(This is from a DCH email, please forward to people who will sign the petition.)

Defend Council Housing has posted a ‘Fourth Option’ for council housing E-Petition on the 10 Downing Street website.
The DCH petition calls on the Prime Minister to “provide the ‘Fourth Option’ of direct investment in council housing… bring all homes up to at least the government’s Decent Homes Standard by 2010 and also build a new generation of decent, affordable and secure council homes for rent”.
The ‘Fourth Option’ is supported by a broad coalition of organisations representing council tenants, the TUC and all major trade unions, councillors and MPs across all the main parties (see early day motion Funding Decent Council Housing).
The petition was launched as the well respected Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee joins in criticising government’s dogmatic obsession with private market solutions to the growing housing crisis.
The influential committee of MPs make clear that the significant amounts of public subsidy Ministers have poured into a never ending list of home ownership initiatives are neither value for money or making any contribution to tackling the growing housing crisis. The committee questions the effectiveness of the Communities & Local Government’s schemes for helping low income households to own their own home.
The MPs find that: the CLG does not know how the schemes affect local housing markets; it is “unclear” whether the assistance is helping to recruit and retain key workers; and housing waiting list controls are poor, meaning that three quarters of those gaining assistance have incomes above £25,000.
Defend Council Housing today welcomed the report from the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on ‘Low Cost Home Ownership Assistance’. Alan Walter, DCH chair, said:
“All the evidence shows that the quickest and most effective way of tackling growing housing need in 21st Century Britain would be for government to invest in improving existing and build a new generation of first class council (public) housing.
Ministers should drop their dogmatic insistence on privatisation and the private market. Subsidies for home ownership don’t create one extra home for those who need them – it just increases profits for lenders and developers and pushes more people into debt.
Pouring public subsidy into home ownership schemes only inflates house prices and doesn’t benefit those on low incomes.
Nearly 3 million council tenants want the ‘Fourth Option’ of direct investment in council housing and if local authorities were once again given the ability to build new council homes they could provide decent, affordable, secure and accountable housing for the 1.6 million households on council housing waiting lists.”
Read latest twelve page DCH newspaper (published March 24)

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