UNISON National Labour Link Forum 2011: London Motion on Public Housing

 

Motion 11 "The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing". 18 motions have been submitted to this year's National Labour Link Forum. Motion 11 is from London region. Another similar motion has also been submitted by my branch to UNISON National Delegate Conference.

"Forum notes:- 

1) That the ConDem government is proposing cuts to Housing Benefits that will result in financial hardship and even evictions for hundreds of thousands of private and public sector tenants.  

2) Cheaper rental areas will face an influx of people and families. Local education, social and medical services will not be able to cope with such dramatic population changes.

 3) This ConDem government has stopped a hundred year old tradition by all previous political parties of subsidising the cost of building new homes for low income families.  

4) We believe that this is an ideological attack by the ConDem government upon the low paid and those most at need. There is a battle of ideas in housing that at this moment progressives are not winning. 

Forum believes that:

a) The only short term solution to Britain’s housing crisis is the reintroduction of rent controls which will bring down private and public rents to affordable levels.

 b) That the only long term solution to adequately house the 4.5 million on Council waiting lists is to build more homes.   

c) It must be an overriding priority of the next Government that there must be a renaissance and rebirth of good quality, affordable, accountable and secure public housing.

Forum requests that

1. The National Labour Link affiliates to the Labour Housing Group in order to help win the battle of ideas in housing during the next General Election campaign with a focus on points a-c above.

2. The National Labour link encourages regional Labour Link Committees to affiliate to their regional Labour Housing Group and if one doesn’t exist to work with the Regional Labour Party to establish such a group. 

Greater London region

(I'll post the other London motion on "Defending the NHS" later. London Labour Link is applying to affiliate to the Labour Housing Group)

"Explore the Story of Social Housing in Tower Hamlets"

Shame I cannot make this local history open day on Saturday.  Mind you I still don't like the term "Social Housing" which was a term first used by one Michael Heseltine (I prefer "Public Housing").

Be afraid! Tories plan huge rent increases and reduced rights.

Some 8 million (repeat 8 million) people could be affected if the Tories were given the power to bring Council and Housing association rents up to private market rates while also getting rid of tenants security of tenure. I do not want to evict Grannies from their homes if their children have grown up and moved out or if they cannot afford private sector rents on their pensions.

Yet more clear red water.

The Workhouse – The original Tory “Barracks of the Poor”

Last year I spent a lovely week in a rented cottage in Stanhope, County Durham. This is a really smashing place to visit and there are just fantastic walks all around the county. It is Yorkshire without the tourist crowds.

The end terrace "cottage" we stayed at appeared to be part of some sort of wider local complex and I did wonder about its origin. I thought that it was part of a former hospital or possibly purpose built worker accommodation for some long lost local factory, pit or quarry. The nearby road was even called “Union Street” and even that didn’t wake me up from my stupor.

On the last day as we packed up to leave I spoke to its owners who lived next door and asked about its history and they looked at each other before saying that this area all use to be part of the local workhouse. Our cottage was part of the “stone breaking” building. In the 19th century if you were unemployed, sick or elderly you would have to go into the local work house in order to not starve to death. If you were “able bodied” you had to break large stones up into small pieces with hammers and pick axes. Often there was no economic point to this stone breaking and after they were broken up they were just dumped. The only purpose was to discourage anyone from applying for relief by making it as physically unpleasant and demeaning as possible.

It was a little bit shocking to think that we had enjoyed a pleasant week’s accommodation at what had been the site of a sadistic punishment camp for the poverty stricken.

Thinking about such things you can understand the race memory amongst the working class about “The Workhouse” and why even nowadays so many pensioners refuse to even apply for what they think is modern day “poor relief” (pension credit).

It has also made me think about the recent Tory "think tank" report Principles for Social Housing Reform which shamefully refers to public housing as “slums” and “barracks of the poor”. While I am not saying that the Tories if they get back in power will reintroduce concentration camps for the poor I do think that their recent pronouncements on getting rid of security of tenure for secure tenants, introducing market rents for all and exporting their poor out of their local boroughs reminds us that they are still the same old “Nasty Tories”.

Housing Matters 20 September 09

I’m going to try and post every weekend on the weeks topical Housing issues. This will be usually from a Public (aka Social) Housing perceptive.

My main source will be of course the trade bible “Inside Housing” which is run on behalf of the CIOH - but if anyone has any other news or opinion then please let me know (email via “view my complete profile” and “Email”).

So...

Anchor Trust Boss pockets “£391,000” annual pay – this story is just unbelievable. His increase this year is 20%, his average employee increase is 2% and the average salary of an Anchor Care assistant is just £12,500. Check out this, and that and even this. Labour ministers I have tackled before on this issue had hinted that “something will be done” about such pay increases. Yeah. I don’t think that salary restriction in the private sector will ever happen but in regulated organisations dependant on the public purse (housing benefit and Council tax) we simply expect better. I will continue my whinging at next week’s Labour conference.

“Yvonne Hossack wins disciplinary hearing” – The scourge of the sheltered housing establishment defeats an attempt at the Solicitors Disciplinary tribunal to take action against her. She even had the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, in his capacity as a MP to give evidence in her favour. It appears that Alan rewards good service with large G&T’s in Strangers Bar. What an excellent idea!

Housing News reports that the RBIA want 4 million homes to be retrofitted within the life time of the next Parliament for energy conservation. Another good idea but is this ambitious enough?

UNISON speaker Rose MacGregor at the Housing debate at the TUC conference calls for over a million new homes to be built and for all new developments to include 30% of homes for social rent. The debate also noted that there are 1.7 million households on the housing waiting list and 63,000 registered homeless. So maybe a million is far too low?

Deflation not as bad as feared – Which is good for RSL’s and maybe for their staff. Some Housing associations are trying not to pay their staff any rise since they fear rents will be cut by as much as 2-3%. Tenants may of course see things differently?

Finally, somewhat off message but sort of Housing news - tonight I spoke to my old Mum on the phone. She is a tenant of a Welsh Housing Association in an over 50 block (which use to be her primary school when she was a young girl) and she was really happy because her landlord had agreed to replace her bath with a shower! A pleased and contented tenant.

Stop the Press!

(Picture of East London skyline from the Leopold Estate in Tower Hamlets)