UNISON “Labour Link” meeting: Housing minister John Healey MP

On Tuesday evening I Chaired (for the 2nd consecutive day) a special meeting of UNISON members at the House of Commons! This time on behalf of my branch UNISON Housing Association “Labour Link” (APF) members. Our guest speaker was, John Healey MP, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning.

John started off by thanking UNISON members for the work they do providing essential housing services in often difficult and demanding circumstances. He then gave a very powerful and convincing presentation on the many good things that Labour had done for public housing while also accepting that more needed to be done. He is obviously very proud to have helped enable Councils to start building homes again. He does not think that there should not be any fundamental conflicts between Councils and housing associations over this since there is such a huge task to undertake that there is plenty of opportunity for both Councils and other public landlords.

John praised UNISON literature which points out to tenants that the Tories are openly planning to get rid of security of tenure and increase rents for Council and Housing association tenants to “market rates”. John has written to David Cameron the Conservative leader a number of times to ask him to refute that they have such plans but with no response.

At the meeting we also had Notting Hill Housing Trust staff who are due out on strike action this Monday 15th March to speak to the minister about the dispute and how they are being personally affected.  Why such traditionally moderate staff feel so angry that their CEO is proposing to get rid of family friendly policies and attack their basic terms and conditions. Notting Hill is refusing to even try and conciliate via ACAS and are refusing to allow UNISON to even speak to its Board members or Chair. We believe that there are also possible regulatory issues at stake. John was very concerned about the whole matter and there was a supportive and wide ranging discussion. He undertook to look into the TSA issues we had brought up. In the Q&A we discussed other topics as well such as executive pay levels, governance of boards, supporting people funding and training for young people.

My contribution with regard to Notting Hill was my usual one. Housing organisations that treat their staff as rubbish will also treat their residents in a similar fashion.

UNISON national officer Mike Short also gave a comprehensive report on the current (difficult) national housing issues. But I enjoyed most his recounting of Tony Benn’s simply definition of socialism. “If we have unemployed building workers and homeless people why don’t we get the unemployed to build homes for the homeless”.

Clive Efford MP also addressed the meeting and had some interesting (and unrepeatable) comments about “Tories” and top hats.  While our branch regional organiser Colin Inniss also spoke and brought up a number of topical branch local issues. Afterwards we retired to nearby Whitehall licensed premises for some light refreshments and carry on the debate.

All in all it went really well. I think that I had the most positive feedback about any Labour Link meeting I have ever been involved in.