London Labour Regional Conference 2026 – Delegate Reflections (as UNISON Labour Link)

Day 1 — Opening, Workshops, and Fringes

I arrived at the London Labour Regional Conference with the UNISON Labour Link delegation (and delegation leader), ready for 1.5 days of debates, workshops, and organising. Before the start we had a delegation meeting and gathered in trade union affiliates and as a delegation. Our Chair, Maggi Ferncombe, opened the conference, setting a confident and purposeful tone for the weekend.

The keynote speaker was David Lammy MP, addressing Pride in London and the wider political moment. His speech landed well — thoughtful, outward‑looking, and rooted in Labour values.

After the keynote, the conference broke into workshops. I headed to the YIMBY Labour fringe session with Greenwich Council Leader Cllr Anthony Okereke, exploring practical approaches to housing growth and planning reform. I raised the issue of providing homes in London for key workers many of whom will never be able to afford to buy or pay market rents.

Following lunch, we reconvened for the second UNISON Labour Link delegation meeting to discuss ballots and coordination. Then it was straight into another fringe: Places for London – “Metroland or Manchesterism: How do we build the homes London needs?” with contributions from Kam Rai, Tom Copley, Peabody, and Ruth Cadbury MP. A serious, grounded discussion about London’s housing future. I also asked the question was it possible to provide the homes needed for Londoners within Greater London boundaries. The answer from some panellists appeared to be yes. Interesting...

My final workshop of the day was “Supporting Local Parties”, an important session for me given the expectation that Stratford & Bow CLP will soon be reformed *and other Newham CLPs). Good practical guidance, and a reminder of how vital strong CLPs are to Labour’s organising culture.

The day closed with further speeches and reports on elections from Conference arrangement committee. Wes Streeting MP made his now‑famous joke about standing for Mayor of London “purely to wind up Dawn Butler MP who was in the audience” and corrected himself that only London was the greatest city in the world and that it was actually Manchester and London — a line that got a good laugh.

Day 2 — Reports, Recognition, and Motions

Day 2 opened with the CAC report on election processes, followed by a moving moment: long‑serving party activists receiving recognition certificates. Maggi also gave thanks to outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which prompted a standing ovation from the hall.

As a UNISON Labour Link delegate and Regional Convenor, I was proud to see Yvonne Green deliver a superb speech moving Motion 10: “London Rose Network.” Clear, confident, and rooted in the lived experience of London’s public service workers.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon saw more speakers from affiliates, the Co‑operative Party, CLPs, and GLA representatives — a reminder of the breadth and depth of Labour’s movement across the capital.

Overall Reflection

Across both days, the conference felt constructive, energetic, and grounded in real‑world priorities: housing, party organisation, public services, and community leadership. As an elected UNISON delegate, it was a privilege to contribute, listen, and represent our members.

Right to Buy: Wrong for London

"Dear John

Tomorrow I’m publishing a new report which reveals the extent to which former council homes sold through the Right to Buy are now being rented out by private landlords. In advance of its publication I wanted to share some of the individual borough findings with Labour councillors in London today.

Across London, 42% of homes sold off through the Right to Buy are now being rented out by private landlords at market rates – up from 36% when I last investigated this issue in 2014.

That’s at least 11,000 more council homes in the hands of private landlords than there were five years ago, a shocking transfer of wealth from the many to the few.

In Newham, 44.6% of former council homes sold through the Right to Buy are now being rented out by private landlords. There are at least 5 individuals in Newham who own five or more former council homes.

My report also reveals that councils in London are spending a total of at least £22 million a year renting back 2,333 of their former council homes to house homeless families. These were homes they were forced to sell at a discount that they now have to pay market rates to rent back.

Newham has to rent back 808 homes at an annual cost of £12,858,869.

This is ludicrous, and the blame lies squarely with Tory government policies.

It would be galling if the crucial work Labour councils across London are doing building new council homes for the first time in a generation was undermined by the continuation of the Right to Buy.

That’s why I’m asking people to take action by signing this petition calling on Theresa May to end Right to Buy in England. The Scottish and Welsh governments have already done so.

I would be extremely grateful if you could promote this petition on social media so that it can attract as much support as possible.

The full report will be published on my website tomorrow along with the data tables. If you have any questions about the research, or would like to discuss it, please let me know".

Best wishes,

Tom Copley AM
London Assembly Member | City Hall Labour housing spokesperson

(this is a great evidence backed campaign led by Tom which should be supported by all of us concerned with the housing crisis in London and elsewhere. I have signed the petition)

Red Brick - "The Help to Buy Gravy Train" by Steve Hilditch

A fascinating discussion yesterday evening with London Labour Housing Group on "Policy & Practice". Some great ideas and presentations.

I was a little late and missed items on policy context and improving the private rented sector but was there for - delivering new Council homes, working with with Housing Associations and best practice on community led housing. Chaired by lead GLA housing spokesperson Tom Copley

See below yet another superb article on "Red Brick" about the "Great British Housing Rip Off" by Steve Hilditch.

"Some people suffer because of the housing crisis, others do quite nicely out of it thank you. Land owners are perhaps the best example of those who have traditionally coined it in. Nothing much has changed since Winston Churchill, way back in 1909, called land ‘the mother of all monopolies’, criticising ‘the enrichment which comes to the landlord who happens to own a plot of land on the outskirts of a great city, who watches the busy population around him making the city larger, richer, more convenient, more famous every day, and all the while sits still and does nothing.’ And still they do.

But attention has been drawn more recently to another group of people who have been achieving great riches from the miseries of others – the housebuilders. You might say that at least housebuilders produce something of use, unlike the landowner, and the point is valid. But recently the vast profits being made by the volume housebuilders have been substantially donated by the government, free gratis and for nothing.

The housebuilders’ own special magic money tree is called Help to Buy. In an excellent article in the Times on 8 September, Property Correspondent Tom Knowles showed how the average profit made by housebuilders on each home has doubled since the scheme was launched. Knowles’ analysis showed that ‘the top five builders in Britain are making an average profit of £57,000 on each house they sell, compared with a mean average of about £29,000 in 2007’.

On Red Brick we have criticised Help to Buy from the time it was launched in 2013 because it is a subsidy on the demand side of housing – it enables people to spend more on housing without necessarily increasing supply. A little bit of economics tells us that in the longer term it is likely to be self-defeating because more demand with no more supply will lead to price increases. Far better, we have consistently said, to apply whatever public finance is available to boosting housing supply not demand.

At the launch of Help to Buy the argument was made that the scheme would boost supply by giving developers confidence that they would have buyers for their output – after all, no-one builds what they cannot sell. Yet Knowles confirms that the total number of new houses being delivered is much the same as it was ten years ago. He uses Barratt as evidence: profit per house has doubled since 2007 (he uses that date because it was the last full year before the global crash), but it is building only 411 additional homes. He provides a fascinating chart to illustrate the detail, repeated below.

Knowles quotes analysts who confirm that the largest driver of today's profits is Help to Buy. One assesses that housebuilders would be making £22,000 less profit on each house built for first time buyers if Help to Buy was not in place, and concludes that ‘someone is gaming the system’.

One of my favourite analysts, Neal Hudson, who puts good stuff on Twitter @resi_analyst, is quoted saying that shareholders had become ‘the main priority’ for housebuilders since the financial crash. ‘The over-arching factor has been big pressure from the City,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘The priority for them is profit margin not the number of homes built.’

One housebuilder chief executive was paid £75 million in a bonus last year, putting even bankers to shame. I suppose you could argue that no-one would turn down a nice earner, even if it is on the back of a government scheme designed to tackle the housing crisis. And, of course, it is government policy that is to blame. Since 2010 housing finance policy has been turned on its head. Instead of providing grant to enable genuinely affordable homes for those on low and medium incomes, Government help is now aimed at supporting the private housing market – and not very successfully it seems. The Chartered Institute of Housing’s Housing Review estimated that support for the private market is taking nearly 80% of current investment compared to just over 20% going as support for affordable housing.

At local level, the riches flowing into the pockets of the housebuilders should stiffen the resolve of councils who are fed up with developers pleading that schemes are ‘unviable’ due to modest requirements that a proportion of new homes should be affordable.

In this debate, profits per home of around 20-25% of the cost are taken almost as a given, a fixed cost. I can remember a developer telling me that the rule of thumb in building costs was ‘one-third for land, one-third for construction, and one-third profit’. In our Brexit-dominated world, construction costs are likely to inflate rapidly in the near future. So, if anything is to be done it must be to bear down on the other two elements: land and profit. We have posted a lot recently about land and taxation: another good step would be to tackle the Help to Buy gravy train.

REMINDER - Grenfell Tower: The anatomy of a disaster & the future of social housing in London - Newham Fabians 20 Sept 2017

REMINDER: Tom Copley, GLA lead on Housing speaking this Thursday 20 September 7-9pm at Eat 16 Cafe, St Luke's Community Centre, Canning Town, E16 1HN

Agenda

1. Welcome & introductions

2. Talk: Grenfell Tower & the future of social housing policy with guest speaker Tom Copley AM, Assembly Member and Labour Housing Spokesperson at the GLA

3. Audit Report

4. West Ham CLP GC delegate election- Those wishing to stand should email the secretary at least seven days before the meeting. As per our constitution these names will also be sent to the national Fabian Society. We are still waiting to be affiliated with East Ham CLP after which we will be able to elect a delegate for East Ham.

5. AOB & Date of Next Meeting

Grenfell Tower: The anatomy of a disaster & the future of social housing in London - Newham Fabians 20 Sept 2017

This looks like a really good event. Well done to the new Newham Fabians Officers for organising this. Thankfully we now have a local Fabian society that  actually does stuff! Tom will be a great speaker. 

London UNISON Housing Association Branch AGM 2017: Speaker Tom Copley AM at the UNISON Head Office

Picture collage from our branch AGM which took place last week at the UNISON Centre with keynote speaker, London Assembly Member, Tom Copley.

The AGM was split into 2 meetings to aid participation by members. A part 1 lunch time session then a Part 2 evening meeting. Before both we had arranged guided tours of our national UNISON headquarters. The views from the 9th floor are spectacular.

All AGMs are a bit bureaucratic and dare I say even a little boring but our speaker, Tom Copley, was excellent.  As the City Hall Housing spokesperson he was completely on top of his brief.

I had been re-elected unopposed as branch secretary (I obviously have not paid off all my sins yet from a previous wicked life), I moved the annual report, took questions on this and finance, spoke on a motion to our national conference about building a new housing consensus (passed) and generally helped out our number one Chair, Tony Power.

At the end of the meeting we thanked our branch and regional staff for their fantastic support for members and helping to organise this AGM. Next was the inevitable raffle.

In the finest traditions of the Labour Movement we had a post AGM drink (some had soft drinks but I needed Czech budweiser) in the UNISON cafetiere/bar.

Next our branch is organising its annual event for Workers Memorial Day 28 April at Three Mills, Bow, E3. While on Tuesday evening 16 May, our branch Labour Link AGM will take place at the House of Commons with keynote speaker, Shadow Secretary of  State for Housing, John Healey MP.

UNISON Housing Association Branch AGM - 21 March 2017 UNISON Centre. Keynote speaker Tom Copley AM

Looking forward to my Branch AGM on the 21st March. Our keynote speaker will be Tom Copley AM. We are holding the AGM at the UNISON Centre (our national headquarters) in Euston Road during lunchtime and also the evening to maximise attendance. 

Sadiq Khan for London Mayor "SuperSaturday" in Canning Town & Forest Gate

Picture collage from today's "Super Saturday" campaign in support of Sadiq Khan as London Mayor. Around 20 activists turned up to work with West Ham MP, Lyn Brown, in Canning Town in the morning and a similar number in the afternoon in Forest Gate.

Greater London Assembly (GLA) candidates, Unmesh Desai and Tom Copley, also turned up to talk to residents. After the Forest Gate session, canvassers revived themselves from the cold weather with hot coffee (or cold beers) at the Forest Gate Tavern.

It was great to see new members to the Party take part and campaign for Labour alongside existing activists. The London Mayor and GLA election in May will be by proportional representation so every vote will count. It will be absolutely vital that we get the Labour vote out in Newham.

Proud Union Labour Activists

This collage is from the "Unions together" TULO Rally in London on Monday. Last week Ed Miliband and UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, spoke at the national TULO rally in Birmingham with over 1000 union members present.

General secretary of the GMB, Paul Kenny, was the first main speaker and he compared the huge number of people who are now forced to beg for insecure jobs on poverty wages with what happened in the London Docks in the 19th century. He pointed out that the Sunday Times Rich list reported that the personal wealth of the richest had doubled since 2010 while working people have had their income slashed. He condemned UKIP for attacking the exploited and not the exploiters.

Next was Jack Elliot, a GMB member and grass roots Labour Party activist, who first voted in 1945. He attacked the ultra left Party TUSC for betraying workers, working with racists and doing what they can to let the Tories win. To loud cheers, he told us that "he had a go" at the Trotskyist newspaper sellers outside as he came in.  He called for a real unity of all things and vote Labour.

UNISON Branch secretary Emine Ibrahim spoke passionately about the 18% cut in wages in real terms for Council staff since 2010. How her members cannot pay their bills and rely on loan sharks to survive until pay day. She called on all of us to work in the marginal seats to bring about a Labour victory.

Unite General Secretary, Len McCluskey, urged all union members to vote Labour and get rid of the Tories. The Tories are the party of fear while Labour is the party of hope. Reject the Tory path to food bank and rip off Britain. Make sure the super rich and corporate elite pay their bloody taxes! Ed Miliband and Labour put hope back into politics. Vote for Change. Vote Labour and kick the Tories out and build a better Britain.

London Assembly member, Tom Copley, described his job has trying to keep his eye on Boris as London Mayor. A difficult job since Boris he is rarely at his post as Mayor. Tom urged union members to remember the 11 million people who rent their homes from private landlords and how important it is for them to have a Labour government, who will cap rent rises and introduce 3 year tenancies.

Manuel Cortes, from the railway union TSSA believes that Labour leader Ed Miliband will rebalance our society and economy away from the interests of the top 1,000, who have increased their wealth by £250 billion since 2010. He is really pleased that Labour have promised an industrial policy if they win power.

He reminded us that Ed has said that it is not leaders that change the world but movements.

TUC General Secretary, Frances O'Grady, began by stating that she was proud to be the daughter of immigrants and proud of the role that people like her mother made to the NHS as a nurse. She looked forward to a Labour government introducing worker reps on company remuneration committees to stop greed at the top. She thought the Tories claim to be "the workers party" as convincing as Cameron's claim to support West Ham FC.

Last speaker was Uma Kumaran, the Labour candidate for Harrow East in London. When she speaks to people and says she is a trade unionist, some say she doesn't look like one. She replies that it does not matter what you look like to be a trade unionist but do you believe in common decency for all and standing together in order to achieve it.  

Big, Bad & Dangerous...? Do we need Housing Associations? #Lab14

This Labour Party conference housing fringe took place on the Monday afternoon outside the secure area. There was an error in the programme about timings which meant I think some people missing it. 

The Chair was from the New
Statesman, Jon Bernstein (centre of photo)

First speaker was shadow planning minister, Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods MP. Roberta said we need to build 200,000 homes per year and asked how will housing associations be part of this mix? Affordability will be key and the Michael Lyons report for the Party will be out soon. We should also be about "Place making". What jobs and services are needed? not just about new housing units. Many councils will not want to take role of housing developers so there is a strong role for associations.

Next was Rod Cahill, the Chief Executive of Catalyst Housing (on right) who started in housing as a trainee in the London Borough of Camden in 1975. In that year Housing Associations only built 22,000 properties while local authorities built 145,000. Unlike now. There has been a 100,000 per year shortfall in new build for the last 30 years which means we are need 3 million extra new homes which causes shortage and affordability problems.

It will take a long time to increase production. Catalyst will build 1200 new homes this year. Rod believes that Housing Associations are a key part of the solution. There is a need to generate surpluses to cross subsidy the cost of new build. There has been a 70% cut in capital support by this government. Without surplus they would not be able to build at social rents. Catalyst made £40 million last year which they will reinvest in bricks and mortar.

There needs also to be a change in planning. There is an anti development culture. We need clarity about affordable rents. We need land and to re-professionalise Housing. We need government support for when the market drops and we are unable to cross subsidise. Public money can be found for absolute national priorities. We need to go back to 40 years when we built 300,000 homes per year.

Cllr Julian Bell, the leader of Ealing Council (standing) spoke about a "perfect storm" in housing. With the problem of "beds in sheds" and affordability.  You need to earn £70,000 per year to buy a house in Ealing where the average price is near £300,000. In his borough they had set up a Housing commission to examine what can be done and increase supply. Raising the HRA headroom would help.

Last speaker was London Assembly Housing spokesperson Tom Copley. Tom was interested in Councils providing housing because of the scale of the problem and that the private sector wouldn't fill the gap. No incentive for the private sector to build since in their interests to restrict supply. There is still an arbitrary cap on housing investment in the UK but not over other forms of prudential borrowing. We only the only country to define housing investment as government debt. Tom believes everyone needs to step up including the private sector.

My question to the panel as a Labour Councillor and UNISON Housing Association branch secretary was that that any solution to the Housing crisis will have to result in even more government spending and subsidy. I said I am not digging Rod out in particular since this is a sector issue. The problem with housing associations is that they have a democratic governance deficit. They need to raise their game to account for public money. The average CEOs has increased their salary by above inflation while their staff are given less; some of them despite being charities refuse to even recognise trade unions while many have little or no involvement of residents in the running of their organisations. If Housing Associations want to be on board then there has to be change.

Rod said they do recognise trade unions and what does my question have to do with housing supply? Housing associations are private organisations and do not rely on public money. Only £1 in every £6 invested is public money. I said that this is about governance and housing associations do rely on housing benefit and past public investment. Unless we have proper accountability and structures they should not get public money.

"I'm Bryan" One Housing lobby in support of victimised trade unionist

Yesterday, I was able to go and support the lunchtime lobby outside One Housing Group headquarters in favour of the victimised Unite Convener for One Housing, Bryan Kennedy (see picture from last year in bottom left).

See my previous post about Bryan and One Housing history of victimising trade union activists. They also have a really awful reputation for treating residents badly and for tearing up agreements.

I have not come across any Housing Association that is so disliked by so many residents groups, Councillors, MP's etc yet it pretends it does not give a damn what anyone says about them.

See my previous post about the really, really rubbish governance arrangements of so many publicly funded Housing Associations.

At the Lobby was Labour Party London Assembly member and their Housing Spokesman, Tom Copley (see picture bottom middle  - who was also a speaker at our recent UNISON branch AGM).

At the lobby it was announced that Bryan had been certificated as being sick and that it had been agreed to postpone his hearing.

I hope that even at this late stage that One Housing comes to their senses and deal with this issue properly.

UNISON Housing Association Branch AGM 2014

On Tuesday we held our branch Annual General Meeting at the Resource Centre in Islington.  In order to encourage participation there were two separate meetings. One in the afternoon and the other in the evening.

Some interesting statistics in our annual report - we have over 3000 members in 146 different organisations and 879 workplaces.  66% of members are female while 46% are BME.

We did all the usual boring but important AGM stuff such as approving the annual report, the accounts and branch affiliations. We had no contested elections for branch officers, so I was elected unopposed again as Branch Secretary and Labour Link officer.

We passed 4 motions to send to UNISON National Delegate Conference on - Wages Councils; Save our Co-op; Racism in Greece and democracy in Egypt. There was some good comradely debates on whether it was too late or not to save the Co-op (we thought it was not too late) and the best way to support trade unionists in Egypt.

UNISON National officer Mathew Danaher spoke on organising tenants, clients and worker solidarity. We all have so much in common and we need to work together. Matthew finished by talking about what UNISON is doing about Credit Unions. We need to invite him back to give training to reps on this.

Our keynote speaker was Labour London Assembly member and deputy Chair of the GLA Housing Committee, Tom Copley. He spoke about the need to massively boost housing supply and control rents in London. Tom is very obviously "up to speed" on housing issues in London and I think we will look forward to working with him in the future.

We promised to give him further information on the massive cuts in wages and terms to low paid social care and support staff badly affected by the race to the bottom in "supporting people" budgets.

At the end of the meeting we had an update by members on a pay and recognition dispute with a well known London employer, which we hope can be resolved but may end up in a fight. There was also a bucket collection for SOAS cleaners in their dispute for fair terms and conditions.

I think this was a pretty successful AGM, no huge rows, we were quorate and we now have the probably the largest Executive Committee elected that we have ever had in recent years

Afterwards many of us went next door to the Weatherspoons for a welcome rest and recuperation.

UNISON Housing Associations Branch AGM Tuesday 18 March 2014

There are two meetings, please attend whichever is more convenient:

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Afternoon   2.00 – 4.30 refreshments from 1.30

Evening      6.00 – 8.30 refreshments from 5.30

Venue: Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, N7 6PA

(closest tube station Holloway Road)

All branch members are welcome – please try and attend as this is when officers are elected and the branch agrees its policy for the next year.

Speakers include: Tom Copley, London Assembly Labour Spokesperson on Housing (evening meeting) and Mathew Donaher UNISON Community Organising Co-Coordinator – other speakers to be confirmed.

The Annual Report and papers for the AGM are attached to member emails and on request.

If you are interested in getting more involved in your union, there are vacancies on the branch committee, or you may wish to attend UNISON National Delegate Conference. 

Please email the branch office to confirm. If you need more information about travel or any special needs, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@unisonhablondon.org or call 020 7697 5030.

Homes for London

Check out this Youtube clip of London Assembly member and Labour Housing lead, Tom Copley, putting forward the alternative to do nothing, market knows best, Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson. Tom will be the guest speaker at my branch AGM (Greater London UNISON Housing Association).

"Dear Friend,

Yesterday I presented a range of proposals to the Mayor aimed at addressing London's housing crisis as part of City Hall Labour's alternative budget.

The plans are drawn from a report that I published this week, Fair Housing, which followed a survey of nearly 2,500 Londoners. The survey reveals that 43% of Londoners spend between 25-50% of their take home pay on housing, and that 23% spend over 50% of their take home pay on housing.

Our proposals include:

• Establishing a London Housing Corporation, which would borrow against the GLA’s revenue stream to rapidly expand housing supply by directly commissioning new homes, and encourage institutional investment from pension funds
• Driving forward housing supply by reorganising the work of the GLA Land and Housing Directorate into a new body called Homes for London
• Creating a ‘Decent Homes Fund’ that provides low-cost loans for landlords to bring London’s stock of privately rented accommodation up to a decent standard.
• Establishing a ‘London Bad Landlords Register’ and a private tenants ‘Know Your Rights’ website
• Lobbying the government to increase investment in affordable housing.

Several of these measures were formally passed by the Assembly as part of a cross-party budget amendment. The Mayor will have to come back to us in February responding to each of our proposals and explaining why he either agrees or disagrees with them. If he rejects the proposals the Assembly will require a two thirds majority vote to force them through.

Watch: Proposing a new London Housing Corporation and measures to help private tenants »

Over the coming months I shall be working up detailed proposals for exactly how Homes for London and the London Housing Corporation would work and the volume of housing that could be delivered across all tenures. What is absolutely clear is that unless the Mayor adopts a far more interventionist approach, we are not going to solve London's housing crisis any time soon.

The Mayor has the power to act. The question is whether he is willing to do so.

Best wishes,

Tom Copley AM

Labour London Assembly Member (Londonwide)

City Hall Labour Housing Spokesperson

PS – you can keep up to date with the work I’m doing on the Assembly and around London by following me on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.  You can also visit my website at www.tomcopley.com."

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.