Home
|
All materials published and promoted by L Smith, PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
|
|
New Labour: If you want a council house, find a job |
"A despicable attack on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society". That's how Respect MP George Galloway described Caroline Flint's first pronouncement as the new Minister of Council Housing.
Flint has proposed that unemployed people may face eviction from their council homes – for the crime of being unemployed. "It's incredible that the minister should seek to victimise further the victims in our society," said Councillor Abjol Miah, Leader of the Respect Group on Tower Hamlets Council.
"It's for the Department of Work and Pensions to determine whether or not someone can work and it's down to them to help people back into work. Instead Caroline Flint is threatening to throw people out on to the streets."
"This will do nothing to solve the housing crisis in my constituency and across Britain," said George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
"That crisis comes from a very simple failure - the failure of successive Tory and Labour governments to build new council housing. Meantime the social housing stock has shrunk dramatically through right to buy.
"In Tower Hamlets we have 12,000 people in overcrowded housing. And yet only 10 to 12% of new homes are being built for those who could not afford the hugely inflated private sector, not the 35% that the council pretends are being built. This is the scandal Caroline Flint should be addressing," said Councillor Shahed Ali, Deputy Leader of the Respect Group on Tower Hamlets Council. "We will fight government plans to restrict access to council tenancies and extend eviction of council tenants every step of the way." |
|
