Archbishop of Canterbury's "Housing Crisis" Commission visits Newham

This afternoon I met members of the Archbishop of Canterbury Housing Commission at a building site in Newham where the Council is to build new high quality homes at truly affordable rents. Officers and contractors explained what we are doing with the site and answered questions from the Commissioners.

The Commission is investigating the UK housing crisis and how to contribute to the national debate on what should be done to resolve the crisis.

They were interested not only about building new homes, but housing policy regarding right to buy, private sector licensing, planning and community involvement.

Afterwards, Councillor Mohammed and myself went back for a presentation by our policy team and then we had an in depth Q&A with the Commission and Newham housing and planning managers.

I hope the Commissioners found their day in Newham helpful. We invited them back next year to check on what we have delivered.

Many thanks to Stephen Timms MP and his staff for helping to organise this event. 

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby speech to Congress 2018 #TUC150

I am not a member of the Church of England (nor any other religion) but the speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the TUC was a master class in humanity. This speech was so powerful since he also criticised past abuses of power by his Church and trade unions as well as tax evading thieves and abusive employers such as Amazon.