Swindon TUC press Release February 12th 2006
Council Housing
A delegation representing trades unions from Swindon
(TGWU, GMB, UNISON and Swindon TUC), joined 1,300 trades unionists and Council
tenants in London on February 8th, for a rally and Lobby of
Parliament. The event was part of the national campaign to win the right of
Councils to direct investment in Council housing.
The government has attempted to dispense with Council
housing by pressuring tenants to accept:
·
Transfer of their housing to private
companies or Housing Associations;
·
Improvement of the stock by way of
the Private Finance Initiative (the method by which we were given a new
hospital with too few beds);
·
Arms Length Management Organisations
(an idea dreamed up to avoid giving tenants the right to ballot as they have if
faced with transfer).
The government has attempted to cajole and bludgeon
tenants into accepting transfer, in some cases offering to write off
housing debt, or by the more stark method of giving them the “choice” of
modernisation of stock if they vote 'yes', and no improvements if they vote
‘no’.
The Defend Council Housing campaign which has the
support of tenants, unions and many Labour MPs, has called the government’s
bluff. If it talks of ‘choice’ for tenants, how can it deny tenants’
improvements if they chose to stay with their Council’s? Hence, they have put
forward the demand for the ‘fourth option’, direct investment in Council
housing. This demand was overwhelmingly supported by the Labour Party
conference, but the Blair dictatorship has thus far ignored the Labour
conference.
More than 200 MPs have thus far supported early day
motions in support of the ‘fourth option’. Unfortunately neither of Swindon’s
MPs have signed them. The delegation from Swindon
therefore met the two MPs to press them to support direct investment.
In the case of Swindon, the raising of the standard of
the Council’s housing stock is on course for completion by 2008. So the problem
for us is the shortage of Council accommodation. More than 6,000 individuals
and families are on the waiting list.
Michael Wills, informed the delegation that he did not
entirely agree with the fourth option, but he would write to the relevant
Minister to inform him of our point of view. Anne Snelgrove
expressed her opposition to Council’s building new stock. She thought this was
better done by Housing Action Trusts or businesses, which are apparently ‘more
efficient’. She said she was in favour of government intervention, but not the
right of Councils to build new stock.
In practice Councils are are
prevented from doing so because they would be financially penalised is they
chose to do so. That is why last year there were 400 Council units built in the
entire country.
Swindon TUC Secretary Martin Wicks said:
“In reality there is no way that the housing market
will provide ‘affordable housing’. Whilst we have a housing crisis in this
town, all that is being built is expensive accommodation which many local
people cannot afford. The only way that this crisis is liable to be addressed
is by a return to Council House building. Ironically, when we attended the
rally after meeting our MPs we heard Gerald Kauffman, an old right wing Labour
MP, demanding of the government the right for Councils to build new stock. If
he can see the need for this, why can’t our MP’s? It seems that supporters of
Blair are ideologically opposed to social provision of housing.”
For further comment ring
Martin Wicks on: 07786 394593
Visit the Defend Council Housing
website at: www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk
Swindon TUC press Release 12th December 2005
According to yesterday’s Observer, the
Primary Care Trust in Swindon has suggested that GPs
should not make any “routine” referrals of patients for hospital care until
January 16th “to avoid paying extra”, as they have to save £2.45
million.
Swindon TUC Secretary Martin Wicks commented:
“This appears to be part of the generalised financial crisis which is sweeping through the
NHS at the national level. However, the delay of referrals is almost certainly
related to the government’s waiting list targets. In order to hit the target
people are to be left in pain for longer. So-called routine referrals can
include things like hip replacements.”
“This crisis is of the government’s making,
owing to its ‘marketisation’ of this public service,
and its ‘payment by results’ system. One of the lunacies of the current
situation is that Trusts who treat ‘too many’ patients get penalised
for doing so.”
Swindon TUC is supporting the new campaign, Keep Our NHS
Public (www.keepournhspublic.com
) which is campaigning against the privatisation of
services and a ‘health market’.
For further comment contact Martin Wicks on
07786 394593
See below an article on the NHS crisis
from the latest Swindon TUC Newsletter
NHS Crisis Deepens
In the last issue we wrote about the Keep
Our NHS public campaign. Below we show an initial list of local signatories to
the statement launching the campaign. Please let us know if you would like to
add your name to the list.
The crisis we reported on in issue 6 has
deepened. News has emerged that one quarter of the country’s trusts are
forecasting deficits that total £948 million, with an overall forecast of £623
million deficit.
The government has told trusts that they
have to break even, and they are talking of sending “hit squads” around the
country. However, these deficits are not the result of “inefficiency”.
In many cases trusts are in deficit because they have treated too many
patients. Because the government is treating the NHS like a market for goods,
trusts can be penalised for treating “too many” sick
people.
As a result of this situation, all around
the country cuts, including job losses are being pushed through. So great is
the crisis that East Suffolk PCT was proposing to negotiate with the unions deferment of next March wages until April!
Cuts in the most cashed strapped trusts are
being proposed as we move into a winter which is forecast to be colder than
usual.
News has emerged in the Guardian that
hospitals are delaying ‘non-emergency’ treatment in order to slow spending.
The University Hospital of North
Staffordshire, in Stoke-on-Trent, has been told it must stop operating on women
needing gynaecological treatment who had been on its
waiting list for only two months. The PCTs said they
would refuse to pay for the work unless the women were kept waiting for nearly
six months - the government's target maximum. By delaying treatment, spending
is postponed into the next financial year.
A spokesman said the hospital sent letters
to 528 patients this week cancelling bookings for
operations before March 31 and offering appointments in the new financial year.
In London, Hammersmith and Fulham PCT has agreed a business plan that also slows down
treatment. "The risk in this area continues to be the treatment of
patients faster than is required by the targets and therefore at greater
expense than our funding," the plan says. To reduce this risk, we are requiring
the main acute trusts to treat non-urgent elective patients within an average
of five months." A spokesman for North West Thames strategic health
authority said the PCT's policy is in line with other
trusts in London.
Keep our NHS public!
Add your name to
the list below
The NHS stands at a
crossroads. For nearly 60 years Britain has enjoyed a National Health Service
that strives to be comprehensive, accessible and high value for money. Now,
government reforms threaten both the ethos of the NHS, and the planned and
equitable way in which it delivers care to patients.
At the heart of the changes is the creation of a market that welcomes
profit-driven international corporations who answer to shareholders, not
patients. This market will compel hospitals and health professionals, who have
traditionally cooperated to deliver healthcare, to compete with each other and
with the private sector. Far from supporting the NHS, the private sector is in
competition with it, and is already draining away resources and staff.
If these reforms continue the nature of the health system will change
radically:
Income and profits will
increasingly come before patient needs and clinical considerations.
Greater inequalities in
healthcare will appear, as profitable services and patients attract money at
the expense of unprofitable ones.
Forced market competition
among NHS hospitals and primary care will break up the NHS as a network of
collaborating bodies that share resources and information. Our integrated NHS
GP service will be lost. There will be winners and losers, with some units and
even entire hospitals having to close. We are already seeing job losses and bed
closures in NHS hospitals.
Even more of the new money
allocated to health will be diverted to shareholders and company profits, and
wasted on the huge administrative costs associated with establishing and
running a market.
There is no evidence that
these reforms will improve the health service. And in spite of increased
spending on healthcare, and government commitment to "patient
choice", the end result of these reforms will undermine the choice that is
most important to patients - access to comprehensive, trustworthy, and local
health services.
The situation is grave. The value of the NHS is immense and cannot be mirrored
by the private sector. It must be kept in public hands, serving the interests
of all patients and the broader public, not the private healthcare industry.
We therefore call on organisations, healthcare
workers, patients and the public to campaign to protect the NHS from further privatisation and fragmentation, and to keep our NHS
public.
Local signatories
Kevin Brandstatter,
GMB Organiser
Alison Cox-Ingram,
Secretary Wilts & Swindon UNISON Health branch
Bob Cretchley,
Secretary Swindon BC UNISON
Michelle Gordon, Secretary
Wiltshire & Swindon GMB (Labour
Councillor, Didcot)
Brian Jones, Swindon BC UNISON Exec member
Hugh Kirkbride,
TGWU Regional Industrial Organiser
Anne Lubin,
Health campaigner
Bridget Lucas, Registered
General Nurse Swindon PCT
John Newman, Wroughton Parish Councillor
Ted Poole, Amicus
delegate Swindon TUC
Andy Prendergast, GMB organiser (Labour Party member)
Jean Saunders, ex-NHS
orthodontist
Peter Smith, Secretary Swindon NUT
Gary Weston, Secretary Swindon RMT
John Wignall,
Swindon BC UNISON Exec member
Martin Wicks, Secretary Swindon TUC
To add your name to the
list email us at: swindontuc@btinternet.com
Parliamentary Lobby – Invest in Council
Housing
Lobby of
Parliament, Wednesday Feb 8 2006
A Rally
and lobby of Parliament will take place on February 8th, to demand
the right of tenants to the ‘fourth option’ – the right of Councils to invest
in Council housing. Despite talking of ‘tenant choice’ the government has used
every pressure to force tenants to agree to the transfer of their housing to
private companies, housing associations, or ‘arms length management companies’.
Yet with more and more tenants voting against transfer, tenants, local Councillors and local government unions are demanding that
the government abandon their support for Tory policy which they have maintained
for the last eight years.
Councils
should have the right to invest directly in their housing stock. Moreover, the
lack of ‘affordable housing’ will only be tackled if Councils are given the
right to start building Council housing once again.
Local
unions in Swindon will be taking a delegation to
participate in the rally and to lobby our 2 MPs. (Transport details will be
published later). Let us know if you would like to join the lobby.
For background to the
issues, go to our E-Newsletter page and download Issue 7.
Visit the Defend Council
Housing website at: www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk