For fifty years Labour was the party that built council housing as homes for the working class. Now Labour wants rid of council housing in the next six years so that it can build more private housing for the middle class.
 
Labour's 'Choice' of Privatisation or No Repairs
 
If you look around you from Wenlock Basin, Gainsborough Studios, along Kingsland Road, at Cremer Street and at Goldsmith’s Row you see big smart blocks of flats going up. Never council housing for our overcrowded families or our sons and daughters — always private housing for the
middle class.
Now the Government has said all council housing must reach the "decent homes standard" in the next 7 years. They have put forward three "options" to bring in the money needed - with the enthusiastic backing of our Labour council. But as usual the only choice is "what kind of privatisation do you want?":
STOCK TRANSFER — your estate sold off to a housing association
PRIVATE FINANCE (PFI) — control of your estate handed over to a private company for thirty years
ARMS LENGTH MANAGEMENT (ALMO) — a private company takes over the running of all Hackney estates for 10 years.
Yet again Labour are pushing their privatisation agenda on us and denying us the choice of staying with the council.
This Decent Homes Standard is a Con.
The council think that by saying they will finally do the repairs to our estates we will accept their privatisation plans. We say spend the millions of pounds of rent and service charges we pay on improving the cleaning and state of repairs on our estates.
We urge you to vote for the “Stay as you are” option in Hackney Council’s ballot.
Nobody trusts the council - but the council’s preferred option is for an ALMO.
Don’t be fooled by council propaganda. The ALMO only gets extra funds if Hackney provides a good service - and they haven't done so for years.
Be prepared to fight the ALMO when the council tries to impose it on us.
 

IS MR BLAIR GIVING UP ON COUNCIL HOUSING?

Daily Mirror - 3rd November
 
It is 80 years since millions of working-class slum dwellers were
thrown a lifeline by the Labour government. For the first time, poor families living in appalling conditions could escape the misery of extortionate rents imposed by ruthless landlords.
But today the Labour government is accused of betraying that legacy as Tony
Blair and John Prescott preside over the privatisation of council housing. The plans to transfer housing stock to private management have unleashed a storm in the Labour movement.
GMB union boss Kevin Curran has accused ministers of betraying council tenants who want their homes to stay in public ownership.
Campaigners predict rents will rise and tenants will get higher bills for repairs on rundown estates.
In Sunderland the GMB says tenants were "bullied and harassed" at meetings to decide whether their homes should be transferred to a Registered Social
Landlord.
Tenants complain they have
been left high and dry, with their homes being bought for a fraction of their value.
Their estates were then redeveloped into executive-style homes which were too expensive for the former tenants.
Mr Curran said: "We have seen tenants across the country reject the transfer of stock, from Camden to Wrexham. At a time when low-paid workers cannot afford to buy and when house prices are rising we need council housing."
MP Jon Cruddas told the Mirror: "It is the dominant issue in my constituency. People want their council homes to stay under the control of the council which is accountable to them in local elections."
But the three options favoured by the government all involve a move away from public ownership. Under their own plan, dubbed the "fourth option", Labour backbenchers and unions want local authorities to be able to borrow money to invest in badly needed repairs and build new affordable homes.
They say the government must invest more money, and cash from any selloffs should be reinvested in remaining council housing stock.
If the government gets its way, the legacy from the historic achievement of Labour in 1924 will be in tatters.