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Borough councils are not property agents
• The Right to Buy has got to go.
It was brought in by the Tory government, mainly to divide the working class, and it has never been overturned.
Each time a council tenant buys their flat or house (with a hefty discount from the council), and eventually puts it up for sale, there is a host of landlords and companies eager to get their hands on as many of these properties as possible.
They then let them at rents way above those charged by the council, depriving those on the council’s housing waiting list.
Borough councils are not estate agents, buying and selling property.
Their duty should be to provide accommodation for people whose income is too low for them to rent on the open market.
Name and address supplied
A £283m problem
• IN the face of criticism of the mess inherited, Labour’s opposition lead on housing, Councillor Roger Robinson, makes an energetic case for his party (Letters, August 9). But the fact remains that he left Camden’s housing with a £283 million problem.
Setting aside depreciation issues, if his party had saved for these inevitable repairs only £5 per week per home over 30 years, there would not be a problem.
The executive member for housing, Chris Naylor, contemplates dumping his tenants into the arms of housing associations.
This would be the beginning of the end for his party, a fact which may not have escaped the attention of some of his advisers.
Registered Social Landlords are not the answer to Councillor Naylor’s problems.
Labour created the problem, and only Labour, in Whitehall, can solve it.
This will be achieved if all those with a common goal work together, and if this means that Cllr Naylor has to climb into bed with Cllr Robinson and all of Defend Council Housing, then this must happen.
He owes it to his tenants; they will not forgive him if he fails to show the necessary leadership.
PETER RUTHERFORD
Independent Federation of Genesis Residents
Pandora Road,
NW6
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