Maltby tenant Sue bids to boost social housing’s stock

Sue Bledman-Alleyne (44) and her daughter Grace (6) lobbied MPs and academics alongside fellow South Yorkshire Housing Association (SYHA) residents in a bid to persuade them that social housing tenants deserve a better image.

Sue told of their experiences after moving onto Maltby’s White City estate, where one neighbour presented them with a welcome cuppa and another regularly de-ices her car.

“I’ve never felt safer anywhere else and I’ve never had such a good group of people living around me,” she said.

The drive to improve the image of social tenants is part of SYHA’s Benefit to Society programme.

Its research shows that 90 per cent of social housing tenants feel that they are portrayed negatively in the press and politics.

Sue and Grace moved to Maltby from London after Sue suffered marital and work problems, losing her job as an international banker when Anglo-Irish Bank collapsed.

They ended up in a mouldy flat and slept on Sue’s mum’s floor until the end of their contract.

Sue learned about SYHA, which helps renters and budding home-owners to find high-quality, affordable accommodation, and found they had a house available in Maltby. 

“It was in White City, which had a bad reputation,” said Sue.

“But I went and had a look and it was a beautiful, three-bedroom house. I was looking around thinking: ‘Wow, can I really afford this?’”

Sue’s fears about the area were soon put to rest, once she started meeting her new neighbours.

“We moved in on a freezing cold day and someone knocked at the door,” she said. “When I answered it was a neighbour with a pot of tea.

“She just said: ‘Do you take sugar or not?’ It’s just felt like home ever since that moment.

“One of the neighbours scrapes my car every cold morning, while he de-ices his, so I can take Grace to school.

“But people definitely treat you differently when you tell them that you live in social housing. 

“Suddenly, they aren’t so interested to talk to you.”

Sue and Grace were featured in a short SYHA film, in which the mum described their experience of South Yorkshire and social housing.

They saw it for the first time while travelling to Westminster for the mind-changing meeting.

Sue is re-training to work with children with autism and her home is a hang-out for Grace’s friends, who enjoy doing crafts on her kitchen table. 

SYHA chief executive Tony Stacey said: “The vast, vast majority of people who live in our homes are decent, honest and hard-working.

“They put loads back into local communities. The press they sometimes get is grossly unfair.

“We need to hear far more about the wonderful contribution they make to society — as workers, as volunteers and as parents and friends.

“It’s time we overturned the stereotypes and heard from real people.”

Benefit to Society organiser Leslie Channon said: “Only seven per cent are unemployed. The remainder are unable to work because they are carers, or due to disability.

“Yet if you believed the media portrayal and the awful language used about where people live like ‘sink estates’ you would have a very different and biased view.”

The Westminster event revealed new research by London School of Economics professor Anne Power, whose suggests that a fall in social housing — from 30 per cent of national stock to 17 per cent — has negatively impacted its public image.

Watch the short film “Sue’s Story” here and find out more about the scheme on the Benefit to Society website.