Why Housing Matters: Labour Housing Group Newsletter - August 2023

Check out the latest newsletter by the Labour Housing Group. Which I have been a member for may years and as the name suggests, is affiliated to the Labour Party and works to promote workable socialist policies on housing. 

I am looking forward to attending their future events including their housing fringes during this years Labour Party conference. 

I am planning to bring up UNISON Housing related issues at conference and attend as many social housing (and pension) fringes as possible. 

Join the LHG here (Labour Party supporters only)

London Labour Housing Group - Housing First: Campaigning to win in London

Last weekend I went to this conference run by London branch of the Labour Housing Group (LHG) in St Margarets House, Bethnal Green.

The LHG is the socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party which specialises in housing issues.

Chair was Roz Spencer who spoke about housing now being a distinctive policy for Labour. Roz introduced the first speaker, Karen Buck MP (PPS to Ed Miliband).

Karen pointed out that 26% of London depended upon housing benefit to help with their rent while "Generation rent" cannot go into home ownership. We need to turn benefits into bricks! Even the affluent worry about their children and what is happening to London. Neighbourhoods are changing. 60% of new properties are bought by global investors. 

There is a serious market failure. We need to not only use figures when campaigning but paint pictures.

Morgan McSweeney, Head of GLA Labour Office spoke on "Housing on the doorstep: the grass roots campaign". He also believes that now is housing's time. If the Labour message is that this will be the "Cost of Living" election then housing will play a key role. 

Make sure your message connects on an emotional level. Test first with your friends and family. Then repeat, repeat and repeat. Define your opponents. Have message discipline but check that local leadership and candidates are saying the same. If not change to what the candidates are saying.

Segmenting people by their values. They are either "Settlers, Prospector's or Pioneers". Use different communication tools. Petitions are wonderful but so is word of mouth. Target taxi drivers and hairdressers. Don't make the mistake that many make in by-elections, when campaigners go to the pub afterwards and exchange stories on who is the most stupid person they have met that day in front of bar staff.

Cllr James Murray, Cabinet member for Housing in Islington on "Labour in Control: winning support for new build". When Labour won control they committed to building 2,000 new homes. Yet there was no infrastructure on new build left in the Council. They set up a "new homes board" which met regularly to "knock heads together" and clear blockages.

At first they were surprised that many local residents were opposed to new build on their estates. Residents were worried about loss of parking and green spaces. To overcome this it was critical to make a "local letting guarantee". Those who lived on the estate in housing need would be considered first for the new lettings. Next, all other local residents would be able to transfer on a "like for like" basis. You need to argue that this is a package which will not only bring new homes but refurbish and improve the estate.

Jamie Carswell chaired the session after coffee.

Ben Soffa, Director of Organic Campaigns, on "Using social media: new campaigning across every tenure".  Social Media is not a replacement - it is a supplement. Data and contact details key. Do you want to speak to 150 people during a campaign weekend or is it better to speak to only 75 and get emails for 40?  Push the email choice. Write for an audience and use to spread the message. Like targeting taxi drivers - end each email by asking people to forward it to 5 friends. 

Use images tell a story. Twitter is the easiest way, FaceBook tends to be too personal to you. Use an image and maximum 8 words of text and ask people what they think. Don't use a direct action petition quoting the local leader but rather have a quote from a mum living in a overcrowded home who wants help to move.

Final speaker was Tom Copley AM GLA Housing spokesperson. "The London wide campaign: reinforcing messages for Labour". Tom introduced a provisional London Labour housing pledge card
with 5 key messages :-    Build new generation of council houses: Regulate private landlords and agents (and clamp down on rogues); Focus on help for young first time buyers;  Fair Housing Benefit policies (and repeal the bedroom tax) and lastly require all housing contractors to offer apprenticeships & pay a living wage.

There was then a Q&A on "What can London LHG do for you?" which being an event for Labour Party activists meant everyone (including myself) wanted to have their say and offer their views and experiences. Sometimes at length and in great detail.  Jamie managed to chair the closing session with humour and authority which meant nearly everyone was able to have their full say and the meeting overran only a little.

I had a very useful conversation afterwards about ways to tackle poverty wages and insecure employment in social care and the role of housing organisations. 

"Isle of shattered dreams" ("One" Housing Group)

Check out this post by Cllr Marc Francis Tower Hamlets Labour Party on Housing Group blog "Red Brick". One Housing Group is trying to get out of an undertaking it made to residents and the last government to have resident led "governance" on the management Board of its subsidy "Island Homes" in the Isle of Dogs, East London.

This attempt to back track on promises is the sort of thing that gives the whole housing association movement a bad name amongst ordinary residents and politicians from all political parties. Good governance in many parts of the whole so called "not for profit" sector is frankly non-existent. Residents, clients and individual staff have little or no power and many very large organisations are run by self perpetuating oligarchies with no effective accountability or oversight.

While there is still many cases of good practise there is a huge difference between being "consulted" (but - we are going to do it anyway) to being part of the actual management process. You need people on Boards who have a real long term interest in the organisation since they live its homes, work for it, receive its services or are local elected Councillors. They are the ones who can challenge and ask the difficult questions that are needed to be said.

Huge amounts of public money has been spent on investment in these bodies and despite the cuts will continue to be spent on benefits and social care.  Who is making sure that this money is being well spent and that Housing Associations are being properly run? The Housing Regulator is now pretty toothless and will only step in when organisations have already failed and are going to the wall.

Unless Housing Associations get their act together and reform their governance practises and become more democratic and accountable to their stakeholders then they have in my view no long term future. While the Tories will try and turn them into quoted companies (even more of a disaster) I am sure a Labour government will one day have no choice but to get rid of them.

London Labour Housing Group AGM

On Monday evening after TUC I went to the first annual general meeting of the London branch of the Labour Housing Group (LHG). The LHG is a Socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party concerned with Housing. The meeting took place in the House of Commons and was chaired by Steve Hilditch. The room was full.

Steve welcomed everyone. He reminded us that 300 people turned up to first open meeting of the London branch which shows how important housing is in the capital.

London Assembly member for Housing, Nicky Gavron introduced the LLHG report “Housing Policies for London”. Nicky spoke about the need to defeat the Tories and elect Ken. Boris is working hand in glove with the government and has given the green light to his Tory friends to get rid of social housing in London.

The guest speaker was John Cruddas MP. Jon was open about the failing of the Labour government over housing. It did a lot of good things but while he understood Labour policy over health and education he never did on housing. It is strange that housing is so important in MP surgeries but not a tension in Westminster itself. Housing did not even feature in Tony Blair’s first cabinet. There is some evidence that housing is moving up the agenda. He made an interesting point linking housing to the financial crisis due to the need to produce complicated financial products that resulted in sub-prime investments. He is thinking about affordable rent models that will also house families who would not be entitled to Council or housing association homes - with different levels of rent. The housing crisis does give opportunities to try new things.

Next was an opportunity for those present to make their contributions and share their experiences on Housing policy. Clive Efford MP turned up to listen as well. There was the usual grass roots Labour Party robust exchange of views. Many had passionate and very personal views on housing in London. My contribution was that we must firstly all work together to get rid of the Tories starting with Boris  before we can get anything done.

The meeting was I thought another successful milestone for the new branch. We now have a committee made up of tenants and leaseholders, Councillors, housing workers, academics and many other ordinary members of the Party who want to do something about housing. Putting the housing world to rights continued afterwards in the St Stephens Tavern.

London Labour Housing Group First AGM

"London Labour Housing Group First AGM - 7pm, Monday 12 September, House of Commons
Guest Speaker, Jon Cruddas MP

After an excellent launch and a really successful Policy Day, London LHG is firmly on the map and working closely with Ken Livingstone as Labour candidate for mayor. There is a lot to do to make sure that housing is an issue in the mayoral election, to remind people of Ken’s housing legacy and Johnson’s failures. We think that housing issues can have an impact in the election. As well as trying to make sure that Labour has strong housing policies for the election, we also want to encourage as much campaigning as possible in the boroughs around housing issues. 

We have had a great core group of people working on this so far, but we now want to put London LHG on to a more formal footing. We will therefore be holding the London Labour Housing Group’s first Annual General Meeting at the House of Commons, Committee Room 11, at 7pm on Monday 12 September. Our guest speaker will be Jon Cruddas MP, Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham. 

LLHG Executive
The agenda also includes the election of a London Labour Housing Group executive committee. We have agreed that there will be an EC of 15, to be as inclusive as possible. Who can attend?

To attend the meeting, stand for election and to vote you must be a member of LHG. To join LHG you must be a Labour Party member.  To be as open and flexible as possible, you can join LHG at any time – see http://www.labourhousing.co.uk/join-lhg - and membership forms will be available on the door on the night so you can join and take part immediately. You must RSVP

If you wish to attend you must RSVP to Steve Hilditch at steve@hilditchonline.com to register your attendance. If you plan to come to the meeting, please allow 15 minutes to get through security.  Please note we are unable to offer refreshments at this meeting.  We do hope you can join us.
Steve Hilditch, Acting Secretary : Nicky Gavron AM, Acting Chair"

Follow Labour Housing Group Website http://www.labourhousing.co.uk; Red Brick blog http://redbrickblog.wordpress.com/ Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Labour-Housing-Group/247469867388 Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/LabourHousing

London Labour Housing Group Launch

Last night’s launch of the London Labour Housing Group went really well. The Grand Committee room was overflowing with people. Standing room only.

Great speeches and a great debate about housing issues (both in the committee room and the pub afterwards).

Including new Shadow Housing minister, Alison Seabeck MP who addressed the meeting.

I’ll post properly on the event over the weekend.

Save London's Housing!

Nationally, we are facing an unprecedented housing disaster thanks to this Government.  Ordinary Londoner's will suffer the most.

The Labour Housing Group is a national affiliated organisation within the Labour Party "dedicated to developing and promoting effective housing policy".

In London and elsewhere we need to campaign against Boris and his ConDems unnecessary, nasty and sheer vindictive policies designed to cleanse middle class Britain of anyone who is on a low income, unemployed or otherwise vulnerable.

Tomorrow is the Biannual London Labour Party Conference and we will be handing out this leaflet (double click to bring up details) about forming a London Branch of the Labour Housing Group.

LHG members Karen Buck MP and Nicky Gavron AM are driving this initiative with the support of the LHG Executive (see the AGM).  We hope to launch the branch at the House of Commons in January.  There will be a planning meeting beforehand.

If you are interested in taking part in a fightback against the Comdems flagship policies and winning the battle of housing ideas please email Nicky to join our mailing.

You can download a membership form for the LHG and find out more details here