The PRIVATE Sector

Birmingham votes against council house sell-offs
Council tenants in Birmingham voted 2-1 against transferring ownership of their homes to a housing association last week, in a massive blow to the government's housing privatisation program.

Birmingham's 88,000 council tenants rejected the transfer in spite of the council spending £6m trying to persuade them it was a good thing. You might think £6m would go a long way on roof repairs and redecoration, but the fact is the council was so keen to sell off a major asset because they're not allowed to spend money on renovation and repairs, at least not if they have to borrow it. Borrowing by councils counts on the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement, which the governemnt has sworn to bring down, whereas if the houses are sold off to a housing association, the association can borrow as much as it likes on the open market. It's a carrot and a stick rolled into one, all working in the interests of shifting public property into the hands of companies that, while ostensibly non-profit, have often been found to be something less than selflessly public-spirited.

The Birmingham decision means the governemnt is unlikely to meet its target of selling off 200,000 council homes this year, and that Birmingham will have to find another wy out of its mess. Unfortunately, though, it looks like it'll take a few more votes like this before the government comes round to the uncontroversial idea that maintaining housing stock is a good investment, and trying to bribe and blcakmail people into lettign their homes be sold off won't always work.

South Africa - Anti-Privatisation Forum protests against cut-offs
Last weekend, nearly 100 people were arrested at a demonstration against electricity and water cut-offs in Johannesburg. The protesters, from the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, were holding a peaceful protest outside the mayor's house when they were shot at by the mayor's bodyguard from the roof, injuring two of the protesters. Some of the protesters later broke off the mayor's water connection while others threw stones at the house. Around half of those arrested were still being held at the time of going to press, on the pretext that police need to check their addresses (which apparently takes over a week…).
Among those arrested was a five-year old child and one of the people wounded. At the police station, an
Anti-Privatisation Forum member, who had not even been part of the demonstration, was also arrested. The police have taken no action against the bodyguard who shot at the crowd, despite attempted murder charges filed by the injured protesters.

Water and electricity cut-offs, along with evictions, are becoming the major issue for South Africa's poor. People have become increasingly angry at the ANC's failure to fulfill its local election pledge of free water and electricity, and at the general lack of improvement in standards of living since the end of apartheid, partly as a result of government capitulation to IMF/World Bank demands for privatisation and 'liberalisation'. The South African Electricity company, Eskom, is carrying out a crackdown on outstanding bills in the run-up to privatisation - Eskom claims township dwellers have a 'culture of non-payment', ignoring the fact that many people simply can't afford the bills. In many cases this is due to the replacement of flat-rate payments for services by metered bills.

The Anti-Privatisation Forum is asking people to send strongly worded but polite messages demanding the immediate release of the arrested protesters to:
Mayor Amos Masondo
sandyp@gjtmc.org.za
Senior Prosecutor's office in Johannesburg
Prosecuting Attorney's email address is: YCoetzee@justice.gov.za
Solidarity messages can be sent through:
Anti-Privatisation Forum
cwwits@sn.apc.org
MFB@case.org.za