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Government selling off the family silver

13th October 2009

On Monday 12th October, Gordon Brown announced a programme of privatisations of Government assets worth £16bn. This included the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, the Royal Mint, Ordnance Survey, and tens of thousands of council homes.

John McDonnell MP, LRC Chair, said:

“For Brown to announce the building of 2,000 council homes at Labour Party conference, and then outline a plan for the sale of billions of pounds worth of council housing stock is a disgrace. To sell off tens of thousands of council homes will not create any jobs or house any of the 1.8 million people languishing on council house waiting lists.

“This whole policy is short-term monetarism. Council housing, the Royal Mint, Ordnance Survey and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link are all net contributors to the public purse. Brown is slaughtering geese that lay golden eggs, for a one-day fry-up”.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, said:

“It is a strategy worthy of Margaret Thatcher in her heyday. Back then, severe cuts in government funding forced local authorities to sell buildings to property companies and then lease them back at huge rents.

“The private finance initiative in the health service places much the same long-term burden on patients and taxpayers”.

Read Jeremy’s thoughts in full in his Morning Star article

Tags: their crisis not ours (32)

Background

Across the country working people are losing their jobs and their homes. Meanwhile the bankers who plunged us into this crisis have been bailed out with billions of pounds of our money. It’s time to fight back. Their Crisis Not Ours! is the LRC’s campaign to bring together workers, pensioners, the unemployed, students, those facing repossession and all those suffering because of an economic crisis that has been imposed on us. The campaign is supporting the demands of the People’s Charter. [continue...]