Operation Black Vote: CLG MP Shadowing Scheme

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

President Barack Hussein Obama

Our House?

The need to urgently address the systemic under-representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BME) communities in our local, regional and national democratic institutions is imperative. Of 646 MPs, only 15 are from BME communities. Of those, only 2 are women, and to date, there has not been an Asian woman MP. A closer reflection of society would be nearer 60 MPs of which over half would be women.

Operation Black Vote in partnership with the Communities and Local Government (CLG) are delighted to re-launch the dynamic MP Shadowing Scheme. The aim of the project is to address the deficit of BME individuals in all areas and at levels of political life for the benefit of all communities.

The Programme

The cross-party programme will enable 25 dynamic BME individuals aged 18 years upwards to shadow senior Members of Parliament from constituencies around Britain. Participants will gain an invaluable experience of parliamentary politics at Westminster and in the local constituency. The programme will comprise of approximately 10-12 non-consecutive days over a six-month period and individuals will participate in a mixture of shadowing days and training sessions.

What is the next step?

If you are interested in applying to the programme, act now.

Applications can be obtained via:

Web: www.obv.org.uk

E-mail: mpATobvDOTorgDOTuk

Tel: Francine Fernandes - 0208 983 5426

Application deadline: Monday 15th February 2010 at 12 noon".

(double click picture to bring up detail - hat-tip thingy SERTUC)

Housing matters 18 Jan 2010

Inside Housing is making the case for public housing in the forth coming General Election. They have launched the “HOUSEPROUD” campaign.  There is a on-line petition; you can suggest a housing pledge for the main political parties; you can help publicise the campaign housing statistics (see picture); you can ask prospective MP’s about housing and get them to sign the on-line petition and send Inside Housing photos, videos, blogs, statistics etc about the value of housing in your area.  I’ve signed petition and suggested that all parties should sign up to the UNISON “Million Voices for a Million Homes” campaign.

While Roof reports that the recent freezing weather has resulted in many people being unable to afford both food and fuel. Especially the elderly. Also Christmas was paid for this year by over 100,000 of the poorest families in our community who used loan sharks to lend £29 million who charge 825% interest rates and now owe some £82 million.

The LGA show that the recession has widened the gap in the UK between the rich and poor cities.

Public Finance appear to be saying that Council and Housing association rents will converge in 2012/13 not 2020 as previously thought. Which I am not sure is necessarily good news for tenants with either landlord? Somebody is going to be a loser.

This report is a little late but the CLG report Housing Minister John Healey’s announcement of the biggest Council House building programme in nearly two decades.

Finally, I was chatting to some housing solicitors recently about the problem of rogue private landlords who do not manage their properties (full stop) and who allow their tenants (only a very small minority) to cause a bloody awful nuisance to their neighbours and who blight the local community. They suggested that if the “use of the premises is associated with significant and persistent disorder or persistent serious nuisance to members of the public” then as a last resort a “premises closure order” could be sought. Which could close the house down for 3-6 months. Which would probably sort the problem out for that house and send a message to landlords in the locality to get their act together (court costs and no rent).

Housing Matters 10 January 2010

It’s been quite a little while since my last Housing matters post. Life flies by and all that. Anyway:-

Housing Minister John Healey has agreed to address a meeting of UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link members at the House of Commons next month. I’ll post details as soon as things are finalised.

Very worrying “Inside Housing” report here that nearly a quarter of supported housing providers are considering (or have decided) to pull out of existing contracts when they end. The reason given is the failure of Council’s to increase the price of contracts in line with costs. This could result in even further cost reductions and either the dropping of standards or a reduction in already poorly paid staff terms and conditions (or both!). Even more bad news for staff here, here and here

Roof reports on plan for a national register of social housing tower blocks. Which will include details of the fire risk assessment date of next assessment. Good news but what about the privately owned blocks?

24Dash reports that London tenants are the unhappiest in England and Wales! I blame of course Boris.

While CLG report here on the biggest Council house building programme in 20 years! (so there is a 4th option!)

The FED report that 10,000 affordable homes could be built if Churches sold land and buildings to Housing Associations! Apparently the Church of England owns on average 8 acres per village and every village place of worship could deliver on average one affordable dwelling.

No doubt Cromwell would approve!

UNISON national seminar on Representation and Governance in LGPS

I am still playing catch-up with posts. This is on the seminar I attended last month on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). UNISON is leading a campaign to improve the governance of the LGPS. This is important to our members since a badly run scheme would result in its demise while it is also important for the wider economy. It the biggest pension fund in the UK with asserts worth £125 billion (2008). These asserts need to be managed effectively and safely. We have all seen recently what happens when there is there is poor governance and regulation of capital.

I see that the former head of the CBI, Sir John Banham, has written a report (RSA – Tomorrow Investor) “called for pension funds to take greater responsibility for how and where their money is invested, with trustees acting as ‘owners of companies’ rather than as ‘speculators in shares’…investors must ‘bridge the ownership gap’ and insist that fund managers only invest in companies where they are fully satisfied about the long-term potential for business.

All other funded pension schemes in the UK have statutory obligations to have member nominated trustee representatives involved in the governance of their pensions. This was to stop Rogue Company bosses like Maxwell stealing from pension funds and because it as felt that the best people to scrutinise the running of a pension scheme would be the representatives of the savers. This view was endorsed in a number of government reviews (Myners Report for one).

The LGPS has no such statutory obligation. While there is a Government “best practice” guide, which encourages member representation. There are no real sanctions against employers who wish to continue to run their schemes in secret and without being held to account what they do with other people’s money.

It was a well attended event with existing “member nominated representatives” (MNRs) and people interested in becoming MNRs from all over the UK. Keith Sonnet, the UNISON Deputy General Secretary was the keynote speaker. National Officer, Colin Meech gave an update on negotiations with the CLG. The CLG have now conceded that they need to change the scheme to comply with EU and British law. There was a legal briefing by Ivan Walker from Thompson’s solicitors followed by two different workshops in the afternoon. Finally, UNSION Pensions officer Glyn Jenkins gave an update on the negotiations with the CLG over LGPS benefits (as opposed to governance). The campaign continues.

(I will add photos of event another time)

“The Battle for the LGPS Governance”

Today I went to the first UNISON national seminar on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) -“Representation and Governance” in central London.

While I appreciate that for some strange reason, many folk do not appear to value the governance arrangements of the LGPS. I and about 75 others from across the land disagreed and had made our way to the NUT headquarters in Kings Cross to take part in this event.

The seminar was chaired by UNISON NEC member Jane Carolan and the opening speaker was UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis. Dave pointed out that the LGPS had an estimated 3.6 million members and the total value of all investments in the scheme was around £125 billion. How well this scheme is run is actually of importance not only to scheme members, but also to some extent, the wider British economy.

There was a number of speakers including the “enemy” (joke of course) CLG civil servants Bob Holloway and Terry Crossley. By co-incidence, both the CLG and UNISON speakers, used the same photo of the first major pension thief, Capt Bob Maxwell, in their presentations. He of course, stole hundreds of millions of pounds, from the “Mirror” pension scheme.

The presentation on the LGPS and EU Directive 41 “Institutions for Occupational Retirement” (aka “IORP”) was, believe it or not, absolutely fascinating.

In the past there has been a dispute between senior civil servants and union negotiators whether the LGPS was a “Bath” or a “Sausage machine”. Today, we also learnt that there was a discussion on whether or not it was a “duck” as well? The plot thickens.

It’s getting a bit late and there was too much to post tonight. So I will post various stuff I found interesting later on in the week.

Update: I forgot to mention the Maxwell connection and the LGPS. In order to stop pensions theft and other bad practices the Government commissioned the Goode Report. One of the recommendations of this report was that the LGPS should have staffside representation with statutory rights (short of voting rights). However, due to "opposition" from employers this was never implemented. Why?

Local Government Pension Scheme: is it a Bath or a Sausage Machine?

It is strange the things you come across at seminars. Like most of the 3.5 million members of the £100 Billion plus Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), I thought it was just a means to save for my retirement. Not according to very senior civil servants at the CLG who apparently think it’s a “bath” while the top UNISON governance expert thinks it’s a sausage making machine.

The civil servants have used this term in negotiations with the unions. Apparently they think it’s a bath since there is suppose to be a tank of “money” with two taps pouring money as needed into it (one tap filled by the employer and one by the employees). When the bath reaches the level of the overflow then money flows down the pipe to pensioners. A warm "goldilocks" bath – not too warm, not too cold is of course the civil service “idyll”.

Hmmmm.... I suppose I could point out that actually this bath need 3 taps since 40% of income for the LGPS actually comes from investments. As a estate officer I should point out that the overflow pipe should only be used in an emergency!

The contrary view is that the scheme should really be viewed as a “sausage making machine” and instead of concentrating on the sausages, we should spend more time on the machine itself. Employer and employee’s contributions as well as investment income is poured into the machine, the machine mixes them all up and hopefully the end result is pensions (also known as sausages/benefits).

Instead of spending too much time worrying about the end result (the sausages/pensions/benefits!), you should instead concentrate more on the ingredients and processes. Because if you get them right the sausages (also known as pensions/benefits) will always be ok?

I think all of the delegates at today’s GMB/Unite pension seminar in Eastbourne still think that the LGPS is a saving scheme for their retirement however; the sausage machine argument did make more sense.

One of the major reasons for recent problems in the scheme is that it simply has not been governed properly. For example a few rotten apples have used the scheme as a “cash cow” to keep council tax artificially low and win elections (and worse).

The unions have all traditionally been concerned about benefits to members. However, if we concentrate too much just on the benefits and not the source of these benefits (the scheme itself) then we are just storing up trouble for ourselves since we will always have to be reactive to events instead of being able to have a constructive input into the scheme - before it goes bent.