IN THEIR latest search for a convenient scapegoat, the Tories have announced proposals tor legislation aimed at curbing squatting.
Former press officer for Thatcher, Sernard Ingham -now employed by Westminster council - says that this is a basic Issue of defending private propertyThere are now around 50,000 squatted homes in Britain, some 30,000 in London alone. Virtual. many people, it's a choice be The vast majority of squatted propertes are owned ox countor housing associations. Very few are actually privately-owned residential homes. So the Tory-perpetrated myth owners returning from holidays to find their homes occupied by dirty, drug-using youths is a million miles from reality.
Squatting is not a choice of lifestyle. It is a symptom of the criminal neglect of public housing that has taken place over the last decade. Nobody Become a Socialist Outlook right mind would actually freewith the threat of almost immediate eviction hanging over their head.
bot rory and Labour coun cils in London have been vigorously evicting squatter for some time.
If anyone has any doubt that this leads to homelessness, then they only have to look at the figures in Labour-controlled Southwark council.
After a massive purge against squatters in this orough, the For nomeless people went up by exactly the same igSocialists should not need any convincing that a mass cimpaign is necessary to kill this new anti-squatting bill. Within this, cheap, affordable, housing has got The Labour Party leadership, has made much of the crime of homelessness, on a par with what they've said about the NHS. Now is the time to build a labour movement campaign to do something about it.