BIRMINGHAM'S COUNCIL HOUSING (No. 2)

EDM number 333 in 2001-02, proposed by Lynne Jones on 31/10/2001.

That this House notes that due to chronic under-investment caused by the refusal of successive governments to permit Birmingham City Council to raise sufficient finance to invest even from its own resources in its housing stock, the backlog of repairs and renovations has risen from ú750 million in 1985 to ú1.3 billion in 1993 and ú3.75 billion in 2000; welcomes the commitment from the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions to introduce legislation to allow councils to borrow as an alternative to going into the private sector and the acknowledgement of past discrimination against council housing; believes that this discrimination should be ended as quickly as possible and that if the Government is prepared to spend ú650 million of taxpayers' money in writing off overhanging debt on Birmingham's housing revenue account, this level of resources should be available for direct investment in council housing if that it what tenants want, especially as this would not result in early redemption penalties of ú240 million and other costs of stock transfer; and calls on the Government to give assurances to Birmingham's council tenants that if they vote against stock transfer the Government will still keep its promise that their housing will be brought up to a decent standard by 2010.

This motion has been signed by a total of 4 MPs.