The closely defined layouts of estates, and their tendency to house the poorest people, lend themselves to inverse snobbery. You have estate-linked gangs, whose members go to estate-linked schools, defining their identity by the name and "reputation" of that estate. Because their lives revolve around those estates, their perspective narrows with each day that passes, until it stops at the bollard-tipped end of the walkway.
Localism, community cohesion, a sense of place and of belonging to it? Or have we stopped banging on about the anomie of modern life, the way in wihch a sense of identity is destroyed by a rampantly consumer society?
Ah no Tim, a lack of localism, community cohesion, a sense of place and of belonging to it is a problem for those horrible middle class people that do not live in sink estates. What the groan is after is equality, so that everybody can enjoy the benefits of living in a run down sink estate.