IN the midst of a crisis in the financial markets, with banks closing, being nationalised or being taken over, news broadcasts feature the world's leaders saying banal things to their worried nation (George Bush), or supportive things to each other (EU leaders). Fortunately, soon-to-be-ex-President Bush has very little influence over his country's main bank, the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately, EU politicians (except perhaps Alistair Darling) do have influence over
As soon as the EU greetin' meeting had ended in agreement to pursue a common policy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government would do what it considered to be in the best interest of the German economy, and Chancellor Darling said much th
e same in Westminster. But in all of the high finance talk, few words were spoken about how this might impact on the "real" economy – the one in which real people live, work and buy, and sell goods and services to each other.
Edinburgh's financial services sector is ranked second only to London in the UK, and in funds under management, is one of the top four centres in Europe, so trouble in the financial markets means trouble for thousands of the people whose interests I represent in Holyrood. For people living and working in the Lothians and Fife, the "real" economy is much the same as the financial market place.
So taking my constituents' interests as my priority, just like Chancellor Merkel, I've been anxious to establish that, regardless of how long the crisis in the financial markets lasts, people will not become homeless as a direct consequence of the failure of their former bosses to regulate and manage their lending policies. If they're numbered amongst the 31,000 employed directly in financial services, or amongst the 50,000 working in the business services that support them, their jobs are at risk.
As some of the people with risky jobs will have low mortgages available to employees of banks now under pressure, and as some will have borrowed more on their mortgages to improve their property, an immediate priority for Edinburgh must be to prepare contingency plans for the housing difficulties that can arise because of the unsettled money markets.
Reports are already surfacing of families being evicted and made homeless after agreeing to sell their homes to a company that assured them they could stay in their home as tenants as long as they wanted. To avoid this sort of scam, I've been nipping the ears of Scottish Government ministers to quickly ask the city councils to review the likely levels of potential mortgage defaulters in Edinburgh, its travel-to-work areas, and in the greater Glasgow area.
People losing their jobs in financial services or as a result of the present crisis should not lose their homes also. The local authority or a housing association could acquire joint equity in the property with a contract drawn up to cover the next five years, for example. After that, the householder could opt to remortgage or continue to share ownership. Alternatively, the property could be wholly acquired by a local authority or housing association, and rented by its former owners.
In Edinburgh's case, the shortage of affordable public sector housing is so acute that a measure such as I've described is essential. That's why I hope to be able to ask Alex Salmond in First Minister's Questions tomorrow if he's willing to re-assess the relative needs of both the Capital and Scotland's most populous city for affordable housing.
Over the last decade because of its deprivation, the Scottish Government has funded a third of the cost of providing affordable housing in Glasgow. With 75 per cent of the total Scottish requirement for such housing, Edinburgh has received less than ten per cent. Although no-one should deny the depth of Glasgow's deprivation, neither should Edinburgh's real need be kept quiet for fear of criticising how Glasgow has underused funds that Edinburgh could use right now. For example, why hasn't the Glasgow Housing Association used its ability to borrow even one penny on the private market?
The Edinburgh city region is in a unique position in this crisis. The people most at risk of paying the price of the era of crazy consumerism need special consideration . . . and that starts with keeping their homes.
She cannot be seriousIF I was running Barack Obama's media campaign I'd get Wimbledon champion John McEnroe's permission to use TV clips of him performing his teenage tennis brat's "You cannot be serious" routine following clips of Sarah Palin's "Hockey Mom" wit and wisdom.
John McCain's Vice-Presidential candidate is running on empty and taking campaigning into new gutters of absurdity and distastefulness with her accusations of Obama being pals with a terrorist . . . when he was eight years old. I hope Obama drops any so-called smears from his campaign and laughs the Republican candidates out of the race.
The full article contains 825 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
