Homes: Tories out to destroy a basic right

UNDER THE BILL:

estate agent thinks a property is worth.

rates) will rise to over £7 (plus rates).

£50 fine.

Increase of £1 this year and 75p next year.

of up to £400.

every six months.

HOUSING REVENUE accounts will move surplus and half of this will be taken by government. In three or four years tenants be paying an extra £500 million. In rents. PRIVATE TENANTS—1.3 In controlled properties: next January and their 'Pair' levels. the Bill was cut Torles on March 29. It has now fini mittee stage in the House of Con more days are left for the repc reading stages lefore it goes to Lords. Filmed Act THE Department of Employment is stepping up its campaign to promote the Industrial Relations Act. Four new films on the Act will be previewed at the National Film Theatre on May 2.

A departmental spokesman said that 290 copies of the first film, 'The Industrial Relations Act-An Introduction', had been sold. There had been 1,965 hire bookings since its release October last year.

Sudan aid SUDANESE Foreign Minister Dr Mansour Khalid, on a brief visit to Britain, has asked the Tory government for assistance in dealing with country's refugee problem.

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out a subscription MONDAY TUESDAY uncloser Maxwell murder He slams a writ on second Pergamon Press report will them-living begins from be raised to short by the shed Its comnmons. Three urt and third the House of MILLIONAIRE Labour MP, Robert Maxwell, has taken out a second writ against the Department of Trade and Industry. He says the department is carrying out 'business murder' against Kim.

The bitter legal THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY dally or that Is the I againa Torles.

mon ONE OF the most powerful tenants' associations in S London is the one covering Coldharbour Estate in New Eltham. Out of 2,000 tenants, it has 1,600 mem bers and has been active in the campaign against the Tory plans.

Chairman Derrick Wiles has been involved in the association for over ten years. He told me what he saw as the aims of the Bill and the way the struggle would develop.

It is an attack on council tenants to bring their standards of living down. It is also a blow against democracy, because all the rights are being taken away from the tenants and from the council.

If an elected council refuses to implement the Bill, the government can bring ina Housing Commissioner to take over the housing powers.

stems from the sorry financial history of Maxwell's familyowned company, Pergamon Press.

For three years Pergamon has been the subject of boardroom squabbles - Maxwell was once unseated-and litigation. wrangle The publication on Monday of the department's second report on the Pergamon affair throws further light on how Maxwell ran the publishing operation.

It reveals a series of sharp business practices but there is scarcely a hint of criticism. Some examples: • At one time Maxwell revalued his stocks which led to an overstatement of profits of $100,000. The report says this 'could have been a genuine mistake' • Referring to another overstatement of assets, it says. We think that the over-pricing of "Pictorial Knowledge" by £36,000 was probably due to genuine oversight.' Another overstatement of profits by £45,213 on a due to was described as being an error in bookkeeping'. • The purchase of the Newnes publishing house is described like this: 'It was a commercial decision — albeit one which led to disaster-and we do not criticize Mr Maxwell for an commercial decision, unfortunate Although the department's inspectors give Maxwell a ton of leeway in many instances, the overall conclusions make damaging reading.

Maxwell is accused of making 'exaggerated' sales claims. 'We are of the opinion that the claims which Mr Maxwell made were exaggerated and that he knew they were. 'In our view this• What will also happen is that the price of property will go up as more and more people are driven on to the market.

Many people on this estate are like me, in their 50s. We've got our back to the wall. If we can't afford the new rents it would be impossible to find another house. No one would entertain us for a mortgage. -'Yet tenants could be pushed out of their houses if the Tories think they have too many bedrooms. If you apply for a rebate, you could be offered smaller accommodation which will probably be sub-standard.

The Tories are turning the clock right back. Housing should be a social necessity-like a hospital bed. Council housing was supposed to be for people who couldn't afford to buy their own houses. It has given a lot of people a roof over their heads.

Now it's going to be f9 a week or get out. But where do you go?

What really lies behind this Bill? Well, it's Tory policy to sell council property. If you get Tory-controlled councils in the future I think you could see many of the houses we live in sold off to estate agents and the like.

This is a government which argues about nothing. They make a decision, like they did with Ireland, and then they carry it out.

And with Tory press censorship on things like the 'fair rents' Bill, many people have yet to realize what's happening. They're out of instance of a publicly-quoted company falling below that standard which we. consider snoula De observea wuen com- - L nam menting upon the affairs of his company in the press.' The company was also accused of 'a history of the overstatement of its normal trading profits'but there is no criticism whatsoever of the auditors, Chalmers Impey & Company, who certified the books without comment. Although Maxwell has his wrist slapped by the second report, it is nowhere near as cynical as the first one.

Last year Vol 1 of the Pergamon saga concluded that Maxwell "was not a person who could be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publiclyquoted company.

would like information abou THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Fill in the form below and send to NATIONAL SECRETARY, SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE, 186A CLAPHAM HIGH ST, LONDON, SW4 7UG. Name Address We're losing all our rights in this country. And we're being pushed into a corner where we could lose a lot more. But the working class is not so slow as to give them up like that—it will be a hell of a job for the Tories to take them all away.

Tenants won't be able to fight this on their own. We have to have the support of the trade unions. It's got to be a common fight-after all, everybody's pocket will be hit.

Already the Bill has forced tenants' associations much closer together. Our association has gone out and set them up where they never existed before and revived the older ones which have fallen by the wayside.

In the past the vast majority of tenants' associations have remained non-political; that is, not giving full support to any political party. I don't think this will change completely.

Nevertheless, as a whole they will have to broaden their horizons, looking more deeply into things and becoming involved politically.

In my opinion, the return of a Labour government will be the only answer. But you have to admit the last Labour government was a big disappointment to a lot of us. The first thing tenants will expect is a repeal of this Bill.

They will also have to do something about the vast interest charges and land prices councils have to pay if they want to build new houses.