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Q&A with Dispossession director Paul Sng
Director Paul Sng’s new film Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle has been playing to packed houses across the UK. Martin Hilditch spoke to Mr Sng to find out why he made the film
Tell us about your background as a film-maker (Mr Sng’s first film Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain followed the band on a tour of Britain, looking at how communities were affected by and resisting austerity. The idea came about after Mr Sng interviewed the band for a music website).
“The idea wouldn’t go away – an invisible Britain that we just don’t [normally] hear from. We crowdfunded it. Within two months of approaching [the band] we were on the road. From concept to finish it was 11 months.
“I was working full time while I was making it, getting up at the crack of dawn. It was very intense.
“I had then, and to an extent still do now, what Orson Welles calls the confidence of ignorance.”
Where did the idea for Dispossession come from?
“It was a case of two things really. One was a personal connection to the Aylesbury [an estate in southeast London]. When I was very young, when my mum was at work I was looked after by a cousin who lived there. Hearing about what was happening with the demolition order, there was a personal connection.
“There was a desire to give a voice to people who live on council estates. People tend to speak for them. You turn on Newsnight and you have middle class intelligentsia speaking for working class people. I don’t think that’s right.
“It was also a desire to be an antidote to shows like Benefit Streets and poverty porn.”
Who’s been coming to see the film?
“I think it is a mixture of two main [groups of] people. One is people who are interested in the politics around housing – activists and campaigners. The other is people who work in the housing industry.
“It’s had a good reception. The two main reactions are anger and then ‘what can I do?’”
What do you think should be done?
“I have a wish list of what I would like to see. I think we should suspend Right to Buy indefinitely. There are a lot of empty buildings that are not being used. I would like there to be a 5-10% tax levy on anyone who buys a property and leaves it empty for a certain period.”
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR DISPOSSESSION
The film powerfully outlines the impact of regeneration on people’s lives. Did you feel the need to supply answers? Is that what a film should do?
“I think film should be a conversation starter. It is not my role as a film-maker to solve the housing crisis. It is for people who have the power to solve things. It is about lobbying. It is a complex problem but fundamentally [the solution] is will on the part of the government.
“The big problem is the estate regeneration programme in London. When the leader of the Labour Party won’t come out and make a statement on it I think that is problematic [because many of the decisions are made by Labour councils in London]. Whether you like his politics or not, he’s a decent, principled man. But he is now having to play politics.”
The decisions made by housing associations and councils are criticised in the film. Do you see them as the enemy?
“There are people from housing associations, whether they are former employees or current employees, who have been very supportive of the film.
“I think people need to take out the ego from it and focus on the fact that there is a massive shortage of social housing. It’s about housing associations working harder to lobby government. It is about challenging government.
“There are some housing associations that I do question, like Poplar Harca [which has been moving forward with a controversial regeneration scheme at Balfron Tower in Tower Hamlets, London]. I would like to hear back from them about whey they didn’t want to do an interview [the film states that the organisation declined an interview].
“I’m a balanced film-maker. Nicola Sturgeon [Scotland’s first minister, who is interviewed in the film about regeneration in Glasgow] came out of it, I think, OK. She had her say.”
Do you think estate regeneration can ever be done successfully?
“[Not] unless you can bring all the people back to the estate and give them like for like.
“It’s about listening and engaging residents from the very beginning.
“It’s about the people who live there who are council tenants having an iron-clad guarantee to get a new home in the new development. And it is about owner-occupiers being compensated for what their home is worth. Effectively, if you can’t do that you are saying that person can’t live in the area. I think particularly local authorities need to earn people’s trust. They work for us, not the other way around.”
For information about screenings visit dispossessionfilm.com.
