Labour Housing Group: "How can the Labour Government Deliver on Housing"

 

On Saturday I went to this conference in Camden which had a great range of key note speakers and workshops.

Lots and lots of great ideas, changes and initiatives but I do worry that while the supply and condition of our housing stock can be improved by important changes such as planning reform, getting rid of no fault evictions and right to buy etc. 

We will not be able to build enough affordable homes without significant public subsidy. 

This is a huge problem since the Government simply does not have enough money to do everything it wants (and needs) to do. 

Lets see what happens at the Autumn budget this week. Fingers crossed but...

Affordable Housing Conference - "A Bold Plan for Local Authority to Deliver it’s own Housing"

My speech today at this "Affordable Housing" conference in central London.

"Thank you. As I think I am the only politician speaking today, I hope you will find our perspective of what we are doing in Newham of interest. 

First the bad stuff, which no one here should be surprised about but just needs saying.

Like many Councils up and down the country, Newham is desperately in need of good quality, affordable social homes. For too long supply has failed to keep pace with demand, and a series of damaging Government policies have compounded to result in a disastrous impact on the lives of our residents. As house prices and rents have rocketed in recent years, many of our residents continue to struggle on low incomes.

· In Newham, the impact is stark:

- Nearly half of all Newham residents are now in poverty once housing costs are accounted for.

- Over 28,000 households are currently on our housing waiting list

- More than 5,200 households are living in temporary accommodation(remember this figure).

- And not only does Newham has the highest number of homeless people in England – shockingly, we have 50% more children in temporary accommodation than in the entire north of England.

We have an ambitious local plan to tackle this national crisis – and we are calling on the government and partners for additional action that will help local government to step up the building of truly affordable homes.

Our central argument in that the market alone won’t deliver what people need – you need bold action from government, partners and from local authorities to drive forward affordable housing delivery.

We have set out demanding plans for direct housing delivery:

o 1,000 new Council owned homes at social rent in 4 years.

o 100 started in the first year

o Half of homes delivered in the borough to be genuinely affordable

Our recently agreed Local Plan sets out over the longer term that we will deliver 43,000 homes over 15 years. We have the land available in Newham, and we have the ambition to make a serious impact on London’s housing crisis. We want to work in partnership to do just that.

Our approach to delivering affordable housing has 3 main objectives.

1. Build

a. Direct delivery on Council owned sites &

b. More than 1,000 genuinely affordable homes paid for by grant

c. 1,000 homes for sale with all profits recycled into more affordable housing

2. Acquire

a. Buy into third party schemes

b. Increased provision for a mix of permanent and temporary solutions as part of a housing pathway of homeless prevention and advice

c. Make full use of RTB receipts. 

3. Secure

· Working within the planning system to increase genuinely affordable provision

· We have more than 4,000 affordable homes already with planning consent - of which 40 per cent have started

10 months in to our new administration in the borough, and we are already delivering:

We successfully bid for £107m from the Mayor of London’s Building Council Homes for Londoners Fund - the highest allocation of any London authority.

We have invested £500k to recruit a new housing delivery team, enabling us to have capacity and step up delivery

And we have made sure that our own housing delivery vehicle - Red Door Ventures – is focused on delivering the genuinely affordable homes that Newham needs. RVD is a 100% council-owned company, will be an important driver in the delivery of affordable homes in the borough in the coming years.

There is much more to do – but we want to work in partnership to deliver the genuinely affordable homes that Newham needs. For example, we are also actively looking into with other LA and investors whether our Council pension funds should invest in social housing.

Of course, this cannot just be about numbers of units – we need to involve people in the process. The key phrase of our administration in Newham is ‘putting people at the heart of everything we do’. That means genuinely involving people in decisions – including major decision about their local area.

There has been a strong feeling in Newham and many other communities that regeneration does nothing for the existing local residents – that it displaces local people and just pushes up rents.

It is a feeling that has developed over recent years as the housing crisis has worsened, despite major developments and luxury flats springing up across the capital. And it has also developed because local people do not feel sufficiently consulted and involved in the process. They have often felt ignored

So we will also be pioneering new engagement approaches to involve residents in decision making – in major development like the Carpenters Estate in Stratford.

Finally, as the only politician on the panel, I do need to point out the changes we need from government. We have ambitious plans in Newham. But we continue to be shackled by disastrous Government policies.

The housing crisis is worsened by the government’s damaging and poorly implemented welfare reforms.

And while the lifting of the HRA cap is welcome, we need more funding for local authorities to build the social homes that we need. We need subsidy to make homes truly affordable.

Crucially, we also need to see an end to the Right to Buy (RTB) policy, which continues to strip away our social safety net depriving our residents of hundreds of desperately needed social homes:

Since 1982, Newham Council has lost almost 10k (9,707) social homes to RTB. 1/3 of our stock. The high discounts, the low qualification period, and the restrictions around the use of RTB receipts also mean that it is almost impossible for LA to replace these greatly needed homes.

RTB not delivering its original intention of helping social tenants to purchase and live in their own home. Instead, it is increasingly supporting the growth of the private rented sector - it is shocking that nearly half of all these 10k properties purchased through RTB in Newham are now in the private rented sector. Remember I said earlier we have just over 5k homeless households. Do the maths

England needs to follow the example of Scotland and Wales and end RTB, as a crucial part of a package that will help LAs deliver Localism but also the homes we need in a sustainable way.

Thank you for listening

25% so-called "Affordable" Housing is not enough! West Ham Branch Labour Canvass & Petition about former Ford Car showrooms development.

Picture collage from last Sunday when I was with Cllr John Whitworth and a West Ham CLP Labour team campaigning in my ward, West Ham. We were again asking for signatures for a branch petition calling for more social housing on the proposed development of the former Ford Car showrooms in 259 Plaistow Road, E15. Every resident I spoke to signed the petition.

There is a meeting of the Newham Council Strategic Planning Committee this Tuesday 20 February 2018 at 6pm at the Old Town Hall in Stratford to decide on the application.  Councillor Whitworth and I have asked for speaking rights on opposing the application. Other local Party activists are also attending.

I am really disappointed that Council officers have decided to recommend that the committee accepts the developers offer of only 25% of the development being for so-called "affordable" homes and not the 35-50% required according to the Newham Plan and the 50% requirement according to the GLA London wide (draft) plan.

This is a significant development with 323 homes proposed.

Below is copy of an email that we sent to Council officers about the development last year

“Dear Deirdra, In response to your letter to residents, inviting them to comment on the application to develop the 259 Plaistow Road site, we as ward councillors would like to state that we will only support this application if the Assessed in Section 8 of the report. London Borough of Newham,259 Plaistow Road, E15 3EU proportion of agreed affordable housing is in the 35-50% range and that 60% of this is social housing. This is, of course, a requirement of Newham’s housing policy. We believe that we reflect a strong feeling in the ward and beyond that this site should yield a large number of much needed social housing units. 

Thank you for your attention. 
Regards, 

Cllr Freda Bourne, Cllr John Gray, Cllr John Whitworth West Ham Ward”

While I understand that that there are legal restrictions on what Council officers and planning committees can consider in such applications, I think it should be rejected and the developers told to go away and come back with a fresh proposal with far more social housing to be included. I believe that the developers will face very significant local opposition including lawful direct action if this does not happen.

Check out my previous post here  and there is still time to sign the on line petition 

Our Tory Housing Future

Please read (and then weep) this examination of the new Tory Housing and Planning Bill on the blog Red Brick. In housing, as with the cuts in child tax credits, I don't think that people "get" just how right wing and extremist this Government is behaving. 

Councils will be stopped from building social housing with money raised from the section 106 levy on new developments, while at the same time they will be forced to sell off each year part of their already diminished existing housing stock to pay for the right to buy bribe to Housing Associations. 

Starter homes will be unaffordable for most and will even drive up prices further.

Where on earth are low income families going to live in the future? Shanty towns on the outskirts of our cities and towns. These really will be "Barracks for the Poor".

If you are a Council or Housing Association tenant your income and savings will now be compulsory means tested at pain of criminal prosecution. If you and your partner (or if you have an adult child living with you that works) earn more than £15,000 per year (£20k in London) you will be forced to pay full market rates (your rent will probably double - driving even more people onto benefits). 

It is more than ironic that such a right wing Conservative government is furthering its social and economic agenda by effectively nationalising (and stealing) Council assets and implementing state rent control and forced sales over private assets (belonging to housing associations and charities).

The only "good" thing to come out of this is a lesson for a future Labour government that nationalisation and state control is obviously perfectly acceptable. I shall look forward to the Labour government learning this lesson and exercising its power in the interests of working people and not just the rich. 

Social Rents in Newham are the highest in country

UPDATE: I have seen an email circulated that these figures only refer to rents charged by private registered social housing landlords (not council housing). This is even more strange. Why does Newham have the highest RSL rents in the country? What controls do we have as a Council over RSL rents? What are average rents for Council owned properties? What is the impact does the Council controlled RSL "Local Space" or the former Olympic athletes accommodation in East Village? I will update my Cllrs enquiry once I get a full reply.

"Figures showing the borough has the least affordable social housing in the country have prompted calls for action from campaigners and MP Stephen Timms.

Newham came top of 338 locations with an average rent of £128.89 a week, the Office for National Statistics data covering England and Wales revealed, but the borough was bottom when it came to pay in the capital, with average gross weekly salaries of £111.10".

I was genuinely shocked to see this report in the Newham Recorder last week. I'll raise a Councillors members enquiry to find out why the Council thinks our rents are so high.  Newham is still a relatively low cost housing area in London? Are Housing associations rents to blame? Or are the so called "affordable" (80% average of market) rents for many new Council tenants?

Average weekly social housing rent as a % of 10th percentile gross weekly salary: The 10 highest and lowest areas, England & Wales, 2014
	Local authority code	Local authority name	Weekly average social housing rent as a % of 10th percentile gross weekly salary: The 10 highest and lowest areas
	W06000001	Isle of Anglesey	43.73
	W06000010	Carmarthenshire	47.55
	E09000019	Islington	48.06
	W06000006	Wrexham	48.25
	E07000120	Hyndburn	49.79
	E07000122	Pendle	50.81
	E06000047	County Durham	51.35
	E07000140	South Holland	52.35
	E09000013	Hammersmith and Fulham	52.87
	E07000172	Broxtowe	52.88
	E09000002	Barking and Dagenham	102.47
	E07000239	Wyre Forest	103.27
	E07000065	Wealden	104.54
	E07000070	Chelmsford	107.80
	E07000069	Castle Point	110.63
	E07000179	South Oxfordshire	111.26
	E07000144	Broadland	111.57
	E07000037	High Peak	112.81
	E09000025	Newham	116.01
	E07000207	Elmbridge	122.93
	Source: Office for National Statistics, Stats Wales and Valuation Office Agency

Focus 15, Occupation and the Carpenters Estate

It was good to read on Friday that Newham had managed to let out some of the long term void properties on the Carpenter Estate to homeless residents.

I had received a large number of complaints by ward constituents and many other people about the way that the Council had dealt with the occupation by Focus 15 mothers and their supporters of 4 flats on the Estate.

At the Full Council meeting on 29 September, Cllr Rokhsana Fiaz OBE and I raised emergency formal questions to the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales.  After the meeting there had been unacceptable violent and aggressive scenes outside East Ham Town hall by some supporters of the occupation.

Later that week on the way home from work, I went to visit the occupation with my fellow West Ham ward Cllr, John Whitworth. A number of Newham Councillors had visited the site.  Relatives of Councillors and local Labour Party members were also assisting the occupation.

John and I spoke to Focus 15 Mums and supporters in what turned out to be a 30 minutes long outdoor discussion on the future of affordable housing in London (and elsewhere).  This debate was at times passionate and pretty lively but generally polite and constructive.

My basic argument was that it had been accepted that Newham Council had not always acted properly with the Focus 15 Mums (the Mayor has apologised) the problem of affordable housing is a wider political issue. To make housing affordable in a high rent area such as London someone has to subsidise the cost. In the past the State used to accept responsibly for ensuring that its people had access to safe, secure and (truly) affordable homes. Even the Tories in the 1950s used to compete with Labour on who could build the most homes each year on a social rent (50% of market rent).

Councils and Housing Associations can always manage their stock and developments better but until the State puts its hand in its pockets and takes its responsibly to people seriously again then we will not solve the housing crisis in this Country. Instead of wasting money on housing benefit we should be investing this in homes but this will not be enough. Subsidy requires money....lots of money. This is a political truth that we will all have to grapple with.

Unfortunately John and I were not able to actually visit the block since by the time our discussion was over the campaigners were holding an urgent meeting to discuss legal issues regarding the pending court case by the Council to recover the properties.

Why there is a rural housing crisis

This article was published in Country Standard Summer 2013 page 9. "By John Gray UNISON Housing Association Branch Secretary and National Executive Council Member

Why is it that there is a massive shortage of rural housing when all Councillors support affordable housing yet not enough is built ? Is this because the government is not funding housing associations or Councils to build?

Despite the crocodile tears of Government ministers and many rural councils about the massive shortage of affordable homes in the countryside for local people, the reasons are actually pretty straight forward and can be solved.

Firstly, the Nimby’s (Not In My Back Yard) Brigade. Often you find that those who are adequately housed in attractive countryside don’t want more homes to be built that they think may spoil their view out of the garden conservatory. Especially if these homes are thought to house possible “working class people”!

Changes to planning law means that Councils are not obliged to insist on the building of affordable homes if they don’t want to - and many don’t, they simply don’t care, regardless of the need.

We also seem to think that converting large chunks of the so called “green belt” into huge, ugly exploitative factory farms, often set up solely to take advantage of generous EU and UK government subsidies is preferable to building some new homes.

The countryside has in too many areas been colonised by a blight of retirement bungalows and weekend second homes for our wealthy urban middle class elites. As well as wreaking village communities by destroying local schools, shops and pubs. This results also in the double whammy of a lack of supply of homes and a very high demand - which pushes up prices completely out of reach for those who do not have access to a wealthy Bank of Mum and Dad.

There is also far less existing social housing in rural areas than urban (13% compared to 22%) as well as low wages and lack of jobs. The disastrous government policy of the so called “affordable rents” regime for new properties (and in many cases the new lettings of existing stock) costing up to 80% of market rents compared to the traditional social rent of 50% of market rates is another death nail. The barking mad destruction of the Agricultural Wages Board which will even lower pay is yet another.

The Bankers crisis and the huge cuts in housing investment by this Tory Government have of course just made the problem far, far worse.

There is some hope for the future since it seems that there is antidotal evidence at least that Tory MPs are being button holed in their Conservative Association Clubs by angry members who are fed up with their kids living at home until in their thirties, since even their offspring cannot afford their own place.

There is also concern expressed that there is no “help” available anymore to clean their homes, do their gardens or serve their food and drink at the local posh restaurant.

There are signs that the Countryside is turning and there is a feeling that enough is enough. Labour Councillors are now being returned in Shire and district Council elections up and down the country. This month in rural Dorset we will celebrate the Tolpuddle Martyrs and remember a time when the countryside was at the forefront of radical politics.

Maybe, just maybe, our contemporary rural poverty and homelessness may spark something a little similar.

Housing Voice ‘To Have or Have Not? Taking Responsibility for Tomorrow's Affordable Homes Today"

I left TUC Congress early today to return to London for this morning's launch of the Housing Voice report at the House of Commons.

Housing Voice is an independent affordable housing alliance with cross party political support. For the past year they have carried out a national inquiry, taking evidence up and down the Country.

Over 60 organisations and 3000 individuals have given evidence. Today the report was published. I was there to make a response on behalf of UNISON. This is the press release and full report.

 

There was around 40 people present including MPs from all the main political parties. On the main panel was Liberal Democratic Stephen Gilbert MP (who said he was the only MP to be still living at home with his parents), Conservative Mark Pawsey MP and Labour Shadow Housing Minister, Jack Dromey MP. 

Not everyone agreed with everything in the report but there was more consensus than I expected.

There is lots and lots of good proposals but one of the big ideas is to use £5 billion of the recently announced £50 billion in Quantitative Easing (QE) to buy low interest housing bonds rather than government gilts. This money is then used to invest in affordable housing. 

 

In many ways the problem and solution to the crisis in affordable housing is the bleeding obvious. There is an absolute shortage of homes in all tenures - home ownership, social housing and private rented. Nearly everyone gets this big picture, this is why nearly 50% of UNISON members have grown up children still living at home.

Supply and demand means that cost of housing in many parts of the UK is simply unaffordable.  The only market solution to reduce cost is to build more new homes. The only social solution is to build more new homes with genuinely affordable rents.

 

Over the next 3 years we will spend only £4.5 billion on building new social homes while we spend a staggering £93 billion on housing benefit.

Lord Larry Whitty introduced the report by saying such is the crisis 250k new homes are needed each year for the next 20 years. Last year only 110k were built.

 

The problem is not planning permission, nor is it a land bank (supply) problem. With huge unemployment in construction and development, capacity is not a blockage either. The problem is money.

Extra government support and QE can be used to provide that money, build affordable homes and get Britain working again. Get people off the dole and build homes, get them paying taxes and spending money in the economy. 
 

I also picked on the recommendation that pension funds are encouraged to invest in new homes. While it is the responsibly of the state to make sure and enable their citizens to have adequate shelter. I can say as a pension trustee that schemes are crying out for suitable vehicles to invest in long term, secure, inflation linked products such as residential housing.

The problem lies with many advisers and fund managers who think its all just "too difficult" and prefer investing in warehouses and retail because that is what they are use to.  Unlike the rest of the world where pension schemes actively invest in residential property.   

Appropriately the meeting stopped at 11.30 just after the Parliamentary bell rang for prayers. I'm not religious but I did have another bleeding obvious thought.

 

(I was pleased that afterwards Jack Dromey MP agreed to speak at a future meeting of my UNISON Housing Association branch). Check out Red Brick account of meeting here.

Homes under Threat! Boris plan v. Ken's plan

Great template leaflet from London Labour Housing Group for Social Housing residents (double click to bring up detail) but I think everyone is interested in affordable housing.

London Labour Housing Group AGM

On Monday evening after TUC I went to the first annual general meeting of the London branch of the Labour Housing Group (LHG). The LHG is a Socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party concerned with Housing. The meeting took place in the House of Commons and was chaired by Steve Hilditch. The room was full.

Steve welcomed everyone. He reminded us that 300 people turned up to first open meeting of the London branch which shows how important housing is in the capital.

London Assembly member for Housing, Nicky Gavron introduced the LLHG report “Housing Policies for London”. Nicky spoke about the need to defeat the Tories and elect Ken. Boris is working hand in glove with the government and has given the green light to his Tory friends to get rid of social housing in London.

The guest speaker was John Cruddas MP. Jon was open about the failing of the Labour government over housing. It did a lot of good things but while he understood Labour policy over health and education he never did on housing. It is strange that housing is so important in MP surgeries but not a tension in Westminster itself. Housing did not even feature in Tony Blair’s first cabinet. There is some evidence that housing is moving up the agenda. He made an interesting point linking housing to the financial crisis due to the need to produce complicated financial products that resulted in sub-prime investments. He is thinking about affordable rent models that will also house families who would not be entitled to Council or housing association homes - with different levels of rent. The housing crisis does give opportunities to try new things.

Next was an opportunity for those present to make their contributions and share their experiences on Housing policy. Clive Efford MP turned up to listen as well. There was the usual grass roots Labour Party robust exchange of views. Many had passionate and very personal views on housing in London. My contribution was that we must firstly all work together to get rid of the Tories starting with Boris  before we can get anything done.

The meeting was I thought another successful milestone for the new branch. We now have a committee made up of tenants and leaseholders, Councillors, housing workers, academics and many other ordinary members of the Party who want to do something about housing. Putting the housing world to rights continued afterwards in the St Stephens Tavern.

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)

"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.