Councillors leave door open for retreat, but Camden is London's sole rent rebel

battle estates CAMDEN'S LABOUR-CONTROLLED council in north London will continue to refuse to implement the Tory 'fair rents' Act-at least for the time being. But Salford Labourites in the north-west have capitulated and will now put up the rents. The decision by Camden—which leaves them the only Labour council in the whole of London still resisting the Act-became clear in the early hours of yesterday morning at the end of the October council meeting. ...and Salford caves in JUST a few hours before Camden decision, the only m ajor defiant council left in the n‹ irthwest, Salford, reversed p alicy and capitulated to the Tory government by 27 votes to 20.

All 35 Labour members had been given a free vote and the implementation decision was only carried because a number of Labourites voted with the Tories.

Now that the original pledge to oppose the Act has fallen, 16,000 Salford tenants will face rent increases of £1.08 from mid-November under the Tories' Labour group leader Leslie Hough said afterwards:

"There will be no recriminations against any member, however he or she voted. The decision on this was taken at a council prior to the city This apology for the right wing will not help the ti enants in the least. And now only Eccles in the whole g ¡reater Manchester area remains determined to fight the Tory attack on housing.

same Despite long negotiations with the Tories over small concessions in the Act, the major policy committee had carefully phrased their report to the council meeting.

Led by committee chairman Peter Best, said they could make no recommendation at councillors. This frustrated Tory attempts to an amendment calling for implementation.

All the Tories could do was move a reference back which failed 27 to 15 with five Labour abstensions. The council's August decision not to implement (carried 30 to 26) remained Camden official policy. Because a straight vote was avoided, the Tories accused the Labourites of being afraid, just in case the pro-implementers and abstainers carried the day on the Act. There probably was some measure of truth in that. Now at the end of the second week of the 'fair rents' Act, Camden has lost £26,000 in potential it creased rents. At a rate of £13,000 a week it is a mighty sum for which the 30 non-implementers can eventually be surchargtd. But the Labour group is leaving its escape route free.

'If we had implemented the Act it would have destroyed what the government is trying to persuade the TUC to do-fight inflation, said Cilr Philip Turner weakly. Cllr Brian Loughran welcomed the 'changes brought in by the government' 85p increases instead of £l and rebate allowances of up to £10 instead of f8.

As far as he was concerned, and Loughran leads the nonimplementers, the 'time to reconsider' implementation was when the 'Minister agrees to cut the principle of the Act' in relation to the criteria for 'fair rents'.

But the calculation of council rents on a market basis, as if they were private tenancies, is the central point of the Act. It must be obvious to all Camden councillors that the Tories will never-and indeed, cannotdestroy the whole basis of their legislation.

It was hard to see what Cllr Loughran was getting at.

To defeat the Act requires the defeat and resignation of the Tories and he mentioned nothing about that.

Only one councillor, Paddy O'Connor, made a firm stand:

'This is a class attack by the Tories,' he said. 'They have only one idea and that is to screw more rent from the working class.

To hell with the concessions! I'm not interested in whether the rent is 85p or 100p. Whatever the government does, we will not accept a vote for implementation.' Camden tenants are already finding it impossible to pay existing rent-rent arrears now amount to a staggering f426, all amount to a staggering £426.000 or over per cent of potential revenue. How Labour has betrayed us A LIVERPOOL tenants' leader has accused the Labour Party of a conspiracy to smash resistance by tenants against the Tory rent increases.

Mike McGurgan (46), chairman Amalgamated Tenantshorth-west Association and leader of the resistance in Bootle, says Labour councillors, MPs and the national executive of the Party all pledged to resist the Act, knowing full well that they would eventually implement it.

'Their main concern was the elections coming up under the new local government structure. They wanted to get in once more and protect their careers. Councillors will be paid under the new regulations, don't forget, he said.

He claims that the Labour made a pretence of resisthey all to MANCHESTER Labour MP Gerald 1 Kaufman has pledged he will personally stand by any tenant facing eviction. The member for Ardwick gave this pledge to tenants after being repeatedly asked what kind of help the Labour Party was prepared to give to families facing eviction because of the Kaufman — who was given the Ardwick seat after serving as Harold Wilson's press secretary at 10 Downing St between 1964 and 1970said: I will be at the House of Commons, but if I hear of any eviction I will come down and they will have to evict me as well.

But Kaufman and the two local councillors on the platform at a Labour Party public meeting on Wednesday night made it clear that this was the only kind of help they could expect from the Labour Party.

The MP refused to say whether Manchester TORIES NANTS Tonants lobby Camden council meeting on Wednesday which went on the early hours.

By a long-time rents campaigner tance to maintain support from tenants and then abandoned them at the last minute.

To support his argument he points to the collapse in Bootle.

'The council decided to implement the Act on August 23. On August 24, 11,000 tenants in Bootle were told about the increase and were threatened with notices to quit if they did not pay.

'In all, five forms were sent out that day and they were all printed by local firms. It is obvious to my mind that this could not have been done unless there had been prior collusion between the Labour group and the housing departThe Act is law, says Kaufman: We can't risk our livelihoods

DONT

OPERATE RENT Labour councillors had been right to implement the Housing Finance Act against the mandate from Manchester Labour Party. •What is absolutely sure is that whether the councillors implemented it or not, the tenants would have to pay it, said Kaufman.

At this point he was drowned out by cries of 'rent strike' and "get Heath out'. He continued above the din: 'Nothing that you say can change the fact that the Act is law?

Eventually Kaufman got down to the real reason for Labour's collapse. One could not expect, he argued, councillors to risk their livelihoods and careers by breaking the law.

As for himself: 'My burden finished the day the Queen put her name to this Act. That day my responsibility to you as an MP ended. I EVICT These kind of blows were dealt to tenants all over the country. If councillors had gone round and told tenants they were sticking to their pledge the resistance would have been 90 per cent amongst tenants.

blow.

'If you look at the campaign nationally you had Labour coun cillors saying they would defy the Act, knowing full well the implications of such a stand. The collapse was very sudden. It would be inept if we did not suspect a deliberate strategy by the Labour Party NEC!

Mr McG:irgan, who lives on an estate on the outskirts of Bootle, is a veteran tenants' campaigner.

'I have been on platforms with people like Frank Allaun in the early days of the struggle and he promised a campaign of civil disobedience against the Act.

"13° 17> am not going to ask councillors to carry burden I don't carry, he said.

The two local councillors, Anthony Goldstone and Hugh Barratt, put up a performance typical of Manchester's Labour group.

A row developed when they were asked why they had both refused to speak at tenants' meetings.

At first they said insufficient notice had been given. Then when documentary evidence was produced proving this was untrue, they changed their excuses to the pressure of other engagements, holidays or an unwillingness to attend meetings where 'outside influences' were present.

Kaufman ended the meeting with an appeal for tenants to re-elect a Labour government.

One man asked how an early election could be forced on the Tories. I honestly do not know; he said.

'Last week we had the spectacle of Mr Allaun lending his stamp of respectability to the big collapse and saying they could not help councillors in trouble.

It is my opinion that the real campaign should be directed to clearing these people out of the Labour Party.

'It was the Labour Party anyway which put the seeds of the Housing Finance Act into the minds of the Tories. The Francis Report on housing talked about subsidizing people and not bricks and mortar. This was set up by Labour and it became the essence of the Tory Act.

There is a section of the Labour Party-the grass rootsthat should be preserved. These people are the cream. All the rest are completely corrupt. We need a completely new leadership' Mr McGurgan said that the tenants' movement should be involved in politics.

It is impossible to avoid this. After experiencing what has happened in the Labour Party we should be in there kicking these people'