UNISON National Housing Seminar 2011: City of York

This year the seminar was held in York. I went up last night and this morning before breakfast went for a run (aka slow jog) around it’s almost complete City walls (see picture).

This was quite a fitting start in one way for a housing event since apart from the glorious displays of spring daffodils on the grass banks under the walls, you are acutely aware of the huge range of different types of homes and buildings that exists. From the medieval Shambles to the modern scandinavian style wooden fronted low rise blocks. Small traditional family terraces and the mansions with huge gardens next to the Minster.

The housing stock looked in relatively good condition with no obvious graffiti, vandalism or dumped rubbish. The communal washing lines were even in use and it would appear that residents had left clothes hanging up to dry overnight. I am sure that there are problems with Housing in York (homelessness and affordability?) which are not readily apparent. I did wonder how “sustainable” the new housing units would prove and whether they will still be in use in 500 years time.

There were around 100 branch delegates present at the seminar from Council’s, ALMO’s, DLO’s and Housing associations up and down the Country.

The Chair of the UNISON National Housing Forum Nick Olgard welcomed us and reminded everyone about last year’s seminar when we had the then Labour Housing Minister John Healey present, who he called one of the best ever housing minister’s with Graham Shapps. Then we were worrying about possible Tory Housing polices – now we know.

Our first (keynote) speaker was Heather Wakefield, Head of UNISON Local Government. I’ll post on this next.

The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing

This motion on Housing was passed at our recent Branch AGM(s) and will be submitted to this year's UNISON National Conference. 

"This Conference notes:-  

1. That the ConDem government is proposing cuts to Housing Benefits that will result in financial hardship and even evictions for hundreds of thousands of private and public sector tenants.  This is not only the unemployed but families in work on low wages and pensioners.  

2. Cheaper rental areas will face an influx of people and families from more expensive areas.  Local education, social and medical services will not be able to cope with such dramatic population changes.  

3. This ConDem Government has stopped a hundred year old tradition by all previous political parties of subsidising the cost of building new homes for low income families.  It is also proposing to end security of tenure for new tenants and charging them “near market” rents.  This has been estimated as meaning that an average 3 bedroom home for rent will cost an extra £130 per week on top of the existing social rent.  The government has also slashed existing new build and refurbishment programmes.  

4. This Government has removed the safety net of ensuring that vulnerable and homeless families have the Right to re-housed in secure public sector housing and instead are to be housed in unregulated private sector properties.   

5. We believe that this is an ideological attack by the Condem government upon the low paid and those most at need.  There is a battle of ideas in housing that at this moment progressives are not winning. We need to oppose and campaign against all regressive housing policies. 

This Conference calls for:- 

1. The only short term solution to Britain’s housing crisis is the reintroduction of rent controls which will bring down private and public rents to affordable levels.  For this to work all tenants must be offered security of tenure.  We should allow a reasonable return by private landlords but not at the current levels.  

2. That the only long term solution to adequately house the 4.5 million on Council waiting lists is to build more homes.  This could be paid for by savings from Housing benefit and the replacement of Council tax with a continental style Land Tax as well as direct public and private investment.  These homes must have secure tenancies and affordable rents. The ConDem government’s expectation for new homes to be funded through higher rents at 80% of market rents will mean fewer truly affordable new homes.  The ConDem government blames housing applicants for the length of waiting lists, rather than government’s woefully inadequate funding and Right to Buy policies.  In 2008, Shelter calculated that 1.76 million homes had been lost through Right to Buy.  

3. We request that National Labour Link considers affiliating to the Labour Housing Group in order to help win the battle of ideas in housing during the next General Election campaign.    

4. It must be an overriding priority of the next Government that there must be a renaissance and rebirth of good quality, affordable, accountable and secure public housing.

5.  The NEC to coordinate a campaign against government housing reforms.   This to include : production of information for shops and members ; encouraging shops to    distribute information and hold meetings to discuss their response to the reforms ; encouraging shops to lobby Councils and Housing Association Boards to join us in opposing government reforms.

      6. The NEC to seek further joint working with other trade unions in the housing association & voluntary sector, tenants groups, councillors and MPs".

Picture Eric Tamm

UNISON Housing Association Annual Report: Labour Link Officer

"Even though the Conservatives were deprived of an overall majority and we did very well in the London Council elections the General Election result was a crushing defeat for Labour Party and its affiliated supporters. Many thanks to all those Housing Association branch UNISON activists who worked so hard for Labour. The Party is now undergoing a necessary 2 year review of policies to make it electable again which UNISON Labour Link will play a full part. Housing must become a key policy issue.

We have got to win the “battle of ideas” in housing policy.

UNISON Labour link is sponsoring the launch of a London Branch of the Labour Housing Group which will contribute towards campaigning and developing policy particularly for London. In March there was a well attended meeting of our branch Labour Link members at the House of Commons. The keynote Speaker was the then Housing minister John Healey MP (see main photo). Clive Efford MP, National Officer Mike Short and our own regional officer Colin Inniss also spoke. Striking members from Notting Hill Housing Association also met and lobbied John. During the industrial action Labour Link was able to arrange access for striking members to lobby local Labour MPs Karen Buck, Glenda Jackson and Sadiq Khan.

Last year all UNISON Labour link member’s received a ballot paper to vote for the New leader of the Labour Party and in London who should be the Labour candidate for Mayor. UNISON nationally and regionally voted overwhelmingly to nominate Ed Miliband MP to be the Party leader. During the election itself UNISON members’ votes helped make the vital difference to ensure that he was selected. In London we nominated Ken Livingstone to be the candidate and he also won the candidacy. The next elections in London will be the GLA elections in 2012.

I am planning another Branch Labour Link meeting later this year and I will invite members of the Labour Party shadow Housing team as speakers. In the meanwhile if any branch members are individual members of the Labour Party, local Councillors, resident reps or sit in whatever capacity on Housing Association Boards then please let me know.

If anyone is interesting in finding out more about joining the fight back against the Coalition and Boris and how to join the Labour Party, the LHG or becoming a UNISON delegate to your local Party then also please contact me".

(above is my contribution as UNISON HAB Labour Link officer to our branch annual report -  see my Secretary report here)

Employer wants to Slash Wages by 35% to 57% (repeat 35%-57%!)

This is incredible.  This is not a wind up or a joke. In the current "Cuts" crisis some small voluntary sector employers have clearly lost the plot. Ekaya Housing Association are planning to cut their 44 workers pay by between 35% to 57%!  Check out this UNISON Housing Association Branch press release (double click to bring up details). 

"Housing Association Cuts Workers Pay by up
to 60%

Management at Ekaya Housing Association in South London are proposing large scale salary cuts, in some cases by almost 60%, in addition to the introduction of a longer working week and compulsory redundancies.

The salary cuts range from 35% to 57.49% and all staff will be asked to work a further 2.5 hours every week. These cuts will disproportionately hit women from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds working for the association. Ekaya provide invaluable services to teenage mothers, victims of domestic violence and other vulnerable members of society.

However unions fear that the cuts could lead to the closure of services and are concerned about the impact that this will have on the wider community.

Despite the legal obligation for collective consultation Ekaya has not discussed its proposals with staff representatives. It is also felt that the limited consultation that has taken place is not meaningful as information provided by Ekaya management has been insufficient for staff to fully understand what the plans entail. UNISON are calling upon Ekaya Housing Association to halt the process until the proposals can be properly assessed and consulted upon. In the current economic climate the union feels that Ekaya has a social responsibility to ensure that any necessary cuts are well considered and fairly implemented.

Housing Association Branch Secretary John Gray “Why are Ekaya treating their staff so badly? Why are they ignoring the law of the land regarding employment rights? Why are they slashing their workers pay and sacking people without properly considering the alternatives?”

UNISON is arranging a lobby of members local MPs, Assembly members and Councillors to press their case. Details to follow."  

Further details Jason Deacy Communications Officer, UNISON Housing Association Branch

83 Crouch End Hill, London, N8 8DD

info@unisonhablondon.org

http://www.unisonhablondon.org/

020 8340 7918

31 January 2011

Please send messages of support for Ekaya members to the branch.

UPDATE: Check out UNISON national press release here

Stop the jobseeker injustice

Well done to the NHF for carrying on with their "Don't mention the housing crisis" campaign post General election.  Also, for annoying Coalition ministers for pointing out the inequities and injustices of their policies.

This screen print from their website encourages you to contact your MP about the latest bit of Condem viciousness towards the vulnerable. 

"The Government is planning to cut support for people who are looking for work.

From 2013, job seekers will see a 10% cut in their housing benefit if it takes them longer than a year to find a job, while claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).

This proposal is wrong, it will penalise people who simply can’t find work and threatens to increase homelessness or debt among vulnerable people.

A young person hit by this cut will have to live on an average of just £41.65 a week.

Your MP has the power to vote against the change in Parliament, use this template email to ask your MP to stop this injustice from happening.

We've made this easy for you with this template email which we encourage you to personalise. Once you've finished it, just click 'send' and it will be emailed to your MP".

Newham Homes ALMO returns to Council

Good news! "Newham Council have agreed that housing services should be brought back under direct control of the council in order to save money and continue to deliver good housing services.

The council's Cabinet agreed on Thursday (December 16) that an agreement with the arms length management organisation, Newham Homes, be ended from next April.

Newham Homes has received £225m of Decent Homes programme funding over the past five years. However, many of the advantages of having an arms length management organisation (ALMO) have now disappeared. The council can now bid for decent homes funding directly from the government and it will be cheaper for the council to deliver housing management services directly.

Consultation with tenants and leaseholders was carried out in November. Some 56 per cent of those consulted supported this change with only nine per cent against.

Councillor Andrew Baikie, executive member for housing, said: "It is simpler, more efficient and more effective for the housing management service to be returned to the council. Significant savings are likely to arise which can be used to fund service improvements.

"We can cut duplicate costs - and the biggest benefit for tenants and leaseholders would be that customer services, neighbourhood management and community safety would be provided by one organisation."

Discussions are under way with staff at Newham Homes and trade unions about the transfer. In the meantime, business continues as usual. Services to tenants and leaseholders should not be affected and the transition of services back to the council should be seamless.

Newham Homes was originally set up in 2005 to access government funding to improve council housing and deliver the Decent Homes programme. A bid for additional decent homes money will be submitted to the government in January". (topical seasonal picture from Newham Story of Newham Homes Repairs depot in Abbey Road).

A 2010 Christmas Carol

In an east London state nursery, staff noticed that a three year old new starter, a little girl, was still wearing nappies.  They were concerned and when the mother came to pick the toddler up, they spoke to the Mum.

Her mother was a single parent who was originally from East Europe.  She explained that the only accommodation she could afford was a small room in a large house full of strangers.  The one toilet in this house had no door on it.  The toddler refused to use this toilet since there was no privacy.  Therefore she still wore nappies.

Extreme poverty and deprivation still occurs in this country.  Not the same scale as in the times of Dickens but still here - and now.  Coalition cuts in building and refurbishing homes, housing benefit, protection against eviction, regulations of HMO's, massive increase in rents and the farming of homeless to the private sector will make things far, far worse.

There was redemption for this family as nursery staff rallied around to rescue Mother and daughter, from the slum and help find them a self contained flat to live.  Well done to them. No Tory "Big Society" saved them but rather experienced and trained public sector professionals - thinking out of the box.

It goes without saying that you could hope against hope that a Christmas spirit would mean that Cameron, Clegg, Shapps and Boris (four guilty men) will change their ways to prevent the "shadows of what may be."

Which always reminds me of the saying "you've got two hopes, Bob Hope and no hope" of this.

Update: Another Christmas Carol

Save London's Housing!

Nationally, we are facing an unprecedented housing disaster thanks to this Government.  Ordinary Londoner's will suffer the most.

The Labour Housing Group is a national affiliated organisation within the Labour Party "dedicated to developing and promoting effective housing policy".

In London and elsewhere we need to campaign against Boris and his ConDems unnecessary, nasty and sheer vindictive policies designed to cleanse middle class Britain of anyone who is on a low income, unemployed or otherwise vulnerable.

Tomorrow is the Biannual London Labour Party Conference and we will be handing out this leaflet (double click to bring up details) about forming a London Branch of the Labour Housing Group.

LHG members Karen Buck MP and Nicky Gavron AM are driving this initiative with the support of the LHG Executive (see the AGM).  We hope to launch the branch at the House of Commons in January.  There will be a planning meeting beforehand.

If you are interested in taking part in a fightback against the Comdems flagship policies and winning the battle of housing ideas please email Nicky to join our mailing.

You can download a membership form for the LHG and find out more details here

London Councils Summit: The Evil One is amongst us

The Right Honourable Eric Pickles MP, Secretary for State for Communities and Local Government (left - aka "the evil one") was the keynote speaker at the Summit.  He promised no jokes about bonfire night, about blowing up Parliament or about a Bonfire of Quango’s.  

Being Eric, he happily attacked the Chair Jules Pipe's previous remarks as “Booker Prize” fiction and claimed that the local government settlement had not yet been decided.  He did not recognise the figures about the cuts mentioned by Jules.  He had a dig at Jules and Hackney Council over a supposed expenditure of £38m on temporary staff which resulted in a contractor making £6.5m in profit. 

He promised it will be tough.  But Councils will have powers, influences, choices and more freedom than they have had in decades (probably 25 years).  Even if the coffers were overflowing, we would still pass power down to local councils and communities.  It was Big Government and Big spending that got us into this mess.  If you want local services - don’t control on high.  Give councils control of purse wings, stop tying them up in red tape and let them get on with it.  It's about power and influence as well as raw figures.  We’ve had 3 decades of central control and look where it got us?  Give it a try.  Look at Camden and Islington sharing CEO.  Hammersmith, Westminster and Kensington, demonstrate the future of public services.  All of us should rise to the challenge, innovate and give residents better deals.  The Shackles are removed.  We could save £60 million if all London Local Government Pension Schemes were merged. 

There is a load of rubbish about mergers and super councils.  No one is saying this. Local identity is paramount.  Residents should not notice a difference except better services.  Localism is the only show in town.  Being a prisoner for decades - now is your time to bask in the sun.  Quakers.  Orwellian double speak councils suffocated by government.  We want to let you get on with it.  You don’t want me darkening your doorstep.  It will be the voters.  Instead of saying to me “What should I do Secretary of State?” Do it yourself.

Be genuinely open and transparent. If you are confident you have done no wrong, then there is no reason not to be.  15 councils have put all their spending on line?  Why don’t the others? There is a new balance of power.  Based on fairness (laughter from audience) - is it fair that people on £40k per year get Child benefits? is it fair people in your ward can only live there because they are on benefits?  Time to live in the real world (some clapping but some booing).  I know this for a fact - but had Labour won they would have done the same thing as us (more heckling).  Housing Benefit up £5 billion” this is unfair and unaffordable.  The disgraceful talk about “social cleansing” (I helpfully mentioned "Kosovo") The myths and hysteria - not facts.  

London is a great capital.  London once again is at forefront of local governance and innovation in this country.

There was more “knock about” politics in the Q&A with Eric playing the biggest and baddest Tory Tyke ever and Jules trying to keep order and remain polite and reasonable.  Eric claimed that for 80% of private sector housing benefit claimants the total change will be less than £10 per week so people should “grow up” about this.  There was lots of clapping and heckling which seemed to upset the "Sir Bufton Tufton" Tory Councillors present. 

Since Eric justified the reason why new “public housing” rents will be 80% of market rents by claiming that Housing associations had asked the Tories to do this - I asked a question to Eric about last weeks Inside Housing magazine which predicted that the rent of such new Council and Housing association housing would increase by an average of £130 per week (I repeat a £130 per week) for an average 3 bed property.  But alas he ignored the question. 

UPDATE: Check out another Labour view of Eric's performance.
UPDATE: a good summary by LGC journo Allister Hayman

“The End of Social Housing 1945-2010”

Picture is from the front page of Friday’s “Inside Housing” magazine.  Its grim conclusion is that the ConDems have decided to end Social Housing. 

To be clear this is about the ending of a key plank of the welfare state, it is about the end of all Social Housing whether provided by Councils or Housing Associations. I don’t think that people generally have “got this” yet. 

Quite rightly they have been distracted at the plans to “Kosovo” style cleanse the poor out of middle class Britain.

For much of the 20^th century, all British governments, Labour and Tory, provided direct financial support to build social housing for working people, the elderly and the vulnerable.  This government has decided that it will not be doing so any more.

There is some money set aside for existing commitments but once this is spent any new homes for rent will only be allowed to be built if they charge tenants 80% of market rents.  They also will lose their security of tenure.  What this will mean according to Inside Housing is that an average working family of three will pay £140 more per week (note per week) than they would currently.  This is not social housing anymore.

Ordinary working families will not be able to afford to live in such “housing” and will seek cheaper and smaller housing in privately owned slums and ghettos. 

Unemployed tenants will fall into arrears due to housing benefit cuts and will face eviction; they will be held to be “intentionally homeless” and be forced to move into privately owned slums and ghettos. 

Ironically the foundation of the Welfare State was laid by Liberal, William Beveridge.  One of the “5 Giants” it was created to tackle was “squalor”.  We are about to turn full circle.

Does anyone in this government “get it” either? 

SERTUC Council meeting

This morning I went off to the Southern and Eastern Region TUC Council (SERTUC) meeting at Congress House.  Firstly there was a UNISON pre-meeting for delegates.  Then up to the 5th floor for Council. 

Normally we are in the basement conference area but this was being prepared for today’s “anti-cuts” Rally.  The meeting finished at 11.45 so that delegates can get to the Rally for 12 noon. 

SERTUC President Martin Gould gave his usual straight talking and no nonsense feisty opening report on the battles ahead.

We then moved directly to motions.  We passed unanimously a CWU motion “Keep the Post Public Coalition”.  UNISON delegate Brian Walters (and son of a postie) seconded this motion in fluent French to honour the protests taking place across the channel!  There was also an Unite motion “Attack on Public Services”.  I spoke on this 2^nd motion. 

I reminded Council that we must talk to our members and not just ourselves.  Some polls show that even a majority of union members think the cuts are necessary.  We need to challenge this and one way is to let our members know how sheer “nasty” they are – as a working front line secretary of the UNISON Housing Association branch we have to deal with a 50%  or £4 billion in cuts in housing; the ending of security of tenure which will mean that my members will be expected to evict Grannies whose kids have left home; in London there will be no more new public housing starts in 2011; who will house the expected extra 82,000 private tenants who will be evicted in London due to restrictions in Housing benefit?; London Councils report that some authorities are planning to block book B&B’s in south coast resorts; future rents in public housing will be 80% of “market rents” which in London could mean an average  2 bed flat rental will rise from £90 per week to £250.  Who can afford that?

Never the economics theory but surely it is madness that my members who develop homes are being made redundant at the same time as construction workers are being laid off resulting in less income tax and more claims for benefit at the same time that we have 4 million in housing need! 

SERTUC secretary Megan Dobney reminded us that the Fire Brigade Union (FBU) were on strike in London from 10am this morning (there is a SERTUC solidarity meeting for the FBU on Thursday evening at Congress House).   There is another one day strike due on 1 November 2010.  

There were a few contributions around the secretary’s report but we eventually finished early enough to even have extra items of AOB!

Off to main SERTUC rally 11.40.

Housing matters: Alison Seabeck MP New Labour Shadow Minister

Labourlist "Anyone who campaigned for Labour during this election knows that housing matters. Anyone who spoke to an overcrowded family on a housing estate still waiting for the Decent Homes upgrade, to the twenty-something graduate still living with their parents or the young couple putting off marriage or children until they can afford a home knows housing matters.

I grew up in a Labour home, my dad was a local councillor who led Havering council before spending five years at Westminster. He was dedicated to provision of high-quality social housing and remained involved with housing late into life.

I’m proud to be leading the fight for Labour on one of our key areas. I’ll follow in John Healey’s footsteps in placing housing front and centre when we speak to our local communities and campaigning for the party. I’ll hold the coalition to account and I’ll listen to you when you tell me how the coalition’s policies are affecting your area.

If we get housing right then we build strong, safe, cohesive communities; get housing wrong and it isn’t merely a case of poor housing stock or a shortage of homes, it’s an affront to people’s sense of community, to their sense of justice – you need only look at the way housing was exploited by the BNP in Barking & Dagenham, where I was born, to see not only the consequence of where we get it wrong on housing but where we can rebuild bonds with the community which have broken down and reaffirm our commitment as a party that listens and campaigns for a fair deal on housing.

Too many people thought we weren’t listening on housing and we will need to reflect long and hard on our record; a record of which we can be justifiably proud – even in the depths of recession the Labour government was building tens of thousands of new homes and funding repairs to existing properties and protecting homeowners who feared they could lose their homes; but we must not be afraid of looking carefully and critically at our record and asking, what more could we have done? How will we do better next time? We will listen, we will consult, there will be no sacred cows.

Decent and affordable homes go to the heart of our welfare state and to the heart of our Labour Party. Whereas the Tories let our housing stocks thin out and disappear in the right to buy and let the remaining estates sink into disrepair, we embarked on the most ambitious repairs programme to bring all council homes up to a minimum decent standard and it will be a test of this government’s tenuous commitment to fairness whether or not they commit the remaining funding needed to complete this vital work.

Faced with the immense challenges that we face in housing, we need a government which acts to resolve the problems. Instead, we have a coalition convinced that all it needs to do is hide the evidence or pass the responsibility down to local councils or the voluntary sector. When addressing the high cost of housing caused by low supply their response is to take away people’s ability to pay by cutting housing benefit and to scrap regulations which will mean substantially fewer homes will be built over the next twelve months than if Labour had been in power. We have a housing minister who wants to see more first-time buyers and yet he’s pursuing policies that will see fewer homes built and he’s scrapping Labour’s HomeBuy Direct scheme which helped first-time buyers get a foot on the ladder.

At every turn, the coalition is making the wrong decisions. Cameron says see what they’ve achieved in five months and imagine what they could do in five years. It doesn’t bear thinking about. In housing they have managed to alienate almost every sector within housing and are being taken to court by housing developers

In the 1980s I worked in Roy Hattersley’s office and I know the price of opposition, watching a Tory government chip away at the foundations of a fair and equitable society; I also worked for Nick Raynsford, the former housing minister, when we were in government and I know what we can achieve and why winning the next general election is so important.

I promise I will listen to everything that this party has to say. We will attack this government when they make the wrong decisions on housing but we won’t rush into policy making and we won’t have a knee jerk response to everything but we’ll keep the pressure on the Tories and the Liberals. I’m delighted to be part of a strong shadow CLG team under Caroline Flint and I look forward to hearing from you.

Tory housing claptrap and myth: young women become pregnant to get a Council flat

Yesterday morning I had the misfortune to listen to Andrew Pierce from talk radio show "LBC" pretending to be a journalist and  “interviewing” Tory Housing Minister Grant Shapps at their conference. Andrew had previously expressed his expert view that since he was brought up on a Council estate in Swindon he knew “for a fact” that girls would get deliberately pregnant to get a count flat.  How he actually knew this “fact” he kept to himself. 

He then spoke to Shapp and his first question was the Sun pub bore favourite about all these scroungers getting large amounts of housing benefit to live in London.  I thought for a moment he was going to ask about the 82,000 Londoners facing eviction from the recently announced cuts.  That moment obviously passed quickly.  Then a question on the usual prurient middle class hobby horse about young girls getting pregnant solely to get a Council flat and what-is-Shapp-going-to-do-about-it. 

My father died a Council tenant and my mother is still a housing association tenant.  Members of my family live and have lived in public housing up and down the country,  I have worked as a housing worker in Council and Housing Association estate offices for 18 years and I have never, ever known of anyone getting pregnant to get a council flat. 

Admittedly we do not ask as housing officer applicants this question (don’t give Sharpe ideas) but I have never seen or heard any evidence whatsoever.  It is an urban myth.  There will of course be an exception to the rule but the vast overwhelming majority of teenagers (repeat young vulnerable women) get pregnant for exactly the same reason that middle class kids get pregnant.   Inadequate and/or non existent sex education, drink, drugs, trying to keep a partner and sometime wanting a have a baby to love. Add to this mix poverty, inadequate health services and poor schooling and you do get high rates of teenage pregnancy on housing estates. 

But young women growing up on an estate are the first to know that getting a council flat does not mean (unfortunately) you have won first prize in life.  To think that someone would deliberately get themselves pregnant solely to bring up said child up by themselves in a bedsit on the 20^th floor of a tower block is just frankly deluded.

Labour Party Conference 2010: A London Housing Workers' tale

This is a guest post from the "front line" of public housing in London by a good comrade, Alan Griffiths (in photo voting with left arm up). He was a London UNISON delegate at conference. He is also a fellow Newham Councillor (and he even has a splendid Welsh name)

Despite lots of frantic waving of papers he was not selected to give this speech on Tuesday's Crime debate. Which I think was a shame.

"Conference: Since the ConDem government began, Police Community Support Officers, created by the Labour government, have been sent Redundancy Notices.

The proposed closures of County Courts and of Magistrates Courts will mean even more delays in getting cases heard.

I’m here this morning to give you a housing officer’s experience of crime and disorder issues, with some examples.

I gave evidence, at half a day’s notice, in a fraud trial at a Crown Court. I had to be careful not to let the Jury know that the defendants had previous convictions and that I had already repossessed a flat. That case is highlighted amongst the achievements of the Council’s Fraud Team. Those defendants had false identities, several addresses and lived in a half-million pound house.

Partnership working reduces Crime and Disorder.

I have submitted a statement and given evidence to a Magistrates’ Court, supporting a Police application for a Premises Closure Order.

Partnership working reduces Crime and Disorder.

I once had a tenant approach me, very concerned that a man she really didn’t want to know was to be released from prison on Licence. I phoned his Probation Officer and asked for an extra condition on his Licence.

Partnership working reduces Crime and Disorder.

Not so long ago, Police raided a flat and arrested two young men, one a close relative of the tenant. Later the Police opened the metal tool box that had been thrown out of a window shortly before they arrived and found two guns. The Crown Prosecution Service thought there wasn’t enough evidence for a criminal prosecution. It would not be appropriate for me to tell you what the Police officers involved thought of that! The landlord went to the County Court and the Postponed Possession Order has conditions including that the arrested relative does not live at the flat, does not have a key to the flat and does not have a key to the block.

Partnership working reduces Crime and Disorder.

Conference, three of the four cases I have just mentioned were in the same block of flats in less than two years.

Partnership working reduces is Crime and Disorder.

The key partnership for reducing Crime and Disorder is between Councils and Police. Tory MPs voted again that, just like earlier Tory MPs voted against the National Health Service.

I introduced Acceptable Behaviour Contracts or Agreements at my work and there was a time when I had done more of them than all my colleagues put together.

Some foolish people would like you to believe that those informal methods are an alternative to Anti-Social Behaviour Orders in every case. Every Acceptable Behaviour Contract or Agreement that carried my employer’s logo included a clear threat of an Anti-Social Behaviour Order if the perpetrator’s behaviour did not improve. Without ASBOs the next step would have to be prosecution.

The Tory Home Secretary has allowed it to be put about that she is thinking of repealing Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. I had a John P McEnroe moment “You cannot be serious”. Next week she has a chance to show that she is serious and say it isn’t so.

If she does not, we’ll all be entitled to have a Billy Connolly moment “Hangings too good for the likes of Youse. It’s a good kick up the arse ye need”.

“Building London’s Future” (& defending London’s poor & vulnerable)

The proposed Tory/Lib Dems reforms of housing benefit (HB) “will lead to two things - firstly a dramatic increase in homelessness which will result in a shift in London’s population -equal in size to a typical post war new town and secondly - deepening and abject poverty”.  So said the host, MP for Westminster North, Karen Buck MP, in her introduction to a “crisis” housing meeting on Thursday to launch this report by London Labour Party.

The report details David Cameron’s and his London Mayor, Boris Johnson, attempts to “cleanse” the Tory controlled boroughs in the Capital of their poor and the vulnerable by changing housing benefit to private tenants.

To show the seriousness of the situation there was a pretty high profile panel of speakers.  Labour Party Leader Harriot Harman MP, Shadow Secretary of State Yvette Cooper MP, Leader of LB Hammersmith & Fulham Labour Group Cllr Steve Cowan, Shadow Minister of Housing John Healey MP, GLA member and London Labour Party leader Len Duvall and Shadow Minister of London, Tessa Jowell MP.  This was before an audience of Councillors and housing activists from across London.

Despite working in housing in London I must admit to being rather shocked at the report and its conclusions.  I will try and post in more detail on each speaker and on the rest of the report another time (there was a lot of interesting stuff) but I’ll outline now the key thing about HB changes that should have every single person who gives a damn about London (and elsewhere) jumping up and down.

Housing benefit provides a roof over the heads of millions of people.  If these cuts to HB go ahead it will mean:-

Yvette Cooper MP: “One million families will lose £12 per week...50,000 of the poorest pensioners will lose £11 per week...Working families will also lose £12 per week...Disabled residents will lose £13 per week.  These are averages...A pensioner in a one-bed flat in Hackney will lose £21 per week...150,000 households in London will not have enough benefit to cover the rent...A population the size of Hackney could be forced to move to cheaper accommodation.  This is what you get from the £550 million of cuts to HB already announced.  Remember that the CONDEMS want £2.3 billion cuts in HB”. 

From the “Building London’s Future” report: “People in London will face on average £1,000 a year cut in support”....159,370 private sector tenants on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) will lose an average of £22 a week in the first wave of cuts....80% of LHA recipients in London will lose more than £10 a week...990 families in a 2-bed property in Tower Hamlets will lose on average £27 a week...73 families living a 2-bed property in Camden will lose on average £53 a week.

(as soon as I find a link to the report I will update but you can check this government site here to find out what will happen to your local authority)

Labour Housing Group Conference Fringe: Sunday 26 September

I received this quarterly newsletter form the Labour Housing Group yesterday. The fringe at Party conference will take place at the Friends Meeting House on Sunday evening.  It is just outside the secure zone (so you will not need any conference pass to attend).

By coincidence yesterday I attended an excellent housing briefing by the Labour Party on "Building London's Future".  The information we received about the likely consequences of the CONDEM cuts in housing benefit is frankly pretty scary.  I'll post on this later. 

As part of the response to the CONDEM plans I did at the meeting bring up the idea of a London branch  of the LHG which seemed to be well received.

(not forgetting another key fringe that will be taking place this year!)

(Don't Mention the Housing Crisis)

I've just signed up to support this National Housing Federation (NHF) campaign.

They are right that during the general election the housing crisis was hardly mentioned.

Yet "over a million children live in overcrowded accommodation"...it may "take 30 years" for some people to save up to buy a home....we are "building fewer homes" now since the second world war yet we "have 4.5 million people in housing need".  The icing on the cake is they estimate that Treasury plans ‘will cut off 400,000 of society’s most vulnerable’.

Contact your MP to support the campaign via the website (it takes 2 minutes)

I hate DIY...why don’t we have a decent rental sector for everyone in the UK?

I have spent most of this Bank “holiday” weekend painting and decorating (Ugh)! Tomorrow I will try and finish off the living room. I now look up at the freshly painted ceiling and it still looks a bit of a mess. I freely admit to being really, really rubbish at DIY.

I had the simply awful experience of having to go to the local “B&Q” last weekend (“the horror!, the horror...!”) to get paint and stuff and then to nearby Homebase yesterday (don’t ask) to get the things that I had forgotten to get or couldn’t face looking for in B&Q.

In most civilised parts of the world people rent all their lives and don’t share the British obsession with home ownership. Friends working aboard tell me that it is perfectly normal for them to pay reasonable rents for well maintained (and professionally decorated!!!!) homes.

A major reason for this is that unlike in the UK most European countries expect home owners to pay fair taxes on any capital appreciation in the value of their properties.  This helps level out the "housing tenure" playing field.   

Video - the Royal Family (and twiggy!) show us how DIY really should be done.

"Explore the Story of Social Housing in Tower Hamlets"

Shame I cannot make this local history open day on Saturday.  Mind you I still don't like the term "Social Housing" which was a term first used by one Michael Heseltine (I prefer "Public Housing").

Cameron and the future of public housing

Even rabid Tory right winger Nadine Dorries MP has attacked her leader, David Cameron’s plan to end security of tenure for Council and housing association tenants. Nadine points out here that this would not solve the housing shortage and will disincentives tenants. She at least as a child lived in a Council house an experience Cameron and the vast great majority of Conservative Party MP’s know nothing whatsoever about.

It’s clear that that Cameron has been publicly caught out telling porkies about the future of public housing. Everyone in housing knew that the Tories in opposition were planning to attack security of tenure. Check this from Inside Housing

“In the run up to the general election Mr Cameron came under attack from then housing minister John Healey, who accused the Conservatives of wanting to end secure tenancies.

At the time, Mr Cameron said the allegations were ‘simply untrue’ and a spokesperson for the Conservatives said the party had ‘no policy to change the current or future security of tenure of tenants in social housing’.

But today he said: ‘There is a question mark about whether, in future, we should be asking when you are given a council home is it for a fixed period? Because maybe in five or 10 years you will be doing a different job and be better paid and you won’t need that home, you will be able to go into the private sector.’

Nadine is right (never thought I would say that) that this proposal will not solve the housing crisis and will put people off getting training and jobs but if all public housing (Council and housing association properties) are only inhabited by the unemployed or disabled and are only a “tenure of the last resort” then they will indeed become the latest Tory “barracks of the poor”.

I don’t want to be evicting families out of their homes if one of them manages to get a job on minimum wage rates either.

Great Picture from the Daily Mirror