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We bang on about sell-offs – but who listens?
THIS newspaper, complains council housing chief Chris Naylor, is unfair to the
Lib-Dems and Tories at the Town Hall (see page 17).
While we looked critically at the auction of council-owned properties last week, he complained, we were indifferent whenever the previous Labour administration embarked on similar sales.
Cllr Naylor is, of course, a fairly new councillor otherwise he would have known that ever since the 1990s we have been opposed to the sale of publicly owned property.
Our favourite quote came from Harold MacMillan who knocked Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation projects of the 1980s and early 1990s.
“Don’t sell the family silver,” Super Mac advised her.
We, too, warned Labour against copying Mrs Thatcher.
It was argued that auctioning off property would help to balance the books but, in reality, it reflected shallow, short-term economic management.
While the disposal of property might help to balance the books over a short period, it doesn’t make sense in central London where property – even in today’s uncertain market – holds an intrinsic and rising value.
We were ignored. Properties were flogged off by the score – and the proceeds vanished into the Town Hall kitty.
The route to a fairer and more equitable local management of the borough lies through tighter administration and sharper control of resources.
Too many costly pet schemes have been embraced in recent years. Control over expenditure on roadworks, for instance, raises questions.
All this, admittedly, is the small stuff of local politics. But isn’t it about time our elected councillors came to grips
with it?
WHERE will London go – upwards or outwards? If the mayor Ken Livingstone has his way, as we said last week, London will become skyscraper city.
Welcoming the approval of the Crossrail project he stressed the need to improve transport to make sure London remains the finance capital of the world. The high rollers of finance will go elsewhere unless the Tubes and buses work efficiently, he believes.
This is partly why he wants skyscrapers. High rise office blocks makes sense for the rich. But in bending the knee to them, isn’t London at risk of losing its character, recognised long ago by planners – including the great Danish architect Rasmussen – as a unique type of “scattered” city, different from any other European capital? Schemes to keep the rich happy in New York by sanitising the city have provoked a debate. We also need one here.
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