At 10.00 am yesterday, on the 23rd of November, tenants in Edinburgh slipped into fancy dress and auctioned off City Council Housing leader, Sheila Gilmore's home for £899 pounds. The stunt was designed to draw attention to Councillor's Gilmore's part in the City Council's "ridiculous" plan to sell off 23,000 council homes at £899 pounds each.

dirty dealing

fat cat and Councillor Gilmore

The stunt comes at the start of a three-week postal ballot, which will decide if Edinburgh tenants agree to the Council's proposed plan to transfer all 23,000 council homes from City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) to City of Edinburgh Housing Association (CEHA).

The auction was performed outside Housing leader Sheila Gilmore's home in Marchmount, Edinburgh. A woman dressed in top and tails, and showing enormous performative flair, embraced her role as auctioneer for the day. The auctioneer started proceedings with a maximum bid of £400,000 pounds (the approximate market value of Councillor Gilmore's home). The bidders then steadily reduced this figure until the home (or should that be 'housing unit'?) was finally sold at £899 pounds - the same value as council tenants homes according to Sheila Gilmore and co.

The eventual winner of the auction and the proud new owner of Councillor's Gilmore's former home, was a mysterious 'fat-cat' character with a liking for humungous cigars. The fact that both he and the auctioneer wore rather 'modish' New Labour party rosettes did not go unmentioned by the other bidders. Their embrace of each other after the sale was also deemed rather unseemly by all present.

A highly amused spokesperson for the Stock Transfer Information Group (STIG) said the stunt was designed to "add a bit of colour to this stock transfer debate. We want to be out on the streets getting our message out that the Council's policies on housing are absurd and laughable - if only they weren't so serious. We won't let the Council just allocate us a nice little position on some board or other, giving us a little token dissent while selling us off to the highest bidder. We want to make sure we take some control of our resistance to stock transfer, and have some fun in the process".

Another spokesperson for the Stock Transfer Information Group (STIG) said "People like Sheila Gilmore, feel very secure in selling off other peoples homes at scandalous prices. We wanted to see how she felt about us selling off her home. If they valued our homes correctly, then the new housing association couldn't afford to buy them. We think its ridiculous that our homes are being sold off at £899 pounds each - just to suit the needs of the proposed new landlord, City of Edinburgh Housing Association (CEHA). Why are our public assets always being sold off so cheaply?".

The stunt comes after Edinburgh tenants 'doormat' protest at the Royal Mile's City Chambers, and the ongoing campaign by Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer (EAST) which has circulated over 50,000 leaflets to tenants in a voluntary campaign against stock transfer.

A member of EAST urged all tenants in Edinburgh to vote no to stock transfer.

Related

http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk

http://www.citystrolls.com