London Labour Housing Group Policy Conference April 2013

Last Saturday (April 13) I went to the London Labour Housing Group policy conference in Paddington. This event was sponsored by UNISON.

I was a little late since I had my Council surgery in Newham first. By coincidence I had 3 people come to me with separate housing related issues and was presented with a petition!

So I missed the key note speaker Jack Dromey MP and arrived during the first workshop.  I did manage to have a very quick word with him about the possibility of Council Pension funds investing in Social Housing. 

The workshop was on "London’s changing tenures: what are the implications for policy?" The report backs from the workshops on policy implications included the need for a mansion tax; a London "not for profit" letting agency; we need new build since 93% of money spent on housing is spent on housing benefit and not on new housing investment; need to build communities; leaseback of right to buy properties if owners unable to maintain; build more homes is the solution to bedroom tax.

Newham Council was praised for its Local Space Housing company which has bought private homes for temporary lets and for its Borough wide Private Sector licensing project.There was also mention of the need of a concordat with local authorities and the more democrat and responsible housing associations. After lunch there was the 2nd workshop on "Housing policies: what should Labour’s key promises be in 2014?"

Key promises from the report backs included the regulation of landlords across London and a "Fair Deal" for the private sector; stop fraud and tax evasion by landlords; no eviction for non payment of bedroom tax (but you cannot write off the debt); pledge to build more homes at affordable rents; CPO abandoned properties and bring back into use; increase Council tax on empty properties; green our existing stock; look at balance sheets of Housing associations that are not building; support TRA and instead of "right to buy" what about a "right to build" for homeless or overcrowded residents in every borough?

Finally (see picture) there was a plenary and panel discussion, Chaired by Karen Buck MP on "Campaigning on housing in 2014".  On the panel was Sir Steve Bullock, Jacky Peacock OBE, Councillor James Murray and myself (in my UNISON capacity).

Karen in her introduction praised Tory Secretary of State for Communities, Eric Pickles, as being "brilliant" for the way he tries to justify his despicable policies by antidote e.g. inferring that if only Councils did not pay their CEO's so much then no cuts would be necessary. She pointed out that Government by antidote is a disaster but perhaps we should learn from the Tories how to campaign with antidotes.

Steve gave a measured but powerful speech about how our policy and values towards housing defines us as a London Labour Party.  In Q&A Jacky reminded us all of the vital campaigning role that tenant and residents groups had played in the past and how they must be part of any housing solutions future.

James stressed how we must be pragmatic in our campaigning. When Labour took control of Islington Council in 2010, they announced that they will build new homes on spaces in Council estates but were taken back at the hostility to this idea by existing residents. The solution was to promise that any new tenancies would firstly be offered to any residents in need on the existing estates that they were planning to build upon.

I pointed out that we must have a living wage plus in London Housing. Not only a living wage but to defeat poverty, a living pension and sickness benefits for all workers - whether directly employed or sub-contractors.  Also we need to change the debate about taxes in this country. We will not be able to do what we want to do with regard to the provision of housing unless we spend more money. The rich must play their fair share but all of us will also have to pay more in taxes to get decent housing for all.

LLHG secretary (and Red Brick blogger) Steve Hilditch closed the conference and then Karen thanked him and all members of the Executive for their hard work in organising such a successful event.

Some of us then retired to the nearest pub to continue putting our London housing world to rights.

(picture Cllr Ross Houston)

Labour London Housing Group Policy Conference: 13 April 2013

Jack Dromey MP is the Keynote speaker with Karen Buck MP, Sir Steve Bullock, Cllr James Murray and Jacky Peacock. (Double click to bring up details). I will be taking part in a panel session.

Labour Conference 2010: Labour Housing Group Fringe

On the Sunday evening there was a packed fringe meeting of the Labour Housing Group (LHG).  Which is a national organisation directly affiliated to the Labour Party.  It is "dedicated to developing and promoting effective housing policy". The meeting was chaired by Marianne Hood OBE.

First speaker was Unite National Housing officer, Rachel Maskell.  "We have a massive housing crisis.  4.5 million people on the rehousing waiting list, 1.8 million families. She praised the last Labour Government for doing good stuff on Education and health but the next Labour government must prioritise "Housing and jobs".  There needs to be a change in political will.  A 100,000 new homes would cost £6 billion but would result in 750,000 jobs construction jobs.  Labour knows that homes are not just about "brick and mortar" its about people.  Most jobs in housing especially in social care are carried out by low paid women. Cuts in the housing sector are an attack on women.  Cuts in the legal aid budget not only means cuts in benefits for the already poor but cuts in the ability to challenge unfairness and wrong decisions.  Labour believes in campaigning for work and homes for all people.  The Tories version of this is the Work House".

Next was new (small caps) Labour MP and former Unite Assistant GS Jack Dromey.  "Labour has a proud record of achievement in housing but there is still a £19 billion backlog in decent homes.  Labour  took decisive action to stop reprocessions.  There is much to be proud of the Labour record and we must never allow the Tories to rubbish our record.  But we must return to a time such when even Tory PM Harold Macmillan use to boast that the Tories would build 200,000 new homes per year.  We need to build 300,000 new homes per year. The cuts in housing benefit will result in the cleansing of the poor and vulnerable.   There are still 400,000 homes that are needed to be brought up to decent homes standard.  If this was done did would create 54,000 jobs in construction.  We need to create a great national movement to make housing a key political issue.

Vice Chair of the LHG Jacky Peacock OBE spoke next about her work as a Housing advice worker and how she often has to warn private tenants that they are perfectly entitled to report their landlord for not  repairing serious health and safety hazards.  However if they do - they run the risk that they will be evicted since if Landlords follow the legal rules there is nothing that can be done to stop them. There is no defence.  She believes that this government now wants to strip public sector tenants of their rights as well. Thatcher in her wildest dreams never thought she could get away with this.  She predicted that the reductions in housing benefit will result in the abolition of the statutory right to rehousing by the vulnerable homeless since Council's will simply not be able to cope with the numbers.  The wheel is being reinvented and she remembers how shocked she was to see people sleeping on the streets 30 odd years ago when "Boarding House" allowances were abolished. 

Former Housing minister Nick Raynsford spoke how the previous Labour government had been able to avoid the consequences of the worse recession since the war by fast and brave actions.  This recovery has now been stopped.  Tory Ministers, Pickles and Sharp, compete on who can be the most horrible to housing.  Remember the Tory lies before the election when they accused Labour of scare mongering about threats to tenants rights.  Some £60 billion had been invested by RSL's in housing during the last 25 years. This housing "bonus" is under threat by cuts. 

London GLA member Nicky Gavlon Nicky spoke about how the Tories and their Lib Dems allies have only 2 housing policies - a obsession with cutting and hostility to public sector organisations and the public service ethos.  She did bring up the idea of a London branch of the LHG which I fully endorsed in the Q&A as a means to counter the right placing their tanks on our lawn and winning the battle of ideas.  Nicki mentioned that we hope to be able to launch this in London at the Labour Regional biannual meeting in November.  Watch this space. 

I had to miss the end of the meeting to rush off to the Mary Honeyball MEP meeting - which was a shame but this is conference.