TEN REASONS TO TAKE BACK OUR COUNCIL HOUSES!"No housing stock transfer is a one-way ticket". That is the encouraging message from the organisation "Defend Council Housing" in response to a British National Party enquiry into the feasibility of bringing Burnley's social housing stock back under council control.It would be a priority for newly elected BNP councillors in May to investigate the possibility of an early transfer back for the 5,300 council houses handed over to Burnley and Padiham Community Housing in March 2000. Here are ten reasons why . . . 1. New legislation, which allows councils to borrow directly themselves to invest in their housing, means that there is no need for public housing to be transferred to the private sector. Burnley's transfer of stock, just months before this new legislation was unveiled, was a monumental mistake. 2. Britain's 2,000 housing associations face growing financial problems with big rises in rent arrears and a growing number of empty, hard to let properties. In the last 12 months, thirteen housing associations have been rescued from going bust by being taken over by other associations. (Commons Public Accounts Committee. January 9th 2002.) 3. Council housing, like the National Health Service, is a significant component of the welfare state. Once a council transfers its stock, that social housing ceases to provide just a service for the tenant and is left fully exposed to the demands of market forces. 4. Council housing provides that unique relationship whereby the landlord (the council) is accountable to its tenants through the ballot box at local elections. 5. Burnley and Padiham Community Housing is not accountable to its tenants. It is accountable to the National Westminster Bank and the Nationwide. 6. Council house tenants have a strong voice together with over 4 million other council house tenants. 7. Burnley and Padiham Community Housing operates a policy called "The London Borough Initiative". This encourages ethnic minorities from East London to come and settle in Burnley. These people are Housing benefit tenants, they have nothing to offer Burnley, and will be a further drain on our overstretched community resources. 8. The overriding priority of Burnley and Padiham Community Housing is to fill its voids. (Find tenants for their empty properties). They don't care where these tenants come from, or who pays their rents, just as long as empty properties start generating an income for them. 9. Burnley and Padiham Community Housing believes in a special housing strategy for the ethnic minorities. It also believes that all public bodies should have a special strategy for the ethnic minorities. BPCH is seeking Local Authority funding to build new property "suitable for ethnic families". 10. Burnley and Padiham Community Housing made 13 recommendations to the Task Force. Ten of these recommendations concerned Burnley's ethnic minorities, while one other called for press censorship. An organisation carrying so much 'politically correct' baggage, and so infatuated with just 8% of Burnley's population, has no place in charge of Burnley's social housing stock.
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