Saturday, June 21, 2008

Motion 35: Affordable Housing


(Many delegatges thought that we would not need to prioritse the housing motions since they would be be debated before Friday afternoon. As it later turned out, this did not happen, so no housing motions were debated at NDC this year. Which is a shame, but such is life. Anyway, this is the speech I would given if I could).

President, Conference – John Gray; Housing Association Branch; Greater London Region speaking in favour of motion 35 and amendments.

Conference, I am sure that all of us welcome the Labour government’s commitment to increase the supply of new socially rented and low cost ownership homes.

I would like to pick up on 2 of the points made in the motion. The first is number 2, which is the call for a “clear definition of affordability”. I think this is a vital starting point.

While most people have some idea about what “Social housing” means, the term “affordable housing” is pretty meaningless. What is affordable” mean? and who is it meant to such housing? Does it refer to what someone who is on the salary of a NHS trust director or is it what a hospital cleaner is able to afford?

Recently there has been a lot of negative publicity about the high incomes that you need to have to be eligible for access to so-called “affordable” homes. Now, there are some excellent new housing schemes targeted at the genuinely low paid, however there was one “shared ownership” scheme in London recently you needed an income of £45k per year to be eligible. Which is of course ridiculous!

If we are serious about addressing the housing affordability crisis in this country then we must start off with a definition. In my view this definition would enable decent good quality affordable homes, rented or otherwise to be within the reach of all.

Secondly; point 6 touches on supporting members and organising in the housing sector. In my branches experience many housing associations (not all) do not practice what they preach when it comes to their own staff, especially with regard to equality.

TUPE protection needs to extended and we need powers to get rid once and for all of the 2-tier workforce.

With regard to recruitment, the National Housing Federation, estimate that there are 150,000 people employed in housing associations across the UK. I understand that we have as few as 20,000 members. The T&G Unite have maybe 10,000 members.

So there is possibly an overall trade union density level of only 20% so potentially there is a huge organising opportunity for UNISON. We have a similar ratio of stewards to members as other parts of the union. So one way forward is to ensure that existing reps are given the facilities and means to organise and recruit.

Conference, please support this motion.

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