What Have We Done?
Well, I had little choice really...three or four times they tried to get the North East of England to start a kind of Assembly(a quango)a talking shop and another level of bureaucracy and each time the population said "No!" and could not have said it more clearly. The same thing was said when tenants were asked their opinion on the transfer of social housing stock to a private landlord or a kind of housing association.
But after a few months those who could make decisions at Westminster kept coming back and changing how questions were asked and ballots were held until they got their way.
Now, with the economic down turn and the need to create work, there is talk that social housing will be a priority again and new houses will be built but the question being asked is whether councils will take up this work or will it be given to the new housing associations who have taken on the housing stock from councils who have transferred their stock.
If councils take up the work and are awarded grants to build new housing, it means they've off loaded their previous housing stock and the tenants and "we" may find out that we have been treated badly. If the plans had not been rushed through we still could have been under the care of the councils. Which I think many would've preferred. But we were making a decision on the information and situation at the time the proposal was being pushed through.
And in our own town there is now some problem regarding what will happen to the open spaces that allow some green areas that benefit the environment and have not been built upon but it appears the land has been transferred along with housing stock and it is possible the housing associations that now own the housing stock may decide it is so valuable it is worth building more houses and this land may not remain open much longer.
The truth is that no one knows. I do know in a neighbouring town, houses are being built and squeezed into areas I would never have believed possible or that they would be(and that's private housing)so anything is possible.
But after a few months those who could make decisions at Westminster kept coming back and changing how questions were asked and ballots were held until they got their way.
Now, with the economic down turn and the need to create work, there is talk that social housing will be a priority again and new houses will be built but the question being asked is whether councils will take up this work or will it be given to the new housing associations who have taken on the housing stock from councils who have transferred their stock.
If councils take up the work and are awarded grants to build new housing, it means they've off loaded their previous housing stock and the tenants and "we" may find out that we have been treated badly. If the plans had not been rushed through we still could have been under the care of the councils. Which I think many would've preferred. But we were making a decision on the information and situation at the time the proposal was being pushed through.
And in our own town there is now some problem regarding what will happen to the open spaces that allow some green areas that benefit the environment and have not been built upon but it appears the land has been transferred along with housing stock and it is possible the housing associations that now own the housing stock may decide it is so valuable it is worth building more houses and this land may not remain open much longer.
The truth is that no one knows. I do know in a neighbouring town, houses are being built and squeezed into areas I would never have believed possible or that they would be(and that's private housing)so anything is possible.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 1:50 pm
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