HOUSING: Did it have to be like this?

A socialist critique of New Labour's performance
By Cathy Davis & Alan Wigfield

'If New Labour had abolished the Right to Buy and instituted a large scale local authority building and modernisation programme, if it had created a sector of good quality affordable rented housing that a wide range of citizens might be proud to live in and that was democratically accountable, we would now be looking at a completely different scenario. As it is, they failed collectively to recognize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented to them by their election in 1997. In doing so, thirteen years of New Labour have made it much easier for the Conservatives and Liberals to cut and transfer and abolish.'

Dr Cathy Davis, University of Salford
Alan Wigfield, Sheffield Hallam University,
Chair, Sheffield City Council Housing Committee 1986-92

Socialist Renewal no. 53
978 085124 782 3
£6.00 36 pages Pamphlet

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