Smoke And Mirrors

Neil Gray

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An excellent social justice documentary.

Council tenants in Edinburgh were offered lower rents and new kitchens and bathrooms if they would vote 'yes' to transfer the ownership of council homes from the council to a private landlord (CEHA). The council spent over 5 Million pounds developing the plans and on extravagant publicity. They did not put the case against stock transfer because 'there was no case against it'. It was billed as a win for everyone. Week by week promotional glossy leaflets and DVDs (made for widescreen viewing) were posted through tenant's letter boxes. Council workers were forced to go door to door to promote the transfer to tenants. Tenants were told if they voted yes to transfer millions of pounds worth of debt would be written off and 2 billion pounds would be released to build new homes and improve existing ones.

Tenants were left to try to work out what was going on. It turned out the council was going to sell homes for an average price of 900 pounds each; though many would be worth over 100,000 on the open market. 1.2 billion of the additional money would be a new debt to private banks lent at commercial rather than a government rate. The board of the new housing association would be controlled by the banks and the previous council workers.

With a budget of 5000 pounds a few camcorders and photocopiers a group called E.A.S.T set out to undo the council

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