or council house kids of the 1980s like me, by Madness was an anthem and an affirmation. The Conservative government was flogging off social housing and celebrating ownership – slowly, paying rent to the local authority became something to be embarrassed about. A perception of estates as crime-ridden slums occupied by broken families seemed to grow in that decade. When I saw Suggs on singing: “Our house it has a crowd, there’s always something happening and it’s usually quite loud” I felt seen. Social housing was about community, fun, love and all of those things that didn’t seem quite so prevalent in tidier suburban streets occupied by the curtain-twitching middle
