One year on: your housing network highlights

The Guardian Housing Network is one year old today, happy birthday to us! Since last November we've brought you coverage from conferences, analysis of government policy, online debates and viewpoints from leading thinkers in the sector. To celebrate our birthday we've had a look back through the archives to see what you liked best and we've drawn together your top five favourites. Let us know what we've missed, and what you thought of our first year in the comments thread below. Westminster vows to evict social tenants involved in riots In early August, as the country was still reeling from riots which rocked communities from London to Manchester, Westminster council announced that it would fight to evict tenants found to be involved in the disturbances – and their families. Jonathan Glanz, Westminster's cabinet member for housing, explained: "Social housing isn't a right, it's a privilege and if people abuse that privilege then in common with anyone else they should face the consequences." The article, which topped our list of most read articles all year, generated more than 100 comments. @leavingKansas wrote: "Putting people on the streets doesn't sound like a good idea when you're trying to get them off the streets." Others took a different view, including @benjamin1988, who said: "These people deserve nothing as they are low-life scum. Why should the taxpayers provide housing and benefits for people who burn hard-working citizens out of their own homes?" In pictures: From garden city to green city Of the images shared on the network, our 'Garden city to green city' gallery was your favourite with lots of you clicking through the images, still display at the Garden Museum in London. The exhibition, which "explores the many visions, designs and projects that have inspired the green city movement over the last 150 years", contains some fantastic shots of green buildings and estates. From the the 27-storey Bosco Verticale in Milan, with its trees and bushes crowding balconies to make it the world's first vertical forest, to Camden's Alexandra Road estate, the gallery offers lots of inspiration for eco-conscious developers and green-fingered housing associations. Empty homes: the change we need One of the issues we have kept coming back to throughout the year is empty homes. The government's recently announced housing strategy contained some measures to tackle the problem, including a re-announcement of the £100m pledge to tackle the issue, first made more than a year ago. In this empty homes piece, Keith Cooper detailed the housing sector's wish list for action on empty homes, including the ring fencing of new homes bonus cash for empty home loans, the removal of red tape and encouraging state-owned banks to invest in refurbishment projects. Some of you had additions to that list: @crankybox commented that squatters should be given more rights; @CookingLager wrote: "It's the economy. Who wants a house in Wales when the jobs are in London? Sort the economy out in many areas and the market will develop the properties due to demand for housing in that area." Live Q&A with Grant Shapps, minister for housing The most popular live debate we ran in our first year was a question and answer session with housing minitser Grant Shapps. Lots of you joined us to ask questions and one of the most interesting comments made by Shapps was his three points to inspire housing associations to produce the right kind of social housing. He told us: "1. Be ambitious about the opportunities and flexibility presented by affordable rent. 2. Look for ways in which you can help meet the aspirations of your tenants. 3. Be transparent: there's nothing to fear and, as we've found in government, there's no faster way to drive down spending that may not be the best value for money." @NottinghamFlorist was pleased with the way Shapps engaged with the questions you asked and thanked him for his time and effort. However, not all of you felt the same: "More waffle, mumbo jumbo, smoke & mirrors, and avoiding giving honest answers to straight questions from the good minister," wrote @newton321 Decent housing is not just a wish, it is a human right | Jimmy Carter When former US president Jimmy Carter wrote for us in June about the moral obligation to provide decent housing, we knew it would prove a popular article. Carter, who volunteers for the charity Habitat for Humanity International, calls housing a basic human right. "Once we view the issue of housing in these appropriately urgent terms, we will begin to act in concert more effectively," he wrote. Many of you commented on this story, and there was much debate about whether housing should be considered a human right or an asset. "Hear hear. Please pass this message on to Grant Schapps [sic] - he doesn't seem to care much for the housing security of Britain's growing band of renters," wrote @kc80. "It's possible to be made homeless with just two months' notice and sometimes not even that if your landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage." Meanwhile, @JohnCan45 said it was wrong to call housing a right. "I'll agree it is good policy to provide decent housing for all, but we have to choose our words carefully when establishing this principle." This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Join the housing network for more like this direct to your inbox.