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Absender : hagcott@clara.net (Richard) Org.-Empf. : union-d@wolfnet.com Weiterleiter root@smoke.wolfnet.com Antwort an : union-d@wolfnet.com Betreff : Blair targets "sink estates" - with backdoor privatisation Datum : Fr 18.09.98, 06:56 (erhalten: 18.09.98) Groesse : 4195 Bytes ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Feature article New Worker Online - 18/9/1998.
Blair targets "sink estates" - with backdoor privatisation.
by Caroline Colebrook
PRIME MINISTER Tony Blair last Monday announced a new government initiative to improve the worst and most neglected housing estates. But he neglected to mention where the finance will be coming from.
He says this will be part of the work of the Social Exclusion Unit to improve life for some of Britain's poorest communities and will involve the local communilies in planning new and better housing and other facilities.
And 8OO million pound has been allocated to tackle a range of problems ranging from bad housing to education and crime.
The scheme will tackle 17 "pathfinder" districts. Some have been designated "sinking ships" -- too far gone to be rescued -- that will be demolished.
Mr Blair said: "It's the people that count not the buildings. Some are beyond rescue and will never be places where people want to live.
"That could mean moving people to new homes, levelling the site and using the land for something the public wants."
On Monday he visited Hackney and one of the worst estates, due for demolition and another estate that has already undergone the treatment.
An investment of 97 million pound has resulted in a demolition and rebuilding programme.
The Dalston estate was built in the 60s to provide 1,145 homes with 16 five-storey "snake blocks" linked by a mile-long continuous corridor.
This winding corridor became a haunt of muggers, burglars, drug takers and other anti-social individuals.
badly built
The homes were badly built and became infested with red pharaoh ants and cockroaches.
Tony Blair's announcement has won a lot of publicity throughout the media but when looked at in the total context of what is needed to renovate housing in this country, it is very small beer.
The government is investing just œ800 million in 17 estates. Yet there are thousands of estates in a desperate state of disrepair.
Around five million households are accommodated in either council or housing association homes. And the estimate of the maintenance backlog on these ranges from œ10 to œ20 billion, according to a report published on Monday.
And for this, the government is pushing councils to seek funding from the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
In fact it would seem that while Tony Blair was announcing the government's new generosity towards these 17 estates, local government minister Hilary Armstrong was telling a conference on PFI that she would review responses to the report and then develop "pathfinder projects".
The existing mechanisms for the privatisation of council estates, such as voluntary transfer, have not been working well because most tenants are wise enough to reject the move which will put their rent levels and security of tenure at the mercy of market forces.
And the big finance companies behind PFI schemes seem reluctant to take on the management of "difficult" estates with multiple social problems.
So new mechanisms are being thought up. Now there are to be PFI "partnerships" with local authorities that would leave the management of "difficult" estates with the local authorities.
But the ownership, as with other PFI schemes, would almost certainly end up in private hands, with the local authority renting the estates from the big finance companies in order to sub-let them to the tenants.
Ms Armstrong said that some 66 local government PFI schemes have already been endorsed, covering a range of services including schools, leisure facilities, waste management, police stations and information technology.
The estates desperately need renovation and repair. But doing this through PFI will multiply the costs in the long term several times over -- and leave ownership and control in private hands.
And it will not solve the problems of poverty and crime -only morejobs with better wages can do that.
New Worker Online http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2853
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Last Modified: October 1998