Labour-run Reading Borough Council is today proudly trumpeting additional cash for council housing in Reading. Where did this money suddenly appear from? You may well ask.
Councils everywhere are benefiting from extra money to spend on council housing repairs as the Labour government rushes to splash our cash on visible "goodies" ahead of the next general election in bid for votes.
While I welcome more spending on council homes in Reading and the local jobs that will be brought with it, I am frustrated that thanks to this Labour government's failed housing policies Reading's council tenants continue to be forced to pay millions of pounds worth of rent into Treasury coffers via so-called 'negative subsidy' - or put simply, a 'tenant tax' to you and me.
Thanks to months of campaigningby the Lib Dems, Reading Borough Council belated joined the campaign for fair funding for council housing.
However, despite a broad based national campaign by tenants and politicians the government has still failed to take action to reform this broken system. Sound familiar?
The latest splurge on council housing in Reading follows the embarrassing u-turnthe Labour government were forced to execute on council housing rents earlier this year in a desperate bid to cling on to council seats in many of it's former heartlands.
Last Thursday's county council election results have shown just how ineffective Labour's electoral strategy has been.
Questions I tabled to Council a few months ago revealed that mistakes made by the then housing minister Margaret Beckett are set to cost the Council thousands of pounds in administration costs.
Another false economy foisted on the Council by this failed government which ends up costing us money.
Behind today's 'good news story' is the reality that in a couple of years time thanks to the profligacy of this government the money - our money - will have run out.
Or as an article in The Times put it around the time of the Budget:
From 2011 onwards the government plans one of the tightest squeezes on public spending in the postwar era, according to the plans set out by Alistair Darling last week.
'From then, so-called “current” spending on public services, including the salaries of public sector workers, will rise by just 0.7% a year on top of inflation. Capital spending, on schools, hospitals and roads, will be slashed, dropping by half over three years. The result is that total spending by government will slip 0.1% annually, after inflation, for at least three years until the next parliament. Until the brakes go on, however, it is business as usual.'
I doubt this will stop Labour throwing money at things like Council housing during the run up to the next election.
However, I honestly believe that this craven attempt to cover up for the fact that many estates in our country and on our doorstep in Reading have been shamefully neglected by Labour politicians over the past 12 years will not fool anyone.
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