£83.8m of debt could be taken off the backs of Inverclyde residents if council tenants choose to move to a new social landlord, according to Deputy Communities Minister, Johann Lamont.
Community Ownership Will Deliver £80m
Investment – Minister
£83.8m of debt could be taken off the
backs of Inverclyde residents if council tenants choose to move to a new social
landlord, according to Deputy Communities Minister, Johann Lamont.
Speaking
at the Greenock and Inverclyde Scottish Parliamentary Forum in St. Mary’s
school hall, she said:
“If
someone had said to me back in 1992 that in Inverclyde could be proposing to
write off a debt of £83.8m and transfer it to the UK taxpayer, I would not have
believed them. I would have said it
was a very radical step, even for a Labour government. But that is what is being proposed.”
The
Minister also castigated the vested interests who are seeking to deny tenants
the benefits of community ownership and the country of this extra investment,
saying:
“There
is, of course, the false argument of privatisation. As a wee girl I lived in a private rented house with a
private landlord during the storms in the late 60’s.
Chimneys were coming down, roofs were coming off and we had to fight
tooth and nail just to get a tarpaulin on our roof. What’s happening in housing co-ops and in every housing
association across Scotland is as far removed from private landlords as it’s
possible to be. To suggest
anything else is an insult to the local communities which created these housing
associations and housing co-ops in the first place.”
The
Minister concluded by underlining the Scottish Executive’s long term
commitment to the regeneration and rejuvenation of Inverclyde.
“We
want real change for our communities. That
will take time, because it took generations to create the problems.
Ill health, industrialisation and then deindustrialisation didn’t
happen overnight and they will not be sorted by an individual project.
But they will be sorted if we commit ourselves to understanding what the
challenges are and understanding the importance of investment which works with
the grain of local communities.”
MSP
for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, echoed the Minister’s comments,
saying:
“As
everyone in St Mary’s school hall saw, Johann is a Minister who is passionate
about regenerating communities like ours. She
understands the challenges which Glasgow has experienced and knows how, by
taking the right decisions, towns like ours could be transformed.
And, in getting these decisions right, it is absolutely vital, as the
Minister spelled out, that we work with local people, rather than simply
imposing reforms from on high.”
Greenock
and Inverclyde Scottish Parliamentary Forum Chairman, George Montgomery, added:
“On
behalf of the Forum members, I would like to thank Johann for giving up her
Friday night not only to address our meeting, but also to take questions from
the floor on a range of issues and to speak informally with members afterwards.
It was most informative and gave us a real insight into how the Scottish
Executive is working on our behalf.”
ENDS
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