What is a council estate or a council house?

I am reading some other things and it sounds like the equivalent of "the projects" or low income housing here in the US, i.e. not very safe and pretty rough.

Depends on the area.  I work in social housing and some of it's very nice (new builds, good neighbourhoods) and some areas can be quite rough and crime-ridden.

Social housing is not all about projects and low incomes; it's about affordable housing.  For instance, we provide affordable housing to keyworkers such as teachers, nurses, police officers, etc.

J's an architectal technologist and does tons of work for the council

Some of his latest council built houses/flats were made with sustainable materials,energy efficient appliances and even have solar panels on the roof for the hot water systems.  Some of these are really nice neighbourhoods with play areas for kids, shops nearby, etc. 

We were wondering how you'd get to be a lucky one getting one of these brand new houses/flats instead of the standard 1960s-1970s semis and flats that are hideous! 

One difference I have noticed between Council Housing in the UK and the Projects in the US are that council houses can be anywhere.  There are big estates, which can be rough or can be just like a normal apartment block.  Or there can be small buildings or houses dotted throughout the community.  There is council houses in every neighbourhood in London and can be right near nice/posh homes.  My experience in the states was that the projects seem to be one big undesirable area of a city and sort of removed from the nicer parts. 

This is true. Every local council has an obligation to provide social housing of some sort in its area so even the most upmarket areas may have council houses or flats of some sort.
Whilst there are certainly many rough council estates Margaret Thatchers policy in the 80's of allowing tenants to buy their own houses went a long way to improving many estates as people took more care of homes that they owned.

it is so variable. we have a block of council flats just down the street from us- and we live in a nice, quiet, solidly working class area.  Not rough at all.  However, there are other council estates in the city which are well dodgy and which most people stay away from.

Ok so council estates/houses sounds kind of like what we have in Jamaica, we call them "housing schemes" pre-fab homes made available to mid-low income people through the government because regular home prices are so high, these people would probably never be able to buy a home on their own.

What I am also hearing is that some of the larger, older ones can be rough like the projects in the US.

Cool, I am learning, I am learning.

Also, some council estates are a mix of privately owned & council-owned, back when Maggie introduced 'right-to-buy' back in the 90s (? 80s?).  So you can have a fairly large looking estate that's actually all or majority privately owned flats.

The 'quality' or safeness of a particular council estate is extremely variable.  There are some that are perfectly fine and there are others you wouldn't want to walk around in at night.  Even some estates close to each other can vary in this respect. 

A flat/house advertised as ex-LA or ex-local authority is a council flat/house that has since been privately bought and now being sold privately.  These carry lower prices than non ex-LA properties in almost every situation especially as they are almost never freehold properties.

What I am also hearing is that some of the larger, older ones can be rough like the projects in the US.

Again, not always true.  You have to know the area to get a feel for it.

A flat/house advertised as ex-LA or ex-local authority is a council flat/house that has since been privately bought and now being sold privately.  These carry lower prices than non ex-LA properties in almost every situation especially as they are almost never freehold properties.

In our area, when a house is sold, the freehold goes with it; however, sold flats are not freehold.

Again, not always true.

Hence the words "some" and "can be" in my statement.