For some people, a housing crisis means not getting planning permission for a loft conversion. For others it means losing their home. Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle – a feature documentary directed by Paul Sng (Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain) and narrated by Maxine Peake – explores the catastrophic failures that have led to a chronic shortage of social housing in Britain. The film focuses on the neglect, demolition and regeneration of council estates across the UK and investigates how the state works with the private sector to demolish council estates to build on the land they stand on, making properties that are unaffordable to the majority of people.

Dispossession is the story of people fighting for their communities, of people who know the difference between a house and a home, and who believe that housing is a human right, not an expensive luxury.

The film will be introduced by director Paul Sng and then followed by a panel looking at housing in Bristol in the future and what can be learned from other cities resulting from recent research visits to Amsterdam and North America. Panellists include Oona Goldsworthy (United  Communities), Jackson Moulding (Ashley Vale Action Group) and Cllr Paul Smith (Bristol City Council).

In association with/

Panellists

Jackson Moulding has been involved in community-led housing for the last 17 years. He is part of the Ashley Vale Action Group which delivered Bristol’s multi award-winning 40-home self build project in St Werburghs (2017 Academy of Urbanism Neighbourhood of the Year) He designed and built his own home in this project. He was one of the founding members of the National and Custom Self Build Association, a lobbying and policy organisation which aims to increase the opportunities for more community-led projects to happen across the country. In 2010 he helped set up the Bristol Community Land Trust which has now delivered its first project of 12 affordable self-finish homes in Fishponds. In 2016 he led the SNUG home concept to win the national Self Build on a Shoestring Competition run by Grand Designs. He is also part of the team working to create a community-led housing policy for Bristol and a community-led housing hub so that people-led housing becomes an integral part of housing delivery into the future. He has just returned from a seven week research trip to North America investigating citizen-led solutions – from tiny homes to cohousing, community land trusts to cooperatives and ecovillages to accessory dwelling units – to the housing crisis. Follow him on Twitter @Jaz_zen

Oona Goldsworthy became United Communities’ first chief executive in 2013 following ten years of leading Bristol Community Housing Foundation, who were responsible for the regeneration of the Horfield estate in North Bristol. A Bristolian, Goldsworthy is passionate about the region and how United Communities can build new homes and support residents and communities to become more resilient. She has consistently campaigned to increase affordable homes in the West of England. She is also a board member of Bristol Community Land Trust and Bristol Hospitality Network for Refugees and joined the national PlaceShapers board in 2016. She has recently been awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to research international models of housing for millennials and was judged the Bristol Evening Post 2017 Woman of the Year. Follow her on Twitter @oonagolds 

Paul Smith is the cabinet member for housing at Bristol City Council. This role includes political leadership on building new homes, tackling homelessness, private sector housing regulation, managing the council’s housing stock and development of the council’s property portfolio. Smith has worked in the social housing and social enterprise sectors for almost 30 years. He has been the chief executive of two national charities and worked at director level within a housing group. He served on the council 1988-1999 and returned in May 2016. Follow him on Twitter @bristolpaul

As a film director and producer, Paul focuses on telling the stories of people who challenge the status quo. In 2015 he founded Velvet Joy Productions, an independent studio based in Brighton, with the aim of exploring the lives and work of individuals who have been neglected, marginalised or misrepresented by mainstream media. His first feature documentary, the critically lauded Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain, is part band documentary, part state of the nation film that followed the band Sleaford Mods on a tour of the UK in the run-up to the 2015 General Election. Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle, Paul’s second feature film, focuses on the failures and deception behind the social housing crisis, and was released in June 2017. Paul’s upcoming projects include Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, a documentary celebrating the life and work of the X-Ray Spex punk icon, and Getting By, a series of short films examining the reality of working-class life in post-Brexit Britain, based on sociologist Dr Lisa McKenzie’s acclaimed book. He is also editing Invisible Britain: Portraits of the Disenfranchised, an ethno-photographic book due to be published in September 2018.