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Title Housing bill march: Hundreds join protest against government ‘attack on [Islington] council tenants’ Author Material Article External document Hundreds of Islington tenants marched on Parliament on Sunday in protest against the government’s controversial Housing and Planning Bill, dubbed an “attack on council tenants”.
The 300-strong Islington contingent held a short rally in Clerkenwell in the morning before walking to Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn, the starting point of the national march which carried thousands through the centre of the capital.
Tenants at the demonstration, representing all corners of the borough, were most concerned at the “pay-to-stay” plans, under which households earning more than £40,000 will be charged higher rents, rising to the full market rent if their income exceeds £50,000. This could see some tenants’ rent quadruple, raising fears people could lose their homes, or be forced to quit their jobs.
St Peter’s ward councillor Gary Doolan, himself a council tenant, told the group from Islington: “This is about social cleansing. This Tory government has been doing it for many years. But when you look at the bill you will see it’s not just about housing.”
Speaking of the controversial “pay to stay” proposals, he added: “It is stopping people progressing in society and it’s about moving people out to the suburbs.
“If we are to make any inroads this campaign has got to keep going. Politicians, trade unionists and tenants have to stick together. We don’t want changes to this bill – we want it scrapped.”
As they reached Lincoln’s Inn Fields – the crowd by now basking in the spring sunshine – Islington council tenant Anna Murphy, 43, who will be affected by “pay to stay”, told the demonstrators: “Gone is our life, our holidays, gone is the safety we’ve had. We’ve worked and paid taxes all our lives. Where’s the morality in all this? It’s against our human rights.
“There are people who are going to break down because of this. The effects are going to be disastrous. We need to be fighting this bill, it should be scrapped.”
The march was attended by more than a dozen Islington councillors, Islington South and Finsbury MP Emily Thornberry, and Green councillor Caroline Russell. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was absent because he had pulled a muscle while out running in Finsbury Park, said his wife Laura Alvarez, who was at one point seen holding the banner at the front of the march.
Islington’s housing chief, Councillor James Murray, told the Tribune: “The government’s Housing Bill is an attack on council housing and council tenants. We need to fight it and stop it wrecking Islington. People from across London and beyond know how mean and destructive this bill will be, and we were making that absolutely clear at the rally today.”
The march ended at Victoria Tower Gardens, which borders the Houses of Parliament, where a closing rally was held.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, told the crowd gathered there that the fight for decent and affordable housing was “one of the most important battles in a generation”.
“In my constituency there is an ever-growing number of beds in sheds,” he said.
“We are living in 2016 in the sixth-biggest economy in the world and there are shanty towns being built. There are people sleeping in parks and under bridges because in the past 13 years we have not built council houses and successive governments have sold them off. And selling off is what this bill is about.”
He added: “I will give you this commitment: When we [Labour] get back in we will start building homes again and they will be council homes.
“But between now and then we need to continue to support housing campaigns, the families facing eviction and to fight the fact that properties are being built only for speculative gain.”
Speaking afterwards, Ms Thornberry added: “I met tenants on the march who have never been on a demonstration or protest before but who were absolutely determined to be there. We had 30 people from St Luke’s estate and 40 from Stafford Cripps – they know how damaging this bill will be for people in Islington and they know we need to do everything we can to defeat it.”
Tenants, trade unionists and campaigners voted unanimously last month to launch a borough-wide campaign to fight the bill, currently going through the Lords, where it is facing heavy opposition. The Conservatives do not have a majority there.
The bill includes plans to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants, funded by forcing councils to sell off “high-value” properties, which Islington estimates could mean a loss of 500 council homes a year.
The government says the proposals will help deliver a million new homes by 2020, partially by unlocking billions of pounds in “high-value stock” which will be reinvested in new homes, as well as supporting home ownership through Right to Buy.
On April 15, the national Kill The Housing Bill campaign has organised a sleep-out outside town halls and housing offices, followed by an anti-austerity march the following day.
Islington tenants are expected to camp outside the Town Hall overnight in protest against the plans. Notes Islington Tribune filed at A-Z periodicals (Islington Local History Centre) Audio
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