Grains of wisdom

Broadwater Farm in north london is a remarkable place. As you approach it from the south, the first thing you see is a huge mural of a bucolic scene with a waterfall at its centre. The blocks on the estate, which has more than 1000 flats, are painted in pastel colours and protected by entrance lobbies with a concierge.

Can this be the same place that I saw 20 years ago in the aftermath of terrible riots that culminated in the murder of PC Blakelock? The transformation it has undergone since is quite astonishing. Architecturally, there have been big changes. The estate had been built on the principles established by the architect Le Corbusier, with walkways in the sky designed to separate the people from the traffic. But they also left the ground floor level entirely vulnerable and the estate quickly became rife with drug dealers while escaping burglars made good use of all the different passageways.

After the riots, the Tory government made the estate one of its priorities, pouring £33m into demolishing the walkways and a series of other structural improvements. But the estate needed more than physical changes.

For the recent BBC Radio 4 programme Down the Farm, which I presented, I took a former resident to visit the estate for the first time for 25 years and she noticed that the atmosphere was completely different: “People are much friendlier, they say hello,” she told me.

Probably the single most important factor in changing the feel of the place was the appointment of a local management team for the estate. Previously the estate had been remotely managed by Haringey council, and rent arrears built up. But they are now the lowest in the borough.

Installing a concierge system, which costs the residents up to £10 a week each, was another major development that cut burglaries to virtually zero.

Most important, however, was ensuring that the community was involved and that the views of local residents were listened to. The estate has been blessed, too, by strong individuals who have made an important difference; notably Clasford Stirling, a youth worker who runs countless soccer teams and other activities for young people. Housing manager Paul Dennehy also goes well beyond the remit of his job, turning up in the evenings and at weekends for meetings and social events.

None of what happened on the estate is rocket science. Experts like professor Anne Power of the London School of Economics have analysed the great disaster of system-built housing in detail and the solutions are straightforward. Broadwater Farm is a “model of success” because the council and the local management team had a clear strategy that was carried through.

True, Broadwater has certain inherent advantages: it is the right size to have amenities such as a community centre and it is a self-contained area where a feeling of community can be developed. But the basic approach can be copied in countless places across the UK.

However, it cannot be done on the cheap. It is one of the ironies that these system-built estates were conceived as cheap housing for the masses but the only way of ensuring their long-term survival is to spend significant sums of money.

And perhaps Broadwater Farm needs one more change – its name. Some tenants complain that there is still a stigma. And since it now bears little resemblance to the place where the infamous riot took place, a new name would surely represent the final break with its ghastly past.