After termination of Red Sky contract, Housing Executive told “No more privatisation”
The decision of the Housing Executive to terminate a major contract with the construction company Red Sky after allegations of overcharging is proof that “private sector involvement in the running of public services is a waste of money and leads to inefficient and worse services” according to the Socialist Party.
Pat Lawlor, candidate for the Socialist Party in West Belfast stated
“Residents have been telling the Housing Executive and Margaret Richie and Alex Atwood, the two Ministers responsible for housing in the last Assembly, that privatisation of the service has been a disaster for years. It comes as no surprise that allegations of overcharging have emerged. Private companies don’t care about providing a service – all they care about is making as much money as possible from the taxpayer.
“I challenge all the main parties to commit that in the event that they will take the Minister for Social Development in the next Assembly that they do not outsource this service to the private sector.
Tommy Black, East Belfast candidate for the Socialist Party added
“The jobs at Red Sky should be defended. Red Sky may move to cut jobs as a result of losing the Housing Executive contract. In order to save jobs, the Minister for Social Development should instruct the Housing Executive to employ these workers to provide housing maintenance as a public service – not to make a profit for company bosses.
“The question of the future of Red Sky must also be considered. If as a result of a reliance on public sector contracts the company moves to shed jobs, the Assembly Executive should bring the company into public ownership and run democratically by the workers, community representatives and elected representatives.”
Vladimir Lenin, the main leader of the Russian revolution, made the following insightful observation in mid-1917: “During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred, and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, attempts are made to convert them into harmless icons, to canonise them, so to say, and to hallow their names to a certain extent for the ‘consolation’ of the oppressed classes and with the object of duping the latter, while at the same time robbing the revolutionary theory of its substance, blunting its revolutionary edge and vulgarising it”. (State and Revolution)
The fight to save Playzone, an after-schools service located in the Ballymac Centre in East Belfast, has reached a critical stage. The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister have only offered a three-month emergency package after the Department of Health cut funding to the project. With Playzone costing the executive a paltry £60,000 a year, long term funding for the project must be secured.
Considering that the so-called “green shots of recovery” have failed to appear in the economy and with major questions marks over the European and world economy, the decision of the Assembly to make £4billion cuts is economic madness. Even before the Assembly Executive begins to carry out these cuts, the scale of actual unemployment is truly shocking. The number of unemployed persons in December 2010 was 68,000 (8%), up 18,000 over the year. Nearly 50% have been unemployed for a year or more. The unemployment rate for 18-24 year olds is at 22.5% – up 10.5% over the past year.