Council tenants to march for wave of new homes

Defend Council Housing chairwoman Eileen Short said her organisation had been meeting with tenant associations and joining public meetings around England to urge council tenants to join the march and rally.

That included a packed tenants' federation meeting in Leeds last weekend, where tenants have been fighting the government's Welfare Reform Bill.

Little London tenants association in Leeds chairman Stephen Skinner told the Star: "For years we have been threatened with the private finance initiative. We've had to fight to hang on to our homes.

"Leeds used to have 120,000 council homes. Now it's down to about 56,000 and we've got about 25,000 people on the housing waiting list and rather than make things better the government is intent on making things are bad as possible."

Leeds council tenant Bill Reynolds added that he would be marching because "young people are going to be hit so hard, being shifted from one town to another because they can't get a house - my heart goes out to these youngsters."

And Labour MP Karen Buck used Wednesday's TUC conference on poverty to support calls for a programme of home building, which she said would "create three new jobs for every house built and stop tax flowing into landlords' pockets."