[Xaccers]

The thing which improved council estates the most around Waterlooville was the right to buy scheme.
People bought their homes and became responsible for them, you can often see a marked difference between an owned house on a council estate and the others, if only because the owner is able to go ahead and make repairs rather than having to wait and wait and wait for the council to do it.
Actually, that might be where the rot started.
Think about it. You're in a house owned by the council, something breaks, the paint peels off the outside wall, you report it to the council and they don't come round and fix it waiting for the problems with the houses in your area to build up so they can blitz in one go and "save money"
If you were in a house owned by someone else, and they didn't seem to care about the state of it, eventually, you're not going to care. It's human nature.
Very difficult to be house proud if your house is rotting around you.
So many people give up bothering, and adopt the attitude of "so what?" and treat the place like dirt, and it spreads.
That attitude gets learnt by the next generation, "don't respect property" meaning crime is much easier, and if moved to a nice estate, they don't know how to be house proud so the cycle repeats and the nice estate becomes run down.

Rizzy, I lived on a council estate, owned my home, and I was so lucky to have a neighbour like you. He'd had a hard life growing up, but thanks to good parenting had the attitude that only you were responsible for making life better for yourself, so worked his backside off.
Had a lovely wife, a bright kid with a real spark in his eyes.
If all my neighbours were like him and you, I'd still be living there.
Unfortunately, they weren't, the other neighbours were **** (I can't think of another word to describe them which wouldn't be censored) and made my life hell until I managed to get out.