MPs and councillors urged to make housing a key election priority
22nd January 2010
An acceleration in Britain’s council house building programme
will be centre stage at a meeting called by Unite, the largest
union in the country, in Sheffield on Thursday, 28th January.
Unite has called the meeting of local authority councillors, who
are Unite members, to campaign for the government to go ‘further
and faster’ in its welcome programme of increasing the numbers of
council, social and affordable housing being built.
With nearly two million households on the housing waiting list
and the economic downturn, access to housing and preventing
repossessions are key issues and will be centre-stage in the
upcoming general election.
Other issues tackled by Unite local councillors will be fighting
the BNP who try to build support by peddling racist myths about how
council houses are allocated and exposing the Conservative housing
agenda as geared towards the well-off and bad news for council
tenants.
The Unite meeting will be addressed by housing minister, John
Healey MP, who recently doubled the government cash for new council
homes and Unite deputy general secretary, Jack Dromey.
Jack Dromey will say: ”In the run-up to the general election, it
is important to highlight the achievements of the Labour government
on housing and to expose the Tory agenda for what it is – an
inheritance tax bonanza for those in stately homes and an end to
security of tenure and soaring rents for the eight million who live
in council homes.
”Unite councillors are keen to build on the rapid progress on
the housing front made by John Healey since he became minister and
to reinforce the message that a comprehensive housing programme is
one of the best ways to achieve sustainable economic growth,
building Britain out of recession.“
Unite assistant general secretary for the public sector, Gail
Cartmail, said: “It is a frightening delusion that the Tories or
the BNP really care about working people seeking good, energy
efficient council and social housing. The Tories are intent on a
social engineering exercise that will benefit their natural
supporters - the better-off - and the BNP is shamelessly using
housing as a means to whip up unfounded resentment and
prejudice.”
Unite is also holding a meeting of its parliamentary group and
peers in the Portcullis House, Westminster on Tuesday, 26 January
to push the issue of housing even higher up the political
agenda.
ENDS
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS:
Last year, Unite unveiled its blueprint,
Meeting housing need: Building Britain out of recession calling
for increased funding to build houses and for councils to play a
central role in building houses.
John Healey recently announced 73 councils covering every region
of England will share an extra £122.6 million. Councils will match
this second round government grant bringing investment in this
round to £246 million, and total public investment in the programme
as a whole to over £500 million to build more than 4,000 new
council homes for 8,000 people.
All councils receiving government funds to offer apprenticeship
and local job recruitment schemes, creating thousands of jobs -
including apprenticeship places.
The Sheffield event is taking place in the Hilton Hotel is open
to the media from 4.00pm. The Portcullis House meeting is not open
to the press.
Unite is uniquely placed to comment on the current housing
situation, having as it does members in housing associations, local
government, and the construction and finance sectors.
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