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Pictured from left, MPs Sadiq Khan, Natascha Engel, Haverstock-by-election candidate Mike Katz, and deputy leader candidates Hilary Benn, Harriet Harman, Hazel Blears and John Cruddas |
Give ’em the homes millions, says Brown’s deputy (whoever that turns out to be)
Six candidates back direct investment to end housing crisis
ALL six candidates vying for the post of Labour deputy leader are supporting a change in government policy that would finally allow direct investment in Camden’s crumbling council homes, party members were told on Tuesday night.
The would-be deputies to Gordon Brown are for the first time openly suggesting a departure from the rigid housing policies operated throughout Tony Blair’s premiership that have seen Camden starved of funding.
The New Journal had exclusive access to an otherwise private Labour branch meeting at the Town Hall on Tuesday night as the candidates met members, almost stumbling over themselves with promises to end Camden’s housing crisis.
While Jon Cruddas – the Holborn and St Pancras branch’s preferred choice – has been a long-term campaigner for a policy shift and was always expected to speak against the government’s record on housing, even Blairite hopefuls such as Hazel Blears went on record to support Camden’s cry for help.
Ms Blears, the minister without portfolio in the Cabinet office, said: “Where you have got good councils who are capable of doing the job – and that wasn’t the case many years ago – then I think councils (like Camden) should be allowed to build more social housing and to make sure they can bring their properties up to the decent homes standard.
“It is not completely simple but I think the political will is now there and you can see that with Gordon Brown, so there is every hope that will happen.”
The consensus means that Prime Minister-in-waiting Mr Brown would have to defy the wishes of his deputy – whoever he or she may be – to proceed with the policy of withholding money from Camden’s housing department.
If Mr Brown fails to break the three-year stalemate in Camden, he would also be ignoring successive party conference motions that have seen delegates call for a level playing field.
A repair programme that would improve the state of tens of thousands of properties in Camden has been frozen because tenants voted against giving up the council as their landlord, as proposed by ministers.
Residents have refused to budge, shunning private finance deals and plans to transfer homes to housing associations that offered the promise of instant improvements.
Most recently, tenants and leaseholders voted against transferring control of their homes to an Arms’-Length Management Organisation (Almo), an independent company of appointees and councillors. Many argued the scheme represented “back-door privatisation”.
Mr Cruddas said: “All of the candidates will support the fourth option (direct investment). I’m glad housing is now centre stage. Over the last three or four years I’ve stood on platforms defending the fourth option while the government have ignored the wishes of the Labour party. I’m glad everyone is now signed up to it.”
Harriet Harman, the new Secretary of State for Justice, told the meeting – attended by about 100 members – that Camden residents had felt blackmailed.
She added: “What we shouldn’t have done is say to tenants: you’ve got the choice, you can either vote for going out of the council being your landlord and going into a housing association or an Almo in which case you have your estate completely refurbished. Or you can stay with the council and your estate will fall down around your ears.”
Camden needs more than £300 million to bring all its homes up to scratch with a backlog of repairs increasing, rather than getting shorter.
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn, another deputy leadership candidate, said: “The crisis is so acute that all of the options should be on the table and all of them should be used,” while MP Natascha Engel, appearing on behalf of Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain, added: “The real scandal at the moment is that the housing we are asking our most vulnerable people to live in is below standard and it needs to be brought up to the standard for them to live in.
“Good councils like Camden should be able to have the money themselves and invest in that housing stock.”
MP Sadiq Khan, who stepped in for Education Secretary Alan Johnson at the meeting, said: “The tenants have voted to stay with the council. They believe local authorities should be providing housing, they believe the role of a council is to allocate homes.”
Hopes have been raised in the past but it is the first time in three years that such prominent government faces have openly discussed a solution for Camden which would involve direct investment.
The change of heart is a far cry from the succession of housing ministers and even outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair who have dodged questions on the issue when door-stepped by New Journal reporters over the last few years. A New Journal petition signed by thousands of readers was also ignored.
In the absence of government funding, the council’s Lib Dem and Conservative coalition last month embarked on an attempt to sell off a proportion of the housing stock, a move unpopular with residents.
Tenants’ leaders are now pressing for the Town Hall to freeze those plans and monitor the change of Labour leadership – at least until the next Labour conference.
The response so far from Liberal Democrat housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor is that there has been no suggestion from government that policy will be altered in the near future.
Labour’s failure to sort out the problem was one of the reasons put forward for its spectacular defeat in council elections in May last year.
Labour deputy leader Councillor Theo Blackwell said this week: “It’s clear housing is top of the agenda for the incoming Brown government. This was the best result for council tenants I’ve seen in 18 months.” |
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