The Socialist 27 January 2016

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Davos summit: a broken capitalist system

Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax

Red doors and wristbands scandal

Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs

Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts

Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'

Them & Us

Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive

Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing

Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle

A day in the life of a teacher and mother

New wave of protests in Tunisia

India: student death exposes caste oppression

Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties

Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts

Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'

Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!

The dark arts of Labour's right

Councillors must fight to defend our services

'People's budgets' and local democracy

Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!

"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker

Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action

Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack

24-hour tube strike suspended

Care services under threat in Haringey

Workplace news in brief

The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain

Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016

Letters

Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E

Coventry children's services closure protest

New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity

Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism

Socialist Students bake-off

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Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill

Wrecking ball, photo by bradleypjohnson (Flicker/Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Bob Sulatycki

A Dickensian world of slum housing, overcrowding, soaring rents and the threat of eviction is now becoming the reality for millions of ordinary people in Tory Britain.

But this is just a foretaste of what is in store if the Tories' Housing Bill becomes law. Sell-offs, rent hikes and shorter and shorter tenancies will be rolled out.

Neither council nor housing association tenants will be immune. According to the former head of the civil service, Lord Kerslake, social housing itself is threatened. Largely unaffordable 'starter homes' will replace it, at a cost of up to £450,000.

In reality, establishment politicians have been attacking social housing since 1979. At that time 42% lived in council homes. Now it's under 8%.

For millions of people, particularly young people, getting a roof over your head means struggling in the jungle of private renting. Already, in London and other hotspots, the boom in property prices has meant a bonanza for investment companies and private landlords - including many MPs - but a nightmare for ordinary working people.

Unscrupulous landlords are driving up rents at their fastest rate for four years. Meanwhile wages stand still and benefits are capped.

Property developers eye up council estates in areas with market potential if socially cleansed. Evictions and homelessness have multiplied.

Clearances

The 'London clearances' have already pushed 50,000 people out. Hundreds of thousands more live in fear of losing their homes.

But a massive groundswell of resistance is building from below.

Council, housing association and private tenants all face the same issues, caused by the anarchy of capitalism.

Even many homeowners, particularly leaseholders convinced into buying their council homes, find themselves trapped through spiralling service charges and mortgage repayments.

The rich have no interest in ensuring provision of affordable housing. The enemy is the super-rich 1%, the bankers - and their kept politicians who preside over this system.

For a mass programme of council house building
Rent controls now - cap private rents, not housing benefit
Lifetime guaranteed social housing tenancies for all who want them
Tax the super-rich and take over long-term empty property
Nationalise the banks and large building companies - under the democratic control of workers and the community - to ensure cheap mortgages and access to resources

In this issue

Socialist Party news and analysis

Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill