My own personal blog. UNISON NEC member for Housing Associations & Charities, HA Convenor, London Regional Council Officer & Chair of its Labour Link Committee.
Newham Cllr for West Ham Ward, Vice Chair of Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, Pension trustee, Housing & Safety Practitioner.
Centre left and proud member of Labour movement family. Strictly no trolls please.
Promoted by Luke Place on behalf of J.Gray, Newham Labour Group, St Luke’s Community Centre, E16 1HS.
This is sort of "off message" but I loved going to say hello today to the Longhorn cattle that have been reintroduced into Wanstead Park (part of Epping Forest run by the City of London about 10 minutes walk from Newham). This is an experiment and I hope it goes well.
Before BSE (Mad Cow disease) in late 1980's there was cattle roaming freely in nearby Wanstead flats and Wanstead Park. Which was at times was very weird living in London. Since we often had to chase cattle out of our gardens (eating our hedge) and guide them back to the heathland along busy roads.
Children love seeing the cows (and their parents) and I really hope that this experiment works and that they are reintroduced to the Wanstead flats as well as the park.
In the past drovers from as far away as Wales would drive their cattle to the flats to rest and fatten up their herds before selling them to London butchers.
The Council is also reminding tenants and landlords of their rights and responsibilities around illegal evictions once the ban is lifted.
As more and more people lose their jobs and livelihoods as a result of the economic effects of coronavirus, tenants are falling into rent arrears through no fault of their own and may face the threat of eviction – the Council fears up to 20% of its private renters may already be in arrears. Mayor Fiaz said: “The lifting of this ban on evictions suggests that the Covid-19 crisis is over but we know that is far from the case, in fact we are currently fighting to halt a slide back into a second wave of infection.
“At a time when people are being forced to miss work either due to new infection, or because they have to self-isolate within a household, or because, to the shame of this Government, they can’t get a test, it is plain wrong to threaten people with losing their home.” Landlords in England and Wales were banned in March from evicting tenants and repossessing properties following the outbreak of coronavirus. Once the ban is lifted, under current law, anyone with two month's rent arrears can be evicted through the courts.
Mayor Fiaz said: “In Scotland the ban has been extended to March 2021, yet households in England and Wales are still left facing dire situations. The ban should not be lifted until the Government has a credible plan to ensure no one is at risk of losing their home because of coronavirus."
In August Mayor Fiaz was one of 75 Labour mayors and council leaders from across the country who signed a letter to Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, calling on the Government to extend the ban.
Mayor Fiaz said: “At the beginning of lockdown, the Government pledged no one who has lost income due to Covid-19 would be forced out of their homes. However, we are nowhere near back to normal, unemployment is rising daily and thousands of people are still unable to work normally. With the end of furlough at the end of October, we know there will be further job losses. Despite this the Government intends pressing ahead with the ending of the eviction ban this weekend which is a disgrace.”
More than half of Newham’s residents live in privately rented accommodation and over 60% of them pay their rent without support, for example with no top-up from Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, yet many are economically vulnerable and in insecure employment situations. Since 29 August 2020, landlords and agents have to give tenants six months’ notice before they can start any possession proceedings.
Cllr John Gray, cabinet member for housing said; “We want our residents living in the private sector to be aware of their rights so they can deal any threats posed by illegal evictions. We have launched media campaign highlighting the issues and sign posting anyone at risk or under threat to our services, which can support them.
“Our Private Sector Housing Standards team is also handing out business cards to tenants at risk, which include where to get help, information on the eviction process, and details of what the Police can do to help prevent illegal evictions and harassment. The Council and the Police have worked together to produce the business cards in recognition that as a joined up approach is needed when dealing with illegal evictions and harassment.”
“We are absolutely NOT anti-landlord but we reminding our 17,000 licenced landlords and managing agents, who are responsible for more than 38,000 licenced properties, that they must follow the correct procedures to end a tenancy, otherwise they may be prosecuted for illegal eviction or harassment, which is a criminal offence.”
Mayor Fiaz has recorded a video message in which she said: “I want people in Newham to live free from the fear of a rogue landlord. We are not anti-landlord, but we are anti-criminal landlord. If you rent in Newham and are worried about the ending of the eviction ban, we have schemes in the borough to support and protect you.”
"It is an honour to be nominated by UNISON’s National Executive Council. I am incredibly grateful for their support and proud to have their trust to lead our great union, in partnership with our members and lay leaders".
The Neighbourhood Citizens’ Assemblies – September 2018 to September 2020
The assemblies in each area were followed by the creation of a steering group that consists of local people who live, work or learn in the area, alongside councillors and council officers.
The steering group put together the details of the Community Neighbourhood Plan which were agreed in April 2019 and developed a local action plan to implement the projects that were voted for by local residents.
The final round of Community Citizens’ Assemblies, which were postponed due to the pandemic, will be taking place throughout September and October and residents will get the opportunity to discover which of their chosen projects have been completed since they were agreed last year. A limited number of people will be allowed to attend face-to-face while others can take part online.
The upcoming assemblies will mark the end of a 24-month period of engagement and will give residents an opportunity to share their experiences of taking part in the assembly process.
Residents will be required to register here to join the online assemblies or to attend in person. Social distancing measures will be in place at venues and residents will also expected to wear a face covering.
Please see below the schedule for final round of assemblies:
Community neighbourhood
Date
Time
Venue
Plaistow
Monday 21 September
11am - 12.30pm
Newham Town Hall, Barking Road, E6 2RP
Plaistow
Monday 21 September
6 - 7.30pm
Online Zoom Meeting
Beckton and Royal Docks
Tuesday 22 September
11am - 12.30pm
Newham Town Hall, Barking Road, E6 2RP
Beckton and Royal Docks
Tuesday 22 September
6 -7.30pm
Online Zoom Meeting
Green Street
Wednesday 23 September
11am - 12.30pm
Newham Town Hall, Barking Road, E6 2RP
Green Street
Wednesday 23 September
6 - 7.30pm
Online Zoom Meeting
East Ham
Thursday 24 September
11am - 12.30pm
Newham Town Hall, Barking Road, E6 2RP
East Ham
Thursday 24 September
6 - 7.30pm
Online Zoom Meeting
Manor Park
Monday 28 September
11am - 12.30pm
Jack Cornwell Community Centre, Jack Cornwell Street, E12 5NN
"The clapping might have stopped, but the support shouldn't. Join us in the fight to support all key workers and rebuild public services at unison.org.uk/nobacktonormal #NoGoingBackToNormal"
We are writing to you on behalf of the key workers who stepped up and kept this country safe and well during the pandemic.
Now that more things are starting to get back to normal, this is the time to really think about what going "back to normal" means for the people who have kept us all going over the last six months.
Because for the majority of key workers, back to normal means back to being undervalued.
I agree with the public services union UNISON that the last 10 years have seen the vital services that look after our communities damaged by cuts and under-investment. Staff have been undervalued and pay has fallen in real terms.
This autumn you have the opportunity to make normal better for public services and key workers across the UK. Please take action now to protect the people that protected all of us. We are asking you to:
Rebuild all our public services across the UK, through sustained long-term investment, safe staffing levels and training
Properly value everyone working in all our public services – tackling low pay and ensuring those who’ve kept services running are properly rewarded.
Create fairer and safer workplaces where there are full risk assessments and PPE for those that need it.
Build a more equal post COVID-19 society, in which the inequalities that have become so evident during the crisis are addressed as a matter of urgency
We cannot go back to taking our key workers and public services for granted. We look forward to your response.
A lovely 5.2 mile walk today only 21 minutes from Forest Gate. We started off at the car park opposite Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge then walked along Chingford Plain towards Pole Hill. This is where TE Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) owned land and lived for a number of years. The views of London are outstanding.
Next was some peaceful forest walks where we joined the "London Loop" route and walked up Yardley Hill with more marvellous views of London. After lunch on the ridge we walked past Gilward Park, the headquarters of the Scout movement.
While on the public footpath alongside West Essex Golf Club we came across a hidden memorial to the American 184th AAA battery, who were stationed here in 1944 to protect London against enemy bombers. What a shame that this memorial is not highlighted more prominently. The 184th later served in Normandy following the D-Day invasion.
Next was some really delightful green lanes and footpaths back to the lodge. We ended up at the Royal Forest Pub/hotel for some outdoor rehydratation (see picture of Doom Bar). Chingford station is only 10 minutes walk away.
Drug and alcohol rehabilitation workers in north west on strike over failure to honour NHS pay award despite expensive rebranding (Hat tip UNISON)
UNISON members employed by the charity We Are With You (formerly Addaction) in Wigan and Leigh are taking strike action over their employer’s failure to pay them the 2018-21 NHS pay award.
There are 29 members involved in the dispute, and they are soon to embark on their sixteenth day of strike action. The strike and picket line will be socially distanced.
The staff were previously employed by the NHS, and the charity promised that they would continue to receive the NHS rates of pay.
Members would have gained an average of around £4,000 over the three years of the pay award, but instead We Are With Youhave offered non-consolidated pay-offs and pay rises worth only half that amount.
Meanwhile, members have been angered by their employer’s costly re-branding exercise. Changing the name of the charity from Addaction to We Are With Youhas cost £140,000 – more than enough money to have settled the dispute.
UNISON North West regional organiser Paddy Cleary said: “This dedicated group of key workers are standing firm. They understand fully that without a consolidated NHS pay award, accepting any offer from We Are With You would amount to voting for pay cuts.
“It is a sad state of affairs that support workers, who have given their all during this pandemic, should have to take 26 days of strike action in order to get their employer to listen to them.
“It is completely wrong that We Are With You can’t find the funds for their support workers whilst their CEO earns well over £100,000 per year.
“It’s time for We Are With You bosses to see sense and to keep their pay promises for the benefit of their support workers, their service users and the people of Wigan and Leigh.”
The Wigan Branch and North West Region are asking for donations from branches to the hardship fund.
Please donate via bank transfer to:
Unity Bank
Sort Code: 60 83 01
Account Number: 20244354
Or send a cheque payable to ‘UNISON Wigan Metropolitan Branch hardship fund’ to:
UNISON Branch Office Wigan Life Centre The Wiend Wigan WN1 1NH
I am Joint vice chair of LAPFF and am really pleased with our role in getting the senior managers to resign but we are at best "skeptical about the timing and terms of departure of these executive"
The Forum has reservations about the timing and terms
of departure
London 14.00 (BST) LAPFF welcomes
Rio Tinto’s announcement that CEO Jean-Sebastian Jacques and two of his senior
executive colleagues have resigned in the wake of the company’s destruction of
the caves at Juukan Gorge.
These departures were inevitable
after a swell of investor concern that insufficient accountability had been
exercised in response to the disaster, which the company Chair has described as
‘wrong’.
However, the Forum is skeptical
about the timing and terms of departure of these executives. The fact that Mr.
Jacques could remain in place until March of 2021 is of a serious concern, and
the Forum does not consider it right that these executives should retain their
long-term incentive remuneration arrangements and other leaving benefits.
This response raises additional
questions about the strength and composition of the board and its ability to
enforce appropriate accountability and good governance at Rio Tinto.
Cllr Doug McMurdo, Chair of Local
Authority Pension Fund Forum, said: ‘The departures of the CEO and the two other
senior executives is a promising outcome, though I do have serious reservations
about the terms and timings of the departures. Going forward, board composition
is absolutely critical for Rio Tinto to regain trust with investors and
communities.’
11
September 2020
About the
Local Authority Pension Fund Forum: The Local
Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) is a voluntary association of 81 public
sector pension funds and six pools based in the UK with combined assets of over
£300 billion. It exists to ‘promote the long-term investment interests of local
authority pension funds, and to maximise their influence as shareholders to
promote corporate responsibility and high standards of corporate governance
amongst the companies in which they invest.’ PIRC is the Research and
Engagement partner to the Forum @lapfforum https://lapfforum.org/.
The strategy sets out the scale of the housing challenge in Newham and the Council’s ambitions for the next five years to tackle the crisis of housing affordability, insecurity and need.
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz said: “We know the scale of investment required is massive – both for building new homes and bringing existing homes up to standard, but in the face of the crisis facing our borough, we’ll continue prioritising housing delivery as we scale up our plans and meet promised targets. The housing strategy is another crucial milestone in our efforts to drive forward through all the instruments of the Council to deliver for local residents.
“But if we are going to achieve our long-term vision – we will need the Government to step up and make radical changes to national policy. It must properly fund and support affordable house building programmes. It must tighten up the regulation of the private rented sector giving greater legal protection and rights to tenants. There must be reform of the universal credit and welfare system – so that it properly and adequately supports residents to secure decent and affordable homes. And lastly the government must reform ‘right to buy’ legislation which has seen Newham lose 9,000 homes over the last 25 years, with 47 per cent of Council homes sold under right to buy in Newham “flipped” to be rented out in the private sector”
Since May 2018, there have been a number of significant milestones achieved on the Mayor’s manifesto commitments on housing delivery. Populo Living (formerly Red Door Ventures), the Council’s wholly owned housing delivery company has already been repurposed so that 50% of its output is genuinely affordable housing at social rent levels.
The commitment to start 1000 new social rent homes by 2022 is on track through the ‘Affordable Homes for Newham’ programme and there are currently 1056 in the pipeline. In addition, the Mayor committed to start building at least 100 new homes at social rent by the end of her first year in office, and this promise was exceeded with a total of 234 started by May 2019. The Council also bid for and secured £107m of affordable housing grant from the Mayor of London, representing the highest allocation to any borough in the Capital, and a reflection of the confidence the Mayor of London and GLA have in Newham’s ability to deliver. Newham is programmed to start 275 new homes before March 2021 and will deliver over 1000 starts by March 2022.
Delivery of new housing in Newham is accelerating, and the strategy will also help the Council meet its Climate Emergency commitments to radically address carbon emissions and fuel poverty including new Private Rented Sector programmes to boost energy efficiency. The borough has the second highest number of new homes being delivered of any in London, with 2,678 delivered over 2018/19.
The Council is also committed to challenge developers and partners to ensure that as they deliver new properties, plans include the genuinely affordable homes that Newham residents need, as well as homes for families with children or multi-generational households. The strategy also includes changes to improve the Council’s Private Sector Licensing Scheme, with the establishment of a new ‘tenants’ rights service’ to protect residents from the scourge of bad landlords.
Before adopting the Strategy it is important to ensure that it fully reflects the views of all residents in Newham, including council tenants and leaseholders. The Council will, therefore plan to undertake a programme of consultation over the next 3 months, beginning as soon as possible after Cabinet approval.
Under the strategy the Council is developing a resident involvement strategy, which will set out the housing service’s new residents-first approach. Housing services are creating more opportunities for residents to discuss housing issues face-to-face through housing hubs, housing liaison officers, and regular tenant and leaseholder forums.
The Council’s response to homelessness and rough sleeping will be caring and compassionate, and across our regeneration programmes residents will be involved in co-production to ensure their views and concerns are taken into account.
The housing which the Council delivers will meet a range of needs, which means striking a balance between the government’s agenda and what the market brings forward, and what residents needs and what works for Newham. Evidence will be a big part of this and the combined Strategic Housing Market Assessment and Housing Needs Assessment (SHMA) will inform much of the forthcoming planning.
As well as considering the needs of families, groups whose housing needs and aspirations must be considered as part of this approach include:
Multigenerational families
Gypsies, Roma and Travellers
People with disabilities and special needs
Groups considering self-build
Children leaving care
Key workers
Multi-family sharers
Older people
Newham has also embarked on a massive programme to upgrade its housing stock to make it safe and environmentally sustainable – starting with a comprehensive stock condition survey and allocating £96m to a three year maintenance programme.
Mayor Fiaz said: “Covid-19 has brought the Borough’s housing challenges into stark relief. The mortality rate in Newham is the second highest in the country, and housing is an important contributing factor. Specifically, the high levels of overcrowding and large numbers of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are likely factors contributing to the profound impact of Covid-19 on the Borough, which has a large BAME population and pre-existing areas of high deprivation.
“This strategy is incredibly ambitious, and I make no apologies for that, we face an enormous challenge in the face of a broken housing system, a post-COVID19 recession and the continued under-funding of local authorities like Newham. But in this document we have set out not only our aspirations, but also the improvements we are actually delivering for our residents.
“Our commitment will not waiver, residents should have access to homes fit for human habitation and housing that they can afford. They should be treated fairly as a private or social renter and tenant, with security and good quality homes that promote health and wellbeing.”
The proposed Housing strategy reflects the massive challenges on housing faced by Newham residents including:
Rising rent levels and house prices which has made most housing unaffordable, and placed a huge financial burden on households
A growing Private Rented Sector (PRS), often characterised by poor quality and insecure housing for families
A large and growing problem of homelessness – including both families in temporary accommodation and people on the streets;
A Council house sector that has been undermined over the long term by the right to buy and under-investment;
The Council, which has UK's most severe housing crisis, also has plans - subject to a separate consultation with residents - to overhaul its allocations policy with an increased focus on need and alleviating severe overcrowding. Last night Cabinet members agreed to consult with residents and other stakeholders on a proposed new policy for deciding which households are given social housing.
The Council’s current system, which has been in place since 2012, "de facto prioritises those in employment" leading to too many residents languishing for housing in overcrowded, insecure or inadequate housing despite their acute need. The new proposals will move to an approach putting "those in highest need" first. Under the new policy, a bidding advantage given to households in work will be removed, and greater priority given to those facing severe overcrowding.
Cllr John Gray, cabinet member for Housing said: “We want a system which looks fairly at those in the greatest housing need. We are at the sharp end of the deep national housing crisis, with over 27,000 currently on the housing list, and over 5,000 currently in temporary accommodation. This is why, in addition to building more homes, we have to review our allocations policy to make sure it is fit for purpose.
“This strategy commits Newham Council to doing all it can to deliver on decent, affordable and local homes for residents, especially as we face the inevitable post-COVID recession, increasing unemployment, and a potential surge in evictions from the private rented sector. The government must now accept its responsibility to support those communities most affected by the pandemic, and start a genuine programme of affordable house building for those most vulnerable to sickness, economic hardship and inequality.”
Newham has already adopted and is starting to implement a new two-year Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy agreed by cabinet in December 2019 this includes a renewed focus on prevention, reducing the numbers in temporary accommodation, a new approach to rough sleeping and a specific plan around Stratford Centre".
