sedgefield tenants say no
WORKERS, SEPT 2005 ISSUE
All IS NOT well in Blair's back yard. Tenants in his Sedgefield constituency delivered a stunning blow in July to plans to privatise council housing. Sixty percent of those voting (on a 73% turnout) rejected the council's plans to hand over 9,000 homes to the Sunderland Housing Group, which spent a reported £720,000 in publicity for the ballot.
Alan Walter, chair of Defend Council Housing, said on hearing the result:
"This vote shows how deeply unpopular privatisation of council housing is amongst tenants. John Prescott should now keep the promise he made at the Labour Party conference last September and agree a 'level playing field'. We're willing to sit down with him and the Prime Minister to constructively work out a formula that allows all council tenants to choose to remain with the council and get the improvements to our homes."
All local authorities were supposed to submit their "stock options" intentions by July 27. More than 70 have already decided to retain their homes. Many others, including Birmingham, Southwark and Camden — where tenants have also voted No — are backing the campaign for the '"fourth option".
Those councils proposing to sell off their homes or go for the "two-stage" privatisation option of ALMOs are likely to face strong resistance from an alliance of tenants, trade unions, councillors and MPs, says Defend Council Housing.