It's a disgrace Tower Hamlets has been turned down

Yes... Tim Archer...

What would be the point in having a Conservative M.P. for Poplar and Limehouse... and a Conservative controlled Tower Hamlets council when your Party... the Conservative Party... as David Cameron told the UK electorate at this year's Conference in Manchester... That there will have to be deep cuts in Public Spending...

I am afraid to tell you that you cannot have it both ways...

You cannot criticise the local and national Labour Party for a dreadful record on reducing the local housing waiting list... when you represent an agenda which will see a massive squeeze on Public Spending...

Aah... but of course the Conservatives have a great record both nationally and also locally regarding support for and expansion of Social Housing...

Yes... I remember it was the Conservatives who:

- Flogged off Council Housing... with dire effect locally... ex-council flats in the Isle of Dogs/ Poplar/ Limehouse/ Shadwell areas now cost an absolute fortune... many are bought and used as Investments (Buy to Let) by Private Landlords...

and...

- Who created the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) which effectively displaced and marginalised whole local communities in favour of rich developers... ensuring the development of expensive yuppy developments...

A great record... I think not...

Since the current Labour Government is making funding available to Local Councils to re-start the process of building Social Housing again... will you... as a local Councillor on the Isle of Dogs be campaigning for Tower Hamlets Council to bid for this money and build Social Housing in your ward... Blackwall and Cubitt Town and also in Millwall ward...?

The right to buy was a fantastic scheme, which enabled millions of people to buy their own homes and pass those onto their children.

Where it went wrong, was that local authorities, mainly Labour ones, stopped building houses in the right numbers.

The Canary Wharf development has created 80,000 jobs. It did not displace the community it has attrated much needed investment into the East End and continues to do so.

Something which Maggie created.

Richard Walton

"The right to buy was a fantastic scheme, which enabled millions of people to buy their own homes and pass those onto their children.

Where it went wrong, was that local authorities, mainly Labour ones, stopped building houses in the right numbers."

I regret to tell you that you fail to display an understanding of the effects of "The Right to Buy". For a start, I suggest you pay a visit to the run down Robin Hood Gardens Estate in Poplar, only a stones throw fronm Canary Wharf, along with the myriad of other run down Council Estates in the Isle of Dogs/ Limehouse/ Poplar areas. These Estates are a very stark contrst to the Hyper-Inflated Luxury Tower Blogs being built on the Isle.

The 3 main effects of "The Right Buy" were:

1. "The effective "Right to Deny": It is a factual innacuracy that it was mainly Labour Council's who failed to replace Council Houses with equivalent new build's. The legislation enacted which established the "Right to Buy" under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government prohibited Local Authorities from using the revenue generated from the receipts they gained through the sale of their Council Housing stock, requiring that such revenues be used to reduce their debt's before it could be allocated to building more new Council Housing. In short the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher compelled Local Authorities to sell off approx. 2 million Council Houses, while simultaneously preventing them from building any relacement housing.

The result of the mass sale of Council Houses has thus created the current Social Housing Crisis that has now been inflicted on Local Authorities, Housing Associations resulting in those in need of houising such as the low paid and those on Council Housing waiting lists and the homeless being denied a home, a "Roof over Their Head's".

If locals have, as you have claimed, not been Displaced and Sidelined by the development of Canary Wharf and the wider London Docklands area, I want you to tell me and reader's of this Blog how many Private sector Homes have been constructed in the former LDDC area, home many new Council / Social Homes have been built, and the number of Council/ Social Homes have been sold?
The local old "Islaners" population HAS been sidelined and displaced. I am sure that when you present your answer to my aforementionaed question will dinstinctly illustrate that fact.

2. The "Residualisation of Council Housing": The "Right to Buy" resulted in Local Authorities being saddled with the substantial financial and social burden of Sink Estates.

The Sink Estates were Housing Estates that were still in the hands of Local Authorities and were by far the poorest quality Council Housing (in terms of build quality; often being High Rise 60's Tower Blocks) which were in a very bad state of repair. This was because it was the Higher Quality Council Homes (mainly suburban: often being Family semi-dteached/ terraced homes) that were the most popular - for logical reasons - with those who bought, or considered buying their Council House.

As explained the Sink Estates presented increasing financial buredens, in terms of money required to even maintain a basic standard of repair, let alone carry out improvements. Social problems became worse as the remaining Council Owned Estates became a what you may call a "Dumping Ground" for the most financially disadvantaged groups of people in Society, seeing the proliferation and ever pervasive problems of drug abuse, anti-social behaviour, neglect of open space's and the associated petty and violent crime.

3. Lastly, the mass sale of Council Housing have largely fuelled two very damaging "Credit Bubbles". The first being in the late 1980's which caused the very severe UK wide recession of the 1990's, the latest being the "Economic Storm" from which we are recovering from, which has not only affected the UK but also the rest of the Globe.

The sale of Council Council Houses distorted the housing market by converting Homes into "Cash Cows": as their prices continued to rise inexorably Owner Occupiers used the home as their principal "Asset" to heavily borrow against to sustain their increasing desire for ever more consumption: as soon as Houses prices fell, the value of the asset collapsed, while the Credit/ Debt remained to be paid.

It is without a doubt that it was the "Sub-Prime" Mortgage market in the US which precipitated the current Global - and UK - "Economic Storm".
The UK, in a European context, has been uniquely left especially exposed to the US "Sub-Prime" Mortgage phenomenon, and hence the "Economic Storm" as we have a far higher rate of Owner-Occupiers/ Private Sector housing as a proprtion of the total UK Housing Stock, standing at aproximately 73%. This figure is substantially higher than the proportion of Owner-Occupier/ Private Sector housing in other European Countries. Indeed, it is very telling that not only do other European Countries have a much higher rate of Rented Housing than the UK, it is alo these Countries which have weathered the "Economic Storm" better than the UK. There is therefore an undeniable link between the mass sale of Council Housing in the UK and the severe "Credit Bubbles" and resultant "Economic Storms" which have been inflicted on this Country.

There is no doubt too that the current Labour Government has had to inherit an appalingly expensive burden as a result of the "Right to Buy" for the reasons outlined above.

It is also undeniable that the current Labour Government is, through initiatives such as the "Decent Homes" intiative, "Single Regeneration Budget" and also the "New Deal for Communities", making good progress in re-developing and upgrading the quality and standard of repair of the Sink Estates created by the Conservatives "Right to Buy". Much more, however needs to be done, such as a programme of Mass Council Housing building, but in a context of mixed tenure developments/ neighbourhood'.

The Labour Governments announcement of extra money to build 20,000 new Council Homes over the next couple of years falls far short of what the need is, however, it is a start.

I would like Tim Archer and other Conservatives to tell us if the Conservatives will match the Governments pledge of an extra 20,000 Council houses, and will be committed to substantially increasing the quantity of new Council/ Social housing.

For one, I am not going to take any lectures about Labour's record on Council/ Social Housing fron Tim Archer or any other Conservative given that Party's disgraceful and downright nasty record of dismatling Affordable Housing and creating the current serious Social Housing crisis.

'The current serious housing crisis'

13 years into a Labour government...

Socialists still slating Thatcher - 20 years after she left office...

More social housing was built under Thatcher and Major, year after year, than under Blair and Brown.

23,000 families on the borough's social housing waiting list. A labour borough.

I give the Labour party - hating the right to buy since 1979.

Stop paniking Gordon will be gone in 6 months time:

"'The current serious housing crisis'

13 years into a Labour government...

Socialists still slating Thatcher - 20 years after she left office..."

For starters, there is no way on this earth you can accuse the Labour Government since 1997 of being in any way Socialist.

I suggest that you go and study Political Philosophy - particularly Freidrich Hayek, Milton Friedmen (Contemporary Neo-Con's) and the more traditional Liberals who were the inspiration of Margaret Thatcher and the current Neo-Liberal Orthodoxy.

It was upon the election of Margaret Thatchers Conservative Government in 1979, that the "seeds" of the now 30 years established "Thatcherite Neo-Liberal" political orthodoxy were planted. The "Right to Buy" - the mass sale of Council Houses formed a central planck in this.

There is no doubt that it is the failure of the Labour Government, since 1997, to "Turn the Tide" and reject the Thatcherite orthodoxy, and many argue did the reverse and accelerated the "Neo-Liberal" agenda and reforms in this Country.
The ghost of Thatcherism is still very much with us, and electing the "Wolves in Sheeps Clothing", oops, my mistake, David Camerons Conservatives will only exacerbate the situation much further.

"More social housing was built under Thatcher and Major, year after year, than under Blair and Brown."

That may well have been the case. However, when you take the amount of Council Houses sold off and demolished and then add the amount of new Council Houses built under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, there was a massive net Deficit of Council Housing. Sure enough, hardly any new Council Houses ahve been built under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, however, the fact remains that under them the rate and quantity of Council/ Social housing being sold off has fallen very sharply, particularly over the past 4 years. This means that the net deficit of Council/ Social Housing, and the rate of sales under Labour is the same, if anything less than under the Conservative Thatcher and Major years. Furthermore, under Labour there has been an explosion in "Shared Ownership" housing.

In addition, I am waiting to hear from David Cameron and the Conservatives pledging a mass Council/ Social Housing Building Programme.

"I give the Labour party - hating the right to buy since 1979."

I, equally give the Conservative Party - "Hating" Council/ Social Housing.

For them it smacks of "Socialism" regardless of the benefits such housing brings.

The London Docklands just represents a "Rich Man's Ghetto" - a home to Investment Bankers and other so called professional's playing "Roulette" and "Poker" with Joe Public's hard earned money.