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Lambeth Housing in Crisis! Meeting this Tuesday

Silver_Fox

New Member
“We take pride in our work and many of us have to do difficult jobs on low wages. We didn’t get Lambeth Living and the Council into this mess yet we pay the price with job cuts. But at the same time Lambeth Living and the council spend millions of pounds on consultants, the very people who got us into this mess in the first place. Hopefully we can build a campaign to give staff, tenants and leaseholders the respect that they deserve.” Employee of Lambeth Living

Are you fed up with:

• Rent rises? – Up 17%, on average £12 a week, £50 a month

• Council houses sold off? – Lambeth is auctioning off its huge stock of empty houses, while 16,000 on waiting list

• Over a fifth of Lambeth Living jobs to go and a third of jobs in some departments?– The former Housing Dept, now a separate company, says it has no money to keep staff on: experienced workers on the dole, more work for the rest, a worse service

• Wasted money? – Housing has a hole of millions of pounds in council funding, Home Office enquiry into lost refugee housing allocation… meanwhile at least ten consultants in Lambeth Living and many more in Housing, Regeneration and Environment earn up to £1000 a day!

• Privatisation? – First Call emergency repairs service, concierge service and North Lambeth Cleaning to be privatised, even though existing contractors do an unsatisfactory job


At a time when unemployment is rising and many people are made redundant, this is a scandal. Lambeth Council is using the recession to destroy what remains of publicly accountable and halfway decent housing estate and squeeze housing staff and tenants as hard as they can.

We don’t have to put up with this. We can fight back. Come to a borough wide tenants, leaseholders and staff meeting, Lambeth Housing in Crisis. Speakers from Defend Council Housing, Unison, Tenants Council, LamPAG and speakers from local Trade Unions. But most of all YOU! Come and tell us what it’s like in your area. Let’s talk about what we can do to defend our homes and our jobs and build a campaign to take action!


Date: Tuesday 19 May 2009
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: St Matthew’s Tenant Hall, Brixton


“Residents have had their fair share of a bad deal in the last couple of years a freeze on repairs, huge rent increases a service which is deteriorating badly we all need to stand together and make our voices heard. These are our homes and our lives that are being effected join this campaign and make a difference.”

- Ros Munday, Chair, Tenants Council

“UNISON does not believe that Lambeth tenants should be bearing the enormous cost of past financial mismanagement and the knock on effect of stock transfers. The Council should be uniting tenants and the workforce to demand a Government bail-out for Lambeth Housing. If the money is there for the bankers it should be there for tenants and workers.”

- Jon Rogers and Nick Venedi – Joint UNISON Branch Secretaries (pc)
 
If possible can people put this in any other forums that might be of use. Maybe the political forum if people think it's appropriate?
 
Good grief! That's a huge increase.

Most Housing Associations' rents are going up about 7% this year. At at £20 a week increase you'd be better off (cash-wise only) in private rented where the market is so depressed prices are down 20-25% in some cases.
 
Good grief! That's a huge increase.

Most Housing Associations' rents are going up about 7% this year. At at £20 a week increase you'd be better off (cash-wise only) in private rented where the market is so depressed prices are down 20-25% in some cases.
It's a house. I'd still be paying a lot more in a privately rented house.
 
I bet it is.

It saddens me that council rents got all the publicity so that Margaret Beckett brought them down (Lambeth excpeted of course) from 6% to 3% but that Housing Association tenants got no media coverage and consequently no Govt funded reduction.
 
I'm a Teaching Assistant, so I don't earn much...take-home of £200 a week. I am lucky though, in that I live a simple life. My big luxury is books.
 
This is tonight.

Very important for everyone who lives on or near an estate, whether private tenant, council tenant or leaseholder.

Also anyone who may find themselves in need of social housing in the future.

That's everyone, then.
 
Quick update-

Meeting went very well. Good attendence for a first step & it had only been publicised for a week and a half at best.

30th May 11am there is a demo outside the Town Hall against the sell-off of council houses. Kind of a joint Lambeth housing in Crisis / Defend Council Housing thing.

I'm sure there'll be more posted about it in due course.
 
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