April 30, 2010 at 3:02 pm | Posted in London | Comments Off on More contempt for council housing in Barnet
Tags: Barnet, council housing, council tenants, Dogma driven, housing, Shelter
David Cameron said in the third Leaders Debate that he wanted to;
“Reward councils that go ahead and build homes for families.”
But his councils tell another story entirely.
The Tory Cabinet Member for Housing at ‘no frills’ Barnet Council has said that he was “proud” of Barnet’s housing waiting list and that some people on the list were there as a “lifestyle choice”. These comments were made at a Full Council meeting on 20 April 2010.
This is in a borough where figures released by homeless charity Shelter, show that residents waiting for social housing in Barnet have the longest wait in the country. It has also agreed 2,209 fewer homes than it was asked to deliver and missed its Local Area Agreement targets to deliver affordable homes for rent.
Residents living in Barnet would need to earn around £66,000 per annum to be able to afford to buy an average-priced house in the borough.
The Tory Councils in London are showing their true contempt for social housing. Hammersmith & Fulham Tories call council housing “barracks for the poor” and “warehousing poverty”. Tories in neighbouring Kensington & Chelsea call council housing “ghettos”. The Council is looking at ending secure council tenancies and raising rents to private sector levels four times what they are now.
Cameron’s Tories are a serious threat to social housing as we know it.
April 27, 2010 at 8:05 am | Posted in London | Comments Off on Contempt for council tenants in Hammersmith and Fulham
Tags: council tenants, Dogma driven, hammersmith, housing, social housing
Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Decent Homes Regeneration Policy is reported to envisage large scale reduction of council homes.
But the Tories complain it is “hard to get rid of people” from their homes.
Their contempt for tenants is clear. A council memo describes council housing as “barracks for the poor” and “warehousing poverty”.
The Tory Leader, Stephen Greenhalgh, Conservative Home’s Local Hero of 2008, has told his Tory colleagues that public housing is an “asset” but which “delivers a risible return”. His solution is the end of social housing:
“To continue building and publicly investing in the “social rent” template which provides tenancies for life with no incentive or requirement to work or to move on which locks investment and people into properties makes no sense.”
The Tory goal is to gain profit from peoples’ homes and drive forward the Conservative philosophy of market rents and scrapping security of tenure, while encouraging expensive, upmarket flats.
Like David Cameron, Stephen Greenhalgh says one thing to the public and another to his Tory colleagues. He told Hammersmith & Fulham tenants in the council newspaper:
“We are giving a cast-iron guarantee that where renewal opportunities arise all council tenants will be offered a permanent home in the area.”
But he told fellow Tories:
“The problems inherent in trying to move households from one property to another when they cease to fulfill a ‘need’ condition would be solved by having just one form of tenancy, modelled on Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST)….In almost all cases we would expect the initial term of the AST to be 6 months as is standard in the private rental market.”
Stephen Greenhalgh heads up the Tory Councils Innovation Unit and advises the Cameron team on their future plans. Putting these plans in across the country would mean that the eight million people in council or housing association homes would see their rents double or triple, be forced to move onto six month tenancies and have their security of tenure cut to a two-month notice to quit.
Watch a video from The Guardian on Hammersmith & Fulham
Information from Stephen Cowan, Leader of the Labour Group, Hammersmith and Fulham.
April 20, 2010 at 6:46 pm | Posted in London, Midlands, Nationwide, North East, North West, South East, South West, Yorkshire and the Humber | Comments Off on 52 Tory-run councils have not signed up to free swimming
Tags: adur, arun, ashford, basildon, basingstoke, bournemouth, Bromley, chelmsford, christchurch, crawley, dacorum, dartford, Dogma driven, driven by dogma, east devon, east dorect, east northamptonshire, east riding, fareham, forest of dean, hambleton, harlow, harrogate, havant, hertsmere, horsham, ipswich, isle of wight, lichfield, maidstone, maldon, mendip, mid sussex, north hertfordshire, nuneaton, poole, rochford, rossendale, scarborough, sedgemoor, Sevenoaks, south northamptonshire, south oxfordshire, swale, tandridge, test valley, Tonbridge, torridge, trafford, tunbridge wells, weest somerset, west oxfordshire, westminster, weymouth, worthing
52 Tory-run councils have not signed up to the Government’s scheme to provide free swimming for children and pensioners.
As the Tory Leader of Southampton Council, Alec Samuels says:
“We do not in principle favour ‘free this and free that’, such as swimming or transport, school meals or computers or whatever it is.”
Conservative Councils are choosing not to provide services for dogmatic reasons.
Councils not taking part in the free swimming scheme as of 15 December 2009:
Adur
Arun
Ashford
Basildon
Basingstoke & Deane
Bournemouth
Bromley
Chelmsford
Christchurch
Crawley
Dacorum
Dartford
East Devon
East Dorset
East Northamptonshire
East Riding of Yorkshire
Fareham
Forest of Dean
Hambleton
Harlow
Harrogate
Havant
Hertsmere
Horsham
Ipswich
Isle of Wight
Lichfield
Maidstone
Maldon
Mendip
Mid Sussex
North Hertfordshire
Nuneaton & Bedworth
Poole
Rochford
Rossendale
Scarborough
Sedgemoor
Sevenoaks
South Northamptonshire
South Oxfordshire
Swale
Tandridge
Test Valley
Tonbridge & Malling
Torridge
Trafford
Tunbridge Wells
West Oxfordshire
West Somerset
Westminster
Weymouth & Portland
Worthing
Cameron's Councils 