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Council tenants protesting outside the Town Hall on Tuesday |
‘We need to be militant in our fight to protect homes’
Tenant leaders want council to ‘cut the crap’ and deal with priorities
COUNCIL tenants were urged to get “militant” on Tuesday night as they united to fight a fresh shake-up to the way their homes are run.
Tenants leaders staged a protest meeting in the Town Hall, claiming their views had been ignored in a series of consultation exercises and vowed to fight Lib Dem housing chiefs on a series of battle-fronts, including:
l Sales of council flats on the private market.
l Privatisation of care-taking services.
l Re-drawing of Camden’s five historic housing districts into new zones.
l Plans to give repairs contractors the chance to monitor their own work.
Meric Apak, from the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association, who chaired the meeting, said: “The council have a tenant participation strategy but no tenant was involved in drawing it up.”
Camden’s tenants and leaseholders have a history of strong campaigning against the policies of councils and governments of all political stripes. It is one of the few areas in the country where Labour’s plans to hive off control of homes to independent companies have been beaten down.
But there is concern among tenants’ leaders that the famous fighting spirit has dissipated and unity has been split by the number of battles tenants feel they are facing. A number of council-owned street properties have been judged too costly to fix and have been sold at auction in a bid to raise council funds, while private cleaning contractors are being trialled in Hampstead in a move which objectors feel will lead to estate caretakers getting the boot.
Mr Apak said: “The challenge for us as elected tenant representatives is to mobilise ordinary tenants.”
Tenants’ associations are generally drawn together into five area groups known as District Management Committees (DMCs), which meet with housing department leaders regularly. Camden is proposing to change the boundaries of those districts, leading to concern that neighbourhoods who have worked together will be split up.
Larraine Revah, a tenants’ leader from Gospel Oak, added: “If you look back from 2006 you will find with the things we should have been consulted on, the council has told us what would happen rather than asking.”
Labour councillor Roger Robinson said: “I think we have to have a bit more militancy in what we do. We have to strike fear into the people who are trying to control our lives.”
Union members vowed to support tenant campaigners.
Lindy Treasurer said she had handed back her Liberal Democrat membership after district monitoring panels which check repair work were “dropped” – but she warned the latest meeting was “union led” and that there was “apathy” on the estates.
Liberal Democrat housing chief Councillor Chris Naylor was not at the meeting, but said yesterday (Wednesday): “We as a council fund the Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Association to act as independent tenants voice and that brings up tenants voice and provides the opportunity for constructive criticism.”
He said he had confidence changes in housing policy would benefit tenants.
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Meric Apak, chairman of Camden Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations, said:
“Tenants believe their views won’t be taken into account, that decisions are mostly already pre-made – so why engage with a process where a council have already penciled-in decisions?” |
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Alan Walter, Peckwater Estate Tenant’s Leader, said: “Senior officers come to meetings and prattle on about what they want to talk about.
“We have to stop that. We have to say these are our meetings, our priorities and we have to cut the crap.” |
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Lindy Treasurer, from the Harben Estate Residents Association, said: “I have handed in my Liberal Democrat membership. I won’t be a part of a political party any more.
“After 14 years’ working on monitoring panels, we have been been dropped – just like that.” |
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Roger Robinson, Labour councillor, said: “We are not going to win against this council. They do not see that housing is a social service.
“If I’m being rude, I’m being rude, but
people have bloody got to be a lot tougher on this council.” |
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Liberal Democrat housing chief Councillor Chris
Naylor said: “We all know housing needs attention in a number of areas, so new policies are inevitably in development. We want to work with tenants and I always listen at DMCs and take in feedback.” |
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Your comments:
If traders have been warned about the consequences and still ignored them in this way they should be named and shamed. It's disgraceful.
Georgina Parry
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