Colin Jackson Britain's Home Truths

Us Brits have a passion for property

and, of course, our national obsession is house prices...

How much to buy?

You're looking at about £1.7 million for an apartment like this.

..but housing is about so much more than bricks and mortar.

Look at the smile on my face.

It's about who we are, and how we choose to live.

75 years since the Beveridge Report

vowed to rebuild Britain's housing...

Slums must go.

..we're opening the door to Britain's Home Truths.

From council houses...

..to suburban semis.

High rises...

..to country pads.

In fact, anywhere we call home.

To find out if, three-quarters of a century later,

we really have built a better place to live.

In my athletics and broadcasting career,

I've travelled all over the world -

but nowhere beats my home town of Cardiff.

I guess that's why I still live here, in this very house.

I love waking up here.

I've even got a bit of a morning routine.

Every single day I look out across this view over Cardiff Bay.

It's pretty cool, I must admit,

but it's a view I never knew existed when I was growing up in Llanedeyrn.

It's pretty cool.

I grew up in a very different part of the city,

on the Llanedeyrn council estate on the other side of the bay.

I often look at the view I have now

and I wonder, how did I ever get here?

Well, like many of us,

the truth is that a lot of it is down to the foundations

that were laid where I grew up.

As I flick through these pictures now,

I think about where I am today and who I am today.

That has a lot to do with growing up on a council estate,

which, me growing up, I didn't know the difference, you know?

All I knew was that I had a massive house, a huge bedroom,

in my opinion, and lots and lots of open space.

I remember my old three-bedroom council house fondly,

which I shared with my big sister, Suzanne, and my mum and dad.

Wow, my mum outside, looking after the flowers in the garden.

Now, a garden, again, was one of these things that was pretty rare,

especially with grass, green grass!

I can remember my dad putting up this fence, actually.

It was one of the first and last things

I most probably did with my hands as a labourer, if I'm honest.

# Where's your mamma gone?

# Where's your mamma gone?

# Little baby boy... #

For my family, like many other working-class families

across Britain, it offered the chance

to escape cramped and poor quality housing,

the sort my grandparents might have lived in,

giving kids growing up in the second half of the 20th century

the chance to have a happy childhood

with places to play, and friends to play with.

It's certainly no coincidence

that, throughout my running and broadcasting career,

I've met so many people,

some of them my idols and mentors, who have come from council estates.

I know for sure that it provided the foundation

on which to build my own success.

In the UK, there are 130 large council-built estates

of over 10,000 people, and lots of smaller ones.

In this episode,

I want to pay my own tribute to these estates

and find out how much they've changed since the first one.

First up, I've come back to my old estate, Llanedeyrn,

to my own particular patch.

I'm a little bit nervous, and excited.

It's been years since I paid the old place a visit.

It's nice coming back home, though.

It is, I must admit.

As I'm looking around and seeing the flats again, you know,

it just brings back memories -

who used to live in the flat at those particular times,

all the running up and down we used to do here,

how I used to park my bike outside the garage, call for your mates...

It is pretty interesting to be back, actually,

and to have a look around again.

Meeting me here is my big sister.

She's also had quite a journey since growing up here,

becoming a professional actor and starring in Brookside and Casualty.

Oi!

Welcome home!

My darling! So, OK...

Hello!

-We're in Llanedeyrn.

-Yes.

-We're back on real home turf.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a well trodden path, this path.

Going up and down to the corner shop,

which is not that corner...

-It's not that corner.

-No, but it was for us, running up and down.

But one of my biggest memories of this path is badminton.

Do you remember?

I always used to make you go down the hill

-so then it was easier for me to whack it...

-It was easier for you!

Yeah. And then you'd have to do the running down.

-I forget how green it was.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And you forget that the woods are just on the doorstep.

-Yeah.

This is actually where used to play the game Bulldogs.

I don't know if you remember us kids tearing up and down this path here?

No, but I think it was...

-And this was the finishing line.

-Oh, yeah.

So once you came across this post here, it was safety for us.

-So, here we are.

-Oh, wow.

Back to the old gaff. Anything missing?

Oh, yeah, the fence! Ahh! All Daddy's hard work!

-I know.

-Oh, it's amazing.

Shall we knock on the door, see if anyone's in? Be a bit cheeky?

Go on, then.

What about the porch? Did we put this porch up?

We did put a porch up, but not this one.

-You don't think it's this one?

-No, it's double glazed.

It just looks so much smaller.

I don't think anybody is in. That's a shame.

Do you remember having that really, really, really snowy winter,

and we were out here, throwing the snowballs?

Mmm!

Even though it's been over 30 years since we've lived here.

It's not long before we see some familiar faces.

Our old neighbours.

You've come home!

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, my God!

-Bless you!

-Hello!

Your mum is one in a million.

We got on so well as neighbours.

-Yeah.

-You know? You caused us no trouble when you were kids.

You were good as gold.

And you've turned out like this, the pair of you.

-Troublesome!

-From our hometown.

You're absolutely wonderful, and your sister.

Yeah. You've made Llanedeyrn proud.

You're a proud Welsh man, like everybody else here.

-Brilliant.

-Cheers, mate.

I can't see you, but never mind.

-All the best.

-Ta-ra!

Now, what's the chances?

-What are the chances?

-What are the chances?!

Gordon Bennett, that's amazing.

Today has just been marvellous, is the only thing I can really say.

Coming back to my real roots, this is where I grew up,

this is where I was formed.

This is where my ideas came from and I think,

perhaps my ability to run.

It's just really engaged me to find out a little bit more

what was happening right across the United Kingdom

in communities like this, on council estates, all around.

Before I head off around Britain, though,

I've decided to start my council house journey

a little closer to home, at Cardiff Castle,

at what is probably the city's most famous council house.

OK, I'm pushing it here, but it is owned by the state,

and it's also a great place to take in the view.

-It's pretty good, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Bit of a climb.

Joining me is historian Lesley Hulonce.

The thing is, I think that I forgot to tell her

-that I wanted to chat at the top.

-Oh, my God.

I'm hoping that Lesley will be able to tell me how Cardiff,

and other cities,

looked after housing people before council estates like mine existed.

I might have to wait a while, though,

for Lesley to get her breath back!

-Oh, wow.

-We've made it!

Hopefully, Lesley will get over the climb

by looking at these fantastic views.

Beautiful, eh?

It's just a little too far, though, to make out my house.

I'm just looking for where my council estate is,

which you can't see because of the... Literally, the urban sprawl.

But I would have been right, right outside of the edge of the city.

-Is that the norm?

-Well, taking people out of the city,

it was considered healthier.

So, before council housing,

what was put in place for people who were struggling a little bit

and fell on hard times?

Well, if you fell on really hard times,

and you had nowhere else to go,

you could always go to the workhouse.

It was a place of last resort.

It was a place the respectable poor never wanted to end up in.

So the workhouse, I guess, was kind of the original council house?

It was a large council house,

quite like this one, but it housed a lot more people

than this wonderful council house.

I'm keen to find out more about the workhouses.

So, sorry, Lesley, it's time to go back down.

We're off to really get a sense of what it's like

to live in a workhouse by digging deep in Glamorgan archives.

It's amazing how much information you can get

from the Cardiff workhouse records that are kept here.

So these are the actual people who found themselves in the workhouse

during the Victorian period.

There's so many.

And it goes on for pages and pages.

When you arrived in the workhouse, what would you expect to do?

-Is it like, proper work?

-Oh, yes. Yes.

It's called workhouse for a reason.

Women would clean, they would scrub floors,

they would possibly look after the children.

Men would break stones for road building,

and possibly grind down bones for bonemeal.

All 15,000 parishes in England and Wales had a poor law union

and its own poorhouse.

And, in the mid-1800s,

there were over 120,000 people registered as paupers,

many of them were children.

The central authorities didn't want children to stay in the workhouse

and be contaminated and catch pauperism and fecklessness

from the adults there.

So they built these huge separate schools.

So how long would they stay in these schools?

Three would have been the very youngest.

They tended to be a bit older than that.

Say about five or six.

Most would stay until they were 13 or 14.

On Cowbridge Road,

the entrance building to Cardiff Union Workhouse still exists.

Ironically, today, rather than housing Cardiff's poor,

the building is full of fancy apartments,

going for around £170,000 a pop.

At its peak, this workhouse could house 1,000 inmates.

But it wasn't just the residents of workhouses

who were having a pretty grim time.

The respectable poor, as they were known,

often lived in overcrowded and dirty slum dwellings, like this.

Cardiff had its share of some of the worst housing conditions in the UK.

But one seismic event was to change all that.

The end of the First World War.

The poor were now returning soldiers who had saved the nation

and it was decided that they shouldn't come back

to carry on living in workhouses or slums.

So, in 1919, Prime Minister Lloyd George, another fine Welshman,

announced a state-funded house-building programme,

and the idea of a mass-produced council housing was born.

There are millions of men who have come back.

Let us make this a land fit for such men to live in.

Slums are not fit homes for the men who have won the war,

or for their children.

For what is our task?

To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in!

Lloyd George's push for decent housing in the '20s

became known as Homes For Heroes,

and estates went up all over Britain.

So, to find out more, I'm visiting the biggest.

The Becontree Estate in Dagenham.

Yep, for council housing after the war, the only way was Essex.

More than 25,000 houses were built in Becontree,

and it was then, and still is, the largest council estate in the world.

As a five-year-old, I still remember to this day

my first feelings about Becontree.

My navigator today is Bill Jennings.

There's nobody who knows this estate better than him.

I went to school here,

I went to the youth clubs here, I met my wife here,

I married here,

and I lived here until I was 30.

In addition to that, I worked for the local authority for 40 years,

in the Housing Department.

And even now, I've retired eight, nine years ago,

and I come back once a year as a tour guide on a bus

to show people the wonders of the Becontree Estate.

The whole estate is very big.

You've only seen a fraction.

It's four square miles.

-Four square miles?!

-Yeah.

As I say, the coach tour takes me four hours.

And I could extend that, to be honest. I cut that to a minimum.

And I'm still proud of it to this day.

-Brilliant. So it's in your soul?

-Absolutely.

I lived in a terrace of six houses.

My house was the second one.

Number 59.

If I tell you there was eight children living there...

-Eight?!

-Eight, with mum and dad.

There was ten of us in there.

There were seven children in that one, four in that one.

COLIN LAUGHS

Oh, I bet you had some good times.

Some cracking times.

These were large, four-bedroom houses, initially.

They had lots of money and they had plans to build all four bedrooms,

probably, but very soon, you were reduced to threes and twos.

They all had front gardens, back gardens,

inside toilets and running water, etc.

And, compared to what we had in the east end of London,

it was absolutely magic.

One elderly lady in those days

described it as heaven with the gates off.

Very good.

Very, very good.

Heaven it may have been, but down the road in London,

all hell was about to break loose.

When the blitz began in World War II,

estates like Becontree became even more important,

providing homes for a new set of war heroes.

Hello, Colin!

People like Peter Railton,

whose family got bombed out of Poplar in East London.

He was a child when he came here,

and he and his wife Kathleen have invited me in for tea and cake.

Well, it's brilliant that you've invited me in here and, of course,

-food, good coffee.

-Good company.

-That's always the most important thing, isn't it?

-Yeah!

-Absolutely!

So, tell me a little bit about you.

How old were you when you came here, and why you come here?

I was four.

One particular night we were in the shelter,

thank goodness we were.

We woke up the next morning, the house had gone,

in Poplar, it had been bombed completely.

So we were allocated a house in Dagenham.

Unbelievable.

Marvellous countryside, coming from Poplar,

which was very built up.

Also, we had more room.

We had three bedrooms.

We had an inside toilet.

Well, in our house, we had two.

Toilet downstairs and the bathroom upstairs!

-How about that?

-That's lucky!

Well, that wasn't 1942.

The war had a profound effect on estates like Becontree.

People came looking for safety and a new start.

It was a feeling that would really build a sense of community.

Of course, don't forget, the bombing was still around.

-Right.

-So it was a horrendous time.

In 1942, 1943, I can remember it quite well.

-Yeah.

-So as we moved on,

we had our victory party in 1945.

Tell us a little bit about that.

That must be part of the community truly getting together.

-It was unbelievable.

-Yeah.

All streets had community parties, victory parties

and everyone joined in.

And they built huge bonfires - it wouldn't be allowed nowadays.

Unbelievable. They were so intense.

They actually burnt the paths, and the tarmac.

It was unbelievable.

It was a great time. It was a time to bring together, come together.

Everywhere, people let themselves go!

Everybody knew everybody else.

Every neighbour knew, through their children, who their neighbour was.

So, you know, that's...

You used to leave your doors open then, couldn't you?

Well, yeah.

Because everyone used to help each other.

And there's still a community spirit around here.

We hope it lasts a long time.

This sense of "we're all in it together"

is something that never left the council estate mentality.

It was certainly there when I was growing up -

and, in the post-war period,

the Government saw this as a way of rebuilding national morale.

So they knocked down the slums and started building en masse.

In spite of the modest rents,

which vary from 13/6 to 26/6 plus rates,

these particular flats can boast of many first-class amenities.

By the beginning of the 1950s,

1.5 million public homes had been constructed -

but it wasn't enough, and, in 1951,

a new Government promised to build even more,

with a new dedicated housing minister.

£4,000 produces four of these houses.

Less than the cost of three of the former houses.

Harold Macmillan launched what he called the people's house.

Smaller than the previous council houses,

but with everything a modern family would need.

With three bedrooms, a living room, dining annexe and all mod cons,

these houses seem to be just the job.

That means Britain can't possibly have too many of them too soon,

for hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting for years.

By the time we got into the '60s,

we were in the middle of a house-building bonanza,

As housing estates went up everywhere,

very far up, in lots of cases.

Millions of working class families finally had a place to call home.

Well, Christopher and David, how do you like your new home?

-Very much, thank you.

-Yes, thank you.

What do you particularly like about it?

Well, we don't have to boil every drop of water now.

Whereas in the old days, we did.

The new houses had all the latest domestic gear,

with a proper kitchen,

proper plumbing and, something I know my family appreciated -

a bit of space.

If you're listening to television,

you don't want the youngsters having a party in the same room,

and nor does the young daughter want to bring her boyfriend in

to do a bit of courting

in the same room where Ma and Pa are looking at the television.

And then came the '70s.

My era.

It's what I regard as a golden age,

with council estates now firmly entrenched in British culture.

For the first time, music, fashion and sporting idols

were coming out of these concrete jungles,

creating inspiration for kids like me and my sister.

In Cardiff, this was also the era of the newly built Llanedeyrn estate,

and I've come back with Suzanne to relive some of those glory days.

-Let's have a knock.

-Yes, because one of my friends at the time...

We've decided to drop in on the Reids,

old neighbours who are still living here today.

I always thought she was a bit posh, because her house was much bigger.

And, given how we looked back in those days,

I'm really surprised they remember us.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my goodness. Hello!

It is so good to see them again.

-Good to see you!

-Oh, thank you very...

Oh, thank you!

Have you done much remodelling since I was here 40 years ago?

Oh, wow, yes, I do remember.

Oh, after all that travelling about,

it is also good to take the weight off.

Oh! That's nice!

That's better.

It is, much better, much better.

I think this is bigger than ours.

Yeah. I think so.

Do you feel it was solidly built?

The roof... Isn't it? With...

A lot of them, they say along here, all the roofs...

But the other thing is trying to drill.

I don't know what concrete they put in there,

but sometimes trying to drill through...

Well, I think for 40 years...

-It's not bad.

-No.

It's not a mansion, but it's not bad.

Yeah, it's definitely survived the test of time, hasn't it?

For sure.

We often used to see you.

We never dreamed that one day you'd be a bloody superstar.

To put it mildly.

You should have won Strictly Come Dancing, that Erin.

It was her fault, wasn't it?

-I always blame her, but I love her to bits.

-She's lovely.

So, has the estate changed much in all those years?

Well, along here, a lot of them have been here years, as well.

-Oh, right.

-Keith was here.

Keith, yes.

-George.

-George.

-There's not many more. And Jean next door.

-Jean next door.

Well, that seems a fair few people that are still remain here,

-from back in the day.

-They moved in at the same time.

Compared to us, who lived over the other side,

-there's only one or two people still over there.

-If that, yeah.

There was one couple... This is going back a few years.

He was a postman, wasn't he?

-Yeah.

-And every Saturday night, they'd have a barney.

I mean, it was as sure as...

-We'd all get prepared.

-Every Saturday!

I used to hang out the bedroom window and they'd say

"Hello, Mrs Reid!"

Yeah!

-Yeah! Carry on!

-Then they'd carry on at the row!

Welcome to Llanedeyrn!

Well, there were a few barnies when we were growing up.

-Not between us.

-No, no.

-But in the neighbourhood, for sure.

-Yeah.

-So that hasn't changed.

-No!

So, you've been here for over 40 years now?

-Yeah.

-Would you ever move?

-No.

No. Not unless we won...

I say, if we won a lot of money...

I mean, obviously, if it's millions or something daft, a daft figure,

that would be different. But if it was a realistic sum,

-we'd spend it on this and stay here.

-Yes.

What does that tell you?

It's really nice to hear you say that.

-That you're happy here.

-Yeah.

-That's a brilliant thing to hear.

That's really nice.

-Well, we brought all our children up here, for a kick-off.

-Yeah.

The post-war council estates were also the beating heart

of a new multicultural Britain,

where black, white and Asians lived as neighbours for the first time.

With neighbours like the Reids,

I can't ever remember there ever being a problem for my family.

But I wonder if my sister thinks the same?

So, did you feel any different then,

that being black, and virtually we were the only black family here...

Yeah, definitely, but I never felt...

Until you came, I think I was one of two black people in the school.

But I never felt particularly special.

-I was always proud to be called... That I was from Llanedeyrn.

-Yeah.

Oh, gosh, absolutely.

And also, I think I do have a sense of being privileged, in a way.

Because, when you think that our parents were low income,

and the fact that they established themselves in their own home,

it made us feel, I think, very equal.

And out of that grew that lovely community,

even if it was just this street, there was a sense of community.

I think the home truth of our positive experience

of growing up in Llanedeyrn is partly down to the city.

Like most places based around the docks,

Cardiff has a long history of multicultural communities

stretching back centuries.

In other parts of the country, though,

the situation wasn't as rosy.

Discrimination, economic hardship and unemployment

lead to racial tension between neighbours,

and with the police, particularly on estates.

One area that was to suffer more than most is this council estate.

Broadwater Farm in London.

The Tottenham riot.

Tonight, police say a revolver, as well as a shotgun, was used.

It all came to a head when a local black woman, Cynthia Jarrett,

died after a police search.

Long-held grievances suddenly came to the surface,

and the estate erupted in terrible violence.

During the rioting, many people were hurt,

and police constable Keith Blakelock was killed.

'In the words of one senior officer, it wasn't England, it was madness.'

It's been 30 years since the riots, and I'm keen to hear the perspective

of the residents who lived through it and its aftermath.

These guys between them have given Broadwater Farm Estate

more than 70 years' service.

David Singh, Chris Hutton, and Archbishop Frimpong Manson.

I was brought up on a council estate in exactly the same way,

and I couldn't believe what was actually happening.

So, the riots themselves,

do you think that came about from what was happening on the estate?

The way the housing was... Was it a...

-Frustration.

-Frustration.

-There were youngsters in that period,

a lot of youngsters, and they were frustrated.

There was nothing for them. There was no community centre.

Where do they go?

Police were aggressive on the youths.

The youths were all angry.

And one thing is, I will not blame the youths

because when you call for, even a minor incident,

you see ten police cars here.

And violence brewed violence.

So, once the riots had happened here, did lots of people shift out?

Yeah. After the riots, yes, a lot of people asked for transfer.

And they were given transfer, really nearly without any problem.

And most of them were white people.

We did know it was brewing,

we'd known something was going to happen sooner or later,

we just didn't know when.

The press was not good to this place.

That day we went there, we got up in the morning

and the Mirror had publicised it a no-go area,

for the police - "the estate of death".

When we try to rebuild the reputation of Broadwater Farm,

how important do you think that the residents

really take responsibility,

as well, of living here and, you know,

pushing and driving everything on the estate?

At first, Haringey were very reluctant to involve the residents,

in any way, shape or form,

but I think they soon realised that if they didn't involve residents,

that things were not going to be happening.

We have done a lot.

The residents, we decided that we have to rebuild our own place.

We can bring the change.

I think, for me, what was pretty clear

was that I was welcomed when I arrived here.

When I was walking in, somebody came to me and said,

"Hey, Colin Jackson, it's so nice to see you, and welcome to Tottenham!"

Achievements... We don't talk about our achievements enough, OK?

And that is part of the problem.

We are always on the back foot.

In the '90s, Broadwater Farm,

in consultation with the residents of the estate,

began a £33 million regeneration programme.

Today, around 40 different nationalities live here

and the crime rate has been dramatically reduced.

It's also become a model to other estates

of what can be achieved when residents are involved.

In this very room,

we had a deputation by the Housing Minister talking to us,

wanting to know how we managed it,

how we got through all this,

and how we now have a nice, calm, settled community.

I am proud to be here.

Because it is my home.

And we talk about everything negative,

we need to talk about positivities.

I'm the oldest one here,

and I've been living on this estate a long time.

I'm getting on in years,

but I still have the ambition to see Broadwater Farm come back

as an estate, as it should be.

Well, gentlemen, thank you very much for inviting me on this day.

I've had a wonderful time.

I was recognised, and I was welcomed wonderfully.

So, thank you very much indeed.

You're welcome, Mr Jackson.

Yes, thank you, Colin, for coming to Broadwater Farm.

-Brilliant. Thank you.

-Always welcome.

-Always welcome.

While Broadwater Farm and many other estates across Britain

were working hard to fix their problems,

another council house revolution had also begun.

It was called Right To Buy, and it was championed by Mrs Thatcher.

It's fundamental in our history that you have the right to own your home

and the land on which it stands.

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of council tenants

have sent for the Right To Buy booklet,

and have applied to buy their council houses or flats.

Buying your council house wasn't new,

but this was on a nationwide scale.

Councils were forced to offer tenants massive discounts.

The electorate loved it and council housing would never be the same.

I am conscious of no single act of social policy

more likely to change the attitudes and opportunities

of countless thousands of our people...

..that ranks higher

than the enfranchisement of the council tenant.

It will be seen and remembered

as one of the great social revolutions of our time.

Right To Buy transformed British Council housing

and it all started here on the very spot I'm standing -

on the Harold Hill estate,

just seven miles from the homes for heroes in Becontree.

The Pattersons have lived in the house for nearly 19 years

and James Patterson is justifiably proud of the hard work he's put in.

Because it was here in 1981, in a carefully staged publicity stunt,

that the Prime Minister handed over the deeds

to the first Right To Buy council house.

It's so strange to actually be standing on this particular spot,

where it all seemed to stem from.

And my parents actually bought their property,

courtesy of that law and regulation.

And it's quite bizarre, isn't it,

to see that the house is up for sale again.

This will be the house's eighth owner, at a cost of £290,000.

I'm off to meet local taxi driver, Steven Key,

who has lived on the Harold Hill estate most of his life.

When Margaret Thatcher came here,

can you actually remember the noise and the commotion that was made

-when she turned up?

-I remember it was quite a big thing at the time.

I remember it all being in the papers,

but I don't think she got that great a reception in the area.

But it was a good thing to happen.

The big opportunity for people round here was the children

of the parents - because the parents had bought the houses,

and when they die, they passed them down,

and that's where they've done really well.

So what did your parents think about it?

They'd been on the estate a long time.

He was a bit old school, my dad.

He wasn't interested.

He was more of the, "Oh, if the roof gets broken, what do I do?

"If the water system breaks down, what do I do?"

And I would say, "Dad, we'll come round and repair it."

But it never happened, it never happened.

So in hindsight, if you could have pushed him a little bit,

would you have encouraged him to buy?

Well, it was an opportunity for me,

I could have bought the house for £15,000.

That was late, as well.

I mean, a lot of the houses around here,

friends of mine bought their mum and dad's house

-for between £8,000 and £10,000.

-Wow!

Steven did eventually get his chance

to buy a Harold Hill Council house,

albeit with one previous owner.

We had the opportunity, back in about 1983, and I paid about 35,000.

So, how much would a house of £35,000 then be worth now?

Well, I had it valued on Tuesday.

£340,000.

So, with that in mind, are there any downsides?

Well, I mean, there could be the possibility of...

My son now is on the waiting list

and he's not really got a lot of chance.

He's 35 years of age and I think, the reason is,

there's so many houses being bought, council places being bought,

that there's probably not enough available now

for the people who used to live on the estate,

with their kids now for them to get a place.

-So there's plusses and minuses.

-There's plusses and minuses.

There was another plus or minus to Right To Buy,

depending on your sense of taste.

This is one family that bought its own council house

when Birmingham offered it the chance.

You can't mistake it. In contrast to the council houses on either side,

it's now painted a bright purple.

Well, bright purple... I'd seen a house painted the same colour

and I thought it looked rather attractive, being a roughcast house.

I painted the top half purple and the bottom half white.

I think everybody wants to own their own house eventually.

Now we could all be house designers.

Stone cladding, elaborate porches,

pebbledash, and coloured renders all made an appearance.

But it was inside that the real horrors were happening,

as we attempted to make our houses are unique.

Genius is said to be 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

And the genius who invented the sauna proved it.

With a home sauna, the whole family can get steamed up in comfort.

Upstairs wasn't any better.

Someone called it "bad taste Britain",

and I've come to meet one of the Queens of the era,

interior designer Linda Barker.

This colour's so lovely.

I have to say, I'm a little excited, because in our house,

she was a bit of a design guru.

Linda, I've just come back from seeing some of the houses

that were bought and sold during the Right To Buy period in time,

and saw how they changed and became very individual

in their designs after they were bought from the council.

What do you remember about that era?

I loved the fact that people wanted to make their home their castle.

It was so important for everybody to put their stamp on it.

But most astounding

was that absolute love of having your own home

and doing whatever you wanted to do on it, which is a brilliant thing,

although aesthetically, looking a bit bonkers.

But the interior, as well, went through a bit of a change

and I brought some pictures to see if you can jog your memory

about anything - can you remember this?

The coloured bathroom suite!

The avocados, the primrose, the yellow!

-Salmon!

-Yes, salmon.

I must admit we had a salmon bathroom suite.

Which was my mother's dream.

Yeah, I mean, my parents had one that was light turquoise,

but I remember loving it as a kid.

You know, it was the height of sophistication.

And gold taps!

And carpet up the side of the bath.

And all these kind of things that you look at now and think,

"Why on earth did we do that?!".

I've got some more pictures to jog your memory.

Now, have a look at this room.

That's astoundingly bad, isn't it?

Here you have matching curtains,

wallpaper, furnishings...

You probably have accessories like a teapot and cups

that were covered in this same floral pattern.

I mean, it's Laura Ashley on acid.

It's bonkers, isn't it?

I mean, this is so typical.

Like millions of Brits,

my family took our design advice from home improvement shows on TV.

So I reckon in terms of "bad taste Britain", Linda needs to 'fess up.

A little bit of a cheeky question,

but do you think you should take a little bit of responsibility,

-in Changing Rooms?

-Oh...

Well... Changing Rooms was of its time, definitely.

It was encouraging people to be their own interior designer,

which people took wholeheartedly into their own domain.

I mean, prior to that,

interior designers were really for the rich and famous

and, you know, the wealthy part of society.

What we did was we brought interior design to everybody.

And everybody went crazy!

What I want to do here, Kate, is to paint odd tiles,

so we've got a real Mexican feel about it.

How many colours are we using?

About five.

I think today's designs are much more considered,

much more bespoke and for the individual in their home

and we really consider our purchases.

All that excess of the '80s is gone, thank goodness.

We just about did it!

-You don't even look too flustered, well done.

-I feel it!

And so we're right back to the present.

Today, less than 8% of people live in council houses,

compared to 42% in the '70s, when I was a lad.

Which means for kids growing up in estates like my old one,

the future of their living arrangements is an uncertain one.

So I guess the ultimate home truth I've learnt

is that my generation had it good.

Council houses allowed our families to get out of the old slums

before paving the way for us to get on the property ladder.

Since the Beveridge Report

identified the need for social housing 75 years ago,

there have been difficulties along the way,

but I've seen how these estates also forged a sense of pride

and community that allowed their residents to get back up

when they were knocked down.

You could say we council estate folk are the real bulldog breed,

so, to end my journey, I'm organising a special little game,

one I played 40 years ago on this exact part of the Llanedeyrn estate.

Who lives really close to the actual street here?

OK right, four or five.

Yeah, a couple of you live here.

Well, I used to live in number eight.

So, who lives pretty close to number eight here?

-How close do you live?

-I live in number seven.

-Right next door.

-Yeah.

-That's pretty close!

So what's is like living here now?

Well, it's really quiet.

Do you find lots of kids around there playing,

or has it completely changed?

Most people are not really interested in sport any more,

they're interested in just...

Well, I don't know what they're interested in.

Phones, internet, that's all they care about.

So you think it's a lot of social media?

-Yeah, pretty much.

-Yeah. OK.

Well, do you know what?

I hope that you guys are feeling quite energetic,

because I'm going to play Bulldogs with you.

-Have you heard of the game Bulldogs?

-Yes!

That's what we used to do on this street.

So I think I should reintroduce you to that.

-Are you game for it?

-Yeah.

-That's a good thing.

-Definitely.

-Definitely?

Three, two, one, bulldogs!

SCREAMING AND LAUGHING

# That's neat, that's neat that's neat, I really love... #

Ohhh!

Bulldogs!

# Your tiger feet

# Your tiger feet... #

They're having great fun,

and it does fully remind me what it was like back in the day.

There was noise, there was excitement, it was just brilliant.

And it's really nice to see it again.

Three, two, one,

let's go! Bulldogs!

I'm out of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed that.

-Did you have a good time doing that?

-Yeah!

Some people got a little bit...

Falling over a little bit, battered and bruised, but it was cool, right?

Yeah!

Yeah, it was really nice to see.

But do you know what? I must admit this now.

I'm coming from this estate,

I thoroughly had a good time coming back visiting.

And, for me, I can honestly say that I'm truly proud

to come from a council estate.

This was right at the beginnings.

And you know what? You never know...

We could have...

He was the winner this time, he could be a champion of the future.

So, guys, let's give it up for Llanedeyrn.

-Hip hip...

-Hooray!

-Hip hip...

-Hooray!

-Hip hip...

-Hooray!

# Tiger feet

# That's right, that's right that's right

# T-T-T-Tiger feet

# I really love, I really love I really love, I really love

# I really love your tiger feet

# T-T-T-Tiger feet

# That's right, that's right that's right

# T-T-T-Tiger feet

# That's right, that's right that's right... #