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Another Liverpool council estate is privatised!

Kai Andersen | 11.03.2005 18:13 | Analysis | Repression | Social Struggles | Liverpool

Another Liverpool Council Estate is about to slip quietly and without defiance into the private sector. This week plans were reported on Thursday 10th March in the Liverpool Echo (loyal propaganda agent for council housing privatisation over the past dacade) to push council tenants over to the ever expanding private housing market here in Liverpool.

The headlines read “£7.5million plan for council homes”.

Now it’s time to start unpicking this false propaganda. That headline is an out and out LIE – LIE – LIE and the Liverpool Echo is a LIAR! This seven and a half million pound plan will be for privately owned housing, because as the article later states “former council homes”, therefore the eye grabbing headline suggests that council housing is getting investment and improvement that simply isn’t true and it’s misleading.

When tenants are bamboozled into YES voting for transfer all it take is a simple majority of the turnout then we NO voters lose our ‘SECURE TENANCIES’ along with those who’ve been tricked into voting YES, it’s not a choice of those with political awareness and common sense who VOTE NO get to retain our ‘SECURE TENANCIES’ and public accountability we lose our rights too, through the ignorance of those voting yes and through the deceit of those leading the VOTE YES campaign with connivance of the local press and media. In the case of this transfer 85% of those voting voted yes, there is no figure on the turnout thus we don’t know how many didn’t vote. The eye grabbing headline also suggests to those with a political conscious who aren’t council tenants that finally Liverpool’s council tenants are getting their homes repaired and modernised and often they simply don’t look deeper or read further. It's pure propaganda and social manipulation.

The full Liverpool Echo article is at:

 http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100regionalnews/tm_objectid=15279536%26method=full%26siteid=50061%26headline=%2dpound%2d7%2d5m%2dplan%2dfor%2dcouncil%2dhomes-name_page.html

Thus 360 council houses become the private property of yet another private landlord (outside of the public sector) Arena Housing Association get for a pittance or for free not only our public property but the land on which it is built too, all 360 tenants lose forever their ‘SECURE TENANCIES’. Also stated in the article is that the council will lose £930,000 every year in lost rent now, meaning the remaining and ever shrinking council housing stock of just over 19,000 houses will have even less funding to spend on repairs and improvements. No mention has been made in the report of any ‘demolitions’ these are usually straight on the agenda post transfer as the new game is demolition of empty property to make land available for sale to housing developers to build private housing for sale and it makes a quick profit for the new landlord.

Another article which links directly to this one, showing Liverpool City Council has £7.2Million to spend on privately owned housing while it won't any spend money improving publicly owned council housing is on:

 https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/liverpool/2005/03/306467.html

I will post the article on New Heartlands, Housing Market Renewal Initiative (HMRI), housing demolition and community destruction next when I've finished writing it.

Kai Andersen
- e-mail: aokai@tiscali.co.uk
- Homepage: http://groups.msn.com/SocialistLabourPartyLiverpool