List of boxes, figures and tables
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction: Grenfell and the return of ‘social murder’
1 Privatisation and the death of public housing
2 Outsourcing on steroids: regeneration meets the Private Finance
Initiative
3 Partners for improvement? Corporate vandalism in Islington and
Camden
4 Not fit for purpose: the Myatts Field North PFI horror show
5 The accountability vacuum
6 Follow the money: who profits and how
7 After Grenfell: safe and secure homes for all
Appendix 1 List of formal interviews cited in book
Stuart Hodkinson is Associate Professor in Critical Urban Geography at the University of Leeds
'A timely and important book, exposing how private profit and
reckless privatisation have caused unspeakable tragedies to social
housing in this country.'
David Lammy MP
'Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the outsourcing
- for which read privatisation - of social housing over the last 30
years. Hodkinson explains how this, above all, is the root cause of
the Grenfell Fire and exposes how it is just the tip of the iceberg
of what is happening to housing in the UK.'
Anna Minton, Reader in Architecture at the University of East
London and author of Big Capital: Who is London for?
'Including both previously undocumented details of PFI in housing,
and the voices of residents whose health and well-being have been
impacted by the process, this book sets out a crucial part of the
story of housing privatisation in the uk. This is a hugely
important and powerful book, essential reading for scholars,
campaigners, policy makers, or anyone with an interest in housing
provision.'
Pilgrim Tucker, community organiser and campaigner who supported
the Grenfell Tower Residents campaign, the Grenfell Action
Group
'Stuart Hodkinson’s book offers a searing exposé of the policy
choices which made Grenfell ‘a disaster foretold’. Combining
forensic detail and righteous anger, he describes the multi-faceted
attack on public housing and its ethos which underlay this man-made
tragedy – privatisation and reliance on a profit-driven private
sector, deregulation, and the marginalisation of tenants’ voices
and interests. Closely-argued analysis of three PFI schemes –
‘outsourcing on steroids’ in his words – further demonstrates the
destructive dynamics of this larger story. Hodkinson concludes with
a powerful demand to empower residents, restore regulation and
revive public housing. A close reading of this must-read book make
it hard to disagree.'
John Boughton, author of Municipal Dreams:The Rise and Fall of
Council Housing
‘This is an intricately researched, powerfully written, dramatic
and sometimes painful analysis of how private interests have
denatured social housing, always tethered to the experiences of the
people who live in it. It’s a brilliant, insightful and very human
study.’
Zoe Williams, the Guardian journalist
'The failings which he exposes are mundane and yet shocking. Anyone
who has experienced the disruption and harm of a leak, or the
inconvenience of delayed repairs can connect viscerally to these
stories of neglect.'
Ollie Norman, The London Society
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