The Solidarity party has launched an Affordable Homes for All campaign in the Highlands, demanding that the UK government, the Scottish Government and local government now act with urgency to deal with the huge and increasing tragedy of lack of affordable housing for thousands of people in the area. Solidarity will be taking to the streets in the Highlands capital Inverness and throughout towns and villages in the region with a petition demanding that Gordon Brown and the UK government act immediately to cancel the historic housing debt of councils’ like Highland to release the cash for new housing, and work with the SNP in Holyrood and local authorities to immediately begin building new council homes at affordable rents.

“Highland Council’s housing debt is £153 million pounds,” said Solidarity spokesperson, Steve Arnott, “and recent figures have shown that for every council house available there are a dozen individuals or families on the waiting list. This doesn’t include the many thousands of workers and young people who don’t put themselves on any waiting list because they haven’t a chance, and who are stuck in high price, insecure private rents.  High house prices and high private rents are crippling many ordinary working people in the area and there is a crying need to return to quality affordable council housing on a substantial scale. 

“On a Scottish level we support Shelter’s demand for 30,000 new affordable homes to be built over the next three years and we believe that new council housing is the answer. Ultimately, however, government at all levels need to do more, and move away from the Thatcherite market ideal embraced by New Labour over the last decade that has seen and end to council housing and a runaway housing market that is pricing a home out of the reach of many tens of thousands of people here in the North.” 

Tommy Sheridan, Solidarity co-convenor said, “I was shocked to learn that renting a modest home privately in large parts of the Highlands can cost £550 -700 a month, surely beyond the means of many low paid and middle income workers. A situation where young couples in work cannot even begin to think about their own home because the mortgage they need would be five or six times their annual income seems commonplace. This is social madness and injustice on a huge scale. We need to build council housing at affordable levels of rent once more. Solidarity believes that in civilised society everyone who needs an affordable and secure home should have access to one in their own area.”

 

 

The human cost of affordable homes 

 

 

 

Colin Graham, his partner Gemma and their young daughter Libby are not untypical of many young families whose lives are being put under terrible strain and stress by the lack of council housing in their area.

 

Colin and Gemma both work but can’t afford a mortgage, and have been given notice to quite their private rented home in Cradlehall, near Inverness.

 

 

“Our landlord is retiring and moving back into this house and we have to be out within the next few weeks, “said Graham.  “As we’re both in work and have a young daughter we went to the council hoping they would have something for us. All they could offer was B&B accommodation at £25 a day for a few weeks and then perhaps a temporary ‘scatter’ flat – essentially a private rent through the council at £700 a month. We were advised to declare ourselves homeless.

 

 

“The strain on us as a family is just unbelievable,” said Gemma. “We can scarcely afford to be paying out that kind of money.  We were looking for a council house because private rents are in the £550 - £700 a month bracket and we just can’t afford that kind of money with all the other outgoings like council tax and so on. We’ve always worked and paid our taxes yet when we look for a roof over our heads there’s nothing.” 

“I voted for Blair when he got in,” said Graham, “but this lot have done nothing to reverse what Thatcher did in destroying council housing. There must be hundreds of people in the same position who would love to have a council house but there’s none there for them. I admire Solidarity for trying to highlight this issue and get something done. A whole generation of young workers and their families are being condemned to a life of insecurity and debt due to lack of affordable housing.”