Published: 13 July, 2012

• LABOUR’S “triumphant” defeat of the move to end tenancies for life in Islington was a victory for the petty egos of our local politicians, not for those on the housing waiting list.

Labour constantly brandishes the figure of 13,000 on the housing list to emotionally blackmail residents to capitulate to new housing on educational land, open space and valuable car parks; so opposing this measure is obscene.

It is a simple fact of fairness that tenancies for life are not fair at all.

Those on large salaries should not be in social housing, and older couples and individuals who no longer have children should not be in homes with surplus bedrooms.

Removing tenancies for life is right.

A public and finite resource like housing can be fairly and flexibly reallocated to those desperately needing it such as young families or the overcrowded.

Building new houses alone will never ever fully slake the demand, and social housing must serve those in need, not those who simply got there first.

Common sense dictates that building new houses must go hand in hand with a more manoeuvrable system allowing property rotation between those of greatest need.

NICOLAS CLARK
Islington Conservatives