Friday, April 03, 2009
Defend Council Housing activists occupy empty house in protest at action sell-off posted by Richard Seymour

27 Howland House on the Sackville Estate is just one of the council flats currently being sold off at rock-bottom prices by Lambeth Council. Why is the council SELLING flats at a time when more and more people are facing homelessness through repossessions and redundancy? There are already 17,000 people on Lambeth’s housing waiting list and almost 2,000 people in temporary accommodation - two-thirds of those need a two-bedroom home just like 27 Howland House. We demand that Lambeth withdraw this, and other council properties, from the planned auction on Monday.
Lambeth Council say they can only keep to their budget by selling properties and having massive rent increases. We believe that it’s not good enough to punish ordinary council tenants – and the thousands of people who would like to be council tenants – because of a financial crisis we didn’t create. If the government can find money to bail out failing banks then why not give local authorities the resources they need to tackle the housing crisis ?
In February 2009 Lambeth council said that it had 688 'long cycle' empty homes and 194 'shortcycle 'empty homes. Lambeth Tenants Council voted this week against the sale of any ' void' properties and demanded that the local authority explain their policy of sell-offs.
Stop the sale of council homes !!
Emergency measures must be taken to house families on the waiting list and reduce overcrowding
For more information contact Paul O'Brien in the occupation - 07854994409
or currently on the Sackville estate , Stephen Hack , secretary, Lambeth Defend Council Housing 07944293854
Labels: activism, defend council housing, housing, militancy, occupation, privatisation