"Newham Hero Honoured by the Queen on World Homeless Day"

Ajitha Sajeev awarded British Empire Medal in Queen’s birthday honours for services to Rough Sleepers.

Newham Council is delighted to announce that 30-year Council veteran Ajitha Sajeev has been honoured by the Queen for services to the homeless.Ajitha Sajeev, 52, who is the Newham’s Street Population Manager, has received the British Empire Medal for her work supporting rough sleepers away from the streets, and onto a path to permanent housing.

Ajitha, who is a very proud mother of two, was born in Singapore then moved from India aged seven with her family to set up home in East Ham. She began working with the Council at the suggestion of her mother, aged 22 and has stayed ever since, working in translation services, housing and finally the street homeless team.

She said of the award; “I am so proud and deeply humbled by this honour, but this work is all about the team and treating people with the dignity, respect, care and compassion they deserve when they are at their most vulnerable. This has never been truer than now with the extra health risks, and anxieties and fear that Covid-19 has brought.

“During the pandemic I have been proud to co-ordinate an amazing effort across various Council services and the faith, charity and voluntary sectors, to reach, and support hundreds of people into safer accommodation’.

“Before the Pandemic hit we had already done a great deal of work through the Mayor’s Rough Sleeping Task Force, to get people off the streets and out of tents. When Covid-19 came the problems became more acute with the closure of Stratford Mall for public health reasons, with many rough sleepers displaced. Today I am proud to say we have no more tents, and no-one beds down in the Mall.

“It makes me very proud, and quite emotional when I see some of the people we have helped, some of whom have been sleeping rough for years resisting efforts to get them off the streets. We’ve genuinely seen lives turned around.”

Newham Chief Executive Althea Loderick said: “We are very proud of Ajitha, and delighted that her fantastic work has been recognised and rewarded. After 30-years at Newham Council she truly deserves this honour.”

"I am so pleased to hear about this honour being awarded to Ajitha"

This is brilliant news. Ajitha is a caring and competent officer who has done so much to help the most vulnerable in Newham.

Check out picture of Ajitha at the last rough sleeper street count briefing https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2020/09/newham-bi-monthly-street-count.html

Newham Against Immigration Centre @NewhamAgainst

 

Tonight I spoke to some young people from Newham via zoom who were very concerned about a proposed immigration detention centre being built by the Home Office in Royal Docks, Newham (and other things). 

Many Newham Councillors (excluding obviously members of the Strategic Planning committee who legally have to remain open minded until they hear any actual application) the Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, and local residents have already voiced their opposition to having an immigration detention centre with 35 cells in a historic warehouse in Royal Docks, right next to the Excel Centre. 

The warehouse was originally built in 1850-55 to house imported tobacco products. Bearing in mind the era I wonder if it has any connection with the slave trade? 

Check out Mayor report here and follow  https://twitter.com/NewhamAgainst/status/1313102400392253443

There has been no planning application so far to Newham Council for a change in use for permission to turn it from an office building to an immigration "enforcement detention centre". 

However, the Home Office has started its own consultation process on this and I would encourage residents concerned about this to make their views clear here https://www.warehousekconsultation.co.uk/

Keir Starmer visits Newham NHS Professionals

"Today we didn't get the reassurance and hope we needed from the Prime Minister."

"Just 21 days until voting papers are sent to UNISON members" - Rally for Vote Christina as our first General Secretary Wednesday 14 October 6.30pm

 

There are just 21 days until voting papers are sent to UNISON members.     Dear friend,   Thanks to you and all the wonderful UNISON members who have helped on the campaign, we're way ahead in this election. We have the support of: UNISON's National Executive Council  9 UNISON Regions: Scotland, Northern Ireland, Cymru/Wales, Northern, Yorkshire & Humberside, Greater London, Eastern, East Midlands and South West. 5 Service Groups: Health, Higher Education, Energy, Police & Justice, and Community Plus over 210 Branches - click here to see the full list Ballot papers will be sent to members from 28th October so it's important that we keep campaigning to get the turn out to win the election.       To say thank you and to talk about our 'Get Out The Vote' campaign, I am holding an online Campaign Rally on Wednesday 14th October at 6.30pm. Please put the date in your diary and we will send you log on details soon.      Before then, there is one quick action you can take today to help the campaign:   ACTION: Ask your UNISON friends to sign up to our campaign at votechristina.org   ACTION: Ask your UNISON friends to sign up here   Yours in solidarity,         Copyright © 2020 Vote Christina, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Vote Christina 17 Conyers Road London, London SW16 6LR United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

"Rogue Landlords: Protecting Tenants, Improving Conditions and Creating a Fair Rental Market"

 

I am speaking at this seminar as the representative of a large landlord who is also a Landlord regulator (Newham Council). Above is a card that our Newham Private Sector landlord licensing team has produced to help vulnerable vulnerable tenants (and give to Police who sometimes are not aware that illegal evictions and harassment is a criminal offence and not a civil dispute). 

Thursday, October 8th 2020

Webinar

Key Speakers Include:
Simon Mullings, Specialist in housing related law, a member of the Justice Alliance and co-chair of the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association
Councillor John Gray, Deputy Mayor (Statutory) and Lead Member on Housing Services
Ben Reeve-Lewis, Author at The Landlord Blog
Ben Beadle, CEO of the National Residential Landlords Association
Ruth Jacob, Senior Policy Officer at Crisis
Caitlin Wilkinson, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Generation Rent

Event Details Website Register to Attend

According to the housing charity, Shelter, an estimated 230,000 people face being made homeless when the suspension on evictions is lifted. With a sizeable portion of the workforce either being made unemployed or facing cuts to their working hours due to the pandemic, many simply do not have the ability to pay their rent. Even those who have returned to work, many renters face a sizeable debt that has accumulated during the lockdown as a result of the ‘rent holiday’.

The government has supported both, landlords and tenants, with several schemes to help both parties through the last six months. Renters have received a six-month suspension of evictions and court proceedings, while the notice period for evictions has also been extended to six months to provide further certainty for renters over the winter. As renters have received a ‘rent holiday’, landlords too have received a ‘mortgage holiday’ lightening the financial burden on them as well.

However, a number of leading charities have argued that this support does not equally protect landlords and tenants and, in fact, puts far more financial stress on those renters with already precarious housing security. As a result, it is not only those who have become unemployed during the pandemic, but also those who have fallen behind on their rent due to lower economic activity, that make up a potential “wave of homelessness”.

A group of MPs have urged the government to guarantee all local authorities in England can fund accommodation for the homeless "for at least a year”. Adding to the issue, there has also been anecdotal evidence of ‘revenge evictions’, with a number of renters claiming that following a rent holiday or after asking for a reduction in rate during the pandemic, they are now being targeted for eviction.

On the other hand, organisations like the National Residential Landlords Association have argued that there needs to be a distinction between renters who hadn’t been paying rent before lockdown and those who have fallen into rent arrears during it through no fault of their own. It’s not just the private sector that is at risk, but commercial renters as well. High street retailers have attacked government guidance, designed to help coronavirus-hit businesses, as “miserably inadequate” for not affording them enough protection from landlords. Similarly to the private sector, high street retailers have accumulated debt as a result of the rent holiday, and subsequently face eviction following the lifting of the ban on evictions. High street retailers’ difficulties to repay rent are compounded by consumers increasingly doing their shopping online.

Instead of a rent holiday, charities, think tanks and some MPs have urged the government to cover the rent of those who have accrued debt as a result of economic hardship of the pandemic. This would allow many renters to remain in their properties and restart paying their rent as the economy starts to get moving. A more moderate option, though, would be to offer a government guaranteed loan to cover the rent debt. Such loans would be repaid within six years and they could be paid directly to the landlord to ensure that they’re only used to pay rent. Dealing with debt, often the cause of a landlord’s need to repossess, will remove the eviction threat and sustain tenancies.

Public Policy Exchange’s webinar will bring together landlords, tenant groups, charities, local authorities and other key stakeholders to identify ways to address this complex issue, discuss the potential solutions and develop holistic strategies and polices.

Programme

• Address ways to help renters who have been recently made unemployed.
• Identify key gaps in current policies and solutions to fix them.
• Tackle challenges faced by high street retailers and landlords.
• Develop viable strategies to protect renters.
• Discuss how landlords should best deal with their tenants, either those who have been adversely impacted by the pandemic but also those who had fallen behind on payments before the lockdown.
• Share best practice on how to achieve an amenable solution for both landlords and tenants
• Analyse legislation like ‘no fault’ section 21 evictions and other alternatives proposed by the government.

To register for the briefing, please click here.
Please feel free to circulate this information on to any relevant colleagues.

Conference Team
Public Policy Exchange
Tel: 020 3137 8630
Fax: 020 3137 1459

Christina McAnea says huge thanks for over 200 nominations to be UNISON ...

Here’s my thank you message to branches, regions, service groups and to the NEC. Thank you for putting your trust in me.

Now let’s start campaigning!

votechristina.org

#ourfutureinunison

#Unison

"Socialist Housing Policies for a Recovering Britain"

 

Yesterday (Saturday) was pretty much a Labour Housing Group day (LHG is is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party "we work within the movement, both nationally and locally, to develop and promote workable socialist housing policies through our members. If you believe another future is possible for our country and housing – become a member and join us in the fight"

We started with a national zoom seminar on "Socialist Housing Policies for a Recovering Britain". I gave a plug in the Q&A with our Labour Shadow Housing Minister, Thangam Debbonaire MP, for our Newham "Airspace" ambitions to build more homes on top of our our low rise Council owned blocks. Which will at the same time tackle climate change by the retrofitting of roofs and walls and also saving leaseholders bills from new roof maintenance. 

Thangam said she would like to visit Newham to find out more which she will be more than welcome. 

The workshops were fascinating and I wished I could have been at all of them.

You can get a taster of what went on at the twitter feed for the seminar here https://twitter.com/LabourHousing

Afterwards was the AGM of the London Branch of the Labour Housing Group were I was elected to its executive committee. There was also a great discussion on London housing issues with James Murray MP and others). 

I will definitely be bringing up at the Executive the prospect of there being a Newham branch of the LHG since housing is such a crucial issue to us.

Adeilad Fferm, Eryri: Farm Building, Eryri - Kyffin Williams

 

This is from my calendar for Hydref/October 2020 by North Walian Artist, Kyffin Williams

Celebrating 50 years of service to Newham Council by RMS "Chippy" Chris Parker

Yesterday I attended a ceremony at Newham Council Dockside Building, where the Mayor and the Chief Executive thanked Chris Parker for his 50 years of service to the Council and the residents of Newham. 

Chris joined the Council as a 16 year old apprentice in 1970, qualified as an carpenter and has served ever since in our inhouse repair and maintenance service. 

Chris is a real genuine nice guy and it was great to hear all the first hand tributes from his work mates, trade union colleagues and his managers!

John Gray: UNISON NEC report to my Community Service Group Executive Committee 30.9.20

 

(picture of me and my fantastic fellow UNISON Community NEC comrade, Denise Thomas, at the UNISON centre last year. Denise has also submitted a report on her activities)

Report to Service Group Executive (elected lay UNISON activists in the voluntary sector and housing associations from all over the UK)

I started my previous report to SGE (8 July 2020) by pointing out that the “woeful performance” by the Government during the Covid-19 emergency shows us what a disaster the 2019 General election was for workers. The continual failure of the Government to rise to the challenge of the pandemic has done nothing to change my views. It is Community members who are amongst those facing the very worse consequences of this failure. In the Charity sector members face losing their jobs as donations dry up and housing associations impose pay freezes while our vulnerable care workers still face PPE failures.

Once again I thank our UNISON activists and staff for all their professionalism and hard work in support of our members.

Since lockdown my role as an NEC member has been very different this year compared to others. No National Delegate Conference and no physical meetings. However, we have got on with the business of the union as best we can. While my clear preference is for face to face meetings, video conferencing has worked far better than I anticipated.  I expect in a Covid free future for all meetings to be in some way “blended” – virtual and physical.

My activity since the last SGE-

Policy Development and Campaigns Committee 14 July 2020

I had a work clash for the majority of the meeting (which went on for 90 minutes after its end time)  It is ironic that sometimes it is more difficult to attend virtual meetings since if you have no travelling time built into your calendar then you have no slack for meetings overrunning. At the PDCC the meeting did get the chance to talk about important issues such as TUC congress motions; campaigns and consultations.

Message from General Secretary 13 July 2020

Dear Colleague

 I’ve been so proud to serve as your General Secretary for 20 years. It has been the honour and privilege of my life to be able to represent our incredible public service workers from across our four nations, and never more so than in the last few difficult months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Today I have advised the President that I will retire on 31 December 2020 when my current period of office comes to an end. In order to comply with trade union law, our NEC Development and Organisation Committee will meet this week to discuss a timetable to elect my successor and full details will be published once that is agreed. But I wanted you, the leading members of our union, to hear the news directly from me.

 We have been through some tough times together. We’ve brought our union through the long years of austerity where we saw our public services decimated with hundreds of thousands of jobs lost. But we stayed strong and we built the union.

 We are now the largest union in the UK and the fastest-growing union in Europe. We have a vibrant lay democracy with activists like you in more than 50,000 workplaces. Our finances are strong and I hope we are now in a position to channel additional support and resources to our branches – where I truly believe that we organise and support our members best.

 Every day for the past 47 years, I have been proud to serve this union and I have always been driven by a belief in fairness and justice for all our members. Never more so than in the past five months when I have seen our members and our public services rise to the challenge of the pandemic.  In the worst of all circumstances, I have seen our union at its very best. 

 New members are joining our union faster than ever before because they value what a strong union can provide – support when they need it, strength to fight for change and a community that means that even in the most worrying times, you are never alone. Our enduring values of caring and solidarity will be more important than ever in the coming years.

 As the health crisis turns to an economic crisis, we will face more challenges. I will be here to continue to lead this union until the end of this year – we still have a great deal of work to do together.

 It has been my pleasure, my honour and an absolute privilege to lead our union, UNISON. 

 Thank you,

  Dave Prentis

General Secretary

UNISON

 NEC meeting 23 July 2020

This was a really positive, constructive and emotional meeting. Our General Secretary, Dave Prentis announcing his retirement and the election for a new GS. Check out https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/07/necjuly2020/

 NEC General Secretary nomination 16 September 2020

 The NEC nominated Christina McAnea (as did the Community SGE and my branch!)

I attended Staff Pension trustee meetings (as an NEC employer trustee) and chaired meetings of its investment sub-committee.

As vice chair of the industrial action committee I also approved a number of strikes and other industrial actions including those by Community members.

Regards

John Gray Community NEC (General Seat)  

(Please email John.Gray2012@icloud.com if any questions or comments. If you want Denise or I to present virtually to your branch, SOG or regional meetings then just let us know)