Camden New Journal - Letters: Property

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Camden New Journal - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 11 October 2007

Fight against property privatisation will go on

• WE wanted to thank the New Journal for discussing our campaign (Gone in sixty minutes: four of your homes go under the hammer...
but will selling up really solve housing crisis? (October 4).
This year Camden Labour went up to Labour Party conference in force to argue the case for council housing in Camden.
Our motion called on the government to provide councils with direct investment that would mean all local authorities have adequate funds to meet the Decent Homes Standard by 2012, without having to sell off their existing stock to housing associations and other semi-private bodies.
We spent the week fighting hard for local council tenants and leaseholders.
By the end of the week the government was left in no doubt about the issues we face in this borough and the injustice of Camden having been starved of essential investment after tenants voted to keep the council in charge of repairs and maintenance in 2004.
We also urged the government to take action to prevent the Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition selling off much-needed council homes.
We even highlighted the CNJ article (Town Hall homes to go under the hammer as sell-off begins, September 20) as evidence that Camden Council is starting to sell off homes to fund its new programme.
Like many tenants, we have little faith that the Town Hall has really argued the best case for Camden homes.
For reasons best known to themselves, the Tory/Liberal Democrat lobbying of the government has so far appeared half-hearted.
The strong suspicion is that they were never really committed to the idea of council homes in Camden .
Once council homes are sold or transferred, these homes will be lost to local people for ever.
The Camden Labour Party strongly believes that councils should be allowed to provide, and should be supported in maintaining, affordable and secure accommodation..
Together with Frank Dobson MP we will continue to lobby the government and fight this administration to ensure the Tories and Lib Dems don’t get away with privatising more of Camden’s homes.
ANNA - HELGA HORROX
Michael Nicolaides
Delegates, Holborn & St Pancras Labour Party

• I AM delighted that Lib Dem Camden Council sold our old Primrose Gardens home off for £1,770,000. They are such a thrifty bunch. They also managed to save a vast amount of money by allowing the house to become so dilapidated it was not fit for humans and then when it looked like they could extract the most money from the sale, they palm us off to a HA right next to the problem estate on Lithos Road. My partner lived at this address for 25 years.
ZOE KEMP, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: