Save London's Housing!

Nationally, we are facing an unprecedented housing disaster thanks to this Government.  Ordinary Londoner's will suffer the most.

The Labour Housing Group is a national affiliated organisation within the Labour Party "dedicated to developing and promoting effective housing policy".

In London and elsewhere we need to campaign against Boris and his ConDems unnecessary, nasty and sheer vindictive policies designed to cleanse middle class Britain of anyone who is on a low income, unemployed or otherwise vulnerable.

Tomorrow is the Biannual London Labour Party Conference and we will be handing out this leaflet (double click to bring up details) about forming a London Branch of the Labour Housing Group.

LHG members Karen Buck MP and Nicky Gavron AM are driving this initiative with the support of the LHG Executive (see the AGM).  We hope to launch the branch at the House of Commons in January.  There will be a planning meeting beforehand.

If you are interested in taking part in a fightback against the Comdems flagship policies and winning the battle of housing ideas please email Nicky to join our mailing.

You can download a membership form for the LHG and find out more details here

Labour Conference 2010: Labour Housing Group Fringe

On the Sunday evening there was a packed fringe meeting of the Labour Housing Group (LHG).  Which is a national organisation directly affiliated to the Labour Party.  It is "dedicated to developing and promoting effective housing policy". The meeting was chaired by Marianne Hood OBE.

First speaker was Unite National Housing officer, Rachel Maskell.  "We have a massive housing crisis.  4.5 million people on the rehousing waiting list, 1.8 million families. She praised the last Labour Government for doing good stuff on Education and health but the next Labour government must prioritise "Housing and jobs".  There needs to be a change in political will.  A 100,000 new homes would cost £6 billion but would result in 750,000 jobs construction jobs.  Labour knows that homes are not just about "brick and mortar" its about people.  Most jobs in housing especially in social care are carried out by low paid women. Cuts in the housing sector are an attack on women.  Cuts in the legal aid budget not only means cuts in benefits for the already poor but cuts in the ability to challenge unfairness and wrong decisions.  Labour believes in campaigning for work and homes for all people.  The Tories version of this is the Work House".

Next was new (small caps) Labour MP and former Unite Assistant GS Jack Dromey.  "Labour has a proud record of achievement in housing but there is still a £19 billion backlog in decent homes.  Labour  took decisive action to stop reprocessions.  There is much to be proud of the Labour record and we must never allow the Tories to rubbish our record.  But we must return to a time such when even Tory PM Harold Macmillan use to boast that the Tories would build 200,000 new homes per year.  We need to build 300,000 new homes per year. The cuts in housing benefit will result in the cleansing of the poor and vulnerable.   There are still 400,000 homes that are needed to be brought up to decent homes standard.  If this was done did would create 54,000 jobs in construction.  We need to create a great national movement to make housing a key political issue.

Vice Chair of the LHG Jacky Peacock OBE spoke next about her work as a Housing advice worker and how she often has to warn private tenants that they are perfectly entitled to report their landlord for not  repairing serious health and safety hazards.  However if they do - they run the risk that they will be evicted since if Landlords follow the legal rules there is nothing that can be done to stop them. There is no defence.  She believes that this government now wants to strip public sector tenants of their rights as well. Thatcher in her wildest dreams never thought she could get away with this.  She predicted that the reductions in housing benefit will result in the abolition of the statutory right to rehousing by the vulnerable homeless since Council's will simply not be able to cope with the numbers.  The wheel is being reinvented and she remembers how shocked she was to see people sleeping on the streets 30 odd years ago when "Boarding House" allowances were abolished. 

Former Housing minister Nick Raynsford spoke how the previous Labour government had been able to avoid the consequences of the worse recession since the war by fast and brave actions.  This recovery has now been stopped.  Tory Ministers, Pickles and Sharp, compete on who can be the most horrible to housing.  Remember the Tory lies before the election when they accused Labour of scare mongering about threats to tenants rights.  Some £60 billion had been invested by RSL's in housing during the last 25 years. This housing "bonus" is under threat by cuts. 

London GLA member Nicky Gavlon Nicky spoke about how the Tories and their Lib Dems allies have only 2 housing policies - a obsession with cutting and hostility to public sector organisations and the public service ethos.  She did bring up the idea of a London branch of the LHG which I fully endorsed in the Q&A as a means to counter the right placing their tanks on our lawn and winning the battle of ideas.  Nicki mentioned that we hope to be able to launch this in London at the Labour Regional biannual meeting in November.  Watch this space. 

I had to miss the end of the meeting to rush off to the Mary Honeyball MEP meeting - which was a shame but this is conference.

Labour Housing Group Conference Fringe: Sunday 26 September

I received this quarterly newsletter form the Labour Housing Group yesterday. The fringe at Party conference will take place at the Friends Meeting House on Sunday evening.  It is just outside the secure zone (so you will not need any conference pass to attend).

By coincidence yesterday I attended an excellent housing briefing by the Labour Party on "Building London's Future".  The information we received about the likely consequences of the CONDEM cuts in housing benefit is frankly pretty scary.  I'll post on this later. 

As part of the response to the CONDEM plans I did at the meeting bring up the idea of a London branch  of the LHG which seemed to be well received.

(not forgetting another key fringe that will be taking place this year!)

Promoting UNISON in Labour: Vote Ed Miliband for Leader

This evening I received an automated telephone message from UNISON Labour Link. The message encouraged me to vote for Ed Miliband to be the next Labour Party leader as the person best to save services and protect jobs.

It also asked my current voting intentions and asked if I was a member of the Labour Party (and if not do I want to join).

I think this is a very constructive way for a union's political fund to engage with member's and also let them know who their democratically elected lay leadership think is best for the job.

Yesterday I received by post ballot papers via UNISON and the Fabians - today I got another ballot paper from the Labour Housing Group (LHG).  This makes 4 ballot paper's for the national Party leadership(Labour Party, Fabians, UNISON and LHG) and 5 for London Mayor (London Labour Party member; Co-operative Party, Fabians and UNISON Labour Link).  I think this is it?

The LHG ballot paper makes me remember to do something about contacting Labour "housing people" locally about seeing if we can form a London branch of the Labour Housing Group.  We need a stronger Labour Party voice on all forms of housing in London.  We cannot let the hardline right win the battle of ideas on this core progressive issue.

Labour Housing Group AGM

On Saturday I went to the Labour Housing Group AGM at Camden Town Hall. I have only recently joined the LHG but I have been to their well attended fringe events at Labour Party conferences in the past.

The group is about “developing and promoting effective housing policy" and was formed in 1981. It is one of the Socialist Societies affiliated to the Labour Party. I think membership will give me another vote in the forthcoming leadership elections?

I had just missed the main speaker Karen Buck MP (Westminster North) due to my Council surgery which was a shame. Due to the very high rents vulnerable and unemployed tenants in her constituency will be amongst the first to be forced out or evicted if the CONDEM housing benefits restrictions are brought in as planned. London Assembly member Nicky Gavron was there, a number of Councillors and resident reps from up and down the country and also Rachael Maskell, national officer for housing in Unite.

Despite the recent general election defeat and the general doom and gloom in housing the LHG members seemed remarkable upbeat and positive. It was refreshing to be amongst people who are really, really interested in housing policy – theory and practice. The “round robin” workshop at the end of the meeting was excellent. It was supposed to be about ways of increasing the supply of housing but turned into a wide ranging discussion about housing in general. My pennyworth was about encouraging and supporting “like minded” people to join the boards of Housing Associations and how we should plan to campaign against the regressive CONDEM housing policies and make sure there is “clear red water” between them and us.

The LHG encourages local or regional branches to be set up. There was a number of us from London present and we had some interesting conversations about having a meeting after the summer to discuss possibly setting up a London branch. So watch this space.