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| Ministers reel under council
homes blow |
Second conference defeat in row
over funding repairs
Cllr Pat Callaghan |
HOUSING ministers have suffered a bloody nose over their controversial
policy of withholding millions of pounds needed to repair Camden’s
council homes.
In the strongest warning so far that they are losing support from
within their own party, the government was told by Labour delegates
on Thursday to change its strategy and cough up direct investment.
The revolt at the Labour Party conference in Brighton was led by
Camden Town ward councillor Pat Callaghan.
Moving a motion calling for immediate action, she gave a stirring
speech in the main conference hall that drew scowls and head-shaking
from Local Government Minister David Miliband.
She said: “What we want is direct investment in council housing
with no strings attached. If all the money that belongs to council
housing was put back to fund an investment allowance, all our council
homes can be repaired and improved, and more than meet the Decent
Homes Standard.”
The rebellion comes after an 18-month deadlock between Camden Council
and the government over how improvements are funded.
The government froze its offer of £283 million for repairs
after tenants and leaseholders rejected ministers’ three funding
plans, all of which involve a change in the way homes are managed.
In January 2003, residents emphatically voted against a transfer
to a new board known as Arms’-Length Management Organisation
(Almo).
Cllr Callaghan told the conference: “The government said after
the election they would listen. We want direct investment in council
housing and we expect a Labour government to listen to the party
conference.”
Her successful motion, which won overwhelming support, follows an
eight to one vote at last year’s Labour conference in favour
of direct investment. Mr Miliband, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
and Homes Minister Yvette Cooper will now have to ignore two emphatic
votes from Labour delegates if they are to persevere with their
insistence that local authorities must transfer their housing stock.
Cllr Callaghan added: “The record of council housing is one
that most of us are proud of. It isn’t the idea of council
housing that is wrong. The problem is that councils are not allowed
to invest. Tenants, councillors and MPs all around the country are
demanding an end to the coercion of tenants.”
To loud cheers from delegates, she added: “There is enough
money. The council housing group of MPs produced a report in May
which shows the government is gaining £1.5 billion a year
from tenants’ rents and another half a billion from right to
buy.
“To persuade tenants, councils are spending large amounts on
glossy brochures, DVDs, consultants and hard sell. So don’t
tell us there isn’t money.”
The successful conference motion follows a meeting between Ms Cooper
and Camden Labour group’s former leader Dame Jane Roberts,
persistent lobbying by pressure group Defend Council Housing (DCH)
and repeated criticism of government policy by Holborn and St Pancras
Labour MP Frank Dobson.
A group of Labour MPs, including Austin Mitchell, former International
Development Secretary Clare Short and former Agriculture Minister
Nick Brown, have backed the campaign. It was also supported by Robin
Cook before his death earlier this year.
Alan Walter, chairman of DCH, said: “To ignore two conference
votes would be political suicide. This is a campaign that unites
MPs, councillors, tenants on council estates and all the major unions
– and we are determined to win.” |
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