The last meeting of the Kensington and Chelsea Council on Tuesday, January 31, saw some real fireworks, Throughout the meeting, tenants in the public gallery shouted and heckled Tory speakers, They were warned several times by the Deputy Mayor to keep quiet or they would td. thrown out, The cause of the trouble is the decision by the Council to collect 6-months! back rent increase from council house tenants, The Council had increased rents by up to £3.10 per week last year, These increase were due to come into effect on October 3, 1966, but were delayed until the beginning of this year. The Council plans to start collecting the back increases over a six-month period beginning on October lst this year, Thus tenants will be paying a double increase for 6 months,
During the debate Labour members were particularly sharp: Councillor Alan Jenkinson said: "I don't know whether its legal for a council to deliberately put its tenants in areas, but the action seems monstrously unjust, The Council has borrowed ideas from some of the more wscrupulous landlords in the borough," Councillor Stanley Lawrence said that the action was something no slum landlord could ever hope to get away with, The Tories, on the other hand, showed their typical contempt of council tenants, Councillor Dennis Piper said: "What is special about them" (council tenants) "that makes them feel they have some right to come to me for a contribution to their rent? I would like to know where itts going to end, Are we to contribute. to their clothing and food?" Alderman Ernest Anslow-Wilson, the Tory leader of the council, added with sickening hypocrisy: "What we hoped for was to have happy and grateful tenants, Our action seems to have misfired and not been appreciated" (sic) "It would probably be a good thing if we collected the whole amount straight away," Labour's attempt to get the matter referred back was defeated, This rotten attitude “1 has its roots in the desire of the Tories to keep down the rates of their supporters (private house-owners) at the expense of council house tenants. The complete hypocrisy of the Tories' arguments that they are applying the Government's incomes policy was demonstrated by one Labour Councillor when he pointed out that the Council had stopped certain wage increases, They was, however, no question of paying them six months! back increase, Whilst we must be heartened by the Labour Councillors' opposition to the Tories we must note the sobering thought that the Tories have been encouraged to take this action by the Labour Government's general policies,