‘DEFEND council housing! No social cleansing!’ shouted three hundred people demonstrating outside parliament yesterday as MPs debated the Housing and Planning Bill 2015 at its third reading.
There were banners from the Southern and Eastern Region of the TUC, from Class War, Defend Council Housing, the Occupy movement, Basildon and Southend Housing Action (BASHA) and the Aylesbury Estate.
Liz from BASHA told News Line: ‘We are here to highlight the attack against the working class that is in this Bill if it becomes law. ‘Security and long-term tenancies will be a thing of the past. ‘It will split communities and create insecurities, and that is not right. If this Bill goes through today then we are looking towards the House of Lords to stop or change it. It is quite a situation when we are depending on them to defend our rights.’
On the demonstration Desiree Cranenburgh said: ‘If you have not got a home, you have no access to anything such as healthcare, education etc. They are destroying communities. To me a regeneration is social cleansing. Because wages are so low, most people cannot afford to commute to London for work, the fares are unaffordable. It is young people who are hardest hit. Some people are squatting and occupying. Everybody must fight this Bill in every way that they can.’
Ruth Mayorcas said: ‘We should flood the MPs with phone calls demanding that they vote against.
‘I have a son who is 24 and although he has a decent job he is spending two thirds of his income keeping a roof over his head.’
Megan Dobney, the Regional Secretary of Southern and Eastern Region of the TUC, said: ‘London is turning into a place where only the rich can afford to live. In London housing is the most important issue’.
• Council workers at Sheffield Housing Services are on strike today over an ‘annihilation of their terms and conditions’. GMB, the union that represents them, said: ‘This dispute is over the imposition of changes to terms and conditions of employment, and the imposition of the council’s new housing management scheme, Housing Plus.
‘These members voted in favour of action last month and began a work-to-rule in mid-December after the council imposed the restructuring without agreement.’ The council workers will hold a lunchtime protest outside Sheffield Town Hall at 12.30pm.
Peter Davies, GMB regional organiser, said: ‘As frontline staff face losing thousands in pay, their area managers, who are forcing through the changes, will see their pay packets boosted by thousands of pounds. It is the same old story. Not only has the council annihilated the terms and conditions, they are forcing through something which doesn’t work.’