Housing and Council TaxRespect condemns the failure of this government to invest in council housing.
Homelessness has gone up since New Labour came to power, with thousands more suffering overcrowding and spiralling housing costs. Six million people living in council housing have been told by the government that there can be no investment in their homes unless they agree to some form of privatisation.
It is becoming almost impossible for first-time buyers to afford a house.
The erosion of council housing, with hardly any new council flats and houses being built, has fuelled the house price boom.
Decent, affordable, council housing should be available for everyone who needs it. But this involves building new council homes and improving existing stock. The money is there for this.
The government raises one and half billion pounds from council rents and another half billion from right-to-buy receipts each year. It writes off hundreds of millions of pounds of council debts each year in support of stock-transfer schemes.
Audit Commission reports have shown that council housing is the most cost-effective form of social housing. The private rented sector has excessively high rents, not all of which are covered by housing benefit.
Housing association rents are often so high that they can create a poverty trap for tenants. The government is paying millions on extra housing benefit due to such high rents.
The government knows that there is a growing shortage of affordable housing but has few solutions. Reliance on owner occupation and market forces to provide affordable homes has failed for people on average or low incomes.
Safe, secure, affordable housing is a fundamental right for everyone, and council housing best provides it.
The Council Tax is a growing burden that unfairly hits the poor and pensioners. We stand for its replacement with a progressive local income tax to fund local services, where people pay according to their ability to do so. To make that work fairly also means an equalisation of local taxes, so that the poorest councils are subsidised by the richest.
RESPECT CALLS FOR:
- An end to the privatisation of council housing – build more council homes.
- For publicly owned land to be used for council housing, not sold off to property speculators to build houses local people can’t afford.
- Resources for local authorities to invest directly in council housing.
- Council tenants who have been forced to privatise to gain investment in their homes to have the right to return to local authority ownership.
- Legislation to prevent landlords from setting excessive rents.
- Action to reduce the number of empty houses.
- Abolition of the Council Tax, which is a flat-rate tax unrelated to ability to pay, and to replace it with a progressive local income tax.
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