A sink estate is a British term used for a

council housing Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council estates, council housing, or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011 when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in so ...

estate with high levels of social problems, particularly crime.

Origin

The phrase came into usage in the 1980s, and was used by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

in 1998, when he referred to "so-called sink estates" in a speech, such as the (since demolished)

Aylesbury Estate The Aylesbury Estate is a large housing estate located in Walworth, South East London. The Aylesbury Estate contains 2,704 dwellings, spread over a number of different blocks and buildings, and was built between 1963 and 1977. There are approx ...

. Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Victoria Pinoncely argued that the term reinforced a sense of segregation and argued that "starved" would be a better term to describe estates that had been starved of investment in amenities, infrastructure and public spaces. She cited the regeneration of the Packington estate in Islington and the Ocean estate in Tower Hamlets as examples of how estates can be revitalised with increased public investment.

Crime

Sink estates are often associated with crime and programmes to regenerate these estates include crime-reduction strategies, such as the below listed by the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'': *In one estate meetings were held three times weekly involving all the agencies that needed to share information. Coordination improved and the estate was transformed. *In another

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

estate a police sergeant familiar with the area organised job fairs, put gang members in touch with employers willing to take on those with

criminal record A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

s. Many were brought out of crime and into honest work. *In yet another estate

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

stopped after "local lads" had played football with a local

fire brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

team. The poet Bryon Vincent has referred to himself as coming from a sink estate, and spoken about his experiences with being bullied whilst young, and later spells of drug addiction and homelessness. He has argued that locating people with social and fiscal problems in the same area is "an idiotic idea that is destined to create a culture of perpetually spiralling criminality. A 2014 report by the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the Right-wing politics, right of the Left–right politics, political spectrum, but are closer to the Centrism, centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure a ...

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

Policy Exchange Policy Exchange is a British conservatism in the United Kingdom, conservative think tank based in London. In 2007 it was described in ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "the largest, but also the most influential think tank on the right". ''The Washing ...

, ''The Estate We're In'', called on the Government to set up an "Estate Recovery Board" to tackle problems with gang crime, unemployment, truancy and domestic violence.

References

{{Reflist Public housing in the United Kingdom