Tory policies create housing crisis

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Five years of anti-socialist Labour have wrought havoc with housing.

Indeed 1978 saw less starts on new houses than any time since the Heath government. And only 130,000 houses were completed-the lowest total for five years.

1979 promises to be little different. The first two months show that the figure for both starts and completions was 20% lower than the same period of 1978.

The employers' federation, the National Council of Building Material Suppliers, expects the marked downward trend to continue for at least three years.

One reason for this fall back is the government cuts in spending on housing in the public sector.

These would of course be stepped up if the Tories return, pledged to increase sales of council housing and cut public spending on housing.

But another reason is the galloping prices of houses on the private market, which have shot up almost 33% over the last 12 months, pushing the average price of a house over the £20,000 mark-preventing many working class families from ever hoping to buy a house.

. Building society chiefs now expect house prices to rise by another 20% in 1979.

The housing crisis is just another of the bitter fruits of Labour's five years of collaboration with private enterprise-in particular. the major building contractors, and giant building materials suppliers whose profits continue to rise while more and, more workers find themselves unable to attoro a root over their heads. i The force the expropriation of these profit-hungry giants and for workers' management of the huge fund monopolised by the building societies and used to perpetuate the capitalist stranglehold on house building is inseperable from the fight to kick out the crypto-Tories in the CallaghanHoslov loariorchin