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Dr Ian Rowley |
NEW HOUSING BOSS 'IS LIKE ALAN B'STARD'
Official comes under fire for ‘social engineering’ comments in article
CITY Hall’s new housing czar was bombarded with criticism last night (Thursday) after writing an article supporting the selling of council housing, moving tenants out of Westminster and scrapping secured tenancies.
Dr Ian Rowley, who was last week appointed the Conservative council’s deputy cabinet member for housing policy, made his comments in a piece for right-wing thinktank Localis, just weeks before taking on his new role.
Opposition leaders and tenants’ groups fear that his proposals for housing reform in central London amount to “immoral” social engineering that could soon be a reality in Westminster.
Dr Rowley, a councillor representing Marylebone where there are very few estates, has been dubbed the “Alan B’Stard of the 21st century” for claiming the present points-based system of housing allocation is a subsidy for the undeserving, resulting in a “who wants to be a millionaire UK welfare style” and “lottery style levels of winning” for some tenants.
He has mounted a vigorous defence of the ?article which he stressed was written in a personal capacity and is unconnected from his work in Westminster or future policy in the borough.
But Dr Rowley insisted it is part of a valid debate on current social housing policy, which he claims is proof of a “broken Britain”.
The most controversial comments in the March 30 article include:
•“Lifetime assured tenure needs to be removed.”
•“If a unit can be sold at a free market price and money from this taken to develop more units in lower-cost areas then this should be looked at.”
•“Behaviour and contribution to society should influence the type of access.”
•“Subsidy levels are an incentive not to improve one’s lot by one’s own effort.”
•“Portfolios of social housing should be allowed with some provided outside the borough where costs will be lower.”
Westminster’s Labour group said his support for access granted on the grounds of “behaviour and contribution to society”, amounted to a “tied cottage” system where tenants are stripped of their council house if they are out of work.
Labour councillor David Boothroyd said: “Ian Rowley is making a bold bid to be the Alan B’Stard of the 21st century [the fictional Tory demagogue played by Rick Mayall in the 1980s sitcom The New Statesman]. His policy means people renting council homes would be evicted if they moved jobs, based on the council’s assessment of their ‘contribution to society’.
“What about people who change job or who are made redundant or retire?”
Eileen Short, chairwoman of Defend Council Housing, said: “Council tenants have fought off attacks on our secure tenancy and to put means tests or time limits on our tenancies, when they were floated by Ruth Kelly and Caroline Flint – ex-housing ministers. We will not tolerate any drive back to the bad old days.”
Dr Rowley said: “The current housing allocation system favours individual need rather than the needs of the community. It contributes to a broken Britain.
“The middle classes and key workers like social workers, healthcare workers, the police and teachers are excluded from central London. I am certainly not calling for a deportation of the unemployed. That is grossly distorting what I wrote – what I was saying is that the inner city isn’t necessarily the best place to live for every family in social housing.
“At the moment we have a warehouse-type policy that creates wealthy and poor ghettoes. We need to restore the balance. The culture of dependency among a few families in deprived estates has a huge effect on the health and life chances of other families and this isn’t fair. Why should they be guaranteed a place for life.”
A Westminster Council spokesman said: “Councillor Rowley made these comments in a personal capacity and these views do not represent housing policy in Westminster.” |
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