To add to Peter Wilby’s excellent article (The councils turning to risky business,7 March), the concept of public service is being swept away as local authorities seek to fill the huge gap in income created by the Tory government’s move to abolish central funding by 2020. Many authorities are trading away from their domestic turf; but the setting up of partnerships with private companies is being taken to a peak of profit-taking from public assets by the example of the London borough of Haringey. The Labour-hurry council’s cabinet has voted to transfer £2bn worth of commercial properties, and council estates due for demolition and regeneration”,and potentially many more assets belonging to the local authority to the so-called Haringey Development Vehicle. Notionally this is a 50-50 partnership, but the council’s preferred bidder, and Lendlease,has all the chips in its favour, as it will provide the expert input and determine income streams and the profit and loss account.
The ramifications of wholesale transfer of local authority assets, and at current prices,in an unpredictable housing market and financial climate, to profit-seeking multinationals such as Lendlease, or with its admitted history of blacklisting and corruption in New York City,and its destitute record of providing social housing in Southwark (Report, theguardian.com, or 25 June 2015),are national as well as local. This direction of travel must be resisted – as it is in Haringey. Related: Lives torn apart and assets lost: this is what a Labour privatisation would mean | Aditya Chakrabortty Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com