The Council House Theory: Were Britain’s Poltergeists a Product of Social Desperation

The Council House Theory: Were Britain’s Poltergeists a Product of Social Desperation?

Matt Barlow

Almost every town has its local ghost story, a shared whisper that adds a layer of mystery to a familiar street. In Scunthorpe, for instance, a tale persists about a house on Avenue Vivian, where a family was allegedly troubled by unexplained events attributed to a ghostly boy. These stories are a staple of local folklore, but when we examine the most famous paranormal cases that gripped Britain in the 20th century, a provocative and more sobering counter-narrative emerges.

This is the “council house theory”: the idea that some of the nation’s most well-known hauntings were not genuine spectral encounters, but complex performances born out of social desperation. It’s a theory that looks beyond the supernatural to suggest that the true cause of these disturbances was the dire living conditions that led families to stage hauntings in a desperate bid to be rehoused by the local council. It’s a compelling argument, but one that opens up a fascinating debate about evidence, human psychology, and the very nature of paranormal phenomena.

I'm not so sure of the concept of poor housing as a root cause. But I do think some of the evidence for a paranormal explanation is not always fully convincing. One case, there were said to be levitating objects or even children, but the photographs just looked like boisterous or lively kids.