If we accept that poorly designed (council, slumlord) properties are a thing of the past (big ask) and that the mistakes of the 60s - 90s are being rectified (however slowly and don't let's even touch on the New Heartlands scheme that continues to cause problems in areas where the houses have been emptied but nothing is being done and some of them are now finding a new use as crack-dens, squats and impromptu knocking shops). Irresponsible landlords are the problem! Social landlords (housing associations, council) are slow to respond to anything that is going wrong: whether it's a tenant having a psychotic breakdown or someone who plays music at high volume all through the night and then throws a strop when challenged. Private landlords can be even worse still (there are some good ones), especially when they place problem tenants into a neighbourhood without any concern for the consequences, fill a large house with students and let them get on with it, fail to maintain their property so that it drags down the surrounding area or in the case of potentially high value properties in L8 & L17 deliberately let the property fall into disrepair so that the tenants (on low rents) are forced to move out facilitating a rapid conversion to 'luxury apartments'!
The common factor in all this? An absence of civic responsibility. The solution? Legally force landlords to maintain their properties to a high standard and have letting agreements with tenants that are enforced. Of course, there will always be tenants who just want everything their own way and will never comply. Not forgetting anti-social property owners of the dog barking in the garden/yard all day, centre for local drug dealing/fencing variety etc. These problem citizens should be relocated to that disused depot outside Kirkby (just over the border in West Lancs), or an equivalent somewhere else, and kept there until they can demonstrate that they can behave like socialised human beings. People in struggling communities have a right to be protected from people who couldn't care less if the community they are living in is run into the ground.
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Then maybe people could chill out in their own neighbourhoods and more life might find its way into local High Streets as the sense of being under seize lifted. Of course, there would still be the problems associated with lack of skills / work opportunities but not constantly running into a scally with a pitbull or out-of-control kids/adults who don't give a flying f**k for anyone would make life so much sweeter.
Yes, I am being a bit of a fascist but baby Jesus meek and mild just doesn't cut it.
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