DCH Broadcast Detail

This press release was issued on 20/08/12

	Stop privatisation; improve existing and build a new generation of first class council housing
Press Statement for release on 20 Aug 2012
Councils and tenants reject land- and homes-grab proposal

Tenants and councillors will reject proposals to sell more valuable council homes.
The Policy Exchange proposal,'Ending Expensive Social Tenancies', is based on false assumptions which fail to disguise the real intent: allowing developers to grab public homes and land. * Council housing is not 'expensive': it's notional market value has no bearing on costs. Council tenants are robbed, not subsidised. Government siphoned £2 billion out of council rents last year; more public money subsidises mortgages than council housing.
* Selling council homes at auction would not pay for replacement homes in inner London and other expensive towns and villages, but would drive out tenants to make way for luxury development
* genuinely affordable and secure council homes would be replaced by fixed-term tenancies and up to 80% market rents - unaffordable to most and without the security needed for stable homes and communities Eileen Short, chair of Defend Council Housing says:
'Tenants will make sure councillors reject this nonsense. Council housing has been paid for several times over by our rents. It is a much-needed alternative to the failing private housing market.
'With 4.5 million people on housing waiting lists and homelessness soaring, with millions more trapped in insecure and inadequate housing, we do not need more luxury housing most people cannot afford. What we need is investment in a new generation of first class public, affordable, secure and accountable council housing.' The Policy Exchange proposal flies a kite which will be slapped down immediately. It comes as Government is cutting housing benefit, rents and tenancies, in a sustained attack on tenants' rights, forcing more into the private sector and increasing homelessness and waiting lists.
[ends] Note
See the latest Housing Emergency Briefing here

Further information from www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk
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