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I'd like to point out that the article referred to homes being advertised for selling. Not council homes. But then again, any article that mentions foreigners is met with many ill-formed individuals making all sorts of comments.
It is impossible to generalise a community because of a few people. For instance, is it justifiable to assume that all English people are yobs who refuse to work and have children in the ambition to get MORE money from the government? Of course, it's not justifiable because there are even more who work real hard to provide for their families. Therefore, you cannot assume that every person is the same. I find it sad that in this day and age, people are separated by ethnicity and culture. Something that should work to enrich everyone is used to divide people.

- Confused, London, UK, 27/11/2009 00:47
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Open Plan living is nothing but a fashion statement. It was invented by clever house builders to save providing two rooms by combining into a kitchen and living room into one. And voila you have converted a 1 bed appartment into a 2 bed and you can charge buyers for the extra bedroom!. In the continent they sell homes by the square metre rather then bedroom sizes as in the UK.

I have no idea how people can live in an Open Plan. It would drive me up the wall. Just imagine the noise from the wachine machine interrupting television or surfing the internet. Or even the clacking of saucepans, plates, bubling of pots....

- Anonymous, London, 27/11/2009 00:45
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Open plan is useless to anybody. Why frame it as a racial thing. Is it politically incorrect to say that British people also like space and privacy? It is disgusting that British family values couldn't be used as justification for better, bigger houses during the boom. I worked in TH planning dept during the boom, and they just layered tiny flats upon tiny flats.

The next building boom will be the combination of small flats into bigger units by bashing down walls. I've been predicting that for some time now. There is a BUBBLE in small flats.

Also, who wants key worker part buy? Because you can only sell to another key worker. Its much better to rent, because at least you can move without only having access to 1% of the sales market.

- P.Riddy, London, 26/11/2009 23:41
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I love open plan. I can make sure the wife's busy in the kitchen while I'm watching the telly.

- Chris, London, 26/11/2009 23:23
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@Nolan the Londonist. Maybe you should try reading the article, shortened so you can read it easier:

"found affordable units in the borough — aimed at key workers and people on low incomes — were vacant...22,000 people on its housing waiting lists...because many families, particularly those of Asian origin, are not interested in homes with a combined kitchen and living space."

Ergo the council has to find 22,000 homes with a separate kitchen which is funded by <shock> taxpayers...sigh.

- Stu, Bolton, 26/11/2009 22:20
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Stg, Peckham writes "The trend for "open plan" housing in the UK is very recent".
Not so. In fact. it's very ancient. Medieval English houses consisted mainly of one room with perhaps a few smaller rooms leading off it. The vestige of this is the "hall" that one usually enters via the front door.
A little knowledge, Stg, is a dangerous thing!

- Croyboy, Croydon, 26/11/2009 22:01
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I'm English and when I was looking for a home I avoided anything open plan like the plague. I don't want my front room to smell of cooking, and I like to listen to music whilst cooking, which I couldn't do in an open plan home as my partner watches the telly whilst I cook.

There are loads of reasons people don't want open plan, and it's not just Asian people. The only problem I can see in the policy is the reasons they give for it, which makes people think it's all down to political correctness.

- Freddie, London, 26/11/2009 16:08
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I can't stand open plan living space, but is it racist to say that? they might be the choice of eskimos, bushmen and arabs who live in the dessert, and other nomads but, is it racist to say you don't prefer at particular type of dwelling

- Andrew, london, 26/11/2009 15:51
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Asian families do not require separate seating areas for male and female visitors, that is Muslims, so why not say Muslims instead of Asians.

- H, London, UK, 26/11/2009 15:43
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The planners should make sure all kitchens are fitted with a powerful extractor fan to suck up the smells. Tower hamlets should also have classes on family planning and cultural integration.

- Frank, Copenhagen, Denmark, 26/11/2009 15:43
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When you eat lots of curry, you actually smell of it so I wouldn't think it would make a difference having a separate kitchen!

- Liz, London, 26/11/2009 15:37
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Hurrah for the Asians! They are inspiring Tower Hamlets to do something everyone, Asian or otherwise, deserves - demanding that developers provide HOMES and not glorified hotel accommodation. May I dream of having this initiative repeated in Brighton & Hove please. Everyone deserves to have a proper kitchen. First they took away dining rooms and now they have been taking away kitchens. Unchecked, developers would put us all in one room hovels.

- Tallulah, Hove, UK, 26/11/2009 15:22
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This is an obscene gesture to a fatuous notion. If people are homeless then as long as the standard is of an acceptable level, there should be no arguing and people should be grateful for the home. I am sick and tired of pandering to minority sensitivities, whilst the preferences and values of the majority are trodden under foot. What kind of idiotic people work for local councils. Are they so feeble minded that they come up with new ways to insult the honest decent people, who have to work hard to afford any degree of accommodation and new ways to spend our hard earned cash. For God's sake, GROW UP!

- Karen, London, 26/11/2009 15:12
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June, Croydon

Another vote, from me for your comments. Well said!

- David Moon, East Sussex, UK, 26/11/2009 14:58
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Christians are not even allowed to wear a simple crucifix in Saudi Arabia.

Diversity = Division.

- Frank, Home Counties, England., 26/11/2009 14:39
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If UK housing is ill suited to Islamic needs they always have the option to go and live in an Islamic state.

- Alan1981, Newcaslte, 26/11/2009 14:38
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I have lived in several countries in the Middle East, Asia and South-east Asia and a common kitchen/dining/sitting area is the norm.

- Francis Johns, Davao, Philippines, 26/11/2009 14:32
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Somebody did invent the kitchen extractor fan, right?

- Stu, Bolton, 26/11/2009 14:32
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It's almost funny how so many people have such a short fuse that they will go off on one about how these "scroungers" should make do with what they've got or "go back to their own country", when the article explicitly explains that these flats are FOR SALE, not offered as council accommodation! It doesn't take very much to have the racists crawling out of the woodwork. Here's a new idea - try reading the article BEFORE you get offended by it!

- Nolan, Londonist, 26/11/2009 14:31
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If they do not like it, then tough luck. At a time when resources are tight, what is wrong with open plan living? The separate living space has more to do with sexist attitudes from Asian men.
That is why it should not be pandered to. The rest of us have sheds and garages!

- Damalone, london, 26/11/2009 14:21
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Beggars, as they say, can't be choosers. And while June does have a point, she obviously doesn't know what a peccadillo is!

- Paul, London, 26/11/2009 14:20
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If they want to divide women from men let them build a wall but never give them aid to do so. It is an insult to women in this country. I still remember when my father beat my mother and it was considered "acceptable" by the police and a married woman could never cry "rape" if it was her husband- We overturned all that and now the stupid liberals want us to go back on the grounds of "culture" and "equality".
There is so much hypocrisy shown .
The men's only bars were closed in pubs and working mens clubs years ago .The liberals who support membership of golf clubs and gentlemans clubs for women support this abuse of women.

- Terry, Hennebont France, 26/11/2009 14:09
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"DW London" and others too blinded by your knees jerking in front of your face after reading the headline... these are houses TO BUY. These are not council houses paid for through housing benefit, these are low cost homes to PURCHASE. No-one is being GIVEN these homes. It is recognising the needs of the market to change the designs. Does anyone actually read the articles before they start going "country's gone to the dogs".

Can people who've moved abroad please stop poking their nose in and particularly stop making up scare stories about tearing up cemeteries because of Muslims blah blah. No-one even mentioned Muslims and you still manage to bring it up.

Glad the bigots are now in the home of Mussolini.

- Stg, Peckham, 26/11/2009 14:06
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I can't imagine any genuinely homeless person would nitpick over where walls happened to be. Perhaps the council should bypass those families who are so fussy and give the homes to people who would just be grateful to have a roof over their head and a door they can lock.

- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 26/11/2009 14:06
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@ June.

I say you and I go to Pakistan and demand an affordable north facing property with fully fitted kitchen, marble worktops, gym, 8 en suite bedrooms, a separate wing for the mother in law, olympic size swimming pool, sauna, jaccuzi, home cinema, 5 acres of landscaped gardens, stables for 12 horses, 2 double garages and servants quarters.

Unless there happens to be a Nulabour government there I foresee only 2 possible outcomes to this.

1. We will be laughed out of Pakistan.
2. We will be returning home in body bags.

- Loki, Roskilde, DK, 26/11/2009 14:01
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I am Asian. happily cook my type of food in my very open plan living flat in Richmond. Our big living room separated from the kitchen by 3 panels of sliding door which is we never use. I think when anyone move to new place/country/areas,please do try to adapt new way of life.

- Open Plan Living Lover!, Richmond, 26/11/2009 13:47
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No Sally Brooks, of London uk, you will not be able to insist on any such thing. Once you have your residence visa, for which you have to pay, then your work visa - without which you will not be allowed to stay for a long period, you will then have to live in an expensive area for which you will pay through the nose. When your work is finished your visas will be cancelled and if you don't leave you will be deported. My friend (English)was born in India but he and his family were deported after independence.

- Fred, Horsham, 26/11/2009 13:41
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Oh my god! 70% of these flats were taken up by white people despite the fact that Tower hamlets has an asian population of 37%.
Call me racist but doesn't that represent (almost) the proportion of white to asian people within the borough?

- Jimbob, Kensington, 26/11/2009 13:38
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will the racists at Tower Hamlets please stop trying to divide people when we desparately neeed more social cohesion.

- Alan, London, 26/11/2009 13:32
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June from Croydon: Since when did open plan living area become part of the English culture? These space saving designs arnt popular with anybody - especially families.

- Cid, London, UK, 26/11/2009 13:18
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“Separate provision would be much more suited because the [Asian] lifestyle requires separate seating space for male and female visitors”

Disgusting, simply disgusting.

- St, London, 26/11/2009 13:10
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Leaving the cultural and planning issues to one side for a moment, open plan design be it in the home or office workplace is misused as a means of saving space. I say misused because it is almost always adopted at the expense of the worker or home dweller to reduce building costs, and part of this is driven by the ability to squeeze more people in, not to make life better. Assuming you like living or working in an open plane building, open plan works well only if it does not involve reducing floor space. But it is reducing floor space that most employers and most home builders are trying to get away with when they adopt open plan. So I have sympathy with the Asian families on this issue. However I suspect they want it both ways, they want a bigger house/flat with separate rooms, but can only afford the smaller type with open plan. Again it comes down to money. "Cut your cloth......".

- Sandy, Ealing, London, 26/11/2009 12:51
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I live in an apartment with an open planned living area. While the feeling of space is a plus, the cooking smells are a definite minus. On the odd occasion I cook a curry, it absolutely reeks for a day or two afterwards. So to those making anti-asian comments, I have to say if I were culturally disposed to cook curries every day, I'd avoid open plan housing like the plague as well. Actually, thinking about it, bacon and eggs is a bit whiffy too.

- Grahame P, Bristol, UK, 26/11/2009 12:47
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@June, Croydon: If there were just a few more peeps like yourself in the UK it would be an infinitely better place to live.

- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 26/11/2009 12:47
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Wooden fibre/temporary partition boards springs to mind! Sorted! Beggars cannot be choosers!

- Elly, London, 26/11/2009 12:41
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If I move to an Asian country can I insist on being housed ini a two up two down brick terrace house with a garden?

- Sally Brooks, london uk, 26/11/2009 12:33
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If someone turns down a flat that is suitable then they should be taken off the list and not allowed to rejoin. If you want to be able to pick and choose where you live then aim for a career that will pay for that lifestyle.

- D.W., London, 26/11/2009 12:31
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If they want a seperate kitchen let them pay for a stud partition themselves, your probably only looking at about £500.

- Dc, London, 26/11/2009 12:17
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I think I'll have to stop reading english newspapers,just makes my blood boil,I was still trying to recover from the news of the chuch in Birmingham being converted into a mosque with the destruction of the cemetry so as not to offend muslims and now thismI just wonder whats happened to the country i used to be proud to live in

- Lindona, italy, 26/11/2009 12:10
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Proof if ever it was needed exactly why asylum seekers pay thousands to be smuggled here because this is the result of stupid policies being pursued by politician's like Harmen for twelve years.

This government has even made it illegal to write honest opinions about this sort of thing.

Is this what our troops are dying almost daily to protect?

Give them the fabric and needles and let them make their own accomodation, which is no different from that which many people now living here left elswhere.

- Ken.H, Harrow. UK, 26/11/2009 12:08
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At the end of the day, if nobody wants the housing in its current format, why build it like that? But it is debatable whether a council should encourage builders to provide houses which are designed to have gender segregation i.e. discrimination - particularly when this is described as being based on "lifestyle". But this is the difficulty when you try to affect the market - builders design properties to suit the market but councils are forcing them to supply 'affordable' housing for which there seemingly isn't a market. If they now build properties with separate seating areas i.e. an extra room and walled off kitchens, the properties will be bigger and more expensive. And thus less 'affordable'.

Overall, you're trying to get builders to build properties they don't want to for buyers who don't, won't or can't buy them. Not smart!

- Gc, London, 26/11/2009 12:08
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Is the proportionally low number of purchases of shared ownership properties for sale in Tower Hamlets from the Asian community there explained by the disproportionately high proportion of the same community living in state subsidised social rented housing within the same borough ?

- Harry Lime, London SW10, 26/11/2009 12:02
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If you are being given a home for free then you shouldn't complain. If you don't like it, go and get a job or move somewhere you can afford to live.

- Cat, Essex, 26/11/2009 12:01
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Good,and well done to the Asian community for not letting the powers that be push them into cheap Jerry built unsuitable accommodation,there is a lesson for us all there,we would do well to learn it.act together as a community and you can achieve a lot.

- Kev, London-UK, 26/11/2009 11:59
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Wow and with all the young adutls with families here who are forever on waiting lists waiting to be housed, councils should be brought to court for the injustice the do.

- Sarah, London, 26/11/2009 11:57
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Open plan would suit chavs but not decent folk who like their living spaces separated by walls. The Council is at fault in making this an cultural issue, when all communities would prefer separate kitchen lounge bathroom regardless of ethnic or religious origin.

- Dhan Raj, Basildon, 26/11/2009 11:54
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June i feel you are not teribly misinformed. English homes have always have a separate kitchen throughout the whole of history; just look at the millions of house built from before the 17th Century up to the 80's only recently has open plan living been imposed on the those who cannot afford to by their own.

the attitude that its a cultral thing is over the top as many english people like myself prefer the separate space.

- Cassandra, UK, 26/11/2009 11:47
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Seperate the areas with a curtain.
BUT readers DO NOT blame the Asian community,blame THE COUNCIL.

- Stan Hopgood, London, 26/11/2009 11:38
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June, Karen and Andy, how do you guys keep those massive chips on your shoulders balanced while dragging your knuckles on the ground?! To me it makes no sense and is a waste of money to build properties that will remain empty so this is a smart move by the councils involved.

I'm not sure that it is accurate to say that most people prefer open plan kitchen/dining areas. What is true is that immigrants or those of immigrant background are also no more likely to be in social or subsidized housing than the "indigenous" population. In fact with their generations worth of social mobility opportunities plus cultural advantages perhaps no "indigenous" Britons should need social housing? If they do, perhaps they should look to themselves for their own failings rather than seeking to blame others.

- Veritas Noire, Purley, 26/11/2009 11:38
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Isn't it racist to complain about Asian cooking smells?

- Dave B, Beckenham, 26/11/2009 11:32
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If you dont like open plan living either buy your own house or move to a country that more suits your so important needs

if you cant afford a better more suitable living senario get a better job and pay for it

Im sure all other cultures would prefer a bigger lounge and more space and more rooms in which to accomodate their family

but they dont cause they havent earned the money to buy the house. A clean safe warm home is all the tax payer should be required to provide

I earn a good salary yet I have to live in a small property with open plan Im not having it supplied i pay for mine and yours

If you are appealing against having open plan living cause you have a big family then stop having kids if you dont have a job you have no right having more than two and expecting them to be paid for by the tax payer anyway

its not your right for everyone else to pay for you to live the lap of luxury and that applies to anyone black, white, asian, chinese, innuit I dont care what race you are we all have to live in this tiny little over crowded country and we have to accept that small open plan living is required for that to be possible

if everyone else can then so the bl**dy hell can you

what has being asian got to do with any of this

- Loola, London, 26/11/2009 11:20
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Is this for real? I'm gobsmacked!

- Goggs, London, 26/11/2009 11:19
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Thank you June for your knee jerk comment. The trend for "open plan" housing in the UK is very recent. It's not true that "the culture of the English is to prefer open housing with light and space and not divide properties into rabbit-hutch rooms" if your implication is that this has historically been the case... in fact it is a recent trend - a trend that is neither 'right' nor 'wrong', just a trend in house design.

This is merely the "market" deciding i.e. potential house buyers in a particular area with a particular preference deciding that they do not wish to purchase houses in a particular style. No-one has formally complained, it is developers and the Council seeking to ensure that future designs meet the demands of the housing market in that area.

Those potential buyers will overhwhelmingly be people who were BORN here - not people who brought their families here.

See how many bigoted ignorant comments we can get on this forum about this article... 3, 2, 1... GO...

- Stg, Peckham, London, 26/11/2009 11:09
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June, Croydon

I could not have put it better myself so I won't ! 100% spot on

- Andy Woodhead, London, ENGLAND, 26/11/2009 11:09
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Maybe the council group should visit a few homes in Bangladesh and then continue to whine.

- Carl, London, 26/11/2009 10:51
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I am getting so fed up with this attitude. These people CHOOSE to come and live here for whatever reasons. We do not force them here, so they need to remember to adjust to our culture and respect our beliefs. If they don't like the open plan housing that is offered to them, then they have 2 choices. Buy their own homes with their own money - or go back to their own country that accommodates the type of housing they insist upon. Quite simple really!

- Karen, London, 26/11/2009 10:45
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My heart bleeds. Buy your own and you can get what you want. Otherwise the culture of the English is to prefer open housing with light and space and not divide properties into rabbit-hutch rooms.

Two thoughts. (1) You knew what you were getting into when your family came here, so like it or leave. (2) If you want to stay and the subsidised accommodation is not quite to your liking, then buy your own

The Londoner cannot provide a free meal ticket for the peccadillo’s of other nationals whilst a significant percentage of the English would be grateful for a property to be offered by their council so they have a property that is not damp or falling apart.

I for one am fed up with pandering to minority needs above those of the predominant indigenous culture.

- June, Croydon, 26/11/2009 10:32
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