. Places that look and function better, appear visibly cared for, where there is a sense of community pride, and where landlords do not tolerate bad behaviour generally work and function well.
2. Places that are all of the above and have an underlying level of socioeconomic diversity to them function even better.
   

These are easy concepts to articulate, arguably very difficult ones to bring to life. But it can be done. 

Visit Davy Place, Loddon, which is in Norfolk and you will find 687 former council homes that look as good today as they did when they were built between 1940 and 1970. Their designers like many others, had a utopian aspiration at their heart.  Sheltered and communal spaces, house types that challenged convention, modernist design features, innovations for things like garden tool storage and, of course, hedgerows, were at the heart of the development plan. As was diversity; the homes include bungalows, larger family homes and even flats and some maisonettes.  

As if to illustrate the point that it has endured the test of time, statistically, today, Davy Place is described by streetcheck.co.uk as “not showing a significant deviation from the UK against most socio-economic measures”.   It is far from stigmatized, it is enduringly popular and, above all else, it is diverse.  Older people live in the bungalows, established families in the larger homes and smaller families occupy the flats. So here is an ex council estate that has stood the test of time and, against most measures, is pleasant and popular, defined largely by its “normality”.

The key to its success has been a series of successive social landlords that have recognised the value of their asset, have taken their job seriously in terms of place management and tackling antisocial behaviour, and a community that, partly because of this, take real pride in where they live.

Now of course this is just one place and there are no doubt other issues that are contingent to that location that have contributed to its enduring success.  But despite this, Davy Place gives us a rich insight into what can, and arguably should, be done to all of our ex council estates.  Landlords should be thinking seriously about the quality of their assets. Where they have a good one, like Davy Place, it should be recognised, cherished and invested in. Where it is poor, perhaps through bad design (think high density Radburn layouts), then perhaps a radical rethink might be needed.  But in those places like Davy Place, that were well designed, well built, and were once loved by those that lived there, places of beauty and balance can once again be rediscovered. All it takes is brilliant management and a subtle shift in the dial to ensure that the community is diverse and socio-economically balanced.