Victory is Sweet

"Tenants today voted 53% to 47% (on a 61% turnout) against transferring 23,000 council homes from the city council to a private housing organisation. Despite the council spending over £5 million on its one-sided Scottish Executive backed campaign to privatise tenants housing, a tiny group of activists, and the good sense of tenants across edinburgh, have aligned to reject theses privatisation plans.

This is a historic moment in the fight against neo-liberalisation in Scotland. It shows that a small group of people can effectively organise to challenge centre right hegemony and the dictates of the market. tenants smelled a rat and roundly rejected what would have been a disastrous move for them in the long run. the vote against stock transfer should provide huge encouragement to all those involved in grass-roots struggle in Scotland.

We hope you'll join us in a toast for this victory and we look forward to all our continued struggles against capitalism (our common enemy) in the future.

cheers and solidarity, Neil
Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer (EAST)"

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Edinburgh Housing Stock Transfer

Scottish Parliament Motion S2M-3743 Colin Fox: Welcome Decision of Edinburgh Council Tenants to Reject Stock Transfer — That the Parliament welcomes the decision of City of Edinburgh Council tenants to vote against housing stock transfer; believes the decision of 53% against to 47% for the transfer represents a victory for people power against all the odds and is a hammer blow against the privatisation of public housing provision throughout Britain, and demands that the £1 billion, which was apparently available for privatisation, should now be available to write off the council's housing debt, to invest in improvements to the existing housing stock and to build 6,000 affordable, quality, publicly owned houses that the city badly needs.

left by Niniane Mackenzie on 16 December 2005

Stump up £2bn for housing

GARETH EDWARDS, Edinburgh Evening News, 16 Dec 2005

THE Scottish Executive and Westminster are facing growing pressure to stump up the £2 billion Edinburgh's council homes would have got had tenants voted for stock transfer.

Now housing campaigners and MSPs are pushing for the same funding to be put into the city's crumbling council housing, despite tenants rejecting the transfer of council homes to a housing association.

A "yes" vote would also have seen the city's £310 million housing debt written off, and campaigners are now pushing for politicians to pile on pressure to scrap the debt.

The Executive was also prepared to provide a new kitchen and bathroom for every tenant in Edinburgh, as well as replacing 4000 of the city's worst homes and funding 10,000 new affordable homes, under the stock transfer.

This is now all in the balance following the shock "no" vote.

Members of Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer (EAST) now plan to push the Executive to make the £2bn of investment available to the council to improve housing.

And they want Westminster to back plans for more finance being made available to councils to deal with housing problems. They have also attacked the council for spending almost £1m on promoting the failed stock transfer plans instead of trying to improve the city's most run-down homes, something the council insists it could not do as the money came from the Executive and was specifically for the campaign.

Jenni Marrow, a tenant from Pennywell, and member of EAST, said: "We will be putting as much pressure as we can on the Executive to release the funding they promised.

"It does not make sense that they will only invest in improving social housing once it has been handed over to a housing association, and they should make this money available to the council."

Sean Clerkin of the Scottish Tenants Organisation said: "Now is the time for the council to put pressure on the Executive and Westminster, and for them in turn to put pressure on the Treasury to release more funds."

Lib Dem MSP for Edinburgh South Mike Pringle said: "It is clear the Labour council did not do enough to convince people about the benefits of stock transfer, despite spending a large amount on delivering a 'yes' vote.

"I would like to see the funding come from the Executive, as it would go some way to helping provide improvements in Edinburgh and mitigating what the council will have to do now, which is put up council rents."

Edinburgh Green MSP Mark Ballard said: "The reason the Government is promoting stock transfer is that if they loaned money to a housing association it doesn't show up as government borrowing, which it will if they loaned the same money to the council. Essentially they're looking to improve the figures for Gordon Brown."

But an Executive spokesman said Treasury rules were clear - that without tenants voting for stock transfer, the council's debt could not be written off.

And he said because of this the Executive could not provide the level of investment promised, as any money put in would either go towards clearing the housing debt or would be reduced by it.

McCONNELL ACCUSED OF INSULT TO PEOPLE

THE fallout from the shock 'no' vote over housing stock transfer hit parliament, when First Minister Jack McConnell was accused of insulting the people of Edinburgh after describing the vote as a tragedy for the city.

He was asked about the ballot result by SSP leader and Lothians MSP Colin Fox at First Minister's Questions yesterday, and Mr Fox claimed the First Minister was now morally obliged to ensure the £2 billion carrot dangled in front of a 'yes' vote was made available to invest in improved housing and build new accommodation.

But Mr McConnell said: "I think it's tragic that, probably because of misrepresentation by people like Colin Fox, the tenants of Edinburgh have voted down a proposal that would have led to 10,000 new homes in the city, to significant improvements in the quality of the housing stock and would have led to stability in rent levels."

http://www.scotsman.com/?id=2417842005

left by Niniane Mackenzie on 16 December 2005