DefendCouncilHousing

INSIDE:

January 2009 35p

Two and a half million existingcouncil tenants, supported bytrade unions, councillors andMPs, are determined to win im-provements and a long termfuture for council housing. Our‘secure’ tenancies, low rentsand a landlord we can hold toaccount are more importanttoday than ever.

1.6 million households on councilwaiting lists show there’s strongdemand from a broad cross section ofour community for government tobuild a new generation of first classcouncil homes. Many of us also havegrown up children who can’t move outfrom under our feet and would jump

at the chance of a secure council ten-ancy too.

Pushing more people in Britaininto home ownership by refusing toinvest in first class council housingand proposals to undermine council‘secure’ tenancies would be to repeatthe American disaster. Millions aredestitute at the hands of a housingpolicy based on the dogma of ‘own-ership’ and the private market.

BLACKMAILING TENANTSIt is outrageous that successive gov-ernments have been siphoningmoney out of council housing foryears and then trying to blackmailtenants to accept privatisation in

return for improvements. Govern-ment’s commitment “to ensure thatwe have a sustainable, long termsystem for financing council hous-ing” through its Review of CouncilHousing Finance is welcome, but weneed a settlement this year and don’twant the national council housingsector broken up (see page 4/5). Inthe meantime we demand an imme-diate moratorium on further privati-sation.

START BUILDINGTenants, trade unionists, councillorsand MPs are calling on governmentto stop the robbery, ring-fence re-sources for council housing at na-

tional level, provide a level playingfield on debt-write off and gap fund-ing and fully fund allowances tocouncils so that they can manage,maintain and repair their homes andstart a massive council house build-ing programme.

LISTEN TO THE PEOPLEWe want to make council housingonce again a tenure of choice tostand alongside a first class Na-tional Health Service, good localschools and other public serviceswe can be proud of. We need coun-cil housing to provide an alternativeto the instability and insecurity ofthe market.

It’s time that politicians listenedto the people: investment in firstclass council housing makes moresense than ever!

Stop privatisation, improve exist-ing and start building a new genera-tion of first class council homes with‘secure’ tenancies, low rents and alandlord we can hold to account!

This isn’t a spectator sport – weneed your help to win!

� Come to Parliament 25 Feb-ruary to support the new en-quiry organised by the House ofCommons Council HousingGroup into funding allowancesfor council housing. See page 3.

� Stop privatisation:the case against stocktransfer see page 2

� Improve existing –fully fund allowancesat ‘level of need’ 4-5

� Build new councilhousing 8

� Oppose meanstesting and timelimits 6

� Organisingeffectivecampaigns 7

� Uniting thecouncil housingfamily 6

Wherever people want toremain council tenants, theyshould be allowed andshouldn’t be punished by not

having their housing done up... If you’ve gota ballot coming up, fight like hell to

persuade people to vote NO – the morepeople who reject it the better

chance we have of turningover this stupid policy.”Frank Dobson MP

“It is time thatgovernment settled upon the ‘Fourth Option’to fund improvements,

a sustainable future for 2.5 millionexisting council tenants and toenable councils to build a newgeneration of first class councilhomes to provide secure homes withlow rents which the private housingmarket is incapable of doing.” BillyHayes, general secretary CWU(communication workers)

“Tenants have fought hard to stopgovernment robbing our rents. Wearen’t going to sit back and letcouncils opt out of the national HRAso they can rob our rents locallyinstead! We need full accountabilityand transparency over every pennythat belongs to council housing – andall of it must be put back intoimproving council housing.’Eileen Short, Tower HamletsTenants Against Transfer

“I am proud of the fact that tenantsin my local authority area chose,despite every inducement possible,overwhelmingly to reject the idea ofselling off the council’s stock... It isonly right that we listen to suchtenants.” David Drew MP

“The government’s recentpronouncements have offered atantalising glimpse of a renaissancefor council housing… eco-friendlyhomes built and maintained by localauthorities to high standards – withpeople on low incomes and the moreaffluent living side by side – could,once again, become the option ofchoice rather than a last resort.”John Bibby, director of housingand community services,Lincoln City Council

“GMB wants to see a significantprogramme of new council housebuilding and direct investment tomake sure all council homes areexcellent family environments. It’stime for government to act.”Brian Strutton, nationalsecretary GMB

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2 DefendCouncilHousing

Tenants in more than 200 authorities are sticking withcouncil housing. We have themost security and legal rights,the lowest rents, the most ac-countability over our landlordand the most direct influencethrough the ballot box.

Despite decades of Governmentrobbing our rents, starving us of repairand improvement funding, as black-mail to drive us to privatisation, withthe private housing market in meltdown and housing associations goingbroke, we know council housing isworth hanging on to more than ever.

STOP THE BULLYING ANDBLACKMAILGovernment has been using the lackof investment in council housing toblackmail and bully tenants to acceptprivatisation.

Now Ministers accept that fundinghas to change and are conducting theirReview of Council Housing Finance“to ensure that we have a sustainable,long term system for financing coun-cil housing” (see p 4 & 5). But at thesame time they are pushing councilsto do another round of privatisation,beginning with new ‘Stock Option ap-praisals’. This doesn’t make sense!How can a council cost up the alterna-tives and go through a charade ofasking tenants to choose until weknow the outcome of the review?

DEMAND MORATORIUM NOWIf your council is considering or con-ducting a Stock Options Appraisal (orworse still proposing to ballot tenantson stock transfer or selling homes andland) demand a moratorium – that theyput their plans on hold – until thereview reports and has been fully eval-uated.

ENSURE STOCK OPTIONSDEBATE FAIR ANDBALANCEDCouncils employ expensive consult-ants to write reports assessing the in-vestment needed to bring all homes upto standard (a lot) – and setting thisagainst predicted income (notenough). Then they may use these fig-ures to try to drive through privatisa-tion options – claiming this is the onlyway to get improvements or fundfuture repairs.

ALMO TENANTS BEWARE!The first authorities with ALMOs arenow proposing to privatise theirhomes (see page 6).

CHECK WHAT YOURCOUNCIL IS DOING – ANDCHALLENGE THEM:� Democracy – is the options grouprepresentative, or hand-picked and ex-

clusive? Are resources available forboth sides to put their case to all ten-ants so that there’s a fair and balanceddebate, followed by a ballot?� Challenge the financial case. Whatassumptions are made about income(allowances) and expenditure? Arethey taking into account commitmentsfrom Ministers to make council hous-ing sustainable? Check for figures in-flated up or down to suit theirargument. � Check the facts for empty promises.Privatisation puts tenants at risk, oftenmeans homes for sale being built onour kids playgrounds or other openspaces.� We pay enough rent to manage andmaintain our homes (see pages 4/5) –Councils need to back our fight fordirect investment.� Don’t let the council muddle up thefinancial and the political arguments andpresent their views as ‘facts’ whilst alter-

Lobbying Parliament

2.5 MILLION COUNCILTENANTS WON’T BE BULLIED

TRANSFER MEANSPRIVATISATIONHousing associations (‘RegisteredSocial Landlords’) are private compa-nies in law. Talk of ‘not for profit’,community-based ownership or co-op-eratives is window dressing to disguisethese basic facts. The Housing Associ-ation sector is increasingly run oncommercial principles and is driven bymergers and takeovers. “England’slargest housing association has heldtalks with the Housing Corporationabout floating the company on thestock market…” (Inside Housing, 5January 2007). Many have lobbiedParliament to be able to change intoprofit-making companies.

LOSS OF SECURE TENANCYCouncil tenants’ ‘secure’ tenancies arelost after transfer. Housing associationspromise that their tenancies give equalsecurity with the rights we have ascouncil tenants but these promisesdon’t have the same force in law as

statutory rights; and importantly, newtenants won’t get these extra promises.

MORE EXPENSIVEHousing Associations pay more forborrowing, have higher managementcosts and pay fat-cat salaries (someover £200,000). The Public AccountsCommittee of MPs found that stocktransfer costs £1,300 per home more toimprove than it would have cost underlocal authority control.

HIGHER RENTS ANDCHARGESHousing Association rents and chargesare much higher than council rents.Our council ‘secure’ tenancies guaran-tee us the legal right to a ‘reasonable’rent. Housing associations are allowedby law to charge a market rent andtheir trade body is lobbying govern-ment to be allowed to increase theirrents faster (‘Building Neighbour-hoods’, National Housing Federation,September 2007). Government has

been trying to ‘converge’ council andHousing Association rents but theirplans are now in disarray. Ministershave now put back rent convergencethree times. Originally 2012 they’renow aiming for 2024 (or never)!

LESS ACCOUNTABILITYIndividual tenants and tenants associa-tions can lobby our local ward coun-cillors and, if we don’t like the waythey run our homes, vote them out.This direct democratic relationship islost if we are privatised. Housing asso-ciations are run by a board of directorswho are legally accountable to thecompany. Having tenant Board Mem-bers is a con. “At the time of transfer,tenants are often led to believe thatthey will have an explicit role in repre-senting the interests of their fellow ten-ants on the board. This is notcompatible with the accepted principlethat as board members they have towork for the principles of the organi-sation” (‘Housing: Improving services

through residential involvement’,Audit Commission, June 2004).

RISKHousing Associations are huge, in-creasing regional or national businessesdiversifying into non housing activities.Many ‘local’ associations get swal-lowed up by monolythic big companiesa few years after ‘transfer’. Privatelandlords want to get their hands on theland our estates are built on. One fifthof transfer associations get into diffi-culty (Society Guardian, 25 May,2005). Tenants in south London, priva-tised by Presentation Housing Associa-tion, were horrified to find out justweeks after stock transfer that their newlandlord was forced into a merger “afterit failed to prove it could generateenough income to cover its loan repay-ments” (Inside Housing, 31 October2008). If things go wrong, there is noreturn. Transfer is a one-way ticket.� See DCH website for more onthe case against stock transfer.

THECASE AGAINST TRANSFER

native views are ‘propaganda’ and ‘lies’. � So-called ‘Independent Tenants Ad-visors’ or ‘Friends’ are rarely indepen-dent’ or ‘tenants’. Most make theirliving by ‘helping’ councils organisestock transfer.

EXAMINE COUNCIL’SFINANCIAL CASEExamine council’s financial case criti-cally and consider how the councilcould make a case for the ‘Fourth Op-tion’ locally, to feed into national pic-ture – ask them to join with othercouncils and tenants to press the gov-ernment for change.

KEY QUESTIONSa) Do plans reflect tenants’ priorities(government and council priorities arenot necessarily the same as ours)?b) What can council do using availableresources?c) Are all available receipts (moneyfrom sale of council homes, otherbuildings or land) spent on councilhousing?d) Are services (waste and cleansing,highways, community safety, socialservices etc) being charged to theHousing Revenue Account whichshouldn’t be? “Tenants feel that theyare paying twice for some services,through council tax and through theirrents…. some stock transfers wouldhave been unviable if [these] extracosts had been included.” (‘Narrative5: HRA Rules’, from the government’sReview of Council Housing Finance,June 2008).e) Is your rent also being siphoned offby government from your council; andhow much will government pay towrite off housing debt to subsidisestock transfer?� See DCH website for more on‘stock options’.

Many councils try and fix the outcomeof stock transfer ballots by spending afortune on one-sided propaganda;changing the date or calling ballots atshort notice, taking down materialopposing their proposals; refusingopponents access to addresses of allthose entitled to vote, etc.

In the debate on the Housing andRegeneration Bill junior HousingMinister Iain Wright promised MPsthat the government would introducea code of practice to rectify thisdemocratic deficit.

Make sure that council tenantsaren’t treated like second classcitizens on standards of democraticdebate and process. Demand thatMinisters adopt the Code of Practiceset out in the Council Housing group’s‘Consultation Principles’ amendmentto the Bill sponsored by 52 MPs.

Demand fair,balanceddebate and fulldemocraticrights

Leeds Tenants Federation is launching acampaign for fair rents and decent homes.Leeds Council tenants are paying about aquarter of their rent to the government and

never seeing the benefit in repairs or better services:about £1,000 a year less.’‘The national Housing Revenue Account should be ringfenced. Rents should be set at a level working peoplecan afford. Tenants should see what we are paying for –see a clear link between rent and services. Means testedrents should be resisted by everyone inthe tenants movement. The tenantsmovement cannot allow theirtenancy agreements to bewatered down. A national lobbyof parliament and a tenant-lednational conference would allowour united voice to be heard.”Linda McNeil, chair, LeedsTenants Federation

“The credit crunchreinforces everythingwe’ve said about theneed for direct

investment in first class councilhousing. Now is the time to step upour campaign to negotiate asettlement that secures long-termresources to guarantee a strongfinancial future for existing councilhousing and a massive new council

house buildingprogramme. We needyour help to do it –support thiscampaign!” Alan Walter, chair,Defend Council

Housing

“A national housing revenue accountmust be maintained forredistribution and making sure thereare fair shares… there should be

allowances for management, maintenance andrepairs that are up to the job of keeping councilhousing in good condition – beyond the DecentHomes standard… capital investment should bewithin the HRA and there should be a level of debtwrite-off… and a new build allowance built into theHRA… We are behind your campaign and obviouslythere should be a moratorium on stock transfers.

We all have to keep the pressureup on government to make surethat the Review of CouncilHousing delivers somethingreal.”

Heather Wakefield,UNISON Head of Local

Government

“Alive andkicking

Winchester Tenants view with concern the possibilitythat tenants paying negative subsidy, and thosereceiving subsidy could be led into a divide andrule situation by councils and central Government.

This must not be allowed to happen. Our strength comes frombeing united this is why we have come as far as we have. Weare keeping up the pressure in Winchester, as we cansee cracks appearing. So we are keeping thecouncil on its toes. We have come this far and donot intend to give up now.”Alan Rickman Chair of TACT Evening Group

“ DefendCouncilHousing 3

One hundred and ninety-six del-egates from 51 areas took partin the DCH National Conferenceon 25 November. Speechesfrom the platform, discussionin the workshops and the finalplenary debate demonstratedthe breadth, depth and deter-mination of the campaign.

Tenants Linda McNeil (chair LeedsTenants Federation), Alan Rickman(chair Winchester TACT) and AlanWalter (Camden tenant and DCHchair) were joined on the opening plat-form by MPs Austin Mitchell, FrankDobson and Paul Holmes, ProfessorPeter Ambrose and Weyman Bennettfrom Unite Against Fascism. JackDromey (Unite deputy general secre-tary) spoke in the morning whilstHeather Wakefield (UNISON head oflocal government) and Wilf Flynn(UCATT Executive) spoke in the af-ternoon. Steve Hilditch and Steve Par-tridge introduced a session andworkshop on the Review of CouncilHousing Finance.

Go to DCH website for a full reportand to download extensive conferencepapers.

In 2000 many pundits prema-turely predicted the ‘end ofcouncil housing’ after govern-ment bullishly published atarget of privatising 250,000homes a year. They told us op-position was futile! Eight yearson there are still 2.5 millioncouncil homes across the UK.

Ministers have promised theirReview of Council Housing Financewill “ensure that we have a sustain-able, long term system for financingcouncil housing” – and building newcouncil housing is being discussedaround the country!

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The House of Commons CouncilHousing group is holding a newinquiry session to gather evidence tosupport the arguments for fullyfunding allowances for Management& Maintenance and Major Repairsand for a ‘level playing field’ on gapfunding and debt write-off.

Evidence will bepresented to HousingMinister MargaretBeckett and the Reviewof Council HousingFinance team.

Get tenants organisations, tradeunions and local authorities tosubmit written evidence, answerthe MPs questionnaire andorganise a delegation to cometo Parliament 12-8pm on 25 February 2008 to give verbal evidence.

Further informationfrom AustinMitchell MP, chair, House of

Commons CouncilHousing Group, House ofCommons, London SW1A 0AAmitchellav@parliament.uk

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COME TO PARLIAMENT:25FEBRUARY

CONFERENCE SHOWSDETERMINED MOOD

Defend Council Housing, PO Box 33519, London E29WW info@defendcouncilhousing.org.ukwww.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk

Sign up to the campaign’s demands:� End the robbery and fullyfund allowances for first classcouncil housing;� Stop any further privatisationand expensive ‘stock options’appraisals;� Defend ‘secure’ tenanciesagainst mean testing or timelimits;� Demand government fund anew council house buildingprogramme.� Order copies of this newspaper todistribute widely to tenants, tradeunionists, councillors and others inyour area (£20 per 100 / £120 per1000 copies – bigger discountsnegotiatable);� Get your organisation to affiliate toDefend Council Housing, subscribeto postal mailings and register onwebsite for email broadcasts;� Help organise opposition to anyproposals to privatise homes orasset strip public land for privatehousing;� Organise a public meeting in yourarea to back the campaign’sdemands;� Organise a delegation of tenants,trade unionists and councillors tocome and give evidence to MPs atParliament on 25 February;� Ask your MP to sign the new EarlyDay Motion (see page 7).

What youcan do:

There is but one way to go and that is forgovernment to intervene, because the market hasfailed. Council housing is not just our history butour future.The tide is beginning to turn – one

Scottish council alone wants to build a thousand new councilhomes. But the tide is not moving fast enough. The governmentneeds to put new money in. But we also need to completely

change the rules in relation to council housing finance…counciltenants’ rents should go back into council housing.”Jack Dromey, UNITE deputy general secretary

� Stop the robbery:ring-fence all theincome from tenantsrents and housingcapital receipts

� Fully fund allowancesfor management,maintenance and repair ofcouncil housing at “level ofneed” from within a ring-fenced national HRA

� Adequatelyrecognise needs ofdifferent types ofauthorities anddifferent housingstock

� Allowauthorities toplan ahead byguaranteeingfunding formulafor 30 years

4 DefendCouncilHousing

It is a scandal that the Treasurytakes money from tenants rentsand ‘right to buy’ receipts –treating council housing as a‘cash cow’.

It is even more outrageous that theythen bully and blackmail tenants toaccept privatisation arguing thatthere’s no public funds to moderniseour homes. Politicians of coursedropped this argument when they sawthe chance to divide the campaign bypromoting arms length companies.ALMO borrowing is ‘on balance’sheet – they could have given the extramoney direct to councils but hopedthat the new private company formulawould make two-stage privatisationeasier (see page 7).

As three consecutive Labour Partyconferences have agreed, “ring-fenc-ing all the income from tenants rents,capital receipts as well as equal treat-ment on debt write off and gap fund-ing” (Composite 10 passed atLabour Party conference, 2006)would fund the management,maintenance, repair and im-provement of existing councilhousing and make build-ing new council hous-ing viable too.

In December 2007then Housing Minis-ter (now chief sec-retary to theTreasury) YvetteCooper announced areview of council hous-

ing finance. She promised the reviewwould “ensure that we have a sustain-able, long term system for financingcouncil housing” and “consider evi-dence about the need to spend on man-agement, maintenance and repairs”.

The review follows the govern-ment’s own ‘opt out’ pilot whichdemonstrated that government wasmassively under-funding allowancesfor council housing. “We are talkingabout the major repairs allowanceacross the country being 40 per centshort of what most people would esti-mate is a minimum investment need

over 30 years” (StevePartridge, Housing

Quality Networkconsultant sup-

porting thereview group,

Inside Housing,14 March 2008). A ‘Fourth Option’

based on fully fundingallowances at level of need

from within a national Hous-ing Revenue Account (see

right) would provide the long

term settlement supporters of councilhousing have been demanding.

END THE ‘ROBBERY’ NOW!Government’s announcement of thelevel of allowances and rents forcouncil housing (Draft Subsidy De-termination) involves the ‘robbery’increasing by a further £248 millionto £1.83 billion for 2009/10! Rentswill be assumed to increase by 6.2%from April and a further 6.1% inApril 2010 but allowances only go up2.6%.

In a Parliamentry Answer, Minis-ters have admitted that under thepresent arrangements the robberyfrom tenants rents is set to increaseyear on year. Lobby your MP: askthem what they are doing about stop-ping this outrage and insist they sup-port the campaign’s demand that allthe money from tenants rents and re-ceipts is ring-fenced nationally tofully fund allowances at ‘level ofneed’!

WALES AND SCOTLANDIn Wales allowances are distributedby the Assembly whilst in Scotlandcouncils keep all their rents. How-ever, in both cases – alongside Eng-land – council housing would benefitif the Westminster government endedthe discrimination against councilhousing and agreed to a ‘level play-ing field’ on debt write-off and gapfunding available if councils privatisetheir homes.

Some councils are encouraging ten-ants to support breaking up the na-tional Housing Revenue Account(HRA). The Local Government Asso-ciation (LGA), Chartered Institute ofHousing (CIH) and others havebacked this demand in a policy state-ment ‘My rent went to Whitehall’.Keeping all rents locally can initiallysound attractive. But behind the talkof ‘localism’, greater accountabilityand supposed ‘business efficiencies’ liereal risks for tenants. If we lose the na-tional unity of the council housingsector it will make it politically easierfor supporters of privatisation to bullytenants into accepting stock transferdown the line. Leaving the nationalHRA, like stock transfer, is a ‘one way

ticket’ – there’s no going back. There’s a real risk that council

business plans fail. It’s easy to see howin the current economic climate finan-cial assumptions could prove wrong,and senior officers and elected coun-cillors could end up making bad fi-nancial decisions. If the business plangoes pear-shaped for any reason theauthority would be telling tenants ithas no choice but to sell off our homes.

The priority that most council ten-ants value is securing resources tomanage, maintain, repair and im-prove our homes. It’s doubtfulwhether abstract principles like ‘localautonomy’ will benefit tenants in mostauthorities. Getting government tofully fund Management & Mainte-

nance and Major Repairs Allowances– within the national HRA – secures asustainable future for council housingwithout exposing tenants and theirhomes to changes in inflation, interest

rates and other economic factorswhich leaving the national HRAwould involve. There’s less risk fortenants leaving responsibility formacro economics with government al-lowing tenants and elected councillorsto concentrate on ensuring the al-lowances are spent in tenants’ best in-terests.

No doubt government will offerbribes or other ‘incentives’ to getcouncils to ‘opt out’. We’re likely to besubjected to a ‘divide and rule’ strat-egy talking up differences between au-thorities (north v south, metropolitanv rural, positive v negative subsidy) toset tenants against one another. Thewhole experience of the tenants move-ment – including fighting for ‘secure’

WHAT WE’RE DEMANDING:

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‘FOURTH OPTIO

� Provide level playingoff and gap funding fortheir homes by taking oand giving additional reauthorities unable to mHomes’ as a minimum

For more details – and to see how yoursee www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/d

‘Robbery’: the difference becouncils receive for the man

Determined to win

Government needs anurgent rethink ontraditional labourparty policies and

central to that should be theprovision of decent, affordable,secure and democratically controlledpublic housing. No more smoke andmirrors on this issue, the answer issimple; direct investment.”Alan Ritchie, general secretaryUCATT

“Tenants do not actually own theassets, so why should our currentrents be paying for historic debt?The government could drop thedebt, and increase managementand maintenance allowancessuggested by its own research thatthey are currently £1,300 million toolow.” John Marais, tenant rep,Cambridge HousingManagement Board

“There are as many people oncouncil waiting lists as there everwas under the ThatcherGovernment. Building, improving andbuying in houses to be owned,maintained and managed bydemocratic local councils is now themost urgent, but missingcomponent of a sensible housingpolicy.”Ken Purchase MP

“The additional £7.4 million thatSutton would gain from theseproposals [fully funded allowances]would go a long way towards bothachieving and sustaining our homesto a decent standard. We will alsoknow that the proposals would fairlymeet the need for all other counciltenants.” Jean Crossby, Chair ofSutton Federation of TRAs

“Many of our members arestruggling just to make ends meet.Housing is a major issue and accessto affordable, well-maintainedcouncil housing is more essentialthan ever. PCS supports the call forthe ‘Fourth Option’ to allow councilsto invest in first class housing foryears to come.”Mark Serwotka, generalsecretary PCS (civil servantsunion) pictured above

“Tenants’ campaigns againstprivatisation have put councilhousing at the top of the politicalagenda. With the current crisis thesolution is to give councils fair andequitable funding to allow them tobuild the homes with ‘secure’tenancies we so desperately need.” Patricia Rowe, tenant TauntonDeane

“Our negative subsidy has gone upand we are going to be paying theaverage of £1,500 per unit. How canwe plan a proper business case todo the repairs and modernisationthat we need?” Cllr CatherineSmart, Housing Executivemember, Cambridge

TRY THE DCH ‘HRAREADY RECKONER’Go to www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk to see how much yourauthority would receive ifgovernment agreed to fully fundedallowances for management,maintenance and repairs.

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Breaking up the national HRA is

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tenancies, opposing ‘market’ rents,demanding our landlords consult andlisten to us and fighting against therobbery – is that we’re stronger whenwe stick together across the country.

Tenants should also ask themselveswhy some councils are suddenly talk-ing about a ‘tax on tenants’. Manyhave regularly dipped into their HRAto fund non housing services thatshould properly be funded by all resi-dents from the council tax ; they havediverted receipts from selling councilhousing or land to pay for other capi-tal projects. Cynics would ask if someauthorities want to stop ‘negative sub-sidy’ nationally only so they cansiphon off funds locally to pay forneighbourhood, environmental and

other services, subsidising their coun-cil tax – at the expense of council ten-ants.

There is clearly an advantage incouncils being able to plan ahead butthis doesn’t have to depend on ‘optingout’. If we secure a new financeregime based on government fullyfunding allowances from within thenational HRA there is no reason whya formula can’t be agreed that allowsauthorities to predict their incomeover a 30 year period and so plan ac-cordingly – without risk to tenants!Critically the new funding regimemust be implemented immediately –not wait until 2010 – and governmentshould increase allowances for 2009-10 to tide councils over.

per home (£4.7 billion national total)back in services. Government letscouncils keep just £1,720 per home(£3.4 billion) for management andmaintenance and £671 (£1.3 billion)for major repairs. Nationally, thismeans the government will robtenants to the tune of £1.7 billion thisyear, and it’s increasing (Figures fromDCLG subsidy determination2008/2009).

“Receipts from the Right-to-Buysales of council housing that haveyielded around £45 billion – only aquarter has been recycled intoimproving public housing.” (JosephRowntree Foundation 01/12/05).

Stock transfer has produced £6.08billion ‘Total Transfer Price’ – moneywhich comes from council housingand should have been reinvested incouncil housing (UK Housing Review

2006/2007). The answer to a keyParliamentary Question shows that ontop of the money taken from our rentto fund historic debt government isprofiting this year by a further £198million (widening the gap in the graph,see left) rising to an estimated £894million per year by 2022! (PQ Answer155558, 19 June 2008, Appendix A).This will raise the total robbery(difference between rents andallowances) above £2 billion per year!

Government robs money from councilhousing in two ways: Firstly it collectsmore in rents than it pays inallowances to local authorities tomanage, maintain (M&M) and carryout major repairs (MRA) to ourhomes.

The ‘Moonlight Robbery Campaign’estimates that this amounts to morethan £19 billion since 1997.Secondly, government takes 75% ofthe capital receipt from ‘right to buy’sales and has benefited from stocktransfer receipts. In 2008/09 eachtenant will pay £3,120 per home inrent (£6.4 billion according to the HRAReview team) but only receive £2,391

In the last few years government hassaid that around £1.2 billion a year ofthe ‘robbery’ from tenants rents goesto support historic debt because, theyargue, existing tenants should pay thecost of building council homes in thefirst place.

Because the current system isdeeply unpopular and unsustainablethey are looking at new formulae, re-packaging and maybe redistributingcharges for historic debt. “This chargewould effectively represent the valueof past and present investment bycentral government into councilhousing that itought to be entitled toearn a return on.” (The Cost of

Capital, Keith Jackson, HM Treasury,June 2008)

There are a number of arguments

MANAGEMENT ANDMAINTENANCEResearch commissioned by governmentfrom the Building ResearchEstablishment (BRE) in 2001-02showed that Management andMaintenance Allowances should havebeen £5.5 billion when in fact theywere only £3 billion. In 2004Parliament was given an update andtold “Hence the 2004-2005 level ofallowances would have to increase byabout 67% in real terms to reach theestimated level of need” (PQ 170503/04 29 April 2004). Adjusted fortoday’s prices and stock numbers, the

BRE’s findings show that M&Mallowances are now about £1,300million too low.

MAJOR REPAIRSAccording to the report from thegovernment’s ‘opt out’ pilot studycurrent Major Repairs allowances“undercuts basic investment needs by43 per cent over 30 years” (InsideFinance, March 2008). This amountsto £950 million a year. Councilhousing allowances need to be fundedby an additional £2.25 billion (£1.3 bM&M plus £0.95 b MRA) per annumto meet actual need.

against council tenants having to payhistoric debt in any form:1. Council tenants neither own theasset nor benefit from capital receiptsfrom the sale of council housing. Likehospitals and schools it belongs to thepublic. Since we do not have afinancial ‘interest’ in the asset weshould not be responsible for servicingthe debt.2. The proceeds from ‘right to buy’and stock transfer have been morethan enough to allow government topay off the remaining historic debt(around £12 billion) three times over. 3. Government takes over anyoutstanding debt (and pays gapfunding) when councils stock transferhomes. If government can subsidiseprivatisation they can do the same to

respect the choice of tenants to staywith the local authority (see PQ186840, Appendix B ‘Gap Funding’).4. Government does not attempt torecover public subsidy from homeowners, though homeownership is themost heavily subsidised form of housingin England: £18.4 billion in 2004-5compared to £15.4 billion on bothcouncil and housing association housing,including housing benefit! (Hills: Ends

and Means, LSE, February 2007).5. There is no proposal to recoverSocial Housing Grant and otherfunding to Housing Associations orother landlords.

If government subsidises manyforms of housing why are only counciltenants expected to pay back theTreasury?

HOW GOVERNMENT ROBSOUR RENTS AND RECEIPTS

UNDERFUNDING ALLOWANCESRENTS

ALLOWANCES

1998

-99

1999

-00

2000

-01

2001

-02

2002

-03

2003

-04

2004

-05

2005

-06

2006

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2007

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2008

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TENANTS SHOULDN’T HAVE TOPAY FOR THE ‘HISTORIC DEBT’

Government says that the outcome oftheir review must be ‘financiallyneutral’ – ie government shouldn’t berequired to put money into councilhousing. That’s a bit rich consideringhow much they’ve siphoned off overthe years!

But they are discussing only fourareas: money taken out of the HousingRevenue Account, the amount spenton Housing Benefit, the level of

borrowing as it affects the PublicSector Borrowing Requirement, andthe administrative costs of the system.There is a fifth area of governmentfinance which relates to councilhousing: the vast subsidies for transferof council housing to the private sector.

Between 2000-01 and 2006-07£2,436 million – nearly £2.5 billion –was spent writing off overhanging debtfor councils which transferred

(Parliamentary Question 25/02/08). A further £387 million has been

spent on gap funding (ParliamentaryQuestions 19/02/07 and 10/03/08).

Government is clearly prepared todig deep to subsidise privatisation.Resources available to subsidise gapfunding and overhanging debt forprivatisation should be made availablefor direct investment in councilhousing.

PRIVATISATION ‘BAD VALUE’

ON’NOW!

� Announce an immediatemoratorium on stock optionsappraisals, sale of council homesand land and further stock transfersuntil the outcome of the review isimplemented

g field on debt writer councils retainingover historic debtesources tomeet ‘Decentm standard

r authority would benefit if allowances are fully funded – dch/dch_housingfinance.cfm

etween the rent tenants pay and the allowancesnagement, maintenance and repair of our homes

NEW RESEARCH TOIDENTIFY FUNDING GAPDCH successfully argued that theDepartment for Communities & LocalGovernment should commission newresearch into how much is neededto fund the management,maintenance and ongoing repair ofcouncil homes. The research hasbeen completed – but not yetpublished (Dec 2008). Tenants willneed to make sure that theconclusions are not manipulated toreduce the cost implications as oftenoccurs with governmentcommissioned research.

risky for tenants

““Despite all the Government’s warmwords councils do not have themoney to modernise and maintainall their existing Council Housing andneither the money or the freedom tobuild new housing. It is time to giveLocal Authorities in the UK the samefreedoms to meet local communityneeds that their counterparts inEurope have.” Paul Holmes MP

DefendCouncilHousing 5

Some ALMOs are now promotingprivatisation by stock transferor morphing into public/ privatepartnerships – “two-stage” pri-vatisation as we predicted.

Oldham’s ‘First Choice Homes’and Warrington’s ‘Golden Gates

Housing’ are threatening to privatisehomes and Stockon’s TriStar andKensington & Chelsea are also con-sidering it. Whilst many tenants werepromised the ALMO was only a tem-porary vehicle that would be woundup once the Decent Homes work wascompleted, DCH always warnedthere was a strong lobby to makesure this doesn’t happen.

In some authorities tenants haveseen big sums spent on expensive setup costs but the ALMO hasn’t yetbeen given access to additional fund-ing. In others the promised improve-ments have been scaled back andpromises to tenants broken! “The lastwave of arm’s-length managementorganisations looks set for a much

tougher funding regime than previ-ous rounds” (Inside Housing, 15February 2008).

It’s critical that tenants, tradeunionists, councillors and MPs inALMO authorities recognise that ourlong term interests lie in joining upwith those in ‘retained’ authoritiesand throw our weight behind thecampaign to win the ‘Fourth Option’.Now is the time to re-unite the ‘coun-cil housing family’ across more than200 authorities that still have councilhomes to secure the future of allcouncil housing. Help make sure thattenants in your area have the benefitof a full, fair and balanced debateabout the options with equal re-sources for all sides to put their case. Michael Meacher MP

Opposing two-stageprivatisation of ALMOs

Council tenants ofSwansea voted tostick with the electedcouncil... want to

see improvements to their homesand estates as well as new, highquality Council homes. They wantsecure tenancies, reasonable rentlevels and a Council landlord thatthey can hold to account at theballot box. These are notunreasonable demands. They arewhat our Labour government shouldbe delivering by providing ‘the FourthOption’ now.” Martin Caton MP

“We’ve had three consultative votesand none less than 95% on eachoccasion has voted to stay withcouncil provision… at Bolsover weneed a level playing field for extrainvestment… All we want to do isplay along a level field with otherhousing providers.”Cllr Keith Bowman, HousingCabinet member Bolsover

“Everyone accepts the system offinancing council housing is currentlyunder funded, becomingunsustainable, becoming unstable…Rent increases above inflation forcouncil housing are ‘highlycontroversial’.”Steve Hilditch, consultantfacilitating Review of CouncilHousing Finance

“

6 DefendCouncilHousing

All 2.5 million council tenants have acommon interest. Whether we are in‘retained’ authorities (direct councilmanagement) or ALMO (ArmsLength Management Organisation) –we need to unite the ‘council housingfamily’ to step up pressure on govern-ment to agree the ‘Fourth Option’.

We all need to win additional re-sources to address the black hole in ourcouncil’s Housing Revenue Account to

fund improvements and ongoing man-agement, maintenance and repairs tosustain first class council housing foryears to come. Ministers keep trying todivide and rule or bully and blackmailus into accepting their proposals.

They produced the bribe of publicinvestment if councils set up new armslength companies (ALMOs). It wouldhave cost exactly the same to have re-spected tenants’choice and allowed

councils to borrow direct. They hopedthe new formula would break the backof the campaign and make it easier tocome back at a later date and privatisethe ALMOs one by one. It was a diffi-cult decision for tenants – and manywere never really given a properchoice. Those decisions are nowbehind us. The point now isn’t to re-criminate but unite.

There are signs today that some

politicians want to try and divide usagain by proposing to break up the na-tional Housing Revenue Account (seepages 4/5) and asset strip council landusing Local Housing Companypublic/ private partnerships (seebelow). It’s crucial that the alliance oftenants, unions, councillors and MPscalling for direct investment in councilhousing remains united to make surethey don’t succeed.

Government is heavily promoting newLocal Housing Companies (sometimesalso called ‘special purpose vehicles’ or‘local development vehicles’). But anyschemes which rely on private finance– from regeneration to Local HousingCompanies – are risky - and 'bad value'.It makes far more sense to put publicgrants into public (council) housingrather than subsidising private develop-ers and builders.

To set up a public/private partner-ship councils must make assumptionsabout interest rates, rates of inflation,and house prices over the next 20 or 30years. The Barking and Dagenham

There are persistent calls to scrap ‘se-cure’ council tenancies and introducemean testing and time limits to takeaway our hard won rights. Those whosupport this neo-liberal agenda wantcouncil housing only for the desper-ate, allowing the private sector toasset strip council homes and land,and forcing everyone into home own-ership or the private rented market.

In 2007 the Smith Institute pub-lished ‘Rethinking Social Housing’,

scheme, which only proposes to pro-vide 25% of the new homes for rent(and as RSL ‘assured’ not council ‘se-cure’ tenancies), is based on houseprices going up by 2.5%. If house pricesdo not rise then the ‘profit’ from thescheme will be halved and there will beeven less homes for rent. If they fallthen the whole LHC would become un-viable (potentially leaving the councilout of pocket). With prices for newhomes falling, the cost of credit rising,and inflation unstable, the picture islikely to end up even worse than pro-jected as developers and lenders insiston protecting their profits.

Public/private partnerships have adisastrous track record. Impressivesounding objectives to meet public needat the beginning of projects invariablyget scaled back. The private sector ‘part-ners’ will be looking to maximise prof-its and minimise their exposure if thebusiness plan goes pear-shaped andcouncils have a poor record of effec-tively policing these schemes.

Since Ministers have now concededthat councils can apply for ‘Social Hous-ing Grant’ on the same terms as otherlandlords and retain rents and receipts itmakes sense for councils to build newcouncil housing on council land.

UNITE THE ‘COUNCIL HOUSING’FAMILY TO WIN ‘FOURTH OPTION’

LOCAL HOUSING COMPANIESARE NOT THE SOLUTION

arguing council housing encourages‘dependency’ and should only beavailable as a short term emergencyfallback. Ruth Kelly, then Secretary ofState, enthusiastically followed up of-fering to ‘help’ tenants into homeownership. She wanted Professor JohnHills to recommend an end to ‘secure’council tenancies in his ‘Review ofSocial Housing’, but he refused.

Caroline Flint, then Housing Min-ister, called for ‘commitment con-tracts’. In October 2008 the CharteredInstitute of Housing weighed in with‘Rethinking Housing’ proposing tomeans test and time limit tenancies.

The latest proposals from the ToryCentre for Social Justice are similarlycrude. They argue “The time is rightto reposition social housing as a sup-port mechanism, rather than a termi-nal destination”. “the law should bechanged so that local authorities are

free to use new and existing socialhousing as it becomes vacant, as theysee fit” and “free to let social homeson whatever terms they judge mostappropriate”. They also comment “thetenant veto has prevented it [stocktransfer] taking off effectively”(Housing Policy, Centre for SocialJustice, November 2008).

It’s less than thirty years sincecouncil tenants campaigned and won‘secure’ tenancies. Before the 1980Housing Act council tenants had fewrights and little protection (see ‘De-fending Principles’ text link at top ofDCH website).

Tenants across the country need tore-create effective independent organ-isation to stand up to these latest at-tacks. Distribute this newspaper andorganise a public meeting in your areato mobilise tenants to defend our ‘se-cure’ tenancies.

DEFEND ‘SECURE’ TENANCIES

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the professional body for hous-ing, must live in a different world. They say: “Today, a home is much morethan a place to live. It is also, and indeed sometimes only, an investment,

a pension, an income, an office, a business and sometimes a potential liability. Society has moved on but our basic principles of public housing policy have not.”The CIH propose “a system of flexible tenure in which all new lets can be reviewedafter a set period of time... but that the existing terms and conditions are not anoption”.Perhaps if housing policy makers went back to their job and supportedbuilding a new generation of first class council homes – rather than pursuing neoliberal social engineering – we wouldn’t have a shortage of secure housing peoplecan afford and such a deep housing crisis!

We need to get out astrong message totenants in ALMOauthorities like

Oldham (my own constituency) andWarrington now being pressured toaccept the second part of two-stageprivatisation by stock transfer.Elected councils should be standingby their tenants to make sure thatthe Review of Council HousingFinance delivers the promisedsettlement to make council housingsustainable and joining the call forgovernment to fully fund allowancesat ‘level of need’ as an alternative toprivatisation.”

“More people are in serious financialdifficulties as housing eats up an everbigger proportion of household in-comes. Professor Peter Ambrose toldthe DCH conference “housing is af-fordable only if you can pay for itafter all other household costs to livea healthy and safe life has been cov-ered.”

His Housing Affordability Stan-dard (HAS), based on the MinimumIncome Standards methodology usedto calculate the London Living Wage(LLW), shows “For a family of twoadults and two children, living in eastLondon and on LLW pay, the HAS is£135 per week. On the National Min-imum Wage only £86 is available forhousing.”

Professor Ambrose’s extensive re-search has found “This increase in theimpact of housing costs on householdbudgets…means less money is avail-able for good food, holidays, social

life, home support for school children,pension self-provision and other im-portant items that protect health andthe quality of life... it should be notedthat a 2007 UNICEF review of childwellbeing in 21 rich countries foundthe UK at the bottom of the league”(Cometh the hour – Cometh the hous-ing drive, November 2008).

Many council tenants currently en-titled to Housing Benefit could be hithard by proposals to keep pushing upcouncil rents, cap how much rentHousing Benefit might cover andforce claimants into [low paid] work.The Department for Work and Pen-sions’ white paper on welfare reformincludes proposals to “introduce ab-solute rent levels or time-based bene-fits – requiring tenants to move tocheaper accommodation after aperiod” (Inside Housing, 12 Decem-ber 2008). This could restrict poortenants to run-down estates!

‘Affordable’ usually isn’t!

Why should councilhouse tenants betreated as if theywere somehow in

transit? Instead of making peoplefeel that council house occupancyis little more than a temporaryaberration we should be buildinghomes fit for the future andhomes to be proud of.” Dave Anderson MP

“

DefendCouncilHousing 7Government has to provide funds to enableall councils to meet the Decent Homesminimum standard. It must also stopcoercing housing authorities into stock

transfer and stop siphoning money from tenants’ rents andcapital receipts. We need a strong, well-resourcednational council housing sector, so I strongly opposebreaking up the national Housing Revenue Accountas this will lead to more privatisation in the difficultyears, which lie ahead.” David Taylor MP North West Leicestershire

“27 November 2008To Minister for Housing; Margaret Beckett

Dear Margaret Beckett

We are angry and dismayed to learn that despite much trumpeting,the proposed ‘Tenants Voice’ body will not give tenants arepresentative voice, but will once again attempt to hand-pick vettedindividuals who are not elected by or accountable to tenants’representative organisations.

We are writing to endorse the following resolution passed almostunanimously by the London conferences on NTV earlier this year:

1. Government should respect view of tenants;2. Government should require landlords to fund independenttenants organisation at local level;3. Any national body set up to represent tenants should bemade up of tenants reps who are directly elected andaccountable to tenants;4. We need a clear process for tenants organisations to putproposals to the national body;5. Before any formal proposal is put to government we shouldbe reconvened and consulted again.

Yours sincerelyMeric Apak, chair Camden Federation of Tenants and ResidentsAssociations, and:

CAMPAIGN MAKES ADIFFERENCECampaigning makes a real difference.We’ve fought off numerous attemptsto try and introduce market rents,reduce our security and take away ourrights. Where we’ve been strong andwell organised we’ve managed tofight off privatisation and now we’vegot government promising to makecouncil housing financially sustain-able and start building new first classcouncil homes. Experience showsthat a broad campaign that unites allthose who oppose privatisation is es-sential to defend our homes and ourrights.

Working with tenant groups, tradeunions, councillors and MPs of allparties (excluding fascists who wantto exploit racism and divide us) wecan pull powerful forces behind us.The best campaigns have been bigand bold: leafleting every home andgetting posters up on our estates;holding public meetings where welive and in town centres; writing let-ters to the press.

It’s no surprise there are moves toundermine the best traditions of theindependent tenants movement.‘Consultation’ often feels like a‘con’. In the place of democratic ten-ants meetings where everyone canhave their say, listen to each others’opinions and then vote on formalproposals we get herded into smallsanitised focus groups dominated byprofessional ‘facilitators’ to playgames with Post-it notes and handpicked steering groups – oftengagged by confidentiality clauses –who never consult or report back toanyone.

It’s important that tenants repre-sentatives are elected by and repre-senting ordinary tenants, and aremandated and accountable to them(see letter right). But there are en-

couraging signs of a revival of inde-pendent tenants organisations pre-pared to ignore the flattery and refusethe seductive offers of funding if con-ditions attached restrict our demo-cratic rights to speak and organise.

We expect and demand that, how-ever we organise ourselves, our land-lords hand over funds from our rentsto finance our independent tenantsmovement, with no strings attached.

BROAD BASED AND UNITEDDCH brings together tenants, tradeunionists, councillors and MPs on abroad basis. Everyone who supportscouncil housing is welcome – exceptthe Nazi BNP who are trying to ex-ploit housing to divide our communi-ties. Local campaigns that follow this‘united’ model make the most impact,giving tenants the confidence that wecan defeat privatisation and win directinvestment.

If your council (or ALMO) is pro-posing stock transfer, setting uppublic/private partnerships or if youwant to demand the council build newcouncil housing there’s a wealth ofexperience around the country youcan draw on.

ASK YOUR MP TO SIGN NEWEARLY DAY MOTION: EDM355 ‘COUNCIL HOUSEBUILDING’Get your MP to sign the new EarlyDay Motion in Parliament to supportthe campaign http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37366&SESSION=899“That this House points out theurgent need to boost the economy bya massive programme of public in-vestment to improve existing councilhomes and estates and build a newgeneration of first-class council hous-ing to provide secure tenancies andlow rents, and managed by an ac-countable landlord of the type thelarge numbers of people in housingneed desire; and calls on Government

to stop taking money out of tenants’rents and to ring-fence all rents andreceipts within a national housingrevenue account, to fully fund al-lowances to local authorities for themanagement, maintenance and repairof council homes at level of need,along with a level playing field ongap funding and debt write-off so asto secure the long-term future forcouncil housing and to provide fund-ing to build new council homes thusallowing authorities to open up theirallocation policies once again to thewide range of people on councilhousing waiting lists so that butchers,bakers, nurses and teachers can livetogether with young families andpensioners thus returning our estatesto the mixed and sustainable commu-nities they used to be, and to providea sustainable housing policy offeringsecurity and stability for the 21st cen-tury.”

UNITED, WELL ORGANISED AND INDEPENDENT… Add your name to this open letter:

To add your name contact: Camden Federation of Tenants &Residents Associations, 11/17 Camden Street, London NW1 0HEoffice@camdenfed.org

TOGETHERWE CAN WIN

Viki Matten chair Downs EstateTenant Management Organisation(Hackney)Denise Moses, Carlisle and RuralTenants FederationCarol Thipthorp Secretary SouthendTenants and Residents FederationAnn Holme chair, Wirral TenantsFederation David Wright (Secretary) BlackpoolResidents FederationDave Morris Secretary HaringeyFederation of ResidentsAssociationsJean Crossby Sutton Federation ofTenants and Residents AssociationsGail Burton Boundary EstateTenants and Residents Association;Pawla Cottage, Columbia EstateTenants and Residents Association(Tower Hamlets)Dawn Humphries, Federation ofSouthampton tenants and residentsassociationsJim Thomson Secretary Exetertenants & residents Association,Corby

Mark Bellas, for Enfield Federation ofTenants and Residents AssociationsGrace Ganden secretary HillingdonFederation of Tenants Anne Ames chair Chase Tenants andResidents Federation W. Whelan Chair Stevenage Tenantsand Association (FOSTA) Barbara Goldstein Chair SloughFederation of Tenants and ResidentsAnna Vine-Lott Company SecretaryCambridge FederationRosario Munday chair, Graham Nichollsvice chair Lambeth Tenants CouncilSadiq Mohamed Honorary SecretaryKingston Federation of ResidentsWisewood & District Tenants andResidents AssociationStubbin Community Tenants andResidents Association Shiregreen Tenants and ResidentsAssociation; Westfield Tenants and ResidentsAssociations (Sheffield)Terence J Edwards Chair MESH;Frampton Park Tenants and ResidentsAssociation,

Lambeth tenants protest against rent increases

Copies of this national newspaper £20 per 100 / £120 per 1000 Case for Council Housing pamphlet £10 (or £2.50 for individual tenants / bulkorders)Dear Gordon 2 pamphlet £5 (or £1.50 individual tenants /bulk orders)Annual subscription to CampaignMailings & Briefings £15

Annual affiliation fees:Tenants/Community Organisations: Local £10 District/Regional £25 National £50Trade Union Organisations: Local £50 District/Regional £100 National £250

AFFILIATE AND ORDER MATERIAL FROM DCH

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Send to: Defend Council Housing, PO Box 33519, London E2 9WW

The argument thattenants mustactively seek workor have a job or

they are at risk of losing theirsecure tenancies, disgusts me!We are the fattened cow and our

rent moniesare used bylocalauthoritiesand thegovernmentas a nicelittle earner.” Lyn Ralph,chair,DoncasterFederationof Tenants

“

More and morefamilies are comingto my constituencyadvice surgery faced

with repossession of their homesand with no alternativeaccommodation to go to. Allbecause there are no councilhomes to house people securely.This was not acceptable in the1960s when we watched ‘CathyCome Home’ and it is notacceptable now. We need amassive programme of councilhouse building and we need it now

to give people adecent home and tohelp get us out ofthis recession.”John McDonnellMP

“If people are unhappy at thestandard of housing, they have anoption where there is councilhousing. That option is the localelections… What right will futuregenerations have to hold their localpolitical leadership to account aboutwhat it is doing locally on housingand homelessness?”Adam Price MP

“

gling to make ends meet during theeconomic crisis, chief executiveSteve Douglas has said… InsideHousing is receiving weekly callsfrom people warning that differentassociations are running into finan-cial problems” (Inside Housing, 24

October 2008).“If there are casualties that re-

quire assistance, and they aremedium-to-large, that could have se-rious confidence issues for the sector– it would push up perceived riskand the cost of borrowing and would

make it even tougher for those leftin the sector” (Peter Hammond, ofTribal Group’s housing financeteam, Inside Housing, 2 October2008).

Housing associations use tenants’homes as security for borrowing.They could ultimately be forced tosell homes built with public subsi-dies. Some are already cutting backon maintenance to cover increasedborrowing costs.

Councils are far from perfect butthey are more accountable, less dis-torted by commercial business prac-tices, can access cheaper borrowingand pay less fat cat salaries.

So council housing is moresecure and charges lower rents andit’s cheaper to build, manage andmaintain than the private alterna-tives. Council housing makes eco-nomic and social sense!

Britain urgently needs a bighousebuilding programme toprovide homes, jobs and givea boost to the economy. In-vesting in a new generation offirst class council homesmakes urgent sense.

The private market has never de-livered secure housing for workingpeople at a price many can afford.For 20 years government closed thedoor on councils building and di-verted public funding to so-calledRegistered Social Landlords (Hous-ing Associations). But these havelargely failed to deliver. Many arenow in serious financial trouble after

A new council house buildingprogramme would return our es-tates to the mixed communitiesthey used to be with butchers,bakers, nurses and teachersliving side by side with youngparents and pensioners. Itwould reverse the narrowing ofhousing allocation caused bythe shortage of council housing.

Until the 1980s one in threehouseholds were council tenants andcouncil estates were genuinelymixed. As Professor John Hillsshowed, in 1979 ‘20% of the richesttenth lived in social housing’ (Endsand Means, LSE, Feb 2007).

Some politicians and housingpolicy makers are now arguing that‘mixed tenure’ will achieve ‘mixedcommunities’. But this stigmatisescouncil housing as housing of ‘lastresort’ rather than a ‘tenure ofchoice’. It’s also a thin justificationfor letting private developers assetstrip valuable public land at knockdown prices.

Investing in a new generation offirst class council housing, well de-signed, well built with access to goodtransport, shops and community fa-cilities would provide secure homeswith low rents and an accountablelandlord that Britain needs for the21st Century.

‘diversifying’ into building for sale,suspect lending arrangements andpartnerships with private developers.

Government is encouraging coun-cils to set up public/private partner-ships. These Local HousingCompanies (LHCs) – sometimescalled Special Purpose Vehicles(SPVs) – were meant to build equalnumbers of ‘affordable’ and privatemarket homes. But whilst councilsput in valuable public land and de-velopers get public grants, at best,only a quarter of homes built arelikely to be for rent. And, becausethey’re a public/private partnership,none of the homes would be ‘council

housing’ with ‘secure’ tenancies! It’sbad value!

The New Deal for Communities‘partnership’ in Solihull shows whatcan happen. It has consumed morethan £50 million of public money, de-molished thousands of homes andnow the private ‘partners’ have de-clared they can’t afford to build the

new housing they promised! (BBCRadio5Live, November 2008). OtherNew Deal schemes are suspected tobe in similar trouble (let DCH knowabout schemes in your area).

Elected councillors should beforced to hold a full public debateand consultation before committingthemselves to public/private partner-ships and carry out a thoroughfeasability study into building coun-cil housing instead.

It’s crucial that early in the NewYear government gives elected coun-cils the encouragement and resourcesthey need to provide a new genera-tion of first class council homes.

Why we insist on ‘council’ not ‘social’ housing

Councilhousing as‘tenure ofchoice’

Politicians talk about ‘social’and ‘affordable’ housing pre-tending it’s the same as councilhousing. It isn’t!

Council housing is unique. Itgives tenants a stronger ‘secure’ ten-ancy, lower rents and a democrati-cally elected landlord easier to holdto account. It is not directly subjectto the private money market crashes.That’s why so many tenants have re-jected privatisation and bribes to goto a ‘social’ landlord.

Housing Associations are increas-ingly unaccountable big businessesrather than friendly local communitybased organisations. The sector isdriven by mergers and takeovers andmany are now in serious financialdifficulties.

“The Housing Corporation iskeeping ‘a close eye’ on severalhousing associations that are strug-

BUILD NEW FIRST CLASSCOUNCIL HOUSING NOW

Tenants lobby investment in council housing

IF YOUR COUNCIL HAS A HOUSING WAITING LIST:� Demand the council bring any empty homes back into use as council tenancies– organise ‘mass viewings’ to publicise your demands and get people in housingneed involved in the campaign � Oppose unnecessary demolition and selling off any council homes. Demandextra government funds to bring all voids up to the Decent Homes standard sothey can be let to council tenants � Identify public land to build new council housing on and insist the council carryout a feasability study into building new first class council housing � Check for good quality empty private housing developments and suggest thecouncil open negotiations to buy them at a discount to be let as council tenancies� Distribute this newspaper widely in your area to tenants, trade unionists,councillors and others concerned about housing� Organise a public meeting to rally support behind these demandslet as council tenancies

8 DefendCouncilHousing The recent creditcrunch and fall in houseprices has brought theneed for council houses

into very sharp focus. It is moreimportant than ever to ensure thatcouncils are given sufficient funding tomodernise their existing stock to meetthe highest environmental standards.”Frances O’Grady, deputy generalsecretary TUC

“

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In 2006-07 in England the averagerent paid by council tenants was£280 per month compared to£313 for Housing Associationtenants and £565 for assuredprivate rents. (Housing Statistics2008, CLG, 11 December 2008)

OPTION’ COUNCILHOUSING

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Tenants, trade unionists,councillors and MPsdemand:

LOWER RENTS FORCOUNCIL TENANTS

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