Housing

Council Housing Group of MPs welcomes new announcement

Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2009 11:08 Written by Austin Mitchell Wednesday, 01 July 2009 14:14

PRESS RELEASE

AUSTIN MITCHELL MP 1 July 2009

Tel: 020 7219 4559

The Council Housing Group of MPs welcomes John Healey’s announcement today that councils will be able to retain all of their rents from council housing and the proceeds of their Right to Buy sales.

This concedes the Fourth Option and the level playing field we and Defend Council Housing have been fighting for, for several years.

Our congratulations to the new Minister.

We regret, however, that this major and necessary change to the policies the Government has misguidedly followed since 1997 comes too late to generate the big council housing building drive the country needs

We urge the Government to introduce the changes immediately and to put a moratorium on Large Scale Voluntary Transfers until the financial basis on which these can occur has been totally recalculated. We also urge a housing development grant for councils to put them back into the building game and put builders back to work urgently. Remember, this Government has only 10 months to go and it needs to use that time to atone for the housing failures of 10 years. Britain needs a strong and healthy public rented housing sector to provide decent affordable democratically controlled and socially mixed housing for the large proportion who can’t afford to buy.

Austin Mitchell

Chair, Council Housing Group of MPs

Letter to Ruth Kelly on council housing

Last Updated on Monday, 26 November 2007 14:26 Written by Austin Mitchell Wednesday, 10 May 2006 17:45

Austin has written to Ruth Kelly, the new Communities and Local Government Minister, about council housing.

Not in My Backyard - Article For Inside Housing Magazine, September 2003

Last Updated on Monday, 26 November 2007 14:27 Written by Austin Mitchell Monday, 01 September 2003 00:00

NOT IN MY BACKYARD. I LIVE NEXT DOOR TO PRESCOTT

You may have got the impression that I’m not exactly well disposed to flogging off council houses. Flog-Off isn’t Labour Party policy. I’m not even sure its government policy either. When I asked ministers in the ODPM to explain it to my local Tenant’s Assembly I didn’t even get a reply. I cant even get the DPM himself to come to Grimsby to defend the policy though he’s assured of a warm welcome. If the audience is allowed to bring firewood.

HOUSE MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON HOUSING MARCH 2003

Last Updated on Monday, 26 November 2007 14:28 Written by Austin Mitchell Saturday, 01 March 2003 00:00

In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of New Zealand. Well, at least mine do, because I’m there with the Environment Select Committee to look at New Zealand Agriculture. So how about a look at New Zealand Housing for a change?

HOUSE MAGAZINE ARTICLE ON LEASHOLD HOUSING FEBRUARY 2003

Last Updated on Monday, 26 November 2007 14:29 Written by Austin Mitchell Saturday, 01 February 2003 00:00

Housing is a field of such complexity and so many vested interests that the gaps between promises and performance are paralleled only in promises of eternal life. We promise to shift the main weight of building from green to brownfield sites. But can`t. We promise to make house buying easier by the kind of seller survey purchase pack I proposed in my House Buyers` Bill in 1983.