News from Westminster Labour

Westminster Council leaders urged to disown “tied cottage housing” cabinet member

Labour Councillors have called on Westminster’s Conservative leaders to disown Deputy Cabinet member for Housing, Councillor Ian Rowley, who caused outrage and concern for thousands of local residents with calls to sell council housing, move tenants out of Westminster and scrap secure tenancies, in an article he wrote for think-tank Localis in March.

In a move to “smoke out” whether Councillor Rowley enjoys the support of Westminster’s Council leaders, Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, has submitted three questions:

1) Council Question to Councillor Colin Barrow, the Leader of the Council

Does he agree with Councillor Ian Rowley’s view that “lifetime assured tenure needs to be removed” and is this why he appointed him to the job?

2) Council Question to Councillor Phillipa Roe, Cabinet Member for Housing

Does she agree with Councillor Ian Rowley’s view that “if a unit can be sold at a free market price and money from this taken to develop more units in lower cost areas then this should be looked at” and that “portfolios of social housing should be allowed with some provided outside the borough where costs will be lower”?

3) Council Question to Councillor Susie Burbridge, Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing

Does she agree with Councillor Ian Rowley’s view that “behaviour and contribution to society should influence the type of access” to social housing and that “subsidy levels are an incentive not to improve one’s lot by one’s own efforts”?

Councillor Dimoldenberg said:

“Councillor Rowley has caused deep shock and concern to thousands of council and housing association residents all over Westminster. We need to know if his extreme views are shared by his senior Conservative colleagues. If they are then there is real cause for concern. If Councillor Rowley’s views are not shared by his colleagues then he should be sacked without further delay. There is no room for extremism in housing policy in Westminster. We had enough of that under Shirley Porter and no one in their right mind wants to go back to the bad old days of gerrymandering and ‘homes for votes’.”

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