Why I'm Voting TUSC

Council Housing

Here in London, the cost of housing is going through the roof. The old Tory Government policy of selling off council housing has gone beyond selling them at a discount to tenants. In many cases, councils, including Labour councils, are selling off whole blocks to developers. Close to where I live, in Barking, a council block of maisonettes and a low-rise block of flats is being sold off. This block is of the same design as the one I live in. What is planned to replace it, is a block with a certain number of supposedly affordable homes, however, these homes are flats without gardens, with rents far higher than the council rent we pay, and most flats will cost a lot more.

In some areas, councils are so desperate to get people off their housing list, they are virtually giving away land for private developers to build on. They are also agreeing a very low proportion of supposedly affordable (but much dearer than council) rents, being charged to people who have to go in through a separate entrance. In many cases, the people in the cheaper homes will not have access to communal areas, which might include play areas for children. Imagine being the parent of a kid who looks out the window to see other kids playing on swings, but your kid isn’t allowed to use them!

Tenants protest against 40% rent hike

Of all the parties standing in the London elections, only TUSC has the policy to build public housing: Council housing on Council land. Houses with gardens. Where I was born and bred, Tower Hamlets, gentrification is driving out the working class. Unless you’re a council tenant, or share accommodation, you can’t afford to live there. It’s becoming like that round here in Barking. That’s why we need to build housing that Working Class people can afford to rent, with secure tenancies, and publicly owned, rather than by some rogue landlord who can hike the rent up (which, over recent years, has included Housing Associations).

Public Transport Cut and Congestion Charge Zone expanded!

They obviously need people other than Bankers and Billionaires to work here, but how will that work, especially when the proposed cuts to transport services in Outer London, and the expansion of the Congestion Charging Zone, are in place? Unless homes for Working Class people are built, workers will be forced to live outside or on the outskirts of London, and will have to pay through the nose to get into work!

I don’t want to hear Sadiq Khan’s “Welcome to Billionaires” stuff. He’s supposed to be Labour, son of a bus driver, but, like too many other local Labour politicians, seems totally resigned to doing the Tories’ dirty work, as government cuts back support for councils. Has anyone noticed these Billionaires redistributing their money in such a way that the rest of us get a share? Like better local facilities, better local services, better wages for the poor sods who have to do the work? No, me neither!

TUSC Candidates Standing

I am so glad that TUSC is standing. None of the other candidates is going to mount a campaign to stop the cutbacks and build housing that working class people can afford to live in. None of the other candidates will stop privatising and reducing local services, because to do so needs a fight against the Tory government that none of them are capable of.

The reason for that is that all these parties accept the rule of big business. Only TUSC stands for ALL working class people. We need Socialist, Working Class representation in our Town and City Halls!

VOTE TUSC ON 6TH MAY!