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A disastrous step in the dark
IT was on the cards. The former Labour administration at the Town Hall wanted to do it, but, in the end, faced with a loud ‘No’ from council tenants backed off. Now the Lib-Dems and Tories want to go where politicians once feared to tread.
We are referring to the proposal to sell-off council estates, one by one, to housing associations.
In other words, to slough off ownership, and pass it, effectively, to a private body.
Is this the end of large scale council ownership that gathered speed from the mid-50s.
It signifies a seismic shift in policy.
Quite shrewdly it is being introduced by sleight of hand instead of with a big bang.
Were it to be done in one foul sweep it would no doubt provoke a wave of opposition.
Little by little is the strategy. And, little by little, it may succeed – unless council tenants are able to battle successfully as they did over the proposal for an Arms Length Management Organisation.
What is motivating the Lib Dem-Tory coalition? A die-hard belief in the supremacy of the private sector over the public sector? Possibly.
More likely, pragmatism, has won the day. Fed up with the stranglehold central government has placed over housing finances, many councillors have decided enough is enough – and, looking enviously at a similar strategy employed in Tower Hamlets, have decided to have a go themselves.
This could prove a disastrous step in the dark.
Whatever the failures of the Town Hall as landlords – and who would be foolish enough to deny their existence? – the essential point is that councillors are accountable. If you don’t like their policies you can throw them out of office. Housing associations are immovable. Council ownership and democracy are intertwined.
Slay the monster
THE government created a monster when it set up the Standards Board for England.
It was supposed to keep Town Halls clean and healthy.
Instead, it gave more powers to petty tyrants to keep councillors in check.
Putting his head above the parapet Councillor Brian Woodrow questioned the King’s Cross scheme, and was almost blown away by officials, borough solicitor Alison Lowton and environment director Peter Bishop, who, effectively, put him up in the dock.
Since then Lowton has left the Town Hall, and Bishop is on his way to City Hall. In good time, too, because Woodrow has been vindicated.
Woodrow can take comfort from the fact that his case allowed one more hole for the Board to fall into.
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