Breathtaking

Published: 15, April 2010

• I FOUND Glenda Jackson’s Forum (April 8) simply breathtaking.
It contained three facts which are indisputable – that housing is a big issue in MPs’ postbags; that the Labour government’s Decent Homes strategy, with £8billion funding, has started to tackle the repairs backlog caused by 18 years of Tory neglect of social housing; and that the present-day Tory party has no answers to this.
Apart from that, it bears no relation to the reality here in Camden.
How much of that £8billion has come to repair Camden’s homes? The answer is “None. Zero. Not a sausage”. Because Camden’s tenants rejected an arms-length management organisation, the Labour government has refused to fund Camden’s Decent Homes programme.
Who has been leading the way to improve Camden’s homes? “The Liberal Democrats”. By planning a £413million investment programme, with nearly 3,000 homes already modernised and 7,000 more promised. By pledging over 1,000 new affordable homes in the coming years, and by specific programmes to tackle antisocial behaviour and worklessness on estates.
What has Ms Jackson, as our Labour MP, ever done for us on housing?
Precious little.
It gets worse. Camden’s Labour Party council manifesto has no proposals to fund Decent Homes repairs and no plans for providing additional affordable housing.
What is the point of a local representative who doesn’t understand how national policy affects the local residents?
ED FORDHAM
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Hampstead & Kilburn