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Please make some calls and send emails this week, before Xmas closes in, to organise a delegation to Parliament on January 22.
Use new leaflet
to mobilise support for the 'Fourth Option' and ensure that tenants, trade unionists and councillors
from your area respond to the call by the House of Commons Council Housing group for evidence to support amendemnts to the Housing & Regeneration bill.
Contact your MP(s)
now and ask them to sign EDM 368 and meet you on Jan 22 to discuss amending the Bill.
Email for copies of the new campaign newspaper
to explain the issues and publicise the event.
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DCH has rushed out a briefing - including areas for MPs to table amendments to the Bill. See website.
The Committee considering the bill will be taking oral evidence this week (DCH is giving evidence on Tuesday December 11 at 4.45pm).
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Help us break through the soundbites and remind those who mouthed 'warm words' for council housing over the summer of the commitment they made to provide the 'Fourth Option'
for council housing.
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What the Bill includes...
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Introduce means testing to 'low cost rented housing'
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Discriminate against councils building new homes while offering public money to profit-making companies with little protection for either tenants or taxpayers
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Transfer key responsibilities from elected Ministers and government departments to an unaccountable regulator
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Give the regulator powers to determine criteria for allocating accommodation, terms of tenancies and levels of rent
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Break up the national Housing Revenue Account without long-term guarantees for funding council housing
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Enable predatory landlords (similar to 'Tenants Choice' under HATs in 1988) to 'persuade' tenants to ballot to transfer their homes and estates.
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Get your MP to back these changes
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Means-testing, profit and deregulation
Prevent stigmatisation and maintain universal access by removing the means test eligibility element to 'low cost rented housing'.
Delete clauses which exempt profit-making companies from the various regulatory protections for tenants and taxpayers.
Keep key political decisions such as allocating accommodation, terms of tenancies and levels of rent with elected politicians.
Require that tenants receive financial support for genuinely independent tenants organisation for the purposes of holding their landlord to account, and improving their housing services, conditions and amenities (section 86(4)).
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Funding Existing Council Housing
Require that local authorities retain all rental income and capital receipts from council housing to be specifically used to manage, maintain, improve existing or build new council homes. Any surplus to be pooled centrally to be redistributed to authorities bidding for extra funding.
Require the Secretary of State to fund local authority housing Management & Maintenance Allowances at 100% of need (as defined by the Building Research Establishment, Estimation of the need to spend on maintenance and management in the Local Authority housing stock, June 2003).
Require the Treasury to take over historic debt where tenants have expressed a clear choice to remain with the council to provide a 'level playing field' with debt write-off when homes are privatised by stock transfer.
Require that councils considering opting out of the national HRA are able to demonstrate that their HRA balance sheet is positive over the 30 years business plan.
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Building New Council Housing
Prevent discrimination against local authorities by ensuring that receipt of Social Housing Grant is not conditional on setting up arms-length companies.
Ensure that all new homes - including those built by ALMOs and SPVs - give tenants 'secure' tenancies.
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Homes & Communities Agency
Require that full consultation takes place with tenants when allocating Decent Homes funding and that tenants' choice to remain with the council is respected and retaining authorities are not discriminated against financially.
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Democracy: A Fair and balanced debate
Require that the principles of a fair and balanced debate as defined by the House of Commons Council Housing Group are applied when landlords consult their tenants. This should include resources to ensure that both sides of the argument are clearly put with a ballot of every tenant at the end of the consultation run to a pre-defined timescale with clear start and end dates.
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Produce evidence to submit to the inquiry...
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The MPs are calling on supporters of council housing to submit formal written evidence and to apply to provide oral evidence and answer questions at Parliament on January 22. Encourage your council to use its
expertise to help provide evidence and ask them to fund a delegation to attend the event. All councils say they want to 'empower' tenants - here's a real opportunity!. Issues to address include:
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Changes to the present HRA subsidy system (locally and nationally) to enable authorities to improve existing, build new and maintain all council housing as first class housing for years to come
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Financial modelling by local authorities showing the benefit/loss to their HRA from breaking up the national HRA on financially neutral terms; retaining all rental income and capital receipts; debt write-off on equal terms available on transfer; increasing M&M to 100% of need
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Means-testing and its effect on sustainable communities - particularly welcome will be statistical information from local authorities on historic and current demographic analysis of council tenants and those on waiting list, the effect on allocations policy from reduction in supply, and estimates of what level of new council housing provision would make communities mixed and sustainable again.
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Proposed 'Tenants Choice' ballots
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OFTENANT and its possible application to council housing (consultation, tenant empowerment, policy-making such as rent levels, and accountability).
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Providing Social Housing grant) to profit-making landlords and local reaction to withholding SHG from councils retaining the direct management of their homes; the effect this is likely to have on security, affordability and value for money for the taxpayer.
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Actual affordability of 'affordable' housing (including rented and shared ownership schemes) available locally showing who has access and who is excluded
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Demand for council housing locally
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If your council has retained its homes, has an ALMO or has yet to consult tenants on the future of council housing find
out what the latest position is and give tenants support to join this campaign.
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Further information from www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk
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