by Chris McLaughlin
Home-seekers will be able to get a mortgage from their local council under plans being prepared by the Government, Gordon Brown told Labour chiefs this week.
The move is part of a raft of measures to “use the state to the benefit of ordinary people” and is intended to help young, first-time buyers who have been refused a loan by building societies or banks.
Under questioning by members of the party’s National Executive Committee on Tuesday, Mr Brown also indicated that the Government is considering direct intervention to prevent companies making wholesale redundancies.
The plan, based on schemes already operating in Germany and Holland, entails the Government paying 70 per cent of the wages for workers threatened with redundancy in return for the company keeping them on and retraining or upgrading their skills.
Mr Brown’s disclosure to NEC members comes as thousands of workers are being made redundant every day and was made on the day the Government announced help – criticised as too little by Unite the Union – for the automotive industry.
The aim is to avert the personal tragedy of redundancies, allow companies time to re-skill for an economic upturn and save the Treasury cash in welfare payments.
Mr Brown is said to be keen to ensure that Government measures are seen to have more of an impact on those suffering from the economic downturn. The council mortgage proposal is intended to help free up the bottom end of the housing market while the anti-redundancy package is also designed to avert repossessions.
Fear of repossession is now registering in Labour’s private polling as a bigger factor among voters than redundancy.
The new emphasis comes as Labour prepares to defend its 19 seats European Parliament seats in June. The European Parliamentary Labour Party met in London this week for a day’s strategy meeting for an election in which it will be campaigning on a record of 100 achievements affecting British and European voters.
One of the key elements of the campaign will be a focus on preventing the British National Party gaining a foothold in the European Parliament. Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman told a conference last weekend: “The BNP threat cannot be ignored. Analysis of council elections shows that even where they are not winning they are coming second in areas which are Labour, Lib Dem and Tory. Every vote will count…a racist thug in a suit is still a racist thug.”
The campaign against the BNP has the backing of the firm Blue State Digital, which was behind Barack Obama’s online election campaign and which has linked up with anti-fascist group Searchlight.
