Guest Blog - Unite to stop attacks on council housing by Defend Council Housing

Councils will be a focus for united opposition to fixed term tenancies, un'Affordable' (up to 80% market) rents and evictions due to Housing Benefit cuts. Each council landlord has to agree a Tenancy Strategy by next January. A Shelter report sets out useful arguments and questions - see here .Council housing is a much-needed alternative to the failing private housing market. With 4.5 million people on housing waiting lists and homelessness soaring, with millions more trapped in insecure and inadequate housing, what we need is investment in a new generation of first class public, affordable, secure and accountable council housing.What you can do :

Organise local campaign meetings with tenants, trade unions, politicians and housing campaigners - contact DCH for help and speakers, leaflets.

Join us at the TUC and party conferences, and other events (see dates below) and at the massive TUC march on 20 October in London, A Future that Works
Email to order copies of the new DCH newspaper out in September (£20 for 100/£120 for 1,000) or new Right to Buy - Warning and other posters (10 for £1/100 for £7). 

Dates and events

DCH@TUC Brighton 9-10 September - email if you can be there
London activists meeting - Housing for the 99% 7pm Camden Town Hall WC1H 9JE
ARCH (Assoc of Retained Council Housing) Tenants' conference Kettering Conference Centre 19 September see details here

Labour conference Manchester from 30 Sept, with DCH fringe meeting Friend Meeting House 6pm Tue 2nd October Note

Council and other landlords must consult on use of new tenancies and rents before Jan 2012, following the Localism Act 2011.

May-July 2012 saw another 42% fall in new council and Private Registered Provider (PRP or housing association) homes, compared to the same period last year - see figures here and here
See the latest Housing Emergency Briefing here
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The Barnet Eye supports the Defend Council Housing campaign. Guest Blogs are always welcome at the Barnet Eye