There is a discussion meeting scheduled for Sunday 9th February at 8pm in Dronfield Contact Club. See details below.
Dronfield Labour Discussion Meeting
Topic: Social Housing in the UK and the Netherlands - is a cooperative model the way forward for UK social housing?
Speaker: Rosie Smith
Time: 8pm to 9.15pm
Date: Sunday 8th February
Venue: Contact Club, Snape Hill Lane, Dronfield, S18 2GJ.
Social
Housing in the UK has been under threat for several decades. What was
once a mass social programme aimed at providing adequate housing for the
general population, has been reduced to an under-funded, part
privatised model of housing welfare that is accessible only by the most
vulnerable - and yet many are still falling through the cracks.
The
Netherlands' social housing model is delivered in an entirely different
way to social housing in the UK. Tenants associations provide low cost
housing that is accessible to a large proportion of the population.
Residents are shareholders in the tenants association and have a say in
rent setting, and upkeep and improvements to the housing
block/estate/street.
Discussion questions:
1.
What are the pros and cons of state owned and administered social
housing versus autonomous, tenant run social housing models?
2.
Many of us on the left would like to see the Right to Buy stopped to
preserve our remaining Council houses, but would this alone solve our
social housing problems?
3. What should future Labour housing policy be to ensure a robust housing safety net for all?
Info on future meetings
Upcoming
discussion group dates are 8th March and 12th April (second Sunday of
every month except August). I am in discussions with the leader of
Sheffield TUC to come and speak about 'Sheffield Needs a Payrise'
report, and I am hoping an Economics Academic from the University of
Sheffield may come to address us on the Green New Deal.
Hope to see you all on Sunday,
Rosie Smith
Dronfield Labour Party Political Education Officer
