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Gordon must steel himself for action to beat this slump
ASIDE from the promise to provide facilities to retrain the growing number of laid off workers, what else is Gordon Brown doing to tame the ever threatening economic slump?
Yesterday (Wednesday) he sent Business Minister Lord Mandelson to stem dismissals by facilitating loans of £2.3billion to car firms.
This is, as far as we are aware, Brown’s first direct step to preserve jobs.
For months the Prime Minister has concentrated on fiscal solutions – tied up, more often than not, with intricate moves to bail out banks.
But yesterday saw another bout of job losses – this time caused by the steel firm Corus
facing a dramatic fall
in demand.
Corus’s order books, however, would be tremendously boosted if Brown were to listen to those MPs who have been pressing him for months to start up a nation wide council housing programme.
In one swoop, as it were, if Brown were to give the green light to the construction industry, jobs would not only remain safe at Corus but tens of thousands of new jobs would be created on building sites.
Perversely, however, Brown refuses to do the obvious.
Thirty Lambs to the slaughter?
PLAYING the part of a well-trained sleuth, Holborn MP Frank Dobson has dug up information that points to a blunder the Lib Dem and Tory rulers at the Town Hall would have preferred to remain hidden.
By badgering chief executive Moira Gibb he has discovered that for the comparatively low sum of £350,000 they have sold the “nomination rights” of 30 flats in Lambs Conduit Street (see page 2). The one-bedroom flats will now disappear into the private rental market.
Tamely, the coalition group argue that the housing crisis is exacerbated by the need for family-sized properties not one bedroom flats. If they repeat that enough times they may come to believe it, but few others would. Yes, larger-sized flats are required. But there is also a demand for one bedroom flats – a demand that needs to be met.
Playing politics Lib Dem housing chief Chris Naylor finds solace in blaming his Labour predecessors for having neglected them. He may find comfort there. But the fact remains that for the trifling gain of £350,000 the council have lost 30 homes.
Today, when more than ever, there is such a housing shortage, the needless loss of 30 homes is deeply regrettable.
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