Sunday Feature - A New Image for the Housing Estate

Author and education consultant Dreda Say Mitchell investigates the issues surrounding today's housing estates, asking whether they are a concrete hell or a visionary architectural statement. She returns to her childhood home and, with the help of her family, friends, former neighbours and her own memory of living on one, sets out to explore both the image and the reality of daily life on a housing estate. And with the assistance of housing designer Wayne Hemingway, author Lynsey Hanley and professor of social policy Anne Power, Dreda compares and contrasts residents' solutions to the various problems endemic to estates with those put forward by professionals.