UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch
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Back to Headlines			Broken promises of housing sell-offs Edinburgh Council is spending thousands and thousands of pounds of YOUR money to convince you to privatise your housing. They say this is the only way to get rid of their debts and to improve your housing. But the facts are quite different. Council tenants in Dundee, Aberdeen and even Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency of Sedgefield have all voted 'No' to housing stock transfer. In Glasgow they voted 'Yes' but a recent survey shows most tenants now have no confidence in their new landlord, mainly because of broken promises like, A new rent review after just three years when they were promised no rises for 10 years. More money spent on management that repairs, maintenance and investment put together At £161,000 a year, the boss of the new Housing Association gets £61,000 more than the council's head of Housing got and £30,000 more than the First Minister. The Council will ask you to vote on a 'Business Plan' the size of a small telephone directory. Most people will not have read this and those of us that do will struggle to understand the jargon. But don't let that worry you. The business plan only matters on day one. After that it can be changed and in most other stock transfers it has changed, breaking promises along the way. The simple fact is that once houses are transferred to the housing association, THEY CAN NEVER COME BACK TO THE COUNCIL. Yet the only real information tenants are getting to make this huge decision is the Council's one-sided glossy campaign materials urging you to vote 'Yes'. In this bulletin we will give you the facts the Council is not giving you. Most Edinburgh tenants admit that they do not know enough information to make this momentous decision. That is one of the reason's why UNISON is saying, "If you don't know, then vote NO". Back to Headlines