|
|
 |
| |
Does this mean an end to all social housing?
• I HAVE read it all now… Councillor Chris Naylor has stated in your paper that “the fact remains that Labour has failed many tens of thousands of Camden’s residents” (Letters, August 2) on all matters housing.
Chris, you are a nice guy but you haven’t got a clue on housing and where have you been since 1964 when Labour came to power in Camden? In my ward alone – St Pancras and Somers Town – the last Labour administration spent £23 million alone on estate refurbishments since 2000. That doesn’t ignore the other millions spent over the past 35 years of Labour-run Camden Council when we took spare land like old railway land and built, for example, Ingestre estate, in my old ward of St Johns, or modernised all the pre-war estates (I actually take credit for that); or set up a close in-depth relationship with estates by helping to found tenants associations and funding them; setting up the District Management Committees to give tenants association much more power over their estates and funding for projects; or spent millions on refurbishments and estate community safety in the years running up to the last election.
That this council under Chris Naylor’s friends’ control want now to get rid of social housing, whether they deny it or not, to private landlords and housing associations, is a way to end the rights of tenants over their lives and estates; that documents have been before the DMC’s and housing and adult social care committee speaking of the need to look at patch management (that is, to get rid of them) or to sell off housing stock (also known as stock transfer); that the District Housing Offices will be cut down in numbers; that Chris Naylor has ignored the pleas of my constituents on College Place estate for more funding for refurbishment and community safety works; that residents in street properties like Platt Street/Charrington Street/Penryn Street/Medburn Street and Goldington Street are still waiting for Cllr Naylor to push for their refurbishments, despite a tour I gave him by car over a year ago around the area; that whether he says it or not this council is moving towards stock transfer and a return in the end to Rachmanism and private landlordism; that he has agreed to sell the freeholds to leaseholders in a certain block so we lose the land forever… Come on, Chris, you may fool a few but you know it is the end of social housing as devised by the first Labour government in the 1920s.
How can you say, and how can Nick Russell say, that Labour has left housing in an appalling state? I came on the council in 1964 and I saw the tremendous work Labour did then and up to the last election to give tenants a better life and more power over their estates’ futures. The work of the late and much loved and respected housing chair, Cllr Brian Weekes, to vastly improve the liaison and relationship with tenants and residents associations and DMCs and put more and more funding into council housing regeneration was an indication of how the Labour Party feels about the need to maintain and improve council housing. Is Chris saying we did nothing at all over 35 years on housing? Mistakes we made, I agree, but when one considers the record of the only Tory- controlled Camden over housing in the 1970s and the Tory-controlled forerunner of Camden – St Pancras Council – when a rent scheme was rejected by thousands in the late 1950s and thousands of us marched on the Town Hall in protest… what has he done in the past 18 months as executive for housing to give tenants hope for the future?
I suspect that cuts in housing and capital works are coming about as the present Liberal Democrat / Tory council wants to show 0 per cent increase in council tax for the next three years up to the next election and that will lead to an end of tenant power.
I have asked Chris to hold back on any programmes to sell stock; to change the face of our Camden housing now that the Labour government has promised three million new homes and more funding for council housing. I agree that, in addition, the government should give much more funding for refurbishments and return the monies earned from the Tory Right-to-Buy scheme, which now means that a lot of previously owned council housing is in the hands of private landlords!
Finally, I would ask Chris to bring in a more sympathetic view of the period of time given by this council to leaseholders to repay the section 20 costs for refurbishments to the estate they live in – some facing up to £45,000 in debt and told to pay over 24 months – possibly 36 months!
Chris, Labour has worked hard over the years to maintain and improve housing conditions and also to build accessible homes for elderly and disabled people.
How can you say that we have failed tens of thousands of Camden’s residents?
Over the long time I have served as a councillor that was never my impression and I would ask you to apologise.
CLLR ROGER ROBINSON
Opposition Lead on Housing Labour St Pancras and Somers Town Ward
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
