Labour brought rotten housing privatisation on themselves
Dear End, IT'S all very well for Cllr Rahman to say he is listening to residents at Stepney’s Exmouth estate complain of the terrible treatment they have received at the hands of Swan Housing. But it is his Labour party which is responsible for the privatisation of Tower Hamlets council housing stock that has brought about this situation
Dear End,
IT IS all very well for Cllr Oliur Rahman to say he is listening to residents at Stepney's Exmouth estate complain of the terrible treatment they have received at the hands of Swan Housing.
But it is his Labour party which is responsible for the privatisation of Tower Hamlets council housing stock that has brought about this situation.
Indeed, until Cllr Rahman's miraculous 'conversion' to Labour just a year ago, he had vehemently opposed this housing privatisation.
The issue now is what this Labour authority is going to do about a situation that is entirely of their making. It is clear from recent visits to the Exmouth estate by both Labour and Respect councillors that the situation there remains a long way from satisfactory. Promises continue to be broken.
Labour's Cllr Marc Francis announced two weeks ago that he would be bringing sanctions on Swan Housing if there was no improvement in their performance.
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Neither Francis nor Rahman have yet told us what those sanctions might be, why they have not been used before now on Swan Housing-given its rotten recent history on the Exmouth estate-and why these sanctions have not been used against many of the other errant housing associations that tenants and leaseholders in the East End are also suffering from.
We need action-not words. If the Town Hall has got the powers to sanction housing associations, it ought to be using them.
Kevin Ovenden
Assistant to MP George Galloway
House of Commons, Westminster
