Council housing transformed people’s lives and can do so again with “a well- funded, well-resourced service” to make sure there are enough homes “accessible to workers on modest incomes,” UNISON declared at its local government conference in Brighton.
Meeting just three days after the anniversary of the Grenfell fire which killed 72 people in their homes in west London, the conference also called on the government to fund “necessary fire safety and improvement works”.
Moving a successful composite motion, John McLoughlin (pictured), speaking for the service group executive, said that “housing was Thatcher’s biggest privatisation,” and reminded delegates that “it is no good saying to councils ‘reduce homelessness’ if you don’t let them build homes”.
Conference agreed, declaring that “local authority landlords, as democratic and accountable bodies … provide a vital part of the provision of affordable housing in the UK to households on low and middle incomes and should be adequately funded and protected for current and future generations.”
