DON'T UPSET THE NEIGHBOURS

摘要

London's Olympic village is due to be finally handed over at the end of the month and it is the last of the main 2012 Olympic venues to be completed. The £l.lbn development will house 17,000 athletes and officials during the Games, and their accommodation will be converted into 2,818 homes afterwards, 1,379 of which will be affordable. Although the village has now been sold to a private consortium and a registered social landlord (Qatari Diar/Delancey and Triathlon Homes respectively) it was built by public finance and is by far the biggest housing construction project a British government has underwritten for decades. For some, this may well be a welcome resumption of a devolved political role that many believe should be at the core of governmental responsibility: providing mass housing. For others, it may equally smack of two toxic words still capable of striking terror and prejudice into buyers, estate agents and developers across the land: "council estate".