RENT BILL REVOLT TENANTS ASSOCIAI

combat Tory plans to double council house rents and impose the hated means test on tenants.

This determination fight showed itself on Tuesday night w hen thousands of tenants fro n all over Britain lobbied MPs over the Bill.

Organized jointly by National Association of ants and Residents and the Association of London Estates, which represents thousands of council tenants, it was certainly the biggest tenants' turnout at Westminster for many years.

Many of those 1 spoke to stressed the real meaning of the Tory plans-to destroy the basis of council housing. They also made clear that protests would not work on the Tories and that the trade unions would have to Gravesend tenants in Kent are probably the first to defy the Tory Bill. They have already refused to pay another 50p on the rent imposed by the Tory-controlled council.

William Thompson is on the Gravesend defence committee formed to fight the 'fair rents' Bill. It is made up of the trades council, the tenants' association and the Labour Party.

'The Tories are trying to make council tenants into second-class citizens. They want to sayyou're a council tenant and you'll do what we say.

"They want me to accept a cut in my standard of living, said William, who is a member of the Constructional Section of the AUEW.

'Our union has just negotiated a £1.50 a week increase. If I pay another 50p in rent and Ilp more in rates and then they stop 5up in tax that only leaves me with 50p of the rise.' Already he has refused to fill in his means-test form.

'On this Bill there should have been a bętter, more direct lead from the trade unions. With a lead from the TUC you could bring the government down on this Bill.

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TenRoundhouse tenants rounded out the feelings of the thousands on Tuesday's lobby-the trade unions must be mobilized to act against the Tories and their Fill In the form below NOW and send to:

London, SWa 7UQ.

MONDAY TUESDAY Amount enclosed £ rome rent Bill.

Willlam Thompson, Gravesend tenants'. assoclation :

Government could be brought down on this Bill government wouldn't now.' 'He expressed the bitterness and anger of millionse council tenants as they take Tories:

'Under this Bill fined £50 for not rent scrutineer.

dally or that Is the I again Torles.

THURSDAY

FRIDAY SATURDAY be here we can be helping the Well, we'll months.

LL DE U HAVE A DUTY + TO SUPPORT YOUR MEMBERS FIGHTING RENT RISES & EVICTION UNITED TENANTS ACI TRA UNIONS refuse to pay that-it may mean prison but we have to take that chance.' Tenants' Sants Association vel Essex, Miss Dilys stone, said she already paid nearly £4 a week for a two-bedroom flat.

'But we also live 20 miles outside London, so many of us have to travel all that way to work. To commute to London and back costs me another £4 a week. Unemployment high in Ayeley at the moment.

'My mother's a pensioner so the extra money she will get has to go in rents under this Bill.

'In my opinion tenants will have to stick together and refuse to pay the rent increases. There are 6,000 of us on our estate.

'They can't stick us all in prison, can they? I think this will be the Tories' last attempt to kill off the working class, : she added.

Labour councillor Mrs Ann Geaney, who sits on the Labour-controlled Thurrock UDC, which covers Aveley, added her support:

'We consider this Bill a blow against the working class-and we will refuse to have anything to do with it,' she told me.

As tenants thronged the pavement outside the House of Commons. Horace Riches was walking up and down with sandwich board which declared:

'Housing Bill-the Biggest Attack since the Tolpuddle Martyrs.' Horace, an executive member of the National Association of Tenants and Residents, had come with a coachload from Harrow. He told me:

'Over 70 per cent of tenants will have to apply for a meanstest if this goes through. I well remember the same thing in the 1930s and I feel disgusted.

'With this Bill the government will be able to coerce legallyelected councils to put the rents up to what they want them to be.

'Everyone by right should have a chance to get a decent house to live in. But now the Tories are killing the subsidies for council housing they'll only build for those who can afford really exorbitant rents.

'I pay £6 a week and it's going up fl in October,' Horace, who retires in 11 weeks time, told me. 'I don't see how I'll be able to afford the increase.

*Housing • should be a social service. There should be municipalization of all housing, with cheap interest on loans and the nationalization of all land, except that of owner-occupiers. That would 'solve the housing problem.

'This Bill is no different to other Tory measures. From the start, this government has intended to break the unions and rule roughshod over the working class.

'But given a lead I think the Tories will come down this year,' added Horace.

Bert Wilkinson, a Westminster tenant and member of the Labour councillor Ann Geaney, from Thurrock UDC: BIll is a blow against the working class painters' and decorators' union, also thought housing should be run as a social service.

'It's everyone's right to have shelter - though it seems the Tories aim to smash that. Housing shouldn't be run for profit. All that's happening at the moment is that big businesses are feathering their nests at our expense.' The rent for his one-bedroom flat will be about £5 a week if the increases go through.

'But our wages are static, the basic is only f20 a week. And the point is why do you want to work your guts out just to pay the rent?

'Now there's. no feeling of security left. Any rent increases just lower your standard living.' His friend John Hoey added:

'We can't survive while the Tories stay in. Something has to happen. They say they'll give us fl off income tax, but they take it back twice on the rents.

'We just can't go on like this. The best way is to get the Tories out' • See next Tuesday's Press for article on Chalkhill Estate, Wembley. cover-