Housing & Social Apartheid
Carl. | 18.08.2004 18:45 | Indymedia | Social Struggles
Blair’s policy experts strike out again at the working class to further exclude and practice their “Social Apartheid”
Blair’s policy experts strike out again at the working class to further exclude and practice their “Social Apartheid”, after proposals from them to sell off high-value estates in prime locations looks set to see council tenants pushed out in favour of associations realising the capital value of land to build exclusive executive residences.
While the report from the prime ministers strategy unit focuses on London this policy has had implications in Europe as cities exclude the working class. In December 2003, Rotterdam announced policies to combat immigration and urban decline which effectively banned the low-paid from moving into the city. Following this Amsterdam leaked an internal memo which proposed removing low-income households to new towns and replacing them with upper-income residences.
If this policy succeeds it will effectively give the Nod & Wink to “Gerrymandering” country wide. It has been suggested already that Tenants could be given a share of the profits from the sell-off s as an incentive (Blackmail) to move, but there will be little realisation of the consequences as this sweeping gentrification will ghettoise and write off the low-paid, the old and the unemployed as useless ballast.
Any thought that just because you own your home excludes you from this process belies the facts that fail and you will be mercilessly dumped. The future city & well off market town is for the rich, which will be exclusively built on policy to exclude unless you earn and in the case of Rotterdam already you must earn 20% above the national minimum.
UK reluctance for the blatant will be resolved through the Nod & Wink, higher council tax bills and the ever present compulsory purchase loophole which at the discretion of a regional assembly or councillor corrupted by the new order will become the accomplice of the developer. Any contradiction to agendas like sustainability will be explained away as the result of security and environmental improvement as failures in society are inept at looking after their homes and a threat to decent people of course.
The double speak of the politico and the consultant is a hive of activity hiding the agenda of “Corporate Nazi Thugs” and any rationalisation that your home and heritable rights to it are secure are `Gone`! The Working Classes Heritage is now our only security as now we must unite as never before, as the realisation of the corporate agenda of more profit from housing is not just exploiting, it is dividing creating social apartheid.
While the report from the prime ministers strategy unit focuses on London this policy has had implications in Europe as cities exclude the working class. In December 2003, Rotterdam announced policies to combat immigration and urban decline which effectively banned the low-paid from moving into the city. Following this Amsterdam leaked an internal memo which proposed removing low-income households to new towns and replacing them with upper-income residences.
If this policy succeeds it will effectively give the Nod & Wink to “Gerrymandering” country wide. It has been suggested already that Tenants could be given a share of the profits from the sell-off s as an incentive (Blackmail) to move, but there will be little realisation of the consequences as this sweeping gentrification will ghettoise and write off the low-paid, the old and the unemployed as useless ballast.
Any thought that just because you own your home excludes you from this process belies the facts that fail and you will be mercilessly dumped. The future city & well off market town is for the rich, which will be exclusively built on policy to exclude unless you earn and in the case of Rotterdam already you must earn 20% above the national minimum.
UK reluctance for the blatant will be resolved through the Nod & Wink, higher council tax bills and the ever present compulsory purchase loophole which at the discretion of a regional assembly or councillor corrupted by the new order will become the accomplice of the developer. Any contradiction to agendas like sustainability will be explained away as the result of security and environmental improvement as failures in society are inept at looking after their homes and a threat to decent people of course.
The double speak of the politico and the consultant is a hive of activity hiding the agenda of “Corporate Nazi Thugs” and any rationalisation that your home and heritable rights to it are secure are `Gone`! The Working Classes Heritage is now our only security as now we must unite as never before, as the realisation of the corporate agenda of more profit from housing is not just exploiting, it is dividing creating social apartheid.
Carl.