Haringey homes plan incredibly risky

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/23/haringey-homes-plan-incredibly-risky

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Labour-run Haringey council’s plans to transfer £2bn of publicly owned land into a company jointly owned with a developer are incredibly risky and could have a huge impact on the lives of council tenants, the majority of whom, thus far, do not appear to have been consulted about the proposals (Lives torn apart and assets lost: what this Labour privatisation would mean, 20 January). The Lib Dems are very concerned by this, particularly as the Labour-run council’s policy does not guarantee that council tenants whose homes are put into the new company will have the same tenancy conditions and rights they have now. While Haringey badly needs new homes, there are ways of achieving this without putting council estates and large parts of Wood Green and Tottenham at risk. For example, Lib Dem-run Sutton council is building council homes and other types of affordable homes itself. I am pleased that the cross-party scrutiny panel, after examining the evidence, agreed that the Labour cabinet’s plans should be halted too. I hope Labour listens, but recent experience suggests it will push ahead with its proposals, despite the widespread and justified concerns.Dawn BarnesLib Dem spokesperson for Hornsey and Wood Green

• When Aditya’s Chakrabortty wrote in his report on privatisation in the London borough of Haringey, “I’m not accusing the politicians of corruption. But they seem to have such a corroded sense of ethics that they can no longer discern inappropriate behaviour”, he well anticipated council leader Claire Kober’s long and defensive response to his article (Letters, 21 January). The situation in Haringey exemplifies what Wolfgang Streeck in his book How Will Capitalism End? calls the consolidation state, run directly in the interests of capital investors and not indirectly through the mediation of the market, let alone with any social democratic pretensions (as in the postwar Keynesian national welfare state).Patrick AinleyPublic Services International Research Unit, Business School, University of Greenwich