Housing Fight Taken to PM Cameron's Downing Street Home

AFTER passing through security, Jean England, of Whitemoor, Alison Thorpe, of Strelley, and Ennis Peck of Clifton, found themselves walking along Downing Street, heading for the Prime Minister's house. Armed with more than 1,000 signatures of support for their campaign and clippings of stories from the Post, the three Nottingham City Homes (NCH) residents were joined by Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood and Gedling MP Vernon Coaker. NCH tenants launched the Nott Decent campaign in September after NCH was warned by the Government it could face a 25 or 40 per cent reduction in its Secure, Warm Modern programme. The project replaces thousands of windows, doors, kitchens, and bathrooms in council houses across the city. After knocking on the glossy, black door in Downing Street and handing over their petition, Ennis Peck, 82, said: "It was a really special moment that you don't think you'll ever do in your life." Mrs England, 60, said: "It didn't feel real, it was special that we, as ordinary tenants, were able to do something for the rest of the tenants." And Mrs Thorpe, 48, said: "Delivering the campaign to Downing Street was very, very special – that we've got this far and in this short time. But we're not stopping here – we need to get out there even more. We're still going to continue to fight. We've got all the four MPs behind us and that's really refreshing. Without their support we wouldn't have got as far as we have done." Mr Coaker said: "It's about ensuring that people's homes are of the standard that they should be. It's very easy money to cut but we shouldn't abandon people in that way. But it's also about what it does for the local economy, (more than 600) people are employed repairing the kitchens, doing the bathrooms. It's nice for me and Lilian to come along but it's a grassroots campaign, people coming together to achieve this. Ms Greenwood said: "Nottingham City Homes did what was required of them, they've delivered. Tenants have seen the difference, but to cut the programme when it's not half way through seems to be desperately unfair. Just because of the way the work was scheduled, some people will have their homes done and other people, for no good reason, will be deprived of that opportunity, and that seems to me to be completely arbitrary and unfair." Read more on the Nottingham Post website.