1. 28 | Inside Housing | 18 July 2008
AngelaMaye-Banburyfindsthat170yearssincethebirthofOctaviaHill,the
impactofherhands-onapproachtohousingmanagementisstillbeingfelt
28 | Inside Housing | 18 July 2008
H
ousing reform is once
again on the agenda,
with the government
intending to publish a
green paper enshrining
accommodation as critical in advanc-
ing economic independence and
social mobility. And housing minister
Caroline Flint spoke last month of
housing reform providing ‘options
which help and encourage people
towards greater economic independ-
ence and social mobility’.
The government may speak ear-
nestly of ‘reform’, but to what extent
has the housing management agenda
itself truly evolved in the last century?
One constant during the last 100-odd
years has been the housing commu-
nity’s interest in Octavia Hill, the Vic-
torian social reformer who worked
principally with working class fami-
lies in London.
Today, in the year that marks the
170th anniversary of her birth, Hill’s
silhouette still colours debate on the
origins of housing management and
her work continues to promote lively
discussion across the profession. Fre-
quently controversial yet endlessly
fascinating, Hill remains embedded
in the psyche of many housing profes-
sionals as the grande dame of social
housing management.
Hill’s signature approach involved
a blend of direct bricks and mortar
provision, a hands-on social work
method and an overt rejection of state
Womanof
influence
intervention in the provision of hous-
ing for the poor. Her work as the ‘Flor-
ence Nightingale of housing’ provides
a critical historical reference point for
the countless students who have com-
pleted qualifications in housing and
related areas over the years.
Last month, to reflect on Hill’s con-
tribution to the housing profession –
and to mark 35 years of housing edu-
cation at the college – Sheffield Hallam
University’s housing and community
development team visited the Octavia
Hill Birthplace House in Wisbech,
Cambridgeshire.
The recently refurbished museum
is a celebration of Hill’s life, enshrin-
ing the many influences in her work.
Staffed by highly knowledgeable vol-
unteers, the museum’s interactive
displays, informative exhibits and
miniature models of the estates,
transport visitors back into Hill’s era
of the Victorian slum. Outdoors, the
museum’s ‘secret garden’ reflects
Hill’s vision of an ‘outdoor sitting
room’ for every family.
Hill’s blend of philanthropic values
and business acumen made for quite
a potent mix in her day, not least
because action on such qualities was
more usually associated with men.
Hill was an archetypal social entre-
preneur and community champion
whose methods were immensely
practical.
Her philanthropic tendencies first
became apparent when, as a girl, she
would assist her mother in running
workshops making dolls’ house furni-
ture for young children from poor
households. But she was quickly to
move from the miniature world of
dolls’ houses to full scale estate man-
agement.
By the time she was 26, Hill had
secured financial backing for her first
housing ‘experiment’ comprising
three properties in London.
But she knew that notions of altru-
ism were not enough to encourage
capital investment. The young Hill
reassured her network of investment
landlords of an initial capital return of
5 per cent per annum, not dissimilar
to today’s standards. The precise
extent of her property portfolio is not
known, though by her death in 1912
Hill had recruited a large team of
women volunteers and was managing
at least 2,000 properties either
directly or indirectly. More generous
portrayals suggest she had some
20,000 dwellings, the housing stock
equivalent to today’s Metropolitan
Housing Trust.
Give and take
Hill’s capital return pledge to her
investors led to a zero tolerance
approach to rent arrears. It was made
clear that recalcitrant tenants would
be swiftly evicted without recourse.
Much as a newly appointed housing
association chief executive might say
today, Hill reportedly pronounced in
1878: ‘Figures mean to us the happi-
ness of the people.’
Her message to tenants was unam-
biguous: properties would be let in
high standard but in return, tenants
would be expected to moderate their
behaviour. This paved the way for
later accusations that she held highly
prescriptive views on how the ‘deserv-
ing poor’ should behave and how the
inequities of power between landlord
and tenant can be exploited to meet
the overriding financial objective.
Hill also had her own distinctive 19th
century take on worklessness, being
openly disparaging about economic
inertia among the working classes.
‘There is a sort of a wild hope among
the poor and they have an indefinite
view of the state as having money inde-
pendently of the collective body of tax
payers and that things can be done
without anybody paying for them,’ she
is believed to have said in 1888.
Herein lay Octavia Hill’s central
dilemma – the need to reconcile social
and economic objectives through the
vehicle of housing management, a
familiar challenge to those of us
engaged with the delivery of social
housing services today. Achieving the
balance was inherently problematic –
Hill’s commercial agenda, alongside
her zeal to repossess and lack of over-
all accountability, left her open to
criticisms of autocracy, despotism
and paternalism. Yet she also consid-
ered eviction to be an outright failure
IH.080718.028-029.indd 28 16/7/08 15:18:50