New pamphlet makes the case for investment in council housing » Housing » 24dash.com

'Dear Gordon 2' is the title of a new pamphlet published by Defend Council Housing. The foreword by Austin Mitchell MP is in the form of an Open Letter to Gordon Brown.
 
DCH Chair, Alan Walter, said "This pamphlet shows that we've got the arguments and there's strong support for first class council housing today. It's time government dropped the dogma and listened up!"

Tenants, trade unions, councillors and MPs make the case for government to invest in first class council housing - to improve existing, build a third generation of new council homes and make first class council housing sustainable in years to come.

According to DCH, Gordon Brown promised three million new homes last June. But the Housing and Regeneration Bill shows he's relying on the private sector to do the job and it never has delivered the decent, affordable, secure housing that people need. Today the market is in crisis with a credit crunch, negative equity and rising reposessions, new development mothballed and buy to let homes left empty.

Alan Walter added: "There are 1.67 million households on council housing waiting lists and the Local Government Association predicts this will rise to 2 million by 2010.

"2.5 million existing council tenants have rejected privatisation but many are still living in homes needing modernising and improvement yet the government dogmatically refuses to invest in first class public housing."

Last year the campaign wrote an open letter to Gordon Brown when he was still chancellor published as a pamphlet, 'Dear Gordon'.

The new campaign publication updates the arguments in the light of the current crisis and the government's failure to head the demands made by tenants, trade unions, councillors and MPs - plus three consecutive Labour Party conferences - for the 'Fourth Option' of direct investment in council housing.

Alan Walter explained: "It's a powerful case that puts Ministers on the line. Gordon Brown has several clocks ticking.

"The housing crisis is one that he could address this week by announcing the new financial framework for council housing have been demanding, tabling government amendments to the Housing & Regeneration Bill that starts its Lords Committee stage on Monday and setting out clear principles for the local authority HRA Subsidy review that Yvette Cooper announced last December with the promise "to ensure that we have a sustainable, long term system for financing council housing."