3) Council House Homesteading

 

Homesteading in Social Housing

 Is It Possible?

Council housing and why they had gardens...

For a long while now, I’ve been interested in the culture of social housing as far as gardening is concerned. What the general guidelines were for garden space and why, for building local council housing where the local council provided housing for those who were homeless or their finances couldn’t afford them private rental and other situations of need.

Social housing and housing associations date way back to at least the year 1235 according to the National Housing Federation website where it gives a history of housing associations and council housing.

The only relevant snippet I could find on another site was as follows:

‘On most estates, houses were provided with a generous size garden to encourage the tenants to grow their own vegetables, a privet hedge at the front and an apple tree at the back.’

(https://fet.uwe.ac.uk/conweb/house_ages/council_housing/section3.htm)

(Please be aware, this link is not verified by me and you link to it at your own risk. I am merely declaring where I found the information and cannot verify its accuracy. Please see my Terms & Conditions and Disclaimer page before clicking the link).

I have heard anecdotal claims from allotmenteers and others that the original intentions and indeed requirement of tenants was to grow their own vegetables to aid in their financial needs and to grow not just vegetables but to beautify their gardens too.

So I checked my local council website for information but found none. I checked my own tenancy agreement and accompanying Tenant’s Handbook. There was more information in that but it never mentioned the growing vegetables nor exclusions except to say that tenants are forbidden to keep or grow anything illegal in the house or garden, obviously.

So I contacted the council via their website to ask for further information and invited ‘someone’ for an interview for my podcast as well, as regards Council House Gardening. I await a response. I’ll let you know when I do. And you can keep up to date on my own Council House Gardening via my YouTube channel, Blue Garden Cottage.

For now, I can only share what I have done in the council or other social housing homes we have had. Different local councils in the UK have differing rules on what they will allow in suburbia whether social housing or otherwise. Some have rules about keeping bees, most don't allow keeping poultry at all and across the board, nobody is allowed to keep livestock in suburban settings but don't quote me on that. I think the rule is you have to register them with DEFRA as a holding and even then, there are strict rules re space, feed, husbandry in general and you might come a cropper with the neighbours. 

Consider that if you do want to keep animals, even in your own home, property deeds might have restrictions and in case you ever want to sell up, you would have to declare any neighbour disputes.  

Some councils may permit chickens but no cockerel is allowed in built up areas and keeping hens without a cockerel is a very intensive job. I know! We kept some in our last home in England and we were shocked at how often there were hen fights a cockerel would have broken up. Then there's the storage of feed and preventing rodent access, smells and noise that neighbours could complain about. 

In the UK, bird flu has recently become an all year round threat whereas it used to be a seasonal thing and to me, keeping chickens in suburbia is hardly worth the hassle. I'm not going to go into the details of the latest rules and regulations but they have just changed in the UK so if you want specific details about that, do visit the DEFRA website, and select the Bird Flu, (Avian Influenza) tab.

I checked out the site myself and it gives guidelines but doesn't mention the new up to date rules as far as I can see. You might have to find the recent news reports or consult someone who knows all the ins and outs of keeping poultry or other birds. 

NO, Council house gardens are best kept simple, tidy and boring...NOPE! Not mine anyway. I have been growing a garden in social housing for over 25yrs and in our property we had for just a few years so in all around 30 years. Hubby and I have had a few allotments over the years too in different places we've lived. We have never had trouble with the councils or housing associations because we have always gardened in a way that really couldn't offend anyone and we were careful to stay within the tenancy or property deed rules.

I have to say that we have pushed the boundaries around sheds and their size. At the moment we have 2. A workshop  and a craft studio. No garden shed or junk storage shed though. We have put up raised beds and pergola as well as another small pergola for a potting shed and have not yet had any complaints even though council workers have come and gone. 

We have evolved from intensive heavy on input gardening over the years to a gentler, more natural form of gardening.  We have a vegetable garden, tiny apple orchard, outdoor seating veranda and a front cottage garden all crammed into our local authority house gardens. 

We frequently drive along many housing estates here and everywhere we have been. We used to joke that you could always tell a council house from a privately owned one. Why?   Stereotypically, council house front gardens and those you can see into the back of are at best sterile empty spaces or reminiscent of the old rubbish dumps before recycling centres came to be. That's what most people think a council house garden Is. 

View from my council house cottage garden in May.

If you look closer, you might just find some treasures. There are a growing number of people in social housing in the UK who have the new council house lifestyle, being quite posh and posting their council house decor home tours on YouTube. I'd love to see more of their gardens.

I still haven't heard back from the council housing officers and I am not sure about the history apart from the very little I have found. One thing I do know is that even a council house garden can be an Eden for the tenants. There is so much that can be gained for them in gardening and for the wider community too. The stereotypes can disappear. There could be happier homes with a connection to nature of your own making. Budgets could stretch further too. That's a whole other topic though.

So how about it? 

• How do you garden? 
• Are you a social housing tenant or a private tenant, or 
• do you have the freedom of your own garden?
• What do you think a council house garden is and 
• what experiences have you had in council house gardening?

As always, I’d love to hear from you. 

Are there any specific questions you’d like me to cover or actually, put to anyone I could actually get to interview?

I look forward to your comments.