Launch of the Homelessness Bill 2019 on youtube

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Social Housing, Affordable Rents & Elimination of Homelessness Bill

Here is the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOV3i6TolJU&feature=youtu.be

The launch started at 2:30PM Today, Monday, 16 December 2019.

Agenda of the Launch

2.30 p.m.
Welcome -  Jennifer Nadel of Compassion in Politics

2.35 p.m.
Why launch this Bill? -  Rev Paul Nicolson

2.55 p.m.
“Housing and inequality in the UK - Inequality street" - Daniel Tomlinson, Resolution Foundation [The data referred to by Daniel is available via https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/inequality-street
]

3.15 p.m.
"The impacts of demolishing council estates and why we need more council homes" -Professor Loretta Lees [A major focus here is how London's 'out of borough placements' translated as gentrification' and loss to those displaced and thus alienated. In some cases this amounts to 'genocide', she says. Precariousness -- living on a prayer -- is rife as a cumulative result of right wing government policies. ]

3.35 p.m.
"The Social Housing, Affordable Rent and Elimination of Homelessness Bill" - Ian Wise QC

[Ian outlines the obligations his Bill places on local authorities to monitor housing issues in their area, and also the corresponding obligations placed upon the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities & Local Government that are legally binding and enforceable.]

3.55 p.m.
Response from Councillor Zena Brabazon, Deputy Leader Haringey Council. Labour Party. [Zena was elected to Haringey Council in 2018 after campaigning actively against the Haringey Development Vehicle that Paul Nicolson was campaigning against. Through her campaigning she also met Prof Loretta Lees. Council housing policy has since been informed by inputs from Zacchaeus 2000 Trust, Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations. As a ward councillor she has also been informed by contact with ward constituents and her work as a school governor in recognising the extent of child poverty. She also acknowledges the life foundation given her by a caring state -- "not a nanny state: just a decent state."

She also thanked Paul Nicolson for his pre-2018 Haringey Council elections campaign of civil disobedience in refusing to pay Council Tax while many in that borough were made poorer by its Council Tax Reduction Scheme ignorance of their plight. Full Council Tax Reduction has been restored to the poorest families and Paul's refusal to pay Council Tax has ended.

She thinks the Bill drafted by Ian Wise is "a brilliant initiative" against the inhuman constraints imposed by right wing central government.

4.15 p.m.
Questions and discussion 

4.55 p.m.
Conclusion - Jennifer Nadel of Compassion in Politics

5.00 p.m.
END

NB: The event was originally to be chaired by Debbie Abrahams MP, but as a family friend of the late Frank Dobson MP she was attending Frank's funeral

See also https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/2019/10/government-and-fiona-bruce-backing-for-mipim-uk-summit-2019.html

Jeremy Corbyn's 10th time as Islington North elected MP declaration speech in full

I am posting this to help highlight the human decency of the man.

Due to the competitive nature of election campaigning, policy emphases and tribal allegiances, such matters tend to distract from what we have in common.

Enough said by me at present on this matter.

Alan Wheatley

From Islington Tribune newspaper

Read Jeremy Corbyn’s declaration speech in full

Source:  http://camdennewjournal.com/article/jeremy-corbyns-declaration-speech-in-full

Labour leader of four years announces plans to step down

13 December, 2019

Jeremy Corbyn arriving at the count. Photo: Islington Tribune

(Islington Tribune is the sibling paper of Camden New Journal.)

ISLINGTON North MP’s full speech after announcement he had retained his seat.

Could I start by saying a huge thank you to the returning officer and all the staff and the police that have ensured a fair and democratic election has taken place today.

And also to congratulate and thank my fellow candidates for their participation in this election. And also a very heartfelt thanks to the people of Islington North for electing me again for the 10th time to represent Islington North in Parliament.

I’m very, very proud to do so and I’ve learned so much from the people of Islington North and it’s my pride and my pleasure to continue to be their representative in Parliament.

I also want to thanks Ruth Hayes our agent for this election, and all of the wonderful friends, comrades and supporters in Islington North Labour Party for the huge effort they put in in this election campaign and they put in all the time to carry a message of hope and justice, all over our constituency and through me, I hope to a wider world.

The pressure on those surrounding politicians is often very, very high indeed. The media intrusion on people’s lives is very high indeed. And the attacks that take place against family and loved ones of politicians continue and they are disgraceful and frankly, they are disgusting.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my family, my close friends, and those that have been close by and been very supportive during this and every other election campaign. I want to thank my three sons for the huge support they give me and I thank my wife, Laura Alvarez for all which she puts up with because of the way in which the media behave towards me, towards her and indeed, towards my party during this election campaign.

This is obviously a very disappointing night for the Labour Party with the results that we’ve got. But I want to say this, in the election campaign, we put forward a manifesto of hope, a manifesto of unity and a manifesto that would help to right the wrongs and the injustices and inequalities that exists in this country. For those who need housing, those who need an effective health service that will deliver for them. And those children that need a school that is properly funded, and they’re not being taught in oversized classes. And a manifesto that gave hope in dealing with the environmental crisis the world faces, by investing for the future through a green industrial revolution.

All of those policies were extremely popular during the election campaign and remain policies that have huge popular support all across this country. However, Brexit has so polarised and divided debate in this country, it is overridden so much of a normal political debate. And I recognise that has contributed to the result that the Labour Party has received this evening all across this country. The issues of social justice and the issues of needs of people will not go away. Just because Brexit is dealt with in the way in which Boris Johnson presumably plans to deal with at the moment, all those issues will come back centre stage in the debate.

And the fundamental Labour message about justice and equality within our society is going to be one that is there for all time because it’s the very core of what my party believes in and what I will always advocate on behalf of my constituency, and on behalf of my party.

I want to also make it clear that I will not lead the party in any future general election campaign. I will discuss with our party to ensure there is a process now of reflection on this result. And on the policies that the party will take going forward. And I will lead the party during that period to ensure that discussion takes place and we move on into the future.

I’m very proud of the trust that our half million members put in me to lead this party. And I’m very proud of the way that we fought this election campaign. We did not descend into the gutter, we did not undertake personal abuse, we undertook the task of getting a message of hope and justice to every part of this country.

And I’m very grateful to the Labour Party in Islington North for being very tolerant to the fact that I didn’t spend as much time in this election campaign in Islington as obviously I would want to do because I’ve been traveling around the whole country to ensure that Labour message is put there.

But I want to say this, I will remain the MP for Islington North and I’m proud to represent the people of Islington North, and I’m proud in Parliament and outside, that we will forever continue the cause for socialism for social justice, and for a society based on the needs of all rather than the greed of a few.

That is what makes our party what it is. And I’m very proud of the achievements of our party and the development of its manifesto and its ideas.

And I tell you what, those ideas and those principles are eternal, and they will be there for all time. I thank the people of Islington North once again, for putting their faith and trust in me. I will work as I always have to represent and defend the people of my constituency, because they’re very special and I owe them so much and they have all taught me so much. Thank you very much.

Disability issues in GE2019

There is a hustings organised by Hereford Mencap in Hereford today.

Today! 3 December 4.30-6 at Life & Soul Kitchen, Unit 1, Three Elms Trading Estate, Hereford, HR4 9PU. Organised by Mencap.

Mencap is a charity addressing learning disability and learning difficulty issues. Suggested reading:

1. The Green Party 'Easy Read' manifesto was released at the same time as the 'mainstream' manifesto. It can be obtained via https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/EasyRead%20Manifesto%202019.pdf
2. Access to Citizens Income/Unconditional Basic Income has long been Green Party policy and is immensely different from terms and conditions of claiming Universal Credit. Universal Credit terms and conditions are made especially worse for adults with learning difficulties who cannot use computers, because Universal Credit is 'digital by default', as instanced at https://www.katebelgrave.com/2014/09/learning-and-literacy-difficulties-no-computer-but-do-your-jobsearch-online-yourself-thanks/ and https://www.katebelgrave.com/2017/10/learningliteracy-difficulties-and-cant-use-the-online-universal-credit-erm-find-a-friend-to-help-says-dwp-so-much-for-support-this-is-dire/
3. In 2004 while volunteering in teaching [other] adults with learning difficulties very basic computing skills, I was commended for “endless patience with slower learners.” Yet there was no paid future in that for me, as Learning & Skills Council prioritsed  NVQ Levels 2 and 3 — with no extra investment overall — so as to implement the London 2012 Olympics agenda. I, and the trainees I supported, and their Guardian/Channel4 Teacher of the Year Award Winning paid teacher, were let down yet again! (“Learning & Skills Council [existed] to help make England better skilled and more competitive,” according to their website.)
4. In 2013, Prof. Peter Beresford wrote "Why welfare literacy is vital: lack of knowledge about state support services is putting the system at risk." That message is more important today, especially as Brexit would make our welfare state more vulnerable to outside interference. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2013/jan/30/welfare-literacy-state-support

Green Party Basic Income would make life easier for adults with learning difficulties especially,
than Universal Credit.
More at https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Elections/EasyRead%20Manifesto%202019.pdf

Accessible Housing

Wednesday 11 December, 7.30-9.30pm at Left Bank Hereford. Not an official hustings but a chance to discuss 'what should the council's core strategy say about housing?'. In association with the Herefordshire Centre for Community-led Housing.

Housing is an important issue in relation to disability. See, for example, https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=housing

Heating costs of private rented properties as an issue in local authorities tackling Climate Emergency issues and socio-economic injustices

LB Brent-based 'Advice4Renters' leaflet on Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard.
The law now requires landlords to issue an Energy Performance Certificate
of standard at least E, but this is for new lettings only.
Will councils have the funds to police this?

The letter below was e-mailed to Hereford Times around 6 October 2019, and published in Hereford Times, Thursday, October 31 issue with the heading 'Heating costs'

Dear Letters Editor

The term 'infrastructure' in relation to planning Herefordshire's sustainable future is generally confined to matters such as transport and telecoms communications with reference to housing and workforce amid Climate Emergency and employment opportunities.

What about issues of socio-economic justice and enforcement of rights and responsibilities, along with poorer people's access to information, advice, guidance and advocacy? As an example, my Freedom of Information request regarding . The Council seemed more keen on punishing poor folk than advising them of their rights.[1]

Now, property developers cream off  'Help to Buy' Government moneys to attract purchasers of new housing,[2] including purchases for 'buy to rent' market while [really unaffordable] 'affordable rent' is defined as 85% of market rent. And what about heating costs while the Met Office anticipates the coldest winter for 30 years?[3]

Potentially ameliorating news there is that "a new regulation [states] that landlords cannot lawfully let a home with an Energy Efficiency Rating of F or G… the law says that landlords and agents who advertise homes to let must show the energy rating in the ad, and landlords must also give new tenants an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The Certificate informs you about the Rating, and also provides information about the steps the landlord could take to make your home warmer and cheaper to heat….

"Government statistics for 2018 show that more than 18% of greenhouse gases in the UK are emitted from the homes we live in."[4]

How will the new Council help enforce this Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard for tenants and planet?

Alan Wheatley

Notes to editor:

1. https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/17273040.revealed-thousands-summonsed-over-council-tax-debt/
2. https://moneyweek.com/509813/help-to-buy-a-crazy-subsidy-for-housebuilders/
3. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/this-winter-could-be-coldest-for-30-years-bringing-snow-event-after-snow-event-104832843.html 
4. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/790626/2018-provisional-emissions-statistics-report.pdf

Government and Fiona Bruce backing for MIPIM UK Summit 2019

UK Government and Broadcasting selling out to global property market bonanza

Top finds by Google search of keyword:"Boris Johnson" MIPIM

Reflecting on my recent blog post Vermin-infested 'social housing' in the constituency of an MP who is a private landlord (1) I thought about attempting to write Hereford Times on the matter (word limit for readers letters generally 250 words), and got to thinking of now Prime Minister Boris Johnson's record as London Mayor in relation to the property developers' bonanza called MIPIM.

"What might that indicate for a post-Brexit UK in terms of dodgy trade deals and sell off of UK land while cuts in government spending on social housing are diverted toward 'Help to Buy' subsidies for property developers?" I wondered.

So I looked up
"Boris Johnson" MIPIM 
by way of a Google search.(2)

The second find down on that search results page

MIPIM UK Summit, the UK's leading property event

https://www.mipimuk.co.uk › en-gb

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has endorsed this year's MIPIM UK Summit in a foreword in which he emphasises the importance of the built environment sector to ...

 led me to

Top of page view athttps://www.mipimuk.co.uk/en-gb.html

Housing Minister Esther McVey and Investment Dept for International Trade Minister Graham Stuart
booked as keynote speakers

Prime Minister of UK on the MIPIM UK Summit
View letter link
https://www.mipimuk.co.uk/content/dam/sitebuilder/rm/mipim-uk/pdf/PM_Message-MIPIM_UK_Summit.pdf

BBC Question Time Chairperson Fiona Bruce to chair 're-energised MIPIM UK Summit
View full speaker list link
https://www.mipimuk.co.uk/en-gb/conferences-content.html

Confirmed sponsors include Homes England and other UK housing-related public bodies
Discover MIPIM UK Summit participating companies
https://online-database.mipimuk.co.uk/en/online-database/companies/

While I note that this event has already happened by now, I shall put a close to this 'announcement' blog post for now, so as to flag it up for others' analysis, except for me to add a link to blog post
http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/it-is-abuse-of-power-for-property-developer-lendlease-tottenham-hotspur-foo

POWER CORRUPTS - PEOPLE SUFFER Lendlease, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Haringey Council to team up to force the small private companies of the Peacock Estate off the land

.

Reference Notes

1. https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/2019/10/vermin-infested-social-housing-in-the-constituency-of-a-landlord-mp.html
2. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%22boris+johnson%22+mipim

PS: Publishable feedback received by e-mail

From Wembley Matters blogger Martin Francis, by e-mail:

Thanks Alan.  You may be interested in another couple of links. Green Party demonstrating against MIPIM when it was held in London. London Green Party officially badged the video (though got my local party wrong) - when the Green Party actually campaign don issue other than elections -  and an article by me on how the MIPIM culture was affecting regeneration decisions.

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2014/10/housing-for-people-not-profit-greens-at.html

Title: Housing for People NOT Profit: Greens at MIPIM Protest Today

[Martin is the second speaker on the video at that page, that I feel worth re-presenting here]

https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2012/10/is-donalds-right-development-road-for.html

Title:Is Donald's the right development road for Brent?


 Martin

Herefordshire Council and the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard

The term ‘infrastructure’ in relation to planning Herefordshire’s sustainable future is generally confined to matters such as transport and telecoms communications with reference to housing and workforce amid Climate Emergency and employment opportunities.

What about issues of socio-economic justice and enforcement of rights and responsibilities, along with poorer people’s access to information, advice, guidance and advocacy? As an example, my Freedom of Information request regarding Council Tax debt revealed that Herefordshire Council summonsed nearly 7,500 people for Council Tax debt in 2017/2018. The Council seemed more keen on punishing poor folk than advising them of their rights.[1]

Now, property developers cream off ‘Help to Buy’ Government moneys to attract purchasers of new housing,[2] including purchases for ‘buy to rent’ market while [really unaffordable] ‘affordable rent’ is defined as 85% of market rent. And what about heating costs while the Met Office anticipates the coldest winter for 30 years?[3]

Potentially ameliorating news there is that “a new regulation [states] thatlandlords cannot lawfully let a home with an Energy Efficiency Ratingof F or G… the law says that landlords and agents who advertise homes to let must show the energy rating in the ad, and landlords must also give new tenants an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). The Certificate informs you about the Rating, and also provides information about the steps the landlord could take to make your home warmer and cheaper to heat….

“Government statistics for 2018 show that more than 18% of greenhouse gases in the UK are emitted from the homes we live in.”[4]

As with Council Tax payments related to a property, tenants' fuel bills are currently of little concern to greedy landlords. (Where tenants have absconded without paying Council Tax, however, unpaid Council Tax becomes the landlord's responsibility, as in the case of 'Peter'.[5])

How will the new Council help enforce this Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard E for tenants and planet?

Notes for printing out:

1. https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/17273040.revealed-thousands-summonsed-over-council-tax-debt/
2. https://moneyweek.com/509813/help-to-buy-a-crazy-subsidy-for-housebuilders/
3. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/this-winter-could-be-coldest-for-30-years-bringing-snow-event-after-snow-event-104832843.html
4. http://advice4renters.org.uk/wp/2019/09/03/how-tenants-can-be-warm-and-help-to-save-the-planet/
5. https://www.bigissue.com/latest/council-tax-scandal-part-ii-human-cost/ 

"General Election manifestos must address homelessness and hunger" — Taxpayers Against Poverty

1. GENERAL ELECTION MANIFESTOS MUST ADDRESS HOMELESSNESS AND HUNGER.  The 2012 and 2016 Welfare Reform Acts were seen through Parliament by government ministers who sought to force the unemployed into work by imposing inadequate incomes and punitive laws designed to treat them as if they are at work. Examples are: a monthly rather than a weekly income; housing benefit paid to the unemployed from which they pay the rent to the landlord as if it were from a monthly pay cheque; and strict rules about keeping appointments at the job centre. The purpose was to “change the culture” of unemployment, on the mistaken assumption that the unemployed lived an easy life on benefits so were unlikely to look for work, hence the cruel benefit sanction on those who “broke the rules”. Lord Freud  on the Welfare Reform Bill 2016. Hansard Column 1427, 19 October 2016: “Every year I stand here because there is a forecast that says that child poverty is going up, has gone up or will go up, but when we actually see the figures, we find that child poverty has actually gone down. When you transform the economy, change the culture so that work is what has been driving things, and move up the employment rates and the earning rates in the way that we have, you find that the behavioural impacts are very different from the static analysis that many of the external experts tell us about.” Lord Freud could not have been more wrong. Child poverty is going up and getting worse.  Attempts by cross-bench peers to insert amendments requiring a health-impact assessment of the government’s policies were rejected. The actual and disastrous impact on the health of low-income families and individuals can be found on the Taxpayers Against Poverty website. UK land grabbed by the rich for private gain London councils have published analysis showing that there has been a significant reduction of about 200,000 in the number of homes that are affordable for tenants receiving the Local Housing Allowance. That is one among a number causes of the escalating homelessness and hunger in the capital. The 1980s’ “big bang” set up the UK housing market to make large landowners very rich indeed, with unearned and untaxed increases in the value of their land. Lending was deregulated, rent controls abolished and funds allowed to flow in and out of the limited amount of British land. Small businesses and family homes, which pay rent, business rates and/or council tax, and own no land, are treated little better than during the 15th- and 16th-century enclosures. Tenants are being pushed off the land with no solutions on the political table to reverse the trend. In Haringey, 3,000 homeless families, with 5,208 children between them, have been forced into temporary accommodation, some for up to and over 10 years. Accirding to the House of Commons Library there are 83,700 homless families in temporary accommodation in England with 124,000 children, up 74% sine 2010. 56,880 of the families are in London. Too many of them are in one room in hostels or other acommodation when none ought to be Graph from IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research)        Taxpayers Against Poverty strongly recommends that the Greater London Authority and Parliament adopt two policies used by the Danish government: Long-term vacancy of properties is discouraged in Denmark. If an owner moves and does not wish to sell the property, it must be rented out or advertised for sale. If it is empty for more than six weeks, the owner must report to the local authority, which then seeks to provide tenants, whom the owner has to accept. Non-residents of Denmark who have not lived in the country for a total period of five years previously may only acquire property after receiving permission from the Ministry of Justice. Income support for a single adult has been losing value since 1979 There is a community of about 11,000 social-security claimants in Haringey. The shredding of their social security incomes since 2010 has been piled on top of decades of adult benefit negligence. The evidence came from Professor Jonathan Bradshaw in 2009  responding to one of mine. In April 2011, austerity measures were then piled onto an already inadequate cornerstone of the benefit system. To that cornerstone are added disabled people’s, children’s, housing and council-tax benefits.  “When unemployment benefit started in 1912, it was 7 shillings a week – about 22% of average male earnings in manufacturing. The percentage fluctuated over the succeeding decades, but by 1979, the benefit rate was still about 21% of average earnings (manual and non-manual, male and female). By 2008, however, as a result of the policy of tying benefits to the price index while real earnings increased, the renamed Jobseeker’s Allowance had fallen to an all-time low of 10.5% of average earnings.” Benefit increases were frozen at 1% a year in April 2011. £73.10 a week Jobseekers’ Allowance equates to £317 a month Universal Credit. Using the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum-income standards for single-adult benefits after rent and council tax as of April 2019, we can see that Jobseekers’ Allowance and Universal Credit are nearly £32 a week too low for healthy living. And that is before  the five-week delay in the first payment of Universal Credit;  the Department for Work and Pensions “budgeting advance” to cover that delay, which is a loan that has to be repaid out of 73.10 a week;  the cuts in council tax and housing benefits, which mean rent and council tax must also be paid out of that £73.10 a week;  income is stopped by benefit sanctions, during which rent, council tax and TV-licence arrears and other debts pile up; adding to the impossibility of living on benefits;  the realisation – often only belatedly at the job centre – by a parent who has a third child that the government’s two-child policy means they will be refused child benefit for their latest offspring.  The hopelessly inadequate single adult benefit cannot maintain a healthy adult life, let alone pay rent or council tax, or their enforcement costs. That is a cruel catch 22. If your children’s benefits pay the rent, they are hungry, naked or cold; if you feed, clothe growing children or keep them warm, then the family is evicted and homeless. Low-income tenants forced into the benefit cap In the United Kingdom, local authority officers and benefit claimants are both the victims of toxic and disconnected central government policies that combine to escalate the number of homeless and hungry families. The benefits freeze is bad enough (Benefits freeze leaves a third of claimants ‘with £100 to live on a month’), but, in 2012, the government introduced another measure that is particularly hard on London families. It allows local-authority housing departments to offer homeless families in temporary council housing at £90 a week rent a move into permanent private-sector housing at £300 a week rent for a two-bed home, for example (see table). Families must accept the council’s first offer or they are deemed intentionally homeless and struck off the list of those the council has a duty to house. The unintended consequence of the 2012 measure is that a family’s total benefit income, including housing benefit, can be forced over the London benefit cap of £442.31 by high private-sector rent. The government cuts the housing benefit to enforce the cap on the total benefit income, leaving that rent to be paid by the family’s remaining benefits, which have been frozen and are already short of £100 a month to live on. Hunger and homelessness are inevitable. UK is the only nation in the world requiring renters to pay the landlord’s property tax. The UK being the only nation in the world requiring renters to pay the landlord’s property tax adds the straw that breaks the camels back. That is a great injustice. The council tax is a property tax based on 1991 evaluations after the poll tax was abolished and the council tax introduced. There is a tenant of my acquaintance who lives in a private two-bed terraced house in Tottenham that was bought new for £95,000 in 1999. An identical property next door, also new in 1999, is on the market for £425,000. The landlord is £330,000 richer, unearned and untaxed, while the tenant has paid about £1,000 a year in property/council tax for 20 years, so is £20,000 poorer. 290 out of 326 English councils require benefit claimants to pay a proportion of their landlord’s council tax. It is enforced by the magistrate’s court, adding the council’s enforcement costs to the arrears and the bailiffs adding their fees. Taxing £73.10 a week income support/Jobseekers’ Allowance/Universal Credit is a pernicious injustice. The good health and wellbeing of all UK citizens in or out of work must now become a national priority.  Taxpayers Against Poverty A VOICE FOR THE COMPASSIONATE MAJORITY No citizen without an affordable home and an adequate income in work or unemployment. Supported by TAP RESOURCES INDEX on our website  TAP DEPENDS ON SUPPORTERS - PLEASE CONSIDER MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION - THANKS

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