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Campaigners who are fighting the sale of Camden Council’s housing stock make their point outside the town hall |
Council houses sell-offs fight on its way to Beckett
Campaign to save properties set to go to Housing Minister in appeal for funds
THE time for niceties is over – and Housing Minister Margaret Beckett had better beware.
Mrs Beckett’s office may have been slow to get back to polite letters from Liberal Democrat housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor, but this time she has an army of angry tenants and a host of councillors to deal with, and they won’t be so easy to ignore.
Their message is crisp and clear: “Invest in our homes before the council sells them off.”
Tenants pushed for a showdown with Mrs Beckett at a stormy council meeting on Tuesday night as dozens of campaigners issued a call to arms through a series of deputations before councillors.
They have demanded that the council takes a much tougher stance.
If Cllr Naylor fails to take a harder line over the lack of investment from Whitehall, tenants said they would take up the fight themselves – and they already have the support of many councillors.
As revealed in the New Journal last week, in the absence of government investment the council is steadily selling homes which could be used to help people on the waiting list for council housing.
The Lib Dems insist they have been forced into the unpopular move because they need to raise money for improvements to the rest of the stock.
But tenants want an immediate moratorium on any more sales on the grounds that the loss of any council house is damaging and that the Lib Dems should instead be concentrating on getting money out of the government.
Silla Carron, from the Camden Federation of Residents and Tenants Association, said: “We don’t really know what the council has done so far. But we need to get tough with the government. I think the tenants should lead this now and take it to Margaret Beckett.”
Ms Carron, a campaigner sometimes known as “Supergran” who has won awards for her TV programme The Estate We’re In, in which she helps to turn around the fortunes of troubled estates, added: “It has got to a ridiculous situation where there are 18,000 people waiting for a council house and the council is selling them off.”
Mike Cookson-Taylor, from the Camden Association of Street Properties, said: “From the tenants’ perspective there is no mandate for these sell-offs. People in Camden desperately need council housing, not only because it can provide people with a much-needed home, but because it provides a form of social housing which is more secure, has the lowest rents, has automatic rights to repair, and is managed by a democratically accountable landlord – unlike private sector landlords including housing associations. The private housing market is in crisis and does not provide a viable option for the majority of people in Camden who desperately need a home.”
Members of the council’s cross-party Housing Scrutiny Committee voted in favour of pushing Ms Beckett into meeting with tenants and councillors from all parties.
Candy Udwin, from pressure group Defend Council Housing, said: “This is a significant step because the deputation to Margaret Beckett would involve everybody: unions, tenants and councillors. It shows that tenants will not accept any more sales and has put the people who say we need to sell them on the back foot. The campaign has wind in its sails and will be pushing for a halt on selling any more properties. The Lib Dems have been a bit shirty about all of this but it is clear that they have a year to stop selling any more homes or they will have problems in the next elections.”
Conservative councillor Chris Philp, chairman of the scrutiny committee, said he could not recommended a freeze on council home sales because it might jeopardise the flow of money for improvements to homes. He downplayed the auctions as a “trickle” of sales.
But he added: “I am happy to be at the forefront of taking the case for funding to Margaret Beckett and trying to make sure that the government coughs up.”
Lib Dem council leader Councillor Keith Moffitt said: “We were told a long time ago by the government that there would be no special treatment for Camden. We don’t want to sell these homes, but when we were elected we came in saying we wanted to improve council homes across the borough.
“We didn’t feel that we could keep on waiting for investment when the government had already told us that there wouldn’t be any special treatment.
“If there was money for Camden in the past, it isn’t just sitting there now, waiting to be unlocked – especially not in the current financial climate.
“This is why we have to look at other options. We have already started on improvements to people’s homes.
“There have been a few teething problems, but we are making a difference to people’s living conditions.” |
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