I live in an apartment block of around 80 flats, some are privately owned while others are social housing.
My next door neighbour and good friend went to Eton and is a successful architect. A few floors down is another good friend.
She’s one of those amazing people who will do anything for anyone, but who just can’t seem to catch a break.
A relationship that didn’t work out means she has been left to raise her young son alone and relies on the council to subsidise her rent.
We all get on brilliantly. So the idea that our sons wouldn’t be able play together just because she has less money makes me feel sick to my stomach.
But that is exactly what’s happening in a new multi-million-pound Children in social housing banned from using playground for rich neighbours development in Lambeth, South London, where, it has emerged, poor and rich children are, in 2019, being segregated based on money.
Children in social housing banned from using playground for rich neighbours
While children of wealthy parents can play in a lush green purpose built park, poor kids from the social housing part have to make do with a small strip of land covered in mulch with a few bits of play equipment for the under-fives. It’s despicable.
The idea that less well-off youngsters are forced to look on in envy as richer children have all the fun breaks my heart. No child should ever be made to feel less than another.
Things are hard enough for children who have a less privileged start in life.
Research shows disadvantaged five-year-olds are four months behind their peers when they start school and the gap only widens. Five-year-olds with poor vocabulary are twice as likely to be unemployed in their thirties.
Earlier this year, the Education Select Committee slammed the Government’s Early Years policy and accused it of “entrenching disadvantage”. And this is exactly what Henley Homes are doing. I don’t care if some residents paid over £600,000 for their flats and others are paying £213 per week.
Stop discriminating and let the kids all play together. Otherwise, all residents should either refuse to let their children play in the posh bit, or cut down the hedges and let all the kids in.
