TENANTS

Luxury household goods are being given to council tenants free of charge if they are in "an ethnic minority". Every council in England and Wales now has a £50,000 "diversity fund" and state-of-the-art kitchen and bathroom gadgets are being dished out to those with "housing needs that are different from the British community". Standard electric ovens will be replaced with new gas cookers because some religions require that food is cooked over an open flame.

Showers will also be added to baths because some religions forbid followers from sitting in stale water. This policy, all paid for by the taxpayer, has been approved by the Government. Every council in England and Wales now has a £50,000 "diversity fund", but only a fraction of the UK's council tenants is eligible for the freebies. Dr Tia MacGregor is a Muslim and an independent councillor in Oxford, where several tenants have taken advantage of the handouts.

She said, "What this strategy is saying is that if you want something because of your faith, you get it. What about Jedi Knights, would they have a cupboard fitted to put their light sabres in?" However, Oxford councillor Patrick Murray said, "We count faith like disability and other personal needs as an understandable reason for a request." (Source: Sunday People, May/07)

A Glaswegian man is being threatened with eviction from his home because he ran a web site criticising his landlords. John Quinn, a tenant of the North Glasgow Housing Association, has set up a site that details several complaints made by Quinn and other residents, who accuse the association of unprofessionalism, lying and nepotism. The housing association argues the site is affecting its staff, and that his publishing it amounts to anti-social behaviour.

That came as a surprise to Quinn, his lawyers and to the Open Rights Group (Org), which campaigns on privacy issues in the UK. Wendy Grossman of Org said, "It seems bizarre that any landlord should have the right to evict a tenant on the basis of a web site. You do see stories of kids being suspended from school because they criticised a teacher on the internet, or of people being fired for putting up sites criticising their employers."

She added that although this is the first case where eviction has been threatened, it's not the first time a person's web site has got them into trouble. "There's a chilling effect of self-censorship, where the more people believe there will be bad consequences of what they write online, the more they hesitate before saying anything," she said.

The housing association took out an injunction against Quinn, after which he agreed to stop running the web site, instead handing its control over to other residents. A statement from the housing association said that it had taken "appropriate action on grounds of harassment and anti-social behaviour". (Source: Computeractive, Nov/06)