‘Disgusting’ council mailer flayed

Hammersmith & Fulham Council has sent a Christmas direct mailing to its 17,000 council tenants – which would make even Scrooge look generous – warning them not to overindulge during the festive season, just “pay your rent”.
The card, showing a pound coin fizzing in a glass, has been branded “disgusting” and “insulting” by tenants but council bosses said 46% of its tenants were in rent arrears and the cards were part of a “hard-hitting” campaign.
One tenant,Tina Buckley, who has lived with her mother in council property for 25 years and has never been behind with their rent, told BBC London 94.9: “My mum’s been a tenant for 60 years. Keeping the roof over our head was more important than anything else so to get this disgusting, threatening piece of literature masquerading as a Christmas greeting, it’s insulting.”
“She’s never been behind with her rent and when we were young and there wasn’t much money she’d pay her rent before she’d feed us and clothe us and heat the house.”
But councillor Andrew Johnson, cabinet member for housing, was unrepentant. He said: “We want to do everything we can to stop tenants getting into rent arrears.It’s a very serious issue and the real issue of this double-sided postcard was to say if you are in difficulty give us a call. t would give me no pleasure to evict people in the new year because they’re behind on their rent.”
He added: “I think we’ve got to take all reasonable steps possible to make sure people pay their rent.”