This scandalous ignorance

Published: 8 July, 2010

• WE need to learn some lessons from the truly breathtaking report in the New Journal of July 1, that David Miliband has absolutely no understanding of the battle over council housing funding in Camden and elsewhere for most of the last 10 years.

Since he lives in Camden he clearly does not read the local papers! He obviously did not listen to the 80 per cent of council tenants in Camden who rejected the threat of part-privatisation of our homes and voted No to Almos in 2004.

He does not seem to remember being approached by Camden council for direct funding when he was local government minister in 2005.

Nor does he seem aware of the continued refusal of his government to grant direct funding for repairs which led the Liberal Democrat-Conservative council to auction off large numbers of council homes in Camden.

This is nothing less than scandalous!

But some other questions spring to mind.

Tenants and trade unionists consistently argued with both the previous council administrations in Camden that we should jointly approach the government to argue for the direct funding we were being cheated of.

Maybe if we had met David Miliband he might not have forgotten us quite that easily.

Now that this Con-Dem government is cutting billions from local government funding we must make sure that we don’t let our services be destroyed without a fight… and that no minister can say they don’t know our views.

We need councillors to unite with tenants, residents and trade unions in a real fighting coalition on our side if we are to defend our public service for the future. The public meeting against spending cuts on Monday July 12 at 7pm in Camden Town Hall is an opportunity to start planning this.

CANDY UDWIN
Camden Defend Council Housing