FAMILIES are urged to join a community campaign for better housing that will see a rally held in central London next month. At the Assembly meeting last week Cllr Phil Waker said he hoped thousands of council tenants and home owners will join in the prote

FAMILIES are urged to join a community campaign for better housing that will see a rally held in central London next month.

At the Assembly meeting last week Cllr Phil Waker said he hoped thousands of council tenants and home owners will join in the protest at the end of October.

Barking and Dagenham is the biggest contributor in the country with around �15 a week of council tenants' rent going towards paying the National Historical Housing Debt.

Last year this cost the borough �20million.

Cllr Waker said: "Barking and Dagenham has paid hundreds of millions of pounds towards this debt, none of which is ours"

Families on the Leys Estate in Dagenham and Goresbrook Village have raised petitions in the past because of the crumbling state of their homes.

Cllr Waker said: "We have people sitting in cold, damp, mouldy flats and houses in this borough.

"We need fair treatment to this problem."

A community campaign is now being organised by Cllr Waker and other councillors to voice the concerns of the people of Barking and Dagenham.

It is hoped that the rally in central London will be held at the end of October, over school half term, as many families wish to bring their children.