A Christmas Tale: "Newham has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, report reveals, as council ramps up support"

A modern day Christmas tale: Hat tip Newham Recorder 

"Newham has the highest rate of homelessness in the country, a report by housing charity Shelter has revealed.

The council says a shortage of social rented property, high private rents and benefit changes are pushing more people into homelessness, which Shelter's annual report estimated affects one in 24 (a total of 14,535) people in the borough.

Deputy Mayor John Gray said the council is putting "significant resources" into dealing with the crisis, including expanding its street outreach team and day service provision, and funding a high needs rough sleeper unit.

New figures from Shelter reveal 280,000 people - one in every 200 - are recorded as homeless in England and all but three of the 28 worst affected local authorities are in London, where private rents are notoriously expensive.

The next worst rate after Newham was in both Haringey and Kensington and Chelsea, where one in 29 are homeless.

Newham recently adopted a dedicated Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy for the first time in a decade, which was developed with the support of Shelter and covers the two years to December 2021.

Cllr Gray, the council's lead member for housing, said: "Since this administration came into office in May 2018, addressing the challenges created by the government's housing crisis has been a key priority and considerable work has been done in this area.

"We are directing significant resources to deal with the crisis and are set to spend an additional £1.4m per year to improve services supporting rough sleepers and creating preventative measures to reduce the risk of others becoming homeless.

"To increase housing supply, we are increasing the number of genuinely affordable social rented homes with plans to build at least 1,000 in place and building work already under way.

"We are also looking at providing our own supply of quality temporary accommodation so we are not reliant on private landlords."

The council's street outreach team, which has been expanded from two to 10, works with the rough sleeping community to gather evidence of needs, find solutions, and engage with them to develop pathways away from the streets.

A recent effort to engage with rough sleepers in the Stratford Centre area, where a large number of tents appeared over the summer, resulted in 13 people placed in emergency accommodation, 13 assessed for health and other needs, and 19 tents removed.

Overall, 52 rough sleepers were accommodated in November.

Twenty beds are available at a high needs rough sleeper unit at Caritas Anchor House in Canning Town.

A temporary 25-bed assessment hub has been set up to allow rough sleepers, where health treatment, money and immigration advice, addiction and mental health support is available under one roof.

Cllr Gray said: "With the raft of measures already implemented and working with partners and the community, we are determined to drastically improve the current situation and reduce the threat of homelessness facing some of our most vulnerable residents."

Shelter's review of government data also revealed that almost 220,000 people in England were threatened with homelessness in the last year.

The true level of homeless is believed to be higher than the recorded figures show, as a lot of it is undocumented, including sofa-surfing and some rough sleeping.

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said: "Homelessness blights lives and leaves a lasting imprint of trauma, and yet 280,000 people in England are without a home this Christmas - and many are only days away from joining them.

"As well as those facing serious ill-health or even death sleeping rough on our streets this winter, there are thousands of families trapped in grotty emergency B&Bs, with no space for children to sit and eat, let alone play.

"This is the grim truth our new government must confront and do something radical to change."

To donate to Shelter's Christmas appeal, visit www.shelter.org.uk or text SHELTER to 70030 to donate £3. Texts cost your standard network rate plus £3.

Labour Party Conference 2019: Monday (#Lab19) Twitter

Made it for a pre #LabourConference2019 #lab19 run. As you can see my selfie taken today is much better than that in yesterdays run

Great to meet up with #Newham Labour comrades at last night's informal social

Typical #Lab19 #LabourConference2019 dilemma. Clash of #housingfringe. I had to leave this one after 10 mins to go to housing roundtable next door

At my 1st #housing fringe on innovation with @JohnHealey_MP and great contributions from

@UKLabour councils in Croydon, Southampton and Leeds #lab19
My comment to panel was that it was great to hear of all the great work on housing by

@UKLabour councils & how similar all our problems our. My q was that in #Newham we dismantled our Tenant Resident Associations & we are now restarting them. Do you have any good practice TRA? Croydon and Leeds report back on successful TRAs. It is difficult to engage with people who all live busy lives

Now at packed #housingfringe by @Shelter with Ed Milliband speaking
@LabourSJ up next. #Lab19 #LabourConference2019 #BuildSocialHousing

Why you didn't get a xmas card from me (again!)

Apologies to friends, colleagues and family who have sent me Christmas cards and have not received any back.

I have made a donation instead. This year to the Housing and Homeless Charity Shelter. https://england.shelter.org.uk/donate

My first role in housing was as a volunteer with the Citizen Rights Organisation in Edinburgh during the late 1980s.

Shelter provides excellent individual advice and advocacy and also leads effective campaigns on housing and homelessness. It is well worth supporting.

Over a million people on Council waiting list. Let's turn Benefits into Bricks?

Many thanks to Shelter for their report highlighting the National Housing waiting list crisis. There is more than a million people on UK Housing waiting lists. Newham is highlighted as having proportionally the worse crisis in the entire country. 

For every home in Newham that we were able to supply last year there were 44 households waiting to be rehoused. We have only in total some 18,000 tenanted homes in the borough and 25,729 households on our waiting list.

But only 588 homes were available for social rent in 2016/17.

So do the maths.

Even worse we are still being forced to sell off our best family homes under right to buy. 46.7% of homes sold under right to buy are sublet in the private marker. The Government now has to pay huge amounts of housing benefit to pay these exorbitant rents to private landlords. Which do not produce a single new home.

According to another Shelter report last year we also have the worst homeless crisis in London with 13,566 in temporary accommodation. 

The new administration in Newham under Executive Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, and all Labour Councillors are absolutely committed to dealing with this crisis.

Watch this space. There are things we can and will do.

In the meantime another public report last week said that Newham spent £90 million on housing benefits for homelessness during the last 2 years.

How many social rent homes could that £90 million provide if spent on bricks and building new homes? Never mind the even more huge amounts spent on subsidising private landlords housing benefit for low paid working households.

Let's turn benefits into bricks and build homes. Are you listening Prime Minster "One Nation" Theresa May? 

Cathy come home: 50th anniversity tonight on BBC4

"In 1966 the powerful Cathy Come Home shone a light on the desperate housing problems gripping Britain at the time. When the programme first aired, the extent of the crisis shocked the nation – 3 million people were living in slums or stuck in a brutal private renting market. It was a far cry from the popular notion of the swinging 60s.

The film generated massive public support for Shelter, which was established only a few weeks later. We’ve been working tirelessly to make life better for those struggling with bad housing and homelessness ever since.

But while, thankfully, the slums have faded into memory, the sad truth is that this country is once again at the mercy of a housing crisis – and a new generation of Cathys have nowhere to call home.

Private rental sector is the 'new home of poverty' in the UK

Brian Robson

Urgent action is needed to empower local authorities to drive up the standards of privately owned homes

Read more

On this, the film’s 50th anniversary, homelessness is on the rise again. Every day at Shelter our advisers support families across the country who have lost the battle to stay in their homes. We see the heartbreaking toll that bad housing takes on people’s health and wellbeing, and the way it breaks up families and communities.

This is the tragic result of decades of failure by successive governments to tackle the root causes of this crisis and build the genuinely affordable homes we so desperately need. From people forced to live in unstable, unsuitable and often unsafe private rented homes, to the thousands of families stuck in temporary accommodation, right though to a generation of young people who have lost hope of ever getting on to the property ladder.

Everyone deserves the chance to have a stable home where they can put down roots and build a life for themselves, but today’s sky-high housing costs mean this is nothing more than a distant dream for many. And with millions living on a financial knife-edge, it doesn’t take much, such as an illness or a reduction in working hours, to tip a family into the downward spiral towards homelessness.

W​e need nothing short of a wholesale review of housing policy​ after Brexit

Bob Kerslake

The report by the House of Lords economic affairs committee should be required reading for the incoming housing minister, Gavin Barwell

Read more

But if our history tells us anything, it’s that together we can make a difference. The new government has a chance to turn things around, by committing to building homes that people on ordinary incomes can afford to rent or buy, and strengthening the welfare safety net that is there to catch those who fall on hard times.

Shelter will continue to fight for everyone to have a safe, secure and affordable place to call home and will be there to support those who have lost the battle to keep a roof over their heads, for as long as we are needed. But ultimately, I hope we won’t still be here in another 50 years.

For the sake of future generations we cannot make this someone else’s problem. Together, we all face the consequences when thousands of families and children grow up in homes that are simply not good enough. And together, we can fix it.

• Cathy Come Home will be screened tonight at 10pm on BBC4

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 

This is the first ever year that I have sent no Christmas Cards to anyone. I will be making a donation to lieu to Shelter, Hope not Hate and the Royal Airforce Association.  

Hope you all have a lovely holiday. 

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year (winter solstice) so cheer up since it will now get lighter by about 4 minutes every day!

I am now drinking a nightcap and listening to Radio 2 "Sounds of the 80s".

What could be more perfect?

(Hat tip Wanstead Flats Feb 2012).

Legal aid cuts - will you please help?

Great post by Ellie on Shelter Website about the slashing by this government of the legal aid budget.

"YouGov polling released today shows that over 50% of people feel that it should be possible to claim legal aid to pay for legal advice and representation if faced with eviction. At a time when so many people are struggling financially and are at risk of losing their home, Shelter is deeply concerned by the most recent legal aid consultation which will make this harder.

As described previously in this post, the government is proposing a worrying set of changes which will leave those facing immediate homelessness with limited access to support. Here is a typical scenario of someone who turns to Shelter for help:

• A family is faced with the horrifying prospect of homelessness. This can happen surprisingly quickly, as a small thing – like job loss – can rapidly create a spiral that leads to arrears and possession proceedings. They approach their local council to ask for help.
• Despite their legal obligation to find the family a place to stay, the local authority refuses. In desperate circumstances the family turns to Shelter for help, because they don’t know where they’ll be sleeping that night or the next.
• Shelter advisors ask council officers to reconsider but the local authority sticks to their guns, so Shelter issues a Judicial Review. At which point either the local authority concede and accommodate the family, or the Court issues an emergency injunction forcing them to do so. The family now have a roof over their heads and are safe for the night so the Judicial Review is withdrawn.

The government’s new proposals would remove the funding for a case like this; where permission to proceed with the Judicial Review (JR) is not granted by a judge. We describe the consequences of this in a letter to the Guardian. While it’s true that a significant number of JRs are either refused permission or withdrawn, this is because many cases, like the one outlined above, are settled in favour of the claimant before the case needs to go that far. The effect of these proposals is to remove funding from cases that are too strong, rather than too weak.

Under other aspects of the changes, many other people will not be eligible for legal aid at all, regardless of how desperate their situation. The proposals demand people prove they have lived in the UK for 12 months – even if they are British citizens, refugees, victims of trafficking or destitute children.

According to the Lord Chancellor, these reforms are driven by two key factors: reducing cost, and improving public confidence. In his Ministerial Foreword, the Lord Chancellor says expenditure on legal aid has “spiralled out of control”. In fact, expenditure has fallen by 25% since its historic peak a decade ago.

In addition, successive opinion polls, like the one today, have found widespread public support for legal aid.  Perhaps in recognition that it is a vital safety net, and that most of us are only a short step – loss of a job, a sudden serious illness, eviction from rented accommodation – from needing it ourselves. In May 2013, a Comres poll for the Bar Council found that 68% agreed that “at less than 0.5% of annual government spending, legal aid is a worthwhile investment in our basic freedoms” and only 11% disagreed.

Every night families across the UK turn to organisations for help, including around 15,000 who approach us a year under legal aid contracts. We are calling on the Minister to abandon these proposals so those families who find themselves homeless can find the defence they need to secure a safe place to stay that night.

The consultation closes today, see our consultation response for more info on the issue"

(sign the e-petition to Save UK Justice here)
.

Christian Wolmer 4 London Labour Mayor?

Picture is of Christian Wolmer speaking to West Ham Labour Party General Committee last month.  We usually have a guest political speaker at every meeting to which we invite all members to attend.

Christian is well known as a transport expert but he also disclosed that he use to work for the Housing Charity Shelter.

He is one of the first Labour Party members to openly admit to wanting to be the Labour Party candidate for London Mayor in 2016.

He gave what I thought was a very competent speech about his vision for London and handled questions from members present quite well. He says he is "not a politician" which he believes could mean that he will get wider public support. He did however use (effectively) the old political technique of deflecting difficult questions by asking the questioner "what do they think is the solution?".

I am probably biased but I thought his comments about housing were more interesting than that on transport, as important as this issue is to congested London. Yet, I've looked (briefly) at his website tonight to remind me what he said about housing but can't find anything.

Homes For London

Great new videos from Housing Charity "Shelter" launching their "Homes for London" Campaign. Shelter want the London Mayor candidates to commit to setting up a "Homes for London" agency if they are elected. Similar to "Transport for London".

National Landlord Association meeting on Newham Licence Proposal

in This picture is from Monday's public meeting organised by the National Landlord Association NLA) which was held in Stratford Circus, E15.  Newham Mayor, Sir Robin Wales is responding to a question.

This debate was about Newham Councils proposal to consider licencing all private landlords in the borough. This is in response to concerns about Anti-Social behaviour and overcrowding. Toby Lloyd from Shelter who are backing the scheme also spoke. I missed the beginning of the meeting. It was a little bit lively at times.

You can check out the video of this meeting at the NLA website here and make you own mind up on the arguments. 

I think you can guess my initial views on this proposal but there is a formal consultation process going on at this moment so I will wait until this is completed.

"Housing Voice" - for Affordable Housing in Britain

On Thursday I went to the Parliamentary launch of Housing Voice the Affordable Homes Alliance
in the Jubilee Room of the House of Commons.

The meeting was hosted by it's Chair - Lord Whitty (2nd right). This cross Party campaign has been formed to raise awareness of the lack of affordable homes across the UK and the need for
urgent government action. Lord Whitty also spoke at last week's UNISON housing fringe.

David Orr, the Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, Shadow Housing Minister Alison Seabeck MP (speaking) , Alison Graham of Child Poverty Action Group, Roger McKenzie, Assistant General Secretary, UNISON and Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing spoke at the launch.

UNISON sponsored the launch and YouGov research which has showed that:-

• 71% of the public do not think the Coalition Government is giving much attention to affordable housing
• For those in private rented accommodation affordable housing is their biggest concern after the economy – 40% compared to 28% for health and 18% for education
• Building more homes for rent would be a very popular policy with 70% support - including a majority of supporters of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats or Labour
• Given a list of possible policies, less than half (40%) supported the idea of increasing supply by moving people from their council or housing association homes once their incomes rise above a certain limit
• A massive 18% - almost 1 in 5 – always or often struggle to pay their rent or mortgage

"The Housing Voice campaign aims to become a forum for ideas and a vehicle for action in order to build public awareness and push for urgent Government action to deliver more affordable housing"

So all good stuff. What I found interesting was:- Lib Dem Stephen Gilbert MP recognising that we have 250k new households per year but we are only building 125k new homes per year; Alison Seabeck MP thinks that there are votes to be won in planning but too many MPs think it will lose them votes.

David Orr pointed out that countries such as Finland and Norway plan to build 7 homes per 1,000 population to adequately house their people. This would have meant the equivalent of 420k new homes in the UK. We only built 100k last year - the smallest number since 1923 - when our population was half it is now.

Former Housing officer, now an Assistant General Sectary of UNISON, Roger McKenzie, reminded everyone that we we do live in one of the richest countries on the planet but if people do not have dignity, jobs and homes then life becomes intolerable.

Alison Graham of CPAG pointed out how can children who live in awful housing succeed in education if they smell of damp. (Which as a housing officer I know what she means) Toby Lloyd of Shelter was really pleased that at this launch that there was a wide spread of players and not the usual "housing suspects".

  

Finally, in the Q&A I mentioned that there seems to be a clear connection between countries cited in the debate who have good housing policies for all and are also those countries who are more successful because they are more equal. This would seem to support the arguments put forward in "The Spirit Level" book that societies that are more equal are simply better for everyone - rich and poor.

Update: forgot to add that Alison Seabeck MP had previously agreed to be a guest speaker at a UNISON Housing Association Branch Labour Link meeting, which we now hope will take place early September.

“Housing bosses received ‘grotesque’ pay increases”

Former Head of Shelter and retiring Board member, Chris Holmes, of the now defunct Housing Corporation attacks housing association bosses for not only their pay but also for initiating mega mergers solely to further their own careers.

He thought that they only got away with this because the Corporation was “too soft”.

He doesn’t think that the market justifies any salary above £200,000 per year. The Corporation tried to speak to some associations about pay but was ignored. Maximum pay levels he thinks should be set depending on size and if these are ignored the association should be put under supervision.

Possibly even more incendiary than this attack is his assertion that in a significant minority of stock transfers, new housing association boards were almost totally made up with white males unrepresentative of their communities.

He finally attacks housing associations for “unnecessary and hugely wasteful” corporate hospitality.

Personally I think even £200,000 per year is too much. Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government receives £137,000. The Prime Minister himself (for crying out loud) earns less £200,000 (£188k). A maximum cap for pay would be a good start. The highest paid CEO is at union busting Anchor Trust where he got a staggering £327k!

It should be possible for the new Housing Regulator the “Tenant Services Authority” (TSA) to verify the claims on the unrepresentative make up of boards.

By coincidence I contacted the TSA on Friday about a union matter and so far have been pleased at their efficient and courteous response.

Check out my previous posts on excessive housing chief pay here and the original interview with Chris this weekend in Inside Housing.

South East Region TUC AGM 2008

Yesterday morning I had to skive off from Labour Party street stalls and canvassing to attend the SERTUC (South East Region Trade Union Congress) AGM at Congress House.

I am a first time UNISON delegate. London UNISON Convenor, Gloria Hanson was there to show me the ropes.

It was well attended with about 100 delegates from 17 affiliated trade unions and a number of TUC trade councils from all over London and South East England.

There were really interesting speakers such as Adrian Weir from Unite, who spoke about a recent trade union visit to Palestine and the pretty disastrous situation for everyone in that deeply unhappy and divided region.

Ivan Beavis, spoke somewhat wittily on the need of the Labour movement to support the Morning Star newspaper. It is not apparently anymore the Party organ of the Communist Party but the only real “Paper of the Left”. You may not agree with all its arguments and editorials but it is the only national newspaper that will bother to report on trade union and Labour movement issues. I know I should read the “Morning Star” but to be frank I find it difficult to find the time to read any printed newspaper nowadays, never mind the mass of specialist trade union, political, safety, Pension and housing magazines that I should be wading through. It’s a poor excuse I know, but there you go. Fair play to Ivan for at least making us smile.

Not a smiling matter in the least was the speech by senior Shelter Unite Shop steward, Elizabeth O’Hara. Shelter (the housing charity) had their 3rd and 4th day of strike action last week and are due to go on strike again next week for 2 days. The strike is over a proposed significant reduction in pay, terms and conditions for many staff. They are meeting management on Monday and I hope something get sorted out. The strike seems to be getting even more bitter than before and must resolved ASAP.

There were also guest speakers from Malawi trade unions who phrased the South African Dockers who refused to unload arms and munitions for the dictator Mugabe in Durban and called for international intervention in Zimbabwe to bring democracy to that country.

There was a lot of support for Ken in the GLA elections and of course defeating the BNP. Steve Hart the London regional secretary of Unite pointed out that some 3,500 of his members who work as cleaners have benefited from the London Living Wage of £7.20 per hour. Ken has announced that as soon as Metronet (one of the underground contractors that have gone bust) is taken over by the GLA, their low paid minimum wage (£5.52) staff will also benefit from the GLA Living wage commitment.

The GLA UNISON shop is apparently nearly 100% density, as you could imagine with the workforce fearing the prospect of Boris as their boss and BNP Assembly members.

No matter what you think about Ken (or the Labour Party for that matter) you must want Boris to lose. It is no use just moaning about Boris or dismissing him as a buffoon, he could well win. If you don’t want him to win you have to actively campaign against him. If you shut your eyes and pretend he doesn’t exist he will not just go away. Personally, I wish SERTUC had postponed the traditional May 1st parade and should have encouraged trade unionists to either be “knocking up” for Labour or handing leaflets out for Searchlight. I’m disappointed to miss this years March (see 2007). But I think it is far more important to stop Boris.

Cathy comes Home to... “demoralised, underpaid and threatened staff” ?

Above is a quote from a Shelter trade union member who contacted me following the overwhelming vote by Shelter staff to strike. Last month I posted on the dispute between the Housing Charity Shelter and its employees over its plans to cut terms and conditions and to make staff work longer for no extra pay. I really hoped that this dispute could be resolved quickly since Shelter does marvellous work for its many vulnerable clients.

However, this is not to be and members have voted by a majority of 71% (on a very relatively very high turnout of 65.8%) to strike. Shelter has threatened to sack staff who do not accept these cuts.

The first strike is on 5 March 2008. Must find out the nearest picket line?

Ken Loach (the film director who directed “Cathy Come Home” which is credited with helping to launch “Shelter”) has been interviewed in the Guardian calling for people to stop financially supporting “Shelter” until this dispute is resolved. Not sure about that one? No mention of such a call in the T&G website? I’ll go with what the unions advise on that one. See Shelter boss, Adam Sampson response.

It would appear that a cause of this whole disaster is that Shelter management (who may or may not be paid huge amounts of money but do seem to be fond of paying large amounts of money for “change consultants” and expensive refurbishments of their head office) are fearful that unless they can cut staffing costs they will be uncompetitive and lose legal aid contracts to the “evil ones” such as outsourcing giant “Capita”. This is serious issue across the public/private sector. Is it right that organisations can lose contracts to firms that do so by simply slashing the wages of existing staff? Doesn’t TUPE apply? Should new starters also be protected under TUPE? Should the new Warwick Agreement between the trade unions and the Government include all such contracts? (YES).

By co-incidence during the Labour Party conference last year, at the UNISON Housing fringe, Adam Sampson, was a panel speaker alongside the then housing Minister Yvette Cooper and the UNISON Head of Local Government, Heather Wakefield. During the Q&A I asked Yvette to respond to Heather’s comment about excessive pay rises for senior management in many Housing Associations. Yvette appeared to be concerned about the unfortunate tendency for these managers to pay themselves very large pay rises and said that the government was aware of the issue and will take firm action to stop it if necessary. Interestingly Adam also piped up with an attack of such housing associations, since he claimed that their actions meant that Shelter had to pay more money to recruit senior staff. This he said was causing financial problems across the voluntary sector.

So Adam, is the reason you have to cut the terms and conditions of relatively low paid staff due to money you think you have to pay to recruit senior executives? I think we should be told.....

Homeless Charity Shelter attacked over “bullying”

I’ve been contacted by a very sensible UNISON member over the employment dispute at the housing charity Shelter. The dispute is about pay and grading reductions for staff (while the senior management retain their perks and privileges).

While I am appalled at the attack on frankly already relatively low paid employees I am also conscious of the enormous damage that “Shelter” (which does a fantastic job for vulnerable people) is doing to its reputation.

Shelter CEO Adam Sampson please sort this out.