|
|
 |
| |
Council homes remain a taboo as Town Hall misses its chance
FOURTEEN local authorities in Britain are to be given the chance – for the first time in decades – to build council housing.
It’s all part of a highly significant U-turn by the new Gordon Brown government published in a Green paper on Monday.
Before, council housing was a taboo subject for the Tory governments of the 80s and 90s, as well as that run by Tony Blair.
Gordon Brown gave it respectability again.
We have often been a lone voice in the mainstream press calling for a massive direct investment in council housing matching the giant building programmes of the 50s onwards – both under the Tory and old Labour governments.
The cause was taken up several years ago by a national Defend Council Housing campaign, recently led by a Kentish Town tenants’ leader Alan Walters.
Their lobbying appears to have paid off. Gordon Brown is edging closer towards them.
But of the 14 authorities chosen by Whitehall to pilot this new adventure in council housing the name of one authority is missing – that of Camden Council.
Would it be different if Labour ruled the borough today? Possibly.
Labour in Camden would say yes. They blame the Lib Dem and Tory coalition for having failed to lobby the government. Evidence tends to suggest that the coalition’s heart wasn’t in it
Intellectually, the Tories were probably not enamoured of the subject.
Perhaps, the Lib Dems couldn’t make up their minds.
Whatever the reason a golden opportunity has been missed for the people of Camden.
Will Academy ruling land council in court?
IT started badly, and it has been going badly ever since.
And last night (Wednesday) all the signs pointed to a further shambles lying ahead (See page 1).
This, of course, is an introduction to something that has been bugging both the council and thousands of people in Camden this year – the siting of a new school.
The proposal created conflicting parties – parents who wanted the school to be built in south Camden, councillors who preferred Swiss Cottage, and warring groups who were less interested in geography and more in whether it would be an Academy, run by the Church of England or London University, or a traditional comprehensive.
Instead of steering impartially, the Coalition made it clear they wanted Swiss Cottage as the site, virtually ignoring the case of the south Camden parents.
Last night, a Swiss Cottage Academy school, run by London University, won the day.
Now, the parents may be bound for the High Court, dismissing the consultation as a sham.
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
