Labour Housing Group Policy Day - "Fighting for the Housing Standards we Need & Deserve"

Today I travelled to Birmingham to attend a policy day organised by the Labour Housing Group. There was a number of excellent speakers including Shadow Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy MP. She pledged that a future Labour Government will introduce a Private Renters Charter & decent homes standards in it’s first 100 days. It will also abolish S21 evictions & the feudal leasehold tenure. 

Sharon Thompson, Birmingham’s Cabinet Member for Housing & Homelessness spoke on how the city is tacking standards in the private rented sector & extending licensing. Dr Jill Stewart, Senior Lecturer in Housing & Environmental Health, Middlesex University described the dreadful stats and limited law regarding housing standards.

Salma Hamid from the Birmingham Fair Housing Campaign gave a passionate speech on their campaigning & research on really poor standards in the private & public housing sectors for decent standards & their fight on behalf of tenants for decent rights.

Before lunch there was workshops on housing standards in Social Housing, PRS (Private rental sector) and Owner occupation. I moderated the workshop on Social Housing.

After lunch there was a talk by Cllr Kerrie Carmichael Leader Sandwell Council & Housing lead Cllr Charn Singh Padda on the difference a Labour council is making on housing standards, tackling homelessness, new homes & retrofitting despite challenges on funding.

Next was Martin Wicks, from Labour Campaign for Council Housing. Who made it clear what Council tenants such as himself expect Labour Councils and future Labour Governments to deliver upon housing standards. He is still waiting for a modern bathroom after many decades.

There was then a brief summary from the moderators of the workshops. I gave a summary of the lively and thoughtful one on Social Housing.

Final item was the launch of the West Midlands branch of the Labour Housing Group whose inaugural meeting takes place next month.

This was an excellent day. Many thanks to our speakers but also to our LHG Chair, Cllr John Cotton, and all the executive members of the LHG who have spend so much time and energy organising such events.

(Hat tip to Ross Houston for stealing some of his photos and comments from the @labourhousing twitter account)

My Labour Leadership & NEC by election choices

I have just voted on line:-

Leader

Keir Starmer 1

Lisa Nandy    2

Deputy Leader

Angela Rayner       1

Dawn Butler           2

Rosena Allin-Khan 3

NEC By Elections

Johanna Baxter           X

Gurinder Singh Josan X

For BAME seat consider

Carol Sewell                X

Who will be Labour's next leader?

A good summary of declared and likely candidates for Labour Leadership on BBC here. There is still time for others to put their hat into the ring. I have not decided who to support but to be clear we have hundreds of thousands of families and children who are homeless, destitute and poverty stricken. We desperately need a Labour Government in power. It needs a leader who can unite the Party, hold Johnson to account until the next General Election and then win it. Nothing else really matters.

"Lisa Nandy
The 40-year-old MP for Wigan became the fourth Labour figure to declare she is standing for the leadership, in a letter to the Wigan Post. One of a clutch of shadow ministers who resigned from Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench after the Brexit referendum, she has been urging her party to concentrate on winning support in smaller towns.

Sir Keir Starmer
The 57-year old shadow Brexit secretary has said he is "seriously considering" running. He is likely to be seen as the centrist candidate in the race. A passionate Remainer, he was director of public prosecutions before entering Parliament.

Rebecca Long-Bailey
The 40-year old shadow business secretary is another MP to announce she is considering going for the top job. One of a new generation of MPs on the left of the party who is close to Mr Corbyn's inner circle, she represented Labour in a TV debate during the election.

Jess Philips
The 38-year-old Birmingham Yardley MP became the third Labour figure to declare she is standing for the leadership. She has been one of the most outspoken critics of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and the party's record on tackling anti-Semitism, bullying and harassment.

Emily Thornberry
The 59-year old shadow foreign secretary was the first to declare she is running to succeed Mr Corbyn. She deputised for him at Prime Minister's Questions, but was replaced after publicly calling for Labour to back another EU referendum.

Yvette Cooper
The 50-year old, a former cabinet minister under Gordon Brown's premiership, said last month that she would "decide over Christmas" whether to stand, and has made no statement since then. She was an unsuccessful challenger to Jeremy Corbyn during the 2015 leadership contest.

Clive Lewis
The 48-year-old shadow Treasury minister resigned from the party's frontbench last year in order to oppose the bill triggering the Brexit process. An early supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, he rejoined in January last year".

"Labour MPs backing UNISON members taking strike action for fair pay. Solidarity with the Addaction strikers"

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, tweets his support & thanks Labour MPs Jo Platt, Yvonne Fovargue and Lisa Nandy for being on the picket line

Background to strike on UNISON NW Regional website

Drug and alcohol support workers employed by London-based charity Addaction in Wigan and Leigh have intensified their strike action in a dispute over pay.

Thirty staff are beginning three days of strike action today (Wednesday) in their third round of industrial action within the last six weeks over what they say are Addaction’s broken pay promises.

The striking workers will hold a public rally at 12noon on Friday 11 October at Market Place, Wigan, WN1 1QS.

The staff were previously employed by the NHS but the service, commissioned by Wigan Council, was transferred to the national charity, which has come under fire for its handling of the dispute.

Workers continued to receive pay rises in line with those of NHS employees and were given assurances by the organisation’s managers this would continue into the future.

But when the 1% pay cap in the NHS was removed from April 2018, Addaction refused to implement the promised wage rise. The decision, which will cost each support worker around £1,000 per year, was taken without any consultation or discussion with staff.

After exhausting the internal grievance process, staff were balloted by their trade union UNISON and there was a 100% vote in favour of strike action.

To date, three rounds of Acas talks have yielded no resolution to the dispute- which has rumbled on since August. Drug and alcohol support workers claim that Addaction bosses have failed to engage meaningfully with the negotiation progress, refusing to share or discuss information about the cost of resolving the dispute.

UNISON North West regional organiser Paddy Cleary said:

“Addaction have let down their hard-working staff and are now withholding a long-overdue pay rise from support workers who deliver vital services to the community in Wigan and Leigh.

“What’s more, Addaction bosses have attended three rounds of talks with no intention of resolving the dispute, and in fact have done all they can to delay, divert and distract from the issue at hand.

“The employer’s defence seems to be that the promised pay rise would be ‘unfair’ on the group of staff it pays even less than those who used to be employed by the NHS. There is a simple solution to that problem, which is to pay all Addaction staff the full NHS rate for the job.

“Public service workers who have been outsourced should not be out-of-pocket. The people of Wigan and Leigh will not accept a London-based organisation driving down pay and working conditions in their local area. If that is Addaction’s intention then they should hand the contract back to the Council.”

Addaction support worker and UNSON rep Kathryn Herbert said:

“We have been overwhelmed by the support we have received from the local community in Wigan and Leigh including from local people who use Addaction’s services.

“We did not plan to go on strike and we did not envisage taking six days of action, but we voted unanimously in favour of striking because we know that we have been treated unfairly. The support we have received from communities across the North West has only served to further strengthen our resolve.”

Local MPs are in support of the workers. Leigh MP Jo Platt said: “Drug and alcohol support is an essential service across the borough.

"It not only supports people to come off drugs and alcohol, but it treats the underlying causes, assisting them with mental health concerns and helping them get into employment and turn their lives around. Their services are needed now more than ever.

"After the public service squeeze of the last nine years we shamefully see 22 per cent of the country living in poverty today, with 1.6 million people living in poverty in the North West alone.

"You only have to walk through our towns to see the effect that this has. Austerity, poverty and addiction go hand in hand. It ruins lives, it fuels crime and affects communities.

"Addaction should know better than to risk their crucial service. The way the staff have been treated is appalling. For a promised pay rise to be reneged on is totally unacceptable. If Addaction cannot afford the staffing costs, they should never have bid for the contract in the first place.

“I will be working with colleagues from across the borough as well as trade unions and staff affected to rectify the situation and honour the promises made to the incredible workers who are losing out through no fault of their own.”

UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link AGM with Emma Reynolds MP

Last Tuesday evening we had our Annual General Meeting of Greater London UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link at the House of Commons. UNISON Labour Link members (also known as APF) choose to support and affiliate to the Labour Party

Our keynote speaker was Labour Shadow Housing Minister, Emma Reynolds MP. Shadow Minister for Civic Society, Lisa Nandy MP, had to drop out as a speaker at the last minute.

Emma was supposed to only be there for 20 minutes but stayed for about 45 minutes, giving first a speech and then she engaged with us in a prolonged Q&A.

We had UNISON members from all over London and as far away as Norfolk, Kent and Surrey. Housing management workers and those working in care and support. There was a really positive and far reaching debate with Emma about the housing policy of a future Labour government. Including difficult questions on the future of right to buy, social rents and rent controls for the private sector.

After Emma our UNISON regional officer Colin Inniss gave a rousing speech on how important the General Election will be to our members. We also had a planning discussion on how to mobilise telephone, leafleting and door knocking teams in marginal seats.

After the close of the meeting we went off to our social at the Weatherspoon near Trafalgar Square and were able to continue the debate on housing in between helping to also celebrate St Patrick's Day. 

Emma Reynolds MP at UNISON Housing Associations Labour Link AGM

Shadow Housing Minister Emma Reynolds MP has agreed to be our key note speaker at our Branch Labour Link (APF) AGM on Tuesday 17 March 2015 at House of Commons.  All Housing Association Branch Labour Link members welcome.We are also planning to share the event with London UNISON voluntary organisations branch Labour Link,

Update: Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Labour Minister for Civil Society has also agreed to speak to the meeting. 

Trade unions together fringe "A bit of common sense: Winning for ordinary people" #Lab14

This was my first fringe of Conference which took place on the Sunday lunchtime. The speakers were Paul Kenny, General Secretary of the  GMB, Louise Haigh PPC, Chair Byron Taylor TULO, Lisa Nandy MP Shadow Minister for Cabinet Office and Joanne Hepworth, Npower workplace rep.

This was a packed out fringe with standing room only at the back of the room. Paul spoke first and pointed out that the Scotland referendum shows people are interested in politics. What he wants is Labour Leader, Ed Miliband, to not be radical but normal. Normal people go to work and should not be in fear. It is not normal for rich bosses to be earning a fortune, while the state subsidises their low paid workers and then they go off to fiddle their taxes!

Louise talked about the economy and the need to question what type of economy we want? There was not a global crisis because we paid teachers too much. We need to drive down tax avoidance and drive up wages. The lowest paid spend more of their income which drives growth. She used to work in the City. We need to change the financial system.  We need to dismantle banks and restructure them. Tax high frequency trading. Get worker representative's on company boards.

Joanne believed that we need to get young workers involved in the union movement by listening. She first needed a union after being issued with first written warning for being sick following a serious car accident. She was suspended in the Npower call centre for putting the phone down on an abusive customer. Luckily she knew she had rights and fought the decision with her union and won.

Last speaker was the always very good, Lisa Nandy MP, who wanted to restore common sense in Westminster. To do that we need more women.  Not only Parliament since she recently shared a question panel with 3 men who were all called Simon.

She spends too much time in Parliament and should instead spend more time in her Consistency in Wigan. How can we have diversity in politics since there are currently 18 millionaires in the Cabinet? We need people in Parliament who actually "get it". Trade unions use to be this route and it is good they are doing this again.

The media is controlled by small handful of wealthy men so no wonder the issues of low paid women are never there. She was born and loves being in Manchester but half of its children live in poverty. The Conference is taking place at the site of the Peterloo Massacre. Politics is not just about a seat on the table but about changing society.

I asked the panel a question that I remember hearing on the radio, when a German historian said "Why is it that in Germany the trade unions are seen as partners you can do business with but in the UK they are seen as the enemy? How do we change this?

Paul responded by saying he was not a great fan of the German model. A Partnership needs to be equal. Otherwise there is no respect for labour. Germany has its own problems and its traditional model is falling to pieces and they actually want to be a bit more like us.

Lisa said she was born in 1979. She didn't know what had happened before but in every job she ever had the solution to problems at work is trade unions.

Louise said she doesn't believe in importing other models to the UK and that in Germany there was less union membership. She also said that Labour must change the way it selects candidates. She had to spend 2 months of her life working 16 hour days to be selected as a PPC. Only "professional" candidates can afford to do this.

Paul made a great typical "telling it as it is" last comment by saying the union movement must take its share of the blame for the lack of working class trade unionists selected as prospective Labour MPs in recent years.  Things are much better now but our fault is that for a long time we just said what "great organisers we were" when actually we were being out organised left, right and centre by Progress and others.

Newham Compass: "How could the House of Commons work better?"

(Guest post by Sue Masters on last weeks debate) "If the House Of Commons is a megaphone to broadcast the opinions of those who don’t have a voice – one brilliant metaphor to spring out of our night’s debate – it’s an instrument whose booming tones too often can falter – drowned out by the herd, detuned by the strains of adversarial politics and muffled by party whips.

These were just a number of the problems expounded on by tonight’s speakers at Newham Compass’ debate.

Chaired by South East MEP candidate and local councillor, Farah Nazeer, The night’s conversation ranged widely and soon revealed there was no shortage of areas ripe for improvement.

The Electoral Society’s CEO, Katie Ghose kicked off proceedings with the radical notion that to truly alter perceptions of the House Of Commons you’d need to tear it down and rebuild from scratch, as the institution’s problems are embedded in its very architecture.

She also talked about the need to reconnect politics with the people, reform the Lords and truly think about what it is we want from our MPS – whether they’re there to represent us, scrutinise the executive, develop legislation or handle local casework. For her, though, there were glimmers of hope in terms of the increased impact of select committees, improvement in terms of their selection and emergency questions as a means to bring a wider array of voices to bear on proceedings.

If Katie took the strategic approach to the night’s question, it was left to Lisa Nandy (as MP for Wigan, a resident of the house in question) to give us the bird’s eye view of the day-to-day challenges facing her in the Commons – issues that were seldom black and white.

If she agreed with the needs for Lords reform she equally conceded the high quality of debate provided by that institution and felt the frustratingly adversarial nature of sessions such as Prime Minister’s questions, were counterbalanced by opportunities to work together, cross-bench, on legislation to ensure all angles and opinions were considered.

We heard about the limitations of MPs’ resources when squaring up to private sector lobbyists and when juggling many different areas of legislation across their working days. And then there was the strain push-button protest platforms such as Avaaz and 38 degrees have put on a member’s working day. While we’d all agree the preservation of our forests is a worthy (and seemingly uncontentious issue) how quickly would we hit that “send” button to register our support if we knew a vote, taking less than a minutes on our part could force an MP to spend hours dealing with correspondence, leading them away from assisting elderly constituents unable to afford heating bills?

If the issues raised by our two brilliant speakers covered a wide range of areas, this was more than matched by the ensuing Q&A, in which an audience of local councillors, candidates and residents raised their own concerns.

Perhaps the real issue of the night, however, was how such questions would ever receive proper airtime in the very house under consideration - though it was felt that questions about self-governance raised by the Scottish question and the prospect of a new government in 2015 offered a few rays of hope".

Reminder: How could the House of Commons work better? Lisa Nandy MP & Katie Ghose Electoral Reform Society

Reminder about tomorrows debate on "How can the House of Commons work better" organised by Newham Compass and Fabians on Tuesday 10 December 2013 at 8pm in West Ham Supporter's Club, Castle St, London E6 1PP.

I have to go out of London tomorrow and may not be back in time. So can some kind soul take pictures and make notes for a guest blog? 

How could the House of Commons work better? Lisa Nandy MP & Katie Ghose Electoral Reform Society

This should be yet another interesting debate organised by Newham Compass and Fabians on Tuesday 10 December 2013 at 8pm in West Ham Supporter's Club, Castle St, London E6 1PP.

Lisa Nandy MP and John Cryer MP Fund Raiser

Picture from last week's Labour Party fund raising meal in Southwark for Lisa Nandy MP and John Cryer MP. 

It was a rare combination of an excellent meal, lots of table political debate (and the odd bit of juicy gossip) as well as some great speeches. 

Guest speakers were John Healey MP and Dennis Skinner MP with the traditional Labour Party auction led by the Daily Mirror's finest, Kevin McGuire.   The supporters were local Party members, affiliated unions, friends and family.

Dennis gave a typical barn storming speech.  He pointed out that in 1997 £33 Billion was spent on the NHS while in 2010 Labour spent £113 billion.  He is a survivor of Cancer and a Heart attack who would not be here now without the NHS.

He talked about the "Tribune Test".    He and John don't just disagree with the Tories but both of them detest them and what they do.

John Healey talked about how he use to manage 2000 people as Housing minister, however he is now ordering his own stationary and photocopying.  He notes that despite defeat the Labour Party has not turned amongst ourselves as the Tories did in 1997.  There is so much at stake and so much depends on us.  What the Tories did in 1980s with Utilites they will now do now with our public services. 

They are not making these cuts because they need to - it is because they want to.

Update: in the traditional Labour Party raffle I won "Change" by Barack Obama.

Next Steps for Labour? Progressive London meeting

Last night I went to a packed meeting of Progressive London at Congress House. Considering that the Labour Party had just been beaten and we now have a Conservative led Government the atmosphere was remarkably positive and even upbeat.

Some brief thoughts on each speaker and the Q&A. The usual health warning about the literal accuracy of my hastily scribbled notes.

The meeting itself was ably chaired by Joy Johnson. CWU General Secretary, Billy Hayes kicked off condemning the recent injunction obtained by British Airways against today’s strike and the need to defend public services from cuts. He pointed out that the public deficit is only so high because of the collapse of tax revenues caused by the Banker’s recession. Future Party funding and retaining the trade union link with Labour was a key concern.

Mehdi Hasan from New Statesmen. He is the only panel member who was not a Labour Party member but saw himself “on the left” and a “critical friend” (whatever that means with a journalist?). Labour lost 90 seats and a million votes but there was no “3rd place” meltdown. The Tories and Liberals lost also. This was not “1997” and with a coalition of the likes of Ian Duncan Smith and Chris Huhne as well as Tebbit and Kennedy, Labour should have a good chance of winning office within 5 years. But need a complete rethink. Contrition and learn lessons. Make 3 apologies. Iraq, civil liberties and the deregulation of financial markets. Don’t go to the right over issues such as immigration. The “Great British Public” is to the left of New Labour. Predicted that the CONLIBS “married in haste and will repent at leisure”.

Chris McLaughlin, the editor of Tribune (and a former Labour Councillor in Newham!). Clegg never wanted a coalition with Labour. Labour now needs a leader to fit its policies and not policies to fit the leader. Reject the free market culture. The BNP still need to be watched since they got their highest ever share of the Parliamentary vote (2%). Get rid of Trident.

Newly elected Labour MP for Bolton Wigan and former Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor, Lisa Nandy. She reminded us all not to forget the many good things done by Labour in the last 13 years. Labour has to reflect and learn. Immigration is key issue but one that we failed to explain. We made excuses for social policy failings such as the failure to build sufficient housing. Instead of ignoring difficult problems we should be challenging them. She gave a  very confident and articulate speech.

Emily Thornberry re-elected MP for Islington South and who bucked the trend and increased her majority. Brought up herself in a Council estate by a single mother. Labour needs to support the idea of “Big Government” as a central ideology since this is the only way to deal with the huge problems facing us. She won in Islington by working with the unions and developing a “door step” culture in the Party and being on the estates. Getting the working class vote out. Treating the electorate with respect and not telling lies like her Liberal Democrat opponents. They spoke to 6,000 people in 4 weeks. She is proud to be Labour and it is a proud movement with a great future.

Last but not least was Ken Livingstone. Labour did have a good first term (devolution and minimum wage) thanks to the legacy of John Smith. But the Party conference was transferred away from being a "People's Parliament" to a media mirage. First the power of the CLP’s was broken then the unions were taken in by promises of access and influence. Read Alastair Campbell's diary to see the contempt in which the unions were actually held and how Neil Kinnock (no friend of Ken) was as far back as 1995 so rude about New Labour and predicted it would fail. Labour was lucky that there had been a collection of wankers leading the Tory Party or we would have lost before. God was good to us. It was not Gordon Brown being grumpy on YouTube that we lost.

He referred to the book “The Spirit level” and how more equal societies such as Norway are far better societies. We need to redistribute wealth. We need the political will to make changes and bring to an end the neo-liberal nonsense. The deficit even in 4 years will still be far lower than it has been for the 2/3rd of the last 200 years. A 1/3rd less than Clement Atlee faced in 1945 when he then went on to create the welfare state. The public are with us. In London we have a 2% Labour lead. It is important to have a new leader but we must change the structure of the Party and return Conference to being the Parliament of working and middle class people.

There was quite a lively and wide ranging Q&A. I managed to ask the panel a question. I agreed that we should be reviewing and changing policies and structures but we also need to win the “Battle of ideas” with our opponents. Our ideas did appear to become tired towards the end and we need to think afresh and revitalise if we are to win. I also said that I came from Newham where we had won on May 6th 63- nil. Which went down okay with the audience and the panel (but Ken did come back and say that the structures were vital). UNISON London Regional Secretary, Linda Perks and Unite Regional Secretary, Steve Hart, also asked questions.

Emily reminded everyone to be courteous during the leadership campaign and the necessary debate about the future direction of the Party. After all there is “nothing more uncomradely than the Labour Party at times”.

I enjoyed the debate and the spread of views but I do think that there is a danger that the debate could descend into a battle about what should have been done by the last Labour government rather than planning the future of the next.

Good to speak to Labour Party bloggers – Tom Miller and Peter Kenyon (NEC meeting today).