Ed Miliband's Promises to Britain

"People sometimes say that they don't know what we — what I — stand for, so I'll put this in the simplest terms I can, John. This country is too unequal, and we need to change it.

So here are the promises I'm making to you about the kind of Britain I will lead:

First, I will undo the damage the Tories have done to our country:

• I will scrap the Bedroom Tax, which unfairly punishes the disabled and the vulnerable
• I will scrap the Health and Social Care Act, which damages and undermines our NHS
• I will scrap the gagging law, which limits our freedom of speech and right to campaign
• I will reverse the Tories' £3bn tax cut for millionaires, so we get the deficit down but do it fairly

Second, I will take on the powerful vested interests that hold millions back:

• I will force energy companies to freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017
• I will give power back to those who rent their homes, by scrapping letting fees and stabilising tenancy agreements
• I will raise money from tobacco companies, tax avoiders, and a mansion tax to fund doctors, nurses, careworkers and midwives for our NHS
• I will reform our banks so that they properly support small businesses
• I will stop recruitment agencies hiring only from abroad

Third, I will start to rebuild a fairer, better Britain:

• I will raise the minimum wage, to ensure that everyone that does a hard day's work is properly rewarded
• I will promote the living wage by giving tax breaks to companies that pay it
• I will ban the damaging zero-hours contracts that exploit British workers
• I will bring in a lower 10p income tax rate, cutting taxes for 24 million workers
• I will support working parents with 25 hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds
• I will help more young people get on the housing ladder by getting 200,000 homes built every year 

"Eviction notices surge by 26%"

An alarming story today from "Inside Housing" magazine. "The survey shows the landlords issued 99,904 notices seeking possession for rent arrears in April to November this year, compared with 79,238 for the same period in 2012 - a 26 per cent increase".

The survey is of social tenants who rent from Councils and Housing Associations. It is clear that not only is bedroom tax a major cause but also the cost of living crisis since due to years of falling wages many tenants just don't earn enough to pay the rent. I wonder what impact the new Tory so called "affordable" (up to 80% of market) rents" have had on this statistic?

I suspect that things can only get worse. Councils have been able to distribute some temporary relief from a discretionary Government fund. But this is too little and running out.

What will also happen when the total benefit cap begins to really bite?

Private landlords have also seen evictions soar according to this report. 

Many years ago I took part in an eviction of a family home as a housing officer just before Christmas. The tenant had ignored all contact with the rent officers and Courts. He hadn't told his wife about what was happening. The first thing she knew about it was when the bailiff and locksmith knocked on the door while she was cooking food for her children. She had to leave there and then with her Children and a suitcase, while we put her in a taxi to the Council homeless unit for emergency rehousing in a grotty bed and breakfast.

That is the reality of evictions. It is the innocent and vulnerable who will suffer the most. 

Housing workers face more violence due to welfare cuts

Well done to Inside Housing magazine (again) for their recent survey of housing workers. 83% believe that they face more risk of violence at work due to welfare cuts and 41% feel less safe than they did 12 Months ago.

I had been interviewed by their reporter and was quoted "Housing officers are going to be expected to evict model tenants who have never caused any problems, who due to austerity and welfare reforms [are unable to pay their rent]. It is expected that tenants and their relatives are going to get angry.’

In a second article looking at a rise in verbal and physical assaults during the past 12 months there was a number of horrendous quotes from different housing staff who are shouted and sworn at on a weekly basis; kicked; punched; shot at with a air rifle; had a bowling ball thrown at them from a high rise; threats to kill; threats to burn down their homes and kidnap their children.

What is also worrying is that 75% of staff believe that their employer is not doing enough to protect them and 25% think it is pointless reporting such incidents to their boss since it would be a "waste of time". They also believe cuts in staffing levels have made the risk worse.

Until we can get rid of this Tory led coalition government unions and employers must work together to try and keep housing staff safe. We need more union safety reps who must be given sufficient time off to be trained, attend joint safety committees, properly inspect workplaces and constantly review updated risk assessments.

Employers need to put their hands in their pockets and fully resource their health and safety advisers, buy decent and up to date protective equipment for staff and most importantly - stop threatening to evict those tenants who cannot pay bedroom tax. There are other ways to collect debt and in many places there is no suitable smaller alternative accommodation to offer them.

Rowenna Davis "What could One Nation Look like under Labour?"

I've been catching up on a back log of blogs based on my twitter feeds from events I have attended. This picture is of journalist, author and Labour Councillor, Rowenna Davis, speaking to West Ham Labour Party General Committee last month on March 28 at our Stratford HQ.

Each month the GC invites a political guest speaker to address the committee and take questions.  Rowenna wrote the book "Tangled up in Blue: Blue Labour and the Struggle for Labour's Soul".

Rowenna started off well by describing how she got her Labour values while on the play grounds of a South London state school but she showed her sarf origins by getting her East London geography slightly wrong and thought she was on the other side of the River Lea.

She rightly attacked the disgraceful Curzen Cinema chain for lauding middle class lefty films while treating its workforce like dirt, with poverty pay and zero hours contracts. New Labour was wrong to push the market so that the State provides less. Labour now has to collectivise and organise to change society.

What “Blue Labour” is really about is decent jobs and homes. There use to be a social contract that if you worked hard at school you would end up with a decent job. This has now gone.

She thought that the bedroom tax is so unfair since it is a symptom of an economy dominated by London with its desperate shortage of housing while there is rows of empty homes in the north.

She supported the German regional bank model with worker reps on company boards as the best way to raise wages, improve sick benefits and pensions.

In the Q&A I thanked her for being in affect the first speaker on the West Ham Ward and UNISON Housing Association motion on a “Living Wage Plus for all in Newham”. Which was later passed by the GC with a large majority (including even Newhams own "Red Tel").

Poll Tax 1990: Bedroom Tax 2013

I remember it well. Will history repeat itself? Hat tip Ferric Streets

Bedroom Tax Protest Rally Manchester 16 March 2013

Picture from yesterday's (Saturday 16 March) lunchtime Bedroom Tax protest and mass rally in Manchester Piccadilly. Charity worker Isobel McVicar from Manchester Local Government Branch, who is also my fellow UNISON Community NEC member had organised an adjournment to our Conference for delegates to attend and support the rally.

The Bedroom Tax is a major issue to the Community members up and down the country. Not only are they going to be the workers who have to deal face to face with the resulting misery from vulnerable tenants due to the Bedroom Tax, but is is clear that many specialist Housing Association and voluntary organisations risk going under due to the whole gambit of Tory/Lib Dem welfare cuts.

Centre picture is of top UNISON and Labour movement activists Angela Rayner and Maureen Le Marinel. Angela is the branch sectary of UNISON Stockport Local Government branch and Maureen is of course one of our two UNISON National Vice Presidents.

Angela is standing for selection as the Labour Party candidate for Manchester Withington. What a superb MP she would make.

Tell David Cameron to drop the Bedroom Tax...

"From April 13,000 millionaires are getting a tax cut worth £100,000 a year on average while over 600,000 households - including armed forces families, disabled people and foster carers - have to find £728 a year to pay a new bedroom tax.

This isn’t about tough choices, it’s about the wrong choices.

Join our campaign and tell David Cameron to stop the Bedroom Tax".

Tory Whitehall crib sheet for attacks on poor and vulnerable

Great post stolen from Redbrick blog.
"From an anonymous correspondent

As welfare ‘reform’ and housing cuts bite ever harder, when do we reach the point where the government concedes that the hardship caused is an inevitable consequence of rebalancing the public finances and reducing the deficit? So far, they seem to be in deep denial.

This contrasts with the Thatcher era, because when she increased unemployment as a tool of economic policy, she at least admitted that the growth in joblessness was a price which was (on her reasoning) worth paying.

The Cameron government seems either to deny that there is any hardship or to blame anyone other than the ministers who have instituted the cuts. Whenever some new example of the horrendous effects of their policies (here’s a good example - Ed) is presented to them they have a range of stock responses.

We’ve been wondering if there is a standard Whitehall crib sheet for ministers. Well by sheer chance, we’ve been sent what looks like the housing and welfare crib sheet in a plain brown envelope.

In the interests of open government, here it is…

Say the cuts are avoidable. This is Eric’s favourite. The trick is to give the impression that all the cuts can be made painlessly by eliminating luxuries and sacking backroom staff. You can use his little list. Even the Prime Minister makes this excuse: at PMQs last week he accused councils of making high-profile cuts ‘to try to make a point’, not because they need to. Some people will believe him.

Blame the victims. This works well too. Extravagant housing benefit claims may only happen in a few isolated cases, but even so the press will lap them up, especially if they are large families, unemployed, migrants or – even better – all three. Give the impression that such claims make up most of the welfare budget. Whatever you do, don’t admit that over half of welfare spending goes to older people as they are seen as deserving of it. If talking about housing benefit, try to give the impression that it’s spent by the tenants themselves to fund their indolent lifestyles – whatever you do, don’t admit that the money goes to landlords who are pushing up rents because there are insufficient houses.

Use the keywords. We know it sounds boring, but you have to repeatedly refer to ‘scroungers’, ‘strivers not skivers’ and talk about ‘subsidised housing’ not council homes. This helps confirm the impression that most welfare spending is a waste of money. Suggestions for new and even more derogative terms are always welcome. IDS has made a good attempt to link welfare recipients in the public mind with drug addicts and alcoholics. Follow his lead.

Blame the previous government. It’s their fault we have too few homes. Focus on the fact that housebuilding in Labour’s last year was the worst they achieved, even though we know that was because of the credit crunch. Don’t admit either that (a) housebuilding under the coalition is on average 45,000 homes less per year than the output under Labour, or (b) that 2010/11 and 2011/12 were the two worst years since the war for English housebuilding.

Blame local government. So Westminster’s putting homeless families up in expensive hotels and Camden’s sending them to Coventry (or Leicester, or somewhere else absurdly far from London). Brilliant: we can say how stupid this is and tell them to stop, even though we know they can’t.

Don’t admit that policies to cut the welfare budget affect anything else. For example, some academics argue that cuts in benefits for private tenants mean that more of them will become homeless, or that more people will need accommodation with lower rents in the social sector. Deny that this will happen. If any evidence emerges that shows you’re wrong, under no circumstances must you agree with it. Better still, don’t read the evidence then no one can accuse you of knowing the facts but ignoring them. Alternatively, officials may be able to find an obscure or outdated source that on the surface appears to contradict the evidence: use it!

Deny that cuts are taking place. For example, is there any part of your budget that you have decided to protect, however small? Grossly exaggerate its importance. Take a lesson from Grant Shapps: every time someone said funding for homelessness was being cut and decimating services he would point to his department’s small fund for homelessness prevention, and claim that because it hadn’t been reduced then either services had been unaffected or – yes! – any cuts were local councils’ fault.

Apply a sticking plaster. It’s obvious to a fool that the scale of the welfare cuts must – in reality – mean massive hardship. Furthermore, Labour will find deserving cases (people dying of cancer, homeless ex-servicemen, that sort of thing). First, always offer to investigate the particular case, implying you might do something (even if you won’t). Second, point to the money that’s been set aside for special cases (e.g. discretionary housing payments). Never fail to give the impression that this is sufficient to deal with any genuine hardship. Mention the amount e.g. DHPs total £60 million in 2012/13. This will seem a large sum to the public even though it’s only a tiny fraction of the cuts taking place.

We’re dealing with it. Unfortunately some problems are so big and so obvious that you’ll have to pretend you’re doing something about them. For example, every fool knows builders have virtually stopped building. Given that the housing budget had one of the biggest cuts of all in the Spending Review there’s precious little we can do, but you must pretend otherwise. First, argue that output is going up even when it’s going down (NB. Don’t appear on Sunday Politics, choose programmes where they don’t do their research). Second, have some useful initiative available that sounds like it might solve the problem even if it’s far too small to make any difference.

Grant gave us NewBuy and FirstBuy, which both sound sufficiently impressive, but we might need to invent one or two more when people realise how inconsequential they are. Say we are selling more homes under right to buy as if this helps solve the problems, even if we aren’t and it doesn’t.

Joking aside, Richard Vize made the excellent point in the Guardian last week that Cameron and Co. are undermining local government and failing to prepare people for the depth of the cuts that are now hitting them – with much worse still in the pipeline. He says that ministers are ‘giving the impression that public services can indeed manage cuts without pain or profound change. They can’t.’ How can the coalition expect to be taken seriously as a government, if they make cuts on an unprecedented scale over a dangerously tight timescale, but refuse even to admit there might be consequences for public services?"

Soggy West Ham LabourDoorstep

Picture is from this morning's street surgery and doorstep in West Ham Ward, Newham, London. I had a traditional Councillor surgery in Vicarage Lane Community Centre beforehand.

During which I tried to help a constituent who is being forced to move due to the Tory Bedroom tax. S/he is a single parent in a 3 bedroom property with 2 young daughters who are now expected to share a bedroom, so s/he has to uproot them from friends and schools to move to a 2 bedroom.

When the children get older, will be be able to rehouse them in a 3-bedroom? Or will they have to share a bedroom until they leave home? Roll on General Election in 2015.

It began to rain a few minutes before we met up for the doorstep and continued off and on for the rest of the session. There were 4 of West Ham ward Labour Party finest,  Cllr Ron Manley, Secretary John Whitworth, Julieanne Marriot, Adam Tyndall (and of course me).

Things were a bit slow to start with lots of people out but eventually we picked up a new Labour Party member and lots of case work relating to recycling, parking, abandoned vehicles and I was even involved in trying to work out a land title problem between neighbours which was over 40 years old.

Hat tip pic Adam of Julieanne, John and John "on the knocker". 

How the bedroom tax works....

Search the Internet for "bedroom tax" and you will find mind bogglingly awful stories of families facing eviction and hardship because of it.

Steve Hilditch from Redbrick thinks that the Tory coalition may finally be politically vulnerable over this issue since it will impact all MPs constituencies.

Families whose children have died won't be able to pay the rent since their housing benefit will be restricted. They are deemed to be "under-occupying" (it's too big for them) their properties following the deaths of their children.

The mother whose son has joined the Army and is due to go to Afghanistan was told by Tory MP to "get a lodger".

I hope it does.

UNISON members who work in housing management will be placed in an impossible position. They will be expected to evict tenants on housing benefit whose children have left home even if they have been exemplary residents and have lived there all their lives. Established communities will be shattered.

This and the other "reforms" will also cost Councils and Housing Associations millions of pounds in arrears and extra administration. Money better spent on building new homes and kick starting the economy?

Click on picture to bring up details and decide for yourself who has too many bedrooms.