We older tenants have been down the private road before and remember
Rachmanism.
The borough that gave birth to
Rachmanism - after Peter Rach-man, the notorious slum landlord of the 1950s who became synonymous with exploitation - may now become synonymous with housing its people in a deathtrap.
And don't even start me on buy-to-let, which, along with the sale of council houses, has contributed to the return of
Rachmanism, as well as a dearth of good social housing.
They see people living in the kind of accommodation you'd think would have died out with
Rachmanism, the kind of places that you might shudder at if you saw beyond the limp, dirty sheets that mope around the windows, the kind of place you wouldn't put a dog in.
Is that
Rachmanism, Rapaciousness and Rich-pickings?
We have been working on it for about four years in a bid to introduce a greater sense of professionalism and to shake off the image of
Rachmanism, which still persists.
1963:
RACHMANISM - Named after Polish-born London landlord Perec Rachman, who had a string of squalid properties.
1923:
Rachmanism (n extortion by a landlord of tenants of slum property)
