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Frank Dobson
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Build some homes, Frank tells Brown
MP Dobson warns Town Hall may try to sell stock
HOLBORN and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson flew the flag for council housing on Tuesday night as campaigners rallied at Parliament with a simple message for the government: ‘Invest in our homes’.
Mr Dobson said the new Liberal Democrat and Conservative alliance at the Town Hall could try to sell off estates one by one to housing associations – but would struggle to make any headway with tenants and leaseholders opposed to any transfer of Camden’s housing stock.
He reminded the council’s new housing chiefs that residents voted overwhelmingly against transferring homes to an Arms-Length Management Organisation (Almo) in 2003.
Mr Dobson said: “They may try to work it so they come back to an Almo of some sort but there has already been a vote on this and 77 per cent of tenants said that they didn’t want it. There has been a vote. They can’t ignore it.”
He was speaking after MPs and council tenants joined forces at Portcullis House for the launch of a new ‘Dear Gordon’ pamphlet, produced by campaign group Defend Council Housing (DCH) and designed to put pressure on Chancellor Gordon Brown ahead of his expected elevation to Prime Minister. It calls on the government to invest directly in council homes rather than insisting on unpopular transfers.
Mr Dobson told the meeting that during his three years as leader of Camden Council in the 1970s, more council homes had been built in the borough than have been built nationally since Labour took power in 1997.
He said that the government should be concentrating on building and keeping council housing rather than trying to sell it off to private landlords.
Mr Dobson, a council tenant himself in Bloosmbury, said: “Whenever we bought up private properties, the tenants didn’t mind. They were happy to be with the council than some ratbag landlord.”
Fellow Labour MPs Michael Meacher and Harriet Harman were also at the meeting, as was Respect MP George Galloway.
Alan Walter, a chief DCH organiser who lives in Kentish Town, said: “This has never been a spectator sport. It may have taken longer than some of us would have liked but we are winning the argument. We need to keep on. We need to keep on winning the ballots around the country and keep the pressure up.”
Ministers are refusing to fund a £300-million repair programme needed to bring Camden’s estates up to scratch – a three-year stalemate triggered by the vote against the Almo.
Mr Walter is among residents in Camden who are concerned at the growing suggestion at the Town Hall that it is time to look at possible funding options other than lobbying for direct investment.
Liberal Democrat council leader Councillor Keith Moffitt linked the decision to explore other avenues with a glowing inspection report from the Audit Commission released this week.
He said on Monday: “We wouldn’t have got such a good response if we just said we were going to look at the fourth option (direct funding) and nothing else.”
The New Journal revealed in December how backbench Lib Dems and Conservatives were calling for an end to stalemate and investigating an estate by estate transfer package.
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