If you are going to be in Bournemouth for the Federal Conference from tomorrow, please consider supporting this Emergency Motion on Housing submitted by Camden, Sutton and Streatham Local Parties.
Here’s the message from members in Camden, Sutton and Streatham:
We’re writing to ask you to support Emergency Motion number 1 on Decent Housing in the ballot between 9.00am and 1pm on Sunday 19th
Many of you will know what a serious issue housing is in local areas across the country. Labour have failed to meet their own target to bring all social housing up to the basic Decent Homes standard, leaving millions of people in poor quality, unhealthy and overcrowded houses. Now they are raiding budgets earmarked for investing in social housing to bring it up to the Decent Homes standard – just to pay for Gordon Brown’s last desperate attempt to win votes by building a small number of new council houses.
Please read our motion on Decent Housing – copied below – and vote for it in the ballot between 9.00am and 1pm on Sunday. The Decent Homes motion is really important: it impacts on the most disadvantaged members of society and is a vitally important issue that we as Liberal Democrats need to take a lead on if we are to deliver on our rhetoric of being the real progressive party in the UK. It is a clear and powerful example of Labour failing to deliver, and betraying the very people it claims to represent. And it is a crucial issue in many local authorities and Parliamentary seats where we are in power, or fighting to win.
Ballot papers will be published in Sunday’s conference daily, and must be returned to the ballot box in the auditorium between 9am and 1pm on Sunday. Please give Emergency Motion number 1 – Decent Housing – your first preference.
Sutton Local Party
Camden Local Party
Streatham Local Party
Decent Housing
Conference notes the decision by Government to take funding promised to council tenants across England to pay for investment in their homes to bring them up to Decent Homes standards, and divert it into the Building Britain’s Futureprogramme of new house building in the run-up to the General Election.
Conference further notes that council tenants across the county are subsidising the Treasury to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds every year without benefiting from much-needed investment in council home repairs and maintenance.
Conference condemns the Government’s betrayal of council tenants who have already suffered decades of underinvestment in housing by successive Conservative Governments.
Conference therefore calls on the government to:
1. Reverse the decision to abandon the 5% of the population whose housing is still not up to Decent Homes standards.
2. Make a firm commitment to deliver the funding promised to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMO) which meet the 2 star rating set by the Audit Commission.
3. Ensure that the current Housing Revenue Account review allows the tenants and local authorities to have more control over the reinvestment of local council rents.
Conference adds that this is the latest example of Labour’s unfair policy on social housing investment and condemns the Government’s ideological opposition to direct and accountable local authority management of council housing, which has led to tenants being deprived of any Decent Homes investment because they have not voted in support of an ALMO or stock transfer.
Applicability: England