Last night, over fifty people attended a Defend Council Housing public meeting at St George's Community Centre in East Salford, where speakers and the audience explained why they opposed the transfer of Salford's council houses to Salix Homes.
The ballot for the transfer is to be announced in the very near future, and over the past few months Salix workers have been visiting tenants, persuading them to vote `Yes' to the transfer. However the meeting heard Salford City UNISON branch secretary, Steven North, say that his union was opposed to the transfer and so were most of his members who work for Salix...
"Most of our members knocking on your door asking you to vote `Yes', if they had a vote, would vote `No'" he explained "Most UNISON members at Salix are opposed to this transfer.
"Also" he added "I've not met one councillor who actually lives in a council house who thinks this is a good idea."
Indeed, Labour Councillor Peter Wheeler, who lives in a council house, was one of the speakers against the transfer.
"Anything we get we have to fight for" he said, adding that Salford Council was never allowed a vote on the original transfer proposal "Council housing is an important part of housing and we need a decent stock of council houses. We need security of tenure, that's how you build a community."
Answering the Council's argument that it hasn't got the money to invest in decent housing, Councillor Wheeler explained that Salix hasn't got the money either... "The Council borrows money cheap, Salix borrows money dear from the banks and they will have to pay that money back, so rent levels will be maximised and there will be other charges to maximise income."
Others in the audience pointed to the lack of understanding about the transfer within the community, and the one-sided story that Salix and the Council is putting out, particularly around the change from tenants having a `secure tenancy' at the moment to an `assured tenancy' if the transfer goes ahead.
The main issue around this is Ground 8 which would give Salix `mandatory rights of possession' if tenants fall into rent arrears of eight weeks or two months. Salix have promised not to use these grounds for eviction but, as UNISON member Steve Quinn pointed out, the promise is not to the tenants but to Salford Council and at least one other housing association has broken that promise.
"People are being asked to trade their secure tenure, their secure legal right, for an assured tenancy" he explained to the Salford Star after the meeting "If you're a secure tenant the landlord has to have grounds to take your property off you and has to show that it's reasonable. If you're an assured tenant it doesn't have to show this in eight out of 17 cases. The crucial one is Ground 8 to do with rent arrears
"It's been shown in case law (North British Housing Association v Sheridan) where the housing association gave a similar assurance that they wouldn't use mandatory grounds for possession" he added "In this case they did, and went to court and the judge and court of appeal decided that the promise didn't have the same legal weight as the legal right that came with secured tenancy.
"If it's a matter of a promise you have got to rely on Salix to keep that promise and who's to say that a new management at Salix won't keep the promise? Or that Salix won't sell to another company which won't keep the promise?" he said "Also, the assurance doesn't apply to all tenants it doesn't apply to tenants who have a notice order or have a court order against them, and that could include victims of Bedroom Tax or benefit sanctions who, through no fault of their own, have got into arrears and won't be covered by that commitment not to use Ground 8 to evict you from your home.
"It won't include new tenants either who will end up not having the same rights as existing tenants" he added "If you accept that you have no secure tenancy then you are open to all sorts of things in the future flexible tenancies where the housing association says that if your income rises above a certain level then you are no longer entitled to social housing.
"We can't guarantee that Salix won't use Ground 8, and, at the end of the day, the promise is worthless" he concluded "The mandatory grounds for possession which Salix say they won't use are not in the proposal document, so tenants will not know that Ground 8 means eight weeks or two months of arrears. It should be in there, and I don't think that's full disclosure of facts."
Maria Brabiner, a Salix tenant and campaigner against the Bedroom Tax underlined the point in her speech to the meeting
"I've got nothing against Salix" she said "It's the principle, Salford Council provide us with secure tenancies. If we vote `Yes' our tenancy agreements will change to assured tenancy and it will be easier to evict us. We keep being told that there's no change, that our rights are protected. If so, why does this have to change? It's scary.
"From a Bedroom Tax point of view it will be easier to evict those struggling to pay" she added "Also, anybody who gets made redundant currently waits two weeks for housing benefit but under this government's Universal Credit rules you wait five weeks for money. That means you're likely to fall behind with your rent through no fault of your own. If you're threatened with eviction it's because of that change again from secured tenancy to assured tenancy it's pretty scary but it could happen."
In contrast, Maria showed the meeting a letter from Salford Council from 1978 when her local Councillor Mallimson got her family re-housed from a damp private dwelling to a new council house where she still lives.
"For me it's better the devil you know" she said "Councillors can be voted out, housing association boards cannot. People may feel they are being pressured, bullied even, into voting `Yes', but they can take heart because many people are voting `No'.
"It's not worth the risk" she concluded "Anyone with a shred of doubt should vote `No'..."
See also previous Salford Star articles...
* Salford Council Hopelessly Biased Transfer Film - click here
* £3.24million Cost of the Transfer Process - click here
* Vote `Yes' and you could lose your home - click here
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