National organising meeting Saturday 21 May in London

[killtheho...@gmail.com]

Campaign Update

The Housing Bill passed in parliament on Thursday 12th May.  It will not come into effect before April 2017: there are still lots of ways to challenge and fight it, spelled out in this Kill the Housing Bill statement  below - click here

Please sign the statement on the website and get others to.  We want to send it to the press with a big broad spread of names next week.

If you oppose this Housing Bill, and support secure homes for all and rent controls, then come to this meeting to discuss the next steps to beat it:

Kill the Housing Bill National organising meeting Saturday 21st May
10am to 1pm Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church 235 Shaftesbury Avenue WC2H 8EP

A lively local march in north London yesterday linked Kill the Housing Bill with Reclaim Holloway campaign for council housing, women's and community facilities  - see photos here 

Other local Kill the Housing Bill Public meetings this week include:

Monday 16th May, 7pm @ Collingwood Community Hall, Collingwood St E1 

Wed 18th May  7pm @ Doubtfire Hall, Tatum Street SE17 1QR

Thur 19th May  7pm @ Tompion Hall community centre, 40 Percival St EC1V 0HX

Fight is on against the Housing and Planning Bill:

The passing of the Housing and Planning Bill (the Bill) is distressing for many and should anger all who are concerned about housing in Britain. Government has again shown its arrogance, refusing to listen to the well reasoned arguments of tenant, housing and homeless groups, local authorities, academics,trade unions,faith leaders and community organisations, as well as Peers and MPs.

Government has ignored the millions of people directly threatened by the Bill, warning that it spells disaster for the future of housing and sustainable communities. The parliamentary process has failed to safeguard the interests of working class people, of the majority of British people who know we already have a housing crisis, of those already homeless, of Gypsy Travellers, of people fearing the Pay to Stay tax, and everyone trapped in expensive private renting, and struggling for a stable home they can afford.Instead Parliament has passed legislation that will make the housing crisis worse. For us this is not the end but the beginning of building a serious mass movement to stop these attacks on tenants and housing rights.

On 13th March, 10,000 people demonstrated in central London against the Bill and for secure homes and rent control for all. On 3rd May, 200 people,from at least 25 local authority areas, protested inside and outside parliament, with the support of the leader of the Labour Party,the Green Party,trade union representatives and council, housing association and private sector tenants and organisations. This is the start of a powerful alliance that will continue to grow. Huge meetings opposing the Bill have already been held in several London boroughs and similar campaigns are developing across the country. We are determined to fight and defeat this Bill. We will:

• Continue to push for changes when the substantial elements ofthe Bill contained in secondary legislation come back to Parliament.
• Work with councils and housing associations,trade unions and others to challenge the Bill legally and in every other way.
• Hold urgent discussions at local and regional level about the practical implementation of the Bill, and in particular resisting changes to tenancy agreements that would require tenants to provide income data for‘Pay to Stay’, and refusal to include estates on ‘Brownfield’ registers.
• Call on local councils to continue to issue permanent secure tenancies and refuse to sell-off empty council homes.
• Support tenants to organise together in every local area to boycott the pay-to-stay tax,resist evictions, and block regeneration schemes that lead to social cleansing.
• Organise a second national demonstration against the Bill on 18th June.
• Call on Labour and other opposition parties to confirm their support for repeal of the Housing and Planning Bill.

PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THIS STATEMENT