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From private renting to council flats, our housing policies are in total chaos
• IN his review of Simon Jenkin’s book ‘Thatcher and Sons’ (Jan 4) the now Lord Peter Walker reminds us that he was active in defeating the mineworkers and their communities.
He admits also to having proposed a radical policy to transfer all council housing to the private sector. His suggestions were not adopted by Thatcher.
It is pertinent at this time, when the present rulers in the Town Hall are considering transfer of “difficult” estates to housing associations, to be reminded that those in the Tory party do not like municipal housing.
Whilst funding for, and maintenance of, the housing stock is far from ideal, the alternative, where they are managed for profit, is retrogressive.
The dominant party in Parliament (Labour) continues Thatcher’s policies as evident in the present withholding of funds held back from Camden to bring all homes to an acceptable standard by 2010. It is worth repeating that the Arms Length Management Organisation option was voted down by tenants. The present private property price boom which places mortgages beyond the reach of the average wage earner shows too how essential affordable publicly-owned housing is.
Housing is, and will remain, a very emotive issue, so councillors forget privatising.
Municipal tenants in Camden can vote out those on the housing committee should they be unsatisfactory – which housing association allows this?
SKIP MURPHY
Prince of Wales Road, NW1
• WHO is to represent the private tenants?
Since August, three private tenant households have come to me at risk of homelessness because their landlords are seeking possession. Two wished to contest the case. They had been respectively 22 years and 15 years in their present accommodation.
Camden’s own Housing Advice Service does sterling work negotiating stays of execution and much else.
But the caseload is such that those eligible for legal aid are urged to approach a private solicitor.
And there we have a new problem. In Camden, there are two very expert firms. Waiting time for a final appointment there is currently six months.
One further firm could offer three months.
Three more – identified with Citizen’s Advice Bureaux help – are not currently taking housing cases. With good fortune, this letter may flush out others – this is not work for the inexperienced!
But there really now is a problem that I have not seen in 16 years.
Camden really is changing. As last year’s scrutiny inquiry showed, one household in four in the borough now rents privately.
Also, the sector is moving upmarket because people who once bought are renting. So any landlord who can take advantage of the situation is likely to be tempted. I would normally have only one such tenant case in seven years.
In the current debate over advice services, all I would say is for heaven’s sake, remember those who have no one else!
The Community Law Centre could, if it wished, play a much larger role here.
Cllr JANE SCHOPFLIN
Town Hall, WC1
• ALTHOUGH I live in a small council flat myself concerning the recent furore and worry about housing stock being transferred to housing associations. The opponents of change are the equivalent of fundamentalist Christians.
Wouldn’t people like to be free of complete dependence on the state? There has to be compromise?
The new Labour Government was elected because it was willing to compromise. In the meantime no repairs are being done because some people don’t want change. We must be open to compromise.
PETER YORIT
Parker Street, WC2
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