{"id":6135,"date":"2015-10-06T14:11:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-06T13:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6135"},"modified":"2015-10-06T14:11:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T13:11:33","slug":"another-world-is-possible-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6135","title":{"rendered":"Another world is possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As a Lambeth councillor I see at first hand the misery caused by the lack of council housing. We have over 20,000 people on our waiting list. This is replicated around London. Nationally there are over a million households on the waiting list.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd unless, and until we start building council housing people on housing lists will languish without hope.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt is a fundamental right for people to have a decent home. But while this government have repeatedly acted to make the housing crisis worse by their disastrous \u00e2\u20ac\u0098right to buy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 scheme, John McDonnell, Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shadow chancellor gave this commitment at the Labour Party conference \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that when Labour return to government we will build decent and secure homes for people to live in.<\/p>\n

 
\nEver since Margaret Thatcher brought in right to buy our council housing stock has been drastically eroded. For too long council houses weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t built. It was almost as if the very term \u00e2\u20ac\u0098council house\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was stigmatised. Under Jeremy and John this stigma has gone.<\/p>\n

 
\nWe can build a million new council homes. We can invest to make it happen and we can enable local authorities to build.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Tories still wear the mantle of Thatcherism. Quite frankly, I think they are worse.<\/p>\n

 
\nRecently , housing associations were given just six days to tell housing minister Greg Clarke if they are going along with his plan to avoid a battle in Parliament on the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s extension of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098right to buy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 
\nNot-for-profit associations have been offered the chance to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098voluntarily\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agree to this \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or face being brought under the Treasury and then privatised and deregulated. This will potentially mean a huge loss of social housing as housing associations become profit-making businesses.<\/p>\n

 
\nSix days is no time to consider the implications for the future of the organization, the tenants or the workers, including the many Unite members.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis runs in parallel with plans to force councils to sell off high value properties \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a move that is particularly devastating in London and for areas like Lambeth. Just in my ward alone we have the spectacle of former council housing in the hands of private landlords.<\/p>\n

 
\n Spiralling rents<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe cost of housing in London is astronomical. We now have the phenomena of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098social cleansing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 whole swathes of London. I would argue that it is not only social cleansing; it is economic cleansing as well.<\/p>\n

 
\nOwning a home has become a distant dream with people being forced into the private rented sector.<\/p>\n

 
\nSpiralling rent and substandard conditions demand that we introduce rent controls and tenant security. At the moment housing benefit cuts are only punishing households and increasingly funding private landlords because of the housing shortage.<\/p>\n

 
\nToo many in the private rented sector suffer at the hands of rogue landlords. Is it too much to ask that we have decent homes?<\/p>\n

 
\nBuilding homes is not only a social good \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it will also grow the economy, create jobs and proper apprenticeships.<\/p>\n

 
\nJohn McDonnell finished his speech by saying that another world is possible, and I would say it can be built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a Lambeth councillor I see at first hand the misery caused by the lack of council housing. We have over 20,000 people on our waiting list. This is replicated around London. Nationally there are over a million households on the waiting list.   And unless, and until we start building council housing people on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[109,192],"wps_subtitle":"We can build decent and secure homes for all","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6136,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6135\/revisions\/6136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}