UNISON NDC 2011: Motion 54 The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing

This was to have been my speech to NDC moving our branch motion 54 but we ran out of time. 

"President, Conference, John Gray, Housing Association Branch, Greater London Region moving motion 54. The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing.

Conference, I want to describe how this Tory led Government is intent on the destruction of public housing in this country and how we need instead to argue for its Rebirth.
 
Firstly conference our branch delegation accepts and supports the NEC amendments to the motion. The Havering branch amendments we also accept, with one very important qualification which I will address later.

Conference, our branch has over 3500 members who all work in public housing in London and Southeast England. So I don’t think many of you will be surprised at the content of this motion.

It condemns the cuts in Housing benefit which attacks not only the unemployed, the elderly and disabled - but also the working poor.

It points out that our members who provide front line services are horrified at being expected to deal with the resulting class cleansing of the poor from richer middle class areas.

It condemns this government for decimating new investment in public housing while millions have endure overcrowding and substandard living conditions while languishing on never ending council waiting lists.

That new tenants and the homeless could lose the right to secure and permanent accommodation. While those who wait for years for a tenancy may find themselves paying near market rent for two years - after which they could find themselves evicted if they find a good job.

In London currently the average rent for a 2 bed HA property is £102 per week. A so-called Tory affordable rent set at 80% of the market would be a staggering £2-4-8 per week. Every week!

Conference, this motion does not only condemn the actions of this Tory led Government. It also agrees with what many of you have been saying this week about how this attack on public services is ideologically motivated. This government has an ideological hatred of collective provision and is therefore trying to kill off public housing.

To counter this ideological attack we not only have to protest and campaign but we have counter the underlying neo-liberal and Orange book ideology. There is a Battle of Ideas in housing, that at this moment, progressives have not been winning. We need to win this Battle.

UNISON Labour link and our members in the Labour Party need to play their part as well in the very same Battle within the Party to reclaim it as the Party of Public housing.

So let us look at the alternatives. Let us research the impact of reintroducing rent controls, let us look into the replacement of council tax with a continental style Land tax and let us debate such ideas as community land trusts. We need convincing arguments to persuade the public and indeed many of our own members that we should reverse the unhealthy British obsession with home ownership and disdain for renting.

Such is the scale of the problem that there desperately needs to be a massive house building programme which will have the added benefits of getting the unemployed into work, giving them wages to support the local economy and paying tax rather than claiming the dole. We need to champion and explain these arguments.

Now Conference, regarding the amendments put forward by Havering. Our branch delegation accepts these amendments with one very important qualification. One of their new points suggests that the best provision of social housing is that provided by local authorities.

Now, I am a passionate believer in local government and a defender and supporter of local authority housing. However, many thousands of members in the new Community Service Group work in social housing but have never worked for a local authority. The organisations they work for – long established housing charities, housing co-ops or other mutuals have never been under the control of the local authority and they have no interest in being so.

Many of these members will be very concerned that it is implied that their hard work can only be 2nd best. Now I think that this was never intended and just the result of poor drafting and I appreciate that this point was based upon previous conference policy. But this is something I think that the new Community Service Group will have to take up via the union structures and bring back to NDC. We cannot have 2 tiers of membership in our union.

Finally conference, let us go back to what will unite all of us. Decent housing is a basic and fundamental human right. We don’t believe that public housing is the “tenure of the last resort” nor the Tory libel that they are “barracks of the poor”.

Let us work for and call for victory in this Battle of Ideas with the Right - and for the next government to give birth to a renaissance of public housing.

Good quality homes, affordable, accountable and secure. And most importantly of all conference – make sure that we build enough of them.

Conference – I move".

(Picture Dan McCurry - A lovely shot. Dawn/Rebirth etc)

UNISON NDC 2011: "I move that the question be put"

These are the last couple of planned posts about UNISON NDC conference 2011.  I must mention the dreaded procedural motion 12.  This is when to move along conference business for whatever reason (or if you don't like the next prospective speaker) a delegate can sit in the in "point of order" chair and have the right to move that there is an immediate vote that "the question be put".  If this is passed then, save for a right of reply, the motion or amendment is put to the vote without further speakers. 

A number of delegates spend a great deal of time and trouble writing out speeches which are never delivered.  This year I was bumped off from speaking on Rule Change 6 and motion 65 by such points of order. 

It can be very frustrating but such is conference life.  The President can advise the conference that in their opinion there has been insufficient speakers heard, but usually conference gets bored with speeches and votes to close the debate.

I'll post next my speech on our branch motion 54 "The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing" which ran out of time to be debated (it was next on the agenda when conference closed). Ironically of course, if we had hurried up business on the Friday afternoon by moving the question be put we would have been able to debate this important motion.  "C'est la vie!"

UNISON NDC 2011: Rule Change Schedule F Branch Finance

On Thursday afternoon at NDC it is rule change time.  This is my speech on supporting Schedule F.  I went to a Finance fringe the previous evening and quickly gathered that this proposed rule change was in trouble.  There were genuine concerns by delegates but also the usual suspects were just out to cause trouble. The rule change was lost. This is a shame, but there you go.  Here is my speech:

President, Conference, John Gray, Housing Association Branch, Greater London Region speaking in favour of this Rule Change.

Conference, I am speaking as a former treasurer of a large branch which employed staff and had hundreds of thousand pounds in various saving accounts and industrial action funds. We even had in our accounts, strangely enough for a trade union, two hundred pounds of British government War bonds from Second World War, which I tried to redeem, but couldn't since we had lost the actual certificates sometime in the dim and distance past. I have also been a regional finance convenor for the past 5 years. I am now a branch secretary with practically no reserves yet we employ four staff - so money and good financial governance is vital.  We have 4 workers saleries to pay each month.

Conference, I have done a number of different jobs for the union. But to be honest the job of branch treasurer was one of the most difficult and most worrying. Not being that good at maths probably didn’t help. But making sure that this huge amount of money, more money that I had ever come across before in my life, was safe and secure and any use was properly accounted for was a worry. I also felt that the interest we received was grossly inadequate and did not protect the union’s money against inflation.

I appreciate that the great majority of branches are already well run and have sound financial procedures. But we must face the facts that some are not. NDC all of us must take responsibility for enabling the union to safe guard all our monies not just NEC. 

Conference I think that this proposal is complex as all financial matters are but potentially a good move for branches and for the union. We can satisfy our external auditors and the inland revenue that our money is being looked after properly, legally and it is safe.  

It will remove some, not all, of the everyday headaches, that treasurers and branch secretaries face. It will also increase income to branches at a time when you will need every penny you can get to defend your members.

Finally conference, I understand people have concerns but we are in a union. By definition a union is a collective organisation. We have spent a great deal of time this week defending collective investments such as our pensions, collective rights and agreements over pay and conditions and taking collective industrial action to achieve our aims. 

A collective financial policy is better than a series of individual ones. Collective investments are going to be better than individual investments. Conference, Please support this rule change.

UNISON NDC 2011: Motion 89 Palestine

On Wednesday afternoon I spoke in favour of this important and controversial motion. In the past UNISON conference had voted to break links with Histadrut, the Israeli trade union organisation over its support of Israeli state policy towards Palestine.

Last year Conference voted for its NEC to review this policy. The NEC did so and carried out a fact finding mission to Palestine, including meeting up with representatives of its major union, the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU).

During this visit UNISON representatives believe that they were clearly told that the PGFTU wanted them to not break off all links with Histadrut since there were advantages to the Palestine cause  from us having a "critical engagement" policy. 

However, the motion was defeated when a number of speakers claimed that the PGFTU wanted us to continue to boycott and made reference to statements made by its leadership which appeared to clearly support that view.  This I think caused widespread confusion amongst delegates and led to the motion being lost. 

I have never been to Palestine (or Israel for that matter) and I am not in anyway an "expert" in these things but I suspect that the PGFTU do see tactical advantages for them if UNISON had links with Histadrut but they do not wish to do so publicly.

See what happens next year.

UNISON NDC 2011: Protect our Pensions Fringe

On Tuesday lunch time there was a very well attended fringe on "Protecting our Pensions".  It was chaired by NEC member Steve Warwick, Roz Norman (Health service Group), Glyn Jenkins (UNISON Head of pensions)and Mo Baines (LGPS Pension rep). 
I missed the beginning.

In the Q&A I asked whether or not the true cost of past employer contribution holidays and lower than needed contributions had ever been calculated by the unions? If employers had always paid what they should have paid, what would our schemes look like now? 

I had been to a conference recently were it was asserted by a well known financial figure that £50 billion pounds had been taken (stolen says I ?) from final salary schemes due to past contribution holidays and reductions. Glyn responded by say thing he thought such a figure seemed plausible but he knows that for many years - employers paid far, fair less into schemes than employees.

My argument is of course that if the employers had paid in the traditional 10-12% of earnings into occupational pensions schemes every year for the past 30 years then things would look very different in the pension world than they do now. 

In other words many pension scheme members face now being Robert Maxwelled (aka robbed) due to the past misappropriation (theft?) of contributions?

UNISON NDC 2011: Composite Motion E – Cuts are not the Cure

This is a picture of Joel Bodmer, who was also a delegate from Housing Association Branch.  Joel is the Branch Young member and Media officer.  He spoke in favour of Composite E and used his own experience as a mental health support worker to describe the impact of the cuts.  Not only on staff but also on clients and services.

Stephen Brown, the Chair of the Community Service Group Executive also spoke about the £5 billion in cuts that the voluntary and community sector will face.

In our sector there are rogue employers who are deliberately undercutting the good ones in Supporting People bids. Once they win the bids they then slash the pay and conditions to TUPE staff and reduce care to vulnerable clients. A real race to the gutter by employers who claim to be socially responsible organisations. What rubbish! The branch is putting together a plan to tackle such abuses in our region. 

Joel is a UNISON Labour Link levy payer and a Labour Party activist in Brixton. He was recently elected as a Greater London representative to the UNISON Labour Link national forum which takes place next month in Liverpool.

UNISON NDC 2011: Guardian Focus Podcast "Unions Strike back".

This Guardian audio podcast was posted yesterday here.  The first 10 minutes were recorded on Tuesday morning at UNISON conference.

First they interviewed Karen Jennings (Head of UNISON Health), then me (Head of ums and uhs), Anne McCormack (Further Education), Monica Hirst (London Nurse), Mike Davey (London Nurse) and James Anthony (Birmingham nurse).

I think that (apart from me naturally) they gave a very good account of themselves and the reasons why UNISON members will go out on strike, if necessary, to defend their pensions.  They made calm but committed, articulate, logical and proportionate arguments.  No shouting, ranting or unintelligible sloganising.

This is the sort of modern, thoughtful trade unionism that will help win this dispute (...and drive the Tory tabloid gutter press bonkers with frustration).

UNISON NDC 2011: End of Conference

I’m on the crowded 5.15pm train back to London after the close of UNISON conference. Yet again I am amazed to discover there is life outside the conference bubble.

I was chatting to my fellow passengers - an Easy Jet pilot and a Northern Irish tyre production manager, who unbelievably have no interest, what-so-ever, in standing order committee reports, points of order, the two tier code or even the infamous UNISON Friday afternoon snake. What strange people?

I have a touch of the “conference lergie”, which I hope I can shake off when I get some sleep and fresh air.

On the whole, I thought it was a good conference. The union is very united when it comes to opposing the cuts, especially over Pensions. This is despite the best efforts of a small but vocal minority who constantly attack the union and want to divide us. There was a bit of a row over policy towards Palestine and a finance rule change. Which was a shame, but there was genuine concerns. I hope these issues are sorted by next year.

I didn’t have time to post that often during conference but will catch up over the next few days. These posts will be well out of sequence but bear with me.

In the morning there was a good debate on the stupidity of Police civilian administration staff being made redundant to “save money” then giving their jobs to uniformed Police officers who cost twice as much as them to employ.

The Chair of Standing Orders Clytus Williams gave his traditional end of conference final report. A Karaoke style musical finale - to loud applause.

There was a motion on supporting members in the private and community sectors followed by another one on campaigning with the community and voluntary sector to fight the cuts. I tried to speak on the 2nd one but the motion was closed down before it was my turn. I’ll post my speech anyway later. In the afternoon we (Housing Association branch delegates) were disappointed that we just ran out of conference time to move and debate branch our motion on “The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing”. But these things happen. But I can always post that speech as well!

The closing session is a vote of thanks to this years’ President, the no nonsense, Angela Lynes, for her term of office and past service to the Union. It is half humorous and half serious. The President is gently teased with pictures of her as a toddler flashed on the main screen while also recounting her time as President and her past service as the branch secretary of Glasgow City.

Straight after conference I went to my first meeting as a member of the UNISON National Executive Council. Which, when I catch up on my sleep (next month?) I will probably blog about.

So – a good conference. The forces of light and reason largely triumphed. UNISON is in very good shape to protect members and public services from this Tory led government and its ideologically driven hatred of public service workers and any form of collective provision.

Next year - Bournemouth.

(Caption shows Scottish newspaper “The Daily Record” in 1999 attacking Angela as being “hard left”.)

UNISON NDC 2011: Building a Future for Public Housing

These are some of my notes from the UNISON housing fringe on Monday evening. The meeting was chaired by Heather Wakefield, Head of Local Government. Other speakers were Lord Whitty (Housing Voice) and Mo Baines (APSE). I was billed for the first time as “NEC”.

Aim: What are housing associations up to and how will they respond to government policy?

Does the so called “affordable rent” model make any sense? Is it viable? Will it work for housing associations and those seeking decent, affordable homes?

Key points Housing Associations are operating in a difficult financial environment. Almost ££50 billion of debt is held by larger housing associations (with more than a thousand homes), £18 billion will be paid through re-financing. Housing associations see re-financing as a threat, as rates on new loans are likely to be higher than those currently held.

Under the new system housing associations will get, on average, about £32k per new home, instead of £80k that they received previously. They will be expected to make the difference by charging higher rents – at 80 per cent of the market rate – and use the increase in rents to support more borrowing. The government hope that this model, based on lower grant per home but increased borrowing, will deliver 150,000 new affordable homes by 2015. Remember this is not only on new build but could be also for existing stock.

A recent survey by Inside Housing magazine suggest that while the majority of the largest associations will make bids to gov to build homes under the new system, the extra risk and borrowing is leading to associations scaling back development plans. We will know more in July, when the Homes and Communities Agency awards contracts.

It is also becoming blatantly obvious that this new funding system doesn’t work for all regions. Whilst the difference between existing social rent (which as a rule of thumb is about 50% of market rent) and an 80% of market affordable rent in the South East is in the region of £60 per week, in the Midlands and the North it ranges from about £17 to about £25. Unsurprisingly such associations aren’t likely to generate the kinds of revenue that would enable the model to work.

UNISON, as a housing union, operating in an environment in which half of the public housing is delivered by housing associations and half by local authorities and ALMOs, has to work out two sets of issues. The first set of issues are will this so called affordable rent, based on 80 per cent of market rents, will deliver more decent homes for our members and their families, and working people on low to middle incomes people more broadly.

We know from internal surveys that more of our members are in the private rented sector than the social rented sector, and that this where most people who can’t afford to buy now find themselves. Would this group of people see Affordable Rent as a better option than the private rented sector? How would it work alongside traditional social housing?

As yet we don’t the answers, but we can see problems. In London the average housing association rent on a two bedroom property is £102 per week. An Tory unaffordable rent would be £248. How many low paid workers could afford that? Clearly this is unsustainable – especially when considered alongside cuts to Local Housing Allowance. (housing benefit)

The second set of issues does the new funding system impact on the sustainability and character of housing associations as employers of our members and potential members. Can employers make the new arrangements work in a way which guarantees their survival, and the jobs of our members? Is the business model this implies one that necessarily entails a tougher environment for people at work in housing associations? We have the private sector companies claiming they could save money by managing staff and estates on behalf of housing association. Of course this will be by the slashing and burning of our terms and conditions.

Its already tough out there, with pay cuts and attacks on terms and conditions. Would this make things worse? But as well as a threat is this also an opportunity? Can we organise around this new model in a way that is appealing to housing workers?

Again its early days. The signs are that everyone is cautious about trying to implement this system in the current economic climate. The least we can do, as a union that wants to grow in the sector, with a wider commitment to the provision of affordable housing, is to watch carefully how these issues develop over the months ahead and be prepared to speak out and act as necessary.

UNISON NDC 2011: Forces of light & reason Quiz at last night's London Regional Reception

Guess who? :)

UNISON NDC 2011: Defending our Pensions Composite B

I managed to speak during this important debate. “President, Conference, John Gray Housing Association Branch, Greater London Region speaking in favour of Composite B.

Conference, also speaking as a member of the Community Service Group I think it is important to remember that it is not only it not only those in Health and Local government who face a bleak future in retirement. There are hundreds of thousands of workers who now work in the private and voluntary sector who depend and rely on public sector pensions for their future. In my own employer we have around 500 staff who like me, are still members of the local government pension scheme.

My members, like those in the traditional public sector, cannot afford a 50% hike in pension contributions. They have also suffered from years of no pay rises. Many who work in care and support have also seen their pay savagely cut due to the race to the gutter in Supporting People commissioning. They will be forced to leave the pension scheme.

So, in the Community Service Group we also face being robbed of our pensions. That is why, for the first time ever for many in my sector we are organising for strike action. However, delivering sustained and successful strike action is not going to be easy in any sector. That is why it is even more important than ever that our union keeps up the pressure on the government while working with our sister unions to organise effective campaigns, inform our members of the facts and carefully build for action. Caroline previously called it SMART

We have to recognise that our pension arrangements are different and sector specific. While we all face a common threat, we must make it clear to our members the exact reasons why we are calling for strike action and what we expect that particular action to achieve. Conference, the prize for us if this is successful will be worth it. Solid and committed strike action by everyone in UNISON. Conference please support this composite.

(Photo Phil Lewis)

UNISON NDC 2011: Abolition of Two Tier Code - Motion 28

This is a copy of my speech today on Motion 28: Abolition of Two Tier Code

"President, Conference, John Gray, Housing Association Branch, Greater London Region. Speaking in favour of Motion 28 and this amendment.

Conference, I am speaking as someone who was actually“contracted out” of a local authority without the benefit of the Two tier code and now the UNISON Secretary of a Branch that organises in over 160 employers and has to try and deal with the consequences of staff transfers "in" and "out" on a daily basis. London as a region also has a higher % of private contractors than the rest of the country. We therefore have to represent members in organisations where staff are on hugely different terms and conditions. One employer with 2000 staff has 15 different terms and conditions and 1000 different job descriptions. This will give you a flavour of what is to come unless you organise against it.

And what happens if you have all these workers on different terms and conditions? Apart from the obvious confusion about what annual leave entitlements and what sickness benefits a worker is getting. HR tell us that as a rule of thumb the add on costs to salary for a former local authority employer is £10k per year. For a directly recruited employee the add on cost is £5k. So, do the maths. It is inevitable that the employer will try repeat try and harmonise conditions and get everyone on the same job evaluation and the same terms.

Now, will these jobs be harmonised upwards or downwards? Again conference, do the maths. Regardless of TUPE some employers are trying to slash and burn pay and benefits and bring them down to the lowest possible levels. To be fair, some responsible employers have not done this. But, the inevitable but , what we have found that new terms and conditions tend to penalise already low paid manual and caring roles while rewarding the already higher paid managerial grades.

Conference, this is plea to organise your members against the coming onslaught. I don’t think people get it, they don’t know how bad it will get. They need to know, they need to get ready, they need to be ready to act. Conference, please support this amendment and motion".

I ve posted on this Two Tier Code outcome before here (and pinched the caption).  What do those who say that there is no difference between a Labour government and these CONDEM Tories say now?

UNISON Housing Association Branch NDC Blog

My branch has set up a NDC blog and twitter for our delegates to post on conference.  Check out the blog here. I haven't had the chance to post anything on it yet. Many thanks to Mary Powell for doing the leg work.

I will point out that I will not necessarily agree with all the posts (and comments).  The reports so far
will save me writing up some posts on this blog.

I do think that it is a good idea that delegates let their members know what is happening. It would be great to get more comments from branch members.

The twitter link is https://twitter.com/#!/unisonhousing

UNISON National Delegate Conference 2011

This morning the UNISON National Delegate Conference opened in Manchester. This is one of the largest trade union gatherings in the world. There are 1.4 million UNISON members and we have delegates from all over the UK representing public service workers.

I am there as part of the Housing Association branch delegation with Mary Powell and Joel Bodmer.

I spoke at a Housing fringe meeting yesterday evening (will post on it later) after the close of the Local Government Conference. After the fringe I went to the London regional welcome meeting to delegates. Next was a UNISON Labour Link social which was held in the historic Manchester City Hall.

There is huge media interest in this years’ conference due to the threat of strike action over pensions. I was interviewed briefly by Sky News. The main debate on Pensions will be on Wednesday. It is a shame that nowadays the media are only interested in trade unions when strikes are on the agenda. There will be a number of important debates during conference which will never be reported upon. Despite the fact that trade unions are still the biggest mass movement in the UK.

I was in Manchester at the same venue last September for the Labour Party conference. So I am getting to know the area quite well. This morning I went for a run to clear my head and prepare for the day. Just after 7am I ran past the conference hall and saw the UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, standing outside being interviewed by a film camera team. I gave him the thumbs up, got a grin in return then I ran back along the Rochdale canal.