'Fair Deal for Sutton Tenants' 

SFTRA Visit Downing Street

On the 5th March at 1pm residents of Sutton marched to 10 Downing Street to oppose the £10 million Housing Subsidy that Government are imposing on Sutton Tenants.

The support that SFTRA has received has been overwhelming across the board.  Residents, Sutton Staff, MP's, Councillors and residents from other boroughs have all supported the campaign and signed the petition.

Personal message from the Chair - Jean Crossby.

"I would like to thank everyone that supported us by signing our petition (1302 signatures) and those that supported us on the 5th of March and gave up their time to join us at Downing Street. 

This is just the first step of our campaign and we will keep you fully informed and would be grateful for your continued support."

Thank you.

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  DELEGATION VISITS PARLIAMENT
OVER
HOUSING SUBSIDY

Jean Crossby, Chair of SFTRA, was asked to join a delegation from Sutton to meet with the Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Parmjit Dhanda, to object against the disgraceful and immoral subsidy that our tenants will have to pay back to the Government.

Jean Crossby said: “the £10 million that the Government are 'snatching back' from the tenants of Sutton means that funding for services to our homes will be greatly reduced.  This comes at a time when council homes in Sutton are in desperate need of repair.  We have the second highest NON Decent Homes in London.  Over 50% of our homes fail the Decent Homes Standard.

This £10 million will be taken from us and used to fund other councils in the country enabling them to improve their properties whilst ours are deteriorating.  We have also had to endure rent increases from 5.5% so in effect you will be paying more rent for less services.

We feel this is a tax on council tenants.

All residents complain every year about their council tax rise but most people are unaware that council tenants in our borough pay this £10 million back to the Government which this year is £1473.00 per council house.  This is in addition to their council tax.  We feel that this is a hidden tax that council tenants who are among the least well off members of our community.  This is unjust and immoral!

We shall be campaigning strongly, we are launching a petition to be signed by as many people as possible.  There will also be an 'Extraordinary General Meeting' on 26th February 2008 @ 7.30pm, venue Sutton Gate.  Petitions will be available to sign in Sutton Housing Partnership reception area and SFTRA members will be on the steets of Sutton in various places.  An electronic petition will also be available online at www.sftra.org.

We are asking all Concillors of all parties to support the tenants of Sutton.  SFTRA are asking the tenants of Sutton to support them in this campaign and thank greatly all those residents that have already offered their overwhelming support".