‘We look forward to see what the government’s economic recovery strategy is,’ a TUC spokesman told News Line yesterday.
‘Any measures that ease the pressure on hard-pressed homeowners will be welcomed by the TUC.’
The Labour Party conference is due to open in Manchester on Saturday September 20, two days earlier than expected, in order ‘to fully debate the big policy challenges facing Britain in depth’, said a statement on the party’s website.
The TUC Congress opens next Monday, and their spokesman continued: ‘We will be launching an economic strategy at Congress this weekend.
‘We think the government should prioritise growth in the economy and keeping employment up.’
The TUC spokesman added: ‘We think the government should change its stance on public sector pay.
‘Below-inflation pay rises are a pay cut in anyone else’s language, and mortgage payments are one of the issues that pay goes towards.’
A spokeswoman for UNISON, the biggest public sector trade union, told News Line: ‘Our view is this, that we need to have more social housing and more affordable rents.
‘That is the area that is going to make a difference to working people.
‘We need to have more housing brought back into council stock. The councils need to be responsible for housing people.’
She stressed: ‘It has always been our policy to call for the “fourth option’’ of investing in council housing.
‘It is Labour Party policy and it should be implemented.’
Looking to the TUC Congress next week, the UNISON spokeswoman said: ‘We are calling on the TUC General Council to coordinate the public sector unions on pay and support those unions taking legitimate industrial action for fair pay demands.
‘Cuts in public sector pay mean cuts in living standards for our members, and that translates into more fuel poverty, housing problems for people and difficulty with food costs.
‘Our public services resolution calls for the privatised services to be brought back in house, and our motion on the NHS highlights the dangers of the Darzi reforms and bringing multinationals into the NHS.’
She concluded: ‘Our main thing is to tell the government to hold firm and to continue the investment in public services, that in times of economic downturn, public service investment acts as a safety net for society.
‘The more you involve the private sector in public services, the more you open them up to the economic bad weather.’
A GMB spokeswoman told News Line: ‘We haven’t moved on our policies, we are against privatisation, we think public services should be in house and we fully support the fourth option for council housing.
‘We think council housing is the best way to meet people’s housing needs.
‘We’re opposed to the privatisation of council housing and always have been.
‘We think the government should repeal the anti-union laws. We’ve been asking them to for long enough.
‘We put our requests to the Labour Party at Warwick and the documents resulting from that will be put to the Labour Party conference.’