A few days ago, a BBC online survey provided a mildly reassuring glimpse of a liberal Britain. The picture was perhaps not yet one of the 'nation at ease with itself' as promised by John Major more than a decade ago. But at least it portrayed a society where racism was frowned upon, and integration applauded.
It is easy to forget that overt racism and discrimination were commonplace and accepted a generation ago, not least in the housing sector. So the survey provides limited cause for celebration.

And yet the disturbances last summer in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham were a salutary reminder that behind the harmonious exterior, tensions remain.

When I arrived in Bradford the morning after the riots, the shock was not a few burned buildings, nor the immediate condemnation of the riots from within the Asian community – I had expected that – but the simmering resentment and total segregation I found on the streets of an estate across town.

Here, everyone was white, and everyone we met blamed Asians for their woes. One boarded-up house had a swastika daubed on its front door – the Asian owner had been forced to sell up. The youngsters claimed Asians got the best houses, and that the council even handed out shops for them to make money. The girls said Asian boys regarded them as "slags", because "their own women" were so well protected.

How did this happen? In part, these are the voices of resentment to be found anywhere among those who have been left behind. But it is also the product of 40 years of segregation. In particular, it is the result of housing segregation, which leads to school segregation and separate lives.

Here, everyone was white, and everyone we met blamed Asians for their woes. One house had a swastika daubed on its door – the Asian owner had been forced to sell up

This separation is different from the malicious separation of communities imposed by authority, because in many ways it is a voluntary segregation. Nevertheless, it arose from a failure to recognise that some physical integration is a prerequisite for community cohesion.

Draft guidance on community cohesion has just been published by the Local Government Association, the government and the Commission for Racial Equality. It recognises the centrality of housing policy, and also acknowledges that the reasons for housing segregation are extremely complex. They include historical and cultural factors, the Asian community's lack of experience of social housing and fear of harassment.

Although setting out the problem is easier than solving it, the first step in addressing a problem is to recognise it. Thereafter, agencies can work with different communities on practical measures – for example, better access to social housing for those currently under-represented.

Despite all these worthy documents, the danger must be that if things settle down again, the impetus for achieving greater community cohesion will wane.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Niall Dickson is social affairs editor at the BBC