SNP EXPOSED AGAIN - USING TENANTS THEN DOING A "U TURN" ON HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS.

Who remembers the consultation to transfer Renfrewshire’s council housing stock to a Housing Association? It was a couple of years ago and the tenants answered no by a very narrow margin. As always the parties fragmented in to the normal camps with the SNP keeping their powder dry until what they thought would be the most opportune moment for their own political gain, with a completely cynical disregard for the tenant’s welfare. The opposition were as always motivated by their desire to damage Labour rather than help the tenants. This was what we accused them and the other oppositionists of doing at the time and here we are now being proved correct.

Cllr. Mackay SNP and Cath McEwan SNP were on the shadow housing board along with me and other councillors, there were also people from no political parties who brought their experience to the table. Over a period of time we discussed matters and I mentioned to several of the non political people that I was sure that Mackay and McEwan would walk out with as much publicity as they could drum up when they thought the time was right, some of the less worldly members expressed doubt over this, and they made a point of saying sorry for doubting me when the walk out happened.

Was I right about their reasons? Well we now have an SNP led administration and guess what? Ferguslie Park Housing Association applied to have another consultation on the remaining council houses in Ferguslie and! come on, you’ve guessed it right? the SNP agreed to let them do it. There’s more, the housing which will be built on the site of the old empty council building will be of mixed tenure and will include so called ‘affordable housing’ these affordable houses will be built and owned by? Come on keep up; a “HOUSING ASSOCIATION “ with the SNP’s blessing, while bragging nationally about building council houses, locally they are using the Housing Associations, contradicting everythng they themselves said about them, humliating themselves again.

My position remains the same, what's best for the tenants comes first without being hidebound by old traditions; over the years I have worked with Ferguslie Park Housing Association in particular and I would have no hesitation in recommending them as suitable providers of affordable housing. The SNP have done another shameful “u turn” once again illustrating that they don’t really stand for; or believe in anything.

A little while ago Labour were accused by the SNP and the SSP (who are very quite about this) of ‘selling out the tenants’ ‘giving away our houses to the private sector’ ‘betraying our tenants’ etc. etc. and here we now are with the SNP embracing the Housing Associations, they have no dignity, and are an embarrassment to Renfrewshire and Scotland. The road to Damascus once again runs through Cotton St.

What a bunch of Janus faced hypocrites, broken promises continue to build up and they show themselves; not for the first or the last to be self serving slaves to expediency, nothing is worth anything to them, behaviour of this kind can only come from people and a party with no self respect and no honour whatsoever, the SNP.