The history of council housing in the UK, or more accurately its rise and fall, encapsulates the modern political anathema towards public spending, a scenario echoed in that other noble institution of fairness and equality the NHS. Historian John Broughton is the foremost UK expert on social housing and his new book Municipal Dreams expertly weaves the story of what was a challenge to provide ‘decent’ homes for all and the subsequent destruction of housing stock under Thatcher’s right to buy policies that has seen private renting, and its attendant social exclusion, explode with existing social housing becoming neglected and diminished, reaching a horrible nadir with the Grenfell fire last year. Broughton will be discussing his timely book and the contribution of Birmingham to council housing history alongside the city’s Modernist Society.

Tue 3 Jul 6pm at Nest Gallery, 321 Bradford St, Birmingham £4 modernist-society.org