A Living Rent

This motion was passed at my branch AGM which took place in City Hall last week. It will be one of our motions submitted to our UNISON National Conference in June (the other on "Union Busting").

If people think a "Living Wage" makes sense, then what about a "Living Rent"?

The motion was ably moved by Branch Executive member, Peter Daley. The idea for the motion came from a local branch steward who privately rents.

"UNISON National Delegate Conference notes

1.       Soaring UK rent rises will leave almost six million private renters living in poverty by 2040, according to recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

2.       Rents are growing  more than wages, year in and year out and are becoming more and more unaffordable.  This has caused overcrowding, exploitation and ill health.

3.       It has reached the point that working people cannot afford to live in many high rent areas anymore with homelessness also on the increase.

4.       We are becoming economic slaves to a new master class of landlords who will evict tenants who object to rent increases or if they complain about the state of their property.

5.       Huge amounts of taxpayers’ money is wasted on housing benefit and little is invested in building new homes.

6.       That in other countries such as Germany, Sweden, France and even America there is legal controls on rents.

7.       A “living rent” is as much a basic human right as access to the National Health Service: It is a basic human right

8.       That a truly affordable and sustainable “Living rents” cap for social and market rents in different parts of the Country can be calculated as is already done with the Living wage.

This National Delegate Conference calls upon the NEC to ensure

1.       That UNISON should campaign for a future government to begin a mass house building programme of social homes at social rents (around 50% of the market rent).  This will also bring about reductions in rent in the private sector

2.       That there should be compulsory regulation in the private rented sector to give tenants greater protection and security of tenure

3.    That rent controls are reintroduced and rents are capped at a “Living Rent” set by an independent commission.

UNISON Greater London Housing Association Branch AGM 2015

Picture collage from last night's Annual General Meeting which took place at the iconic Greater London Assembly Building, City Hall, which is next to Tower Bridge. Long standing member of our branch and London Assembly member, Murad Qureshi, was our host and gave a welcome speech to members. Murad use to work in Regeneration at the same housing office (at a different time) I worked in for many years in East London. He spoke about the importance of trade union rights and his role as a GLA member holding to account the slippery Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson.

I was re-elected unopposed as Branch Secretary for the 5th year. I obviously must have had a very wicked previous life (joke).

Our keynote speaker was Labour Shadow minister, Stella Creasy MP, who gave a passionate speech about the housing crisis we face in this country. The lack of supply, unaffordable rents and mortgages, rip off letting agencies, revenge evictions and insecure tenancies. She called for people to join the Labour fightback against the recession which we should never forget was caused by Bankers.

Martin Groombridge from London Capital Credit Union also spoke about the many, many advantages for UNISON members to join a credit union.

Our top branch regional organiser, Colin Inniss, gave a typically thoughtful speech about the imperative for all union members to vote in the General election and get rid of this nasty and reactionary Tory led coalition government. Tell your family and friends that they should vote and to remember this government has doubled the amount of time it takes before you have any protection at work from unfair dismissal; it charges you up to £1200 if you want justice at work at a tribunal if you have been unfairly treated or sacked; the massive growth of food banks and insecure zero hour contracts.

While our final guest speaker, national UNISON organiser for our sector, Simon Watson (bottom left), gave a wide ranging presentation about the challenges facing our sector on pay, job insecurity, privatisation etc and how UNISON is facing up to these challenges by campaigning and organising members to stand up for their rights at work.

We heard 3 motions on "Protecting Pensions", "Union Busting" and "Living Rents". All 3 motions were passed but it was agreed to send the "Union Busting" and "Living Rents" motions to our National UNISON conference (we can only send 2).

The Branch is (touch wood) in good shape despite being in awful times. We are solvent, ambitious, growing (membership grew by 4.9% last year), politically active, successfully defending members individually and collectively, building new activists and becoming perhaps a model for the rest of the union on how to organise in our sector.

Many thanks to our branch staff Jo, Nazan, Sarah and Andy for all their hard work during the year and our ace UNISON Regional organisers Colin, Joy and Dario.