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The private conversations between this Government and the City

To see why we should be worried about corporate lobbying of government view this short video produced by Spinwatch

To find out more about lobbying and the Government's response come to our meeting in Uxbridge on 28 November. Click  here for more details.

The unequal relationship in private renting

An article in this week’s Uxbridge Gazette highlights again a major problem of the current housing crisis.

The article “Mum gets notice to leave ‘damp’ home” describes a mother who shares a bed with her three year old daughter because of damp in her home. Having complained to her private landlord about the dampness and failing, in her opinion, to obtain an adequate response, the tenant approached Hillingdon Council who attempted to mediate between the landlord and tenant.  The unhappy outcome of this story is that the tenant has now, after three years' tenancy, been given two months’ notice to leave and find somewhere else to live.

Private rented housing

Without making judgements on the tenant's and landlord’s counterclaims, this example illustrates that when a tenant has a grievance with a private landlord it is all too easy for the landlord to solve ‘their problem’ by giving the tenant notice under an Assured Shorthold Tenancy agreement. The tenant has no appeal against this notice and is faced with the disruption, cost and uncertainty of having to find another home.

When Assured Shorthold tenancies were introduced in 1989 they were seen as a way of increasing the supply of rented housing for the young mobile professionals who did not qualify for social housing or were yet ready to buy.  In many ways this was successful.

More than twenty years later we now have a Government which seems bent on abolishing  social housing and many young families are unable to buy their homes due to the credit crunch. Therefore most newly forming households are left to the mercy (or lack) of the private rented sector.

As homelessness increases relentlessly the Government’s principal response has been to dismantle the homelessness safety net.  As from this month homeless families who previously have had the right to be offered a council or housing association home will have to accept private rented accommodation.  Throughout this year newspapers and magazines have carried many stories about Councils, especially London boroughs, discharging their duty to homeless families by directing them to a private tenancy long distances from their last homes.

 

The Government’s disingenuous public stance is   "It is neither acceptable, fair nor necessary for local authorities to place families far away from their area” local authorities in London are locating homeless families all over the South and Midlands in order to discharge their homelessness duties.

 

By definition homeless families for whom Councils have a legal duty are families with children or people who are vulnerable in some way.  To be ‘discharged’ into the high cost, low security private rented sector accommodation many miles from where they have lived previously, with no family support and lower prospects of employment is undermining the Government’s other policy goals of getting people on benefits into work and improving educational attainment.



Home space needed for homework

Many children in these families will have to change schools for homes that provide no long term security, risking repeated moves at the whim of their landlord and disrupted education which in turn undermines their long term life chances.

As exampled in the Gazette article, private renters too often fall victim to the decisions of their landlords. Not all landlords are bad people. Many are 'reluctant landlords' - people who find they cannot sell their home so rent it out instead. However when dealing with a tenant and a sum of money is at stake most, otherwise reasonable, people are unlikely to be impartial in an unequal relationship.

Unfortunately there are even mote unscrupulous landlords and letting agents who quite deliberately exploit their tenants vulnerablity for high fees, hidden charges and broken agreements. There are far too many complaints of unreasonable charges to renew a tenancy agreement, or refusal to return of hundreds of pounds in deposits by landlords without real justification or any accountability.

Now that private renting, historically the tenure of last resort, has become the only housing option available for many families we need to do more to make private renting a secure long term option. Better regulation can protect tenants and responsible landlords.

 

Labour is exploring a code of conduct for lettings agents, greater transparency in fees and charges and new standards people must meet before they open a lettings agency. Such rules have been in place for estate agents for a long time.

 

This is a start but only addresses the tip of the much larger problem of finding an affordable housing supply.

 

 

Labour and the question of money in politics

At our next Constituency meeting at 8.00pm on Wednesday, 28 November we will be debating the issues of Introducing a Register of lobbyists and  Party Funding.

Venue: Christ Church, Redford Way, Uxbridge, GreaterLondon UB8 1SZ just a few minutes walk from Uxbridge Underground Station.

 Our guest speaker this month is Labour Party Member and Unlock Democracy's Deputy Director Alex Runswick.

LOBBY REGISTER

Lobby companies, funded by powerful commercial  interests, are accused of distorting our democracy by having disproportionate access and influence on our legislators.  

To neutralise Lobbyists influence through  transparency the Government has committed to introducing a statutory register of lobbyists. Following a public consultation held earlier this year the Government is now reviewing their proposals prior to publishing a White Paper and draft Bill during this session of Parliament.

Why and how will a lobby register work?

 

Should Trade Unions and other campaigning voluntary organisations be considered to be  the same as the commercial lobby organisations?

 

These are questions for all democratic Party Members to consider.

 PARTY FUNDING

Last year a  report on Party Funding  issued by the Committee on Standards in Public Life made  three headline proposals:

·         an annual donation cap of £10,000  from any individual or organisation including trade unions;

·         a change whereby trade union members would have to actively opt in to funding the Labour party;

·         public funding of  £3 per vote each Parliament

While the donations cap would seriously undermine the Tory Party’s funding, Labour’s initial response was opposition to the trade union member’s opt in for fear of a collapse in their own funding. All parties stepped away from the third proposal for public funding from fear of backlash from a jaundiced electorate, recently made worse by the MPs expenses scandal.

The argument in defence of trade union donations to Labour is they are made up of millions of small donations where each individual has consented for their money to be given to the party, but some commentators say that this system is often not as transparent as it ought to be.

As cross party talks on Party funding commenced In April this year, Ed Miliband made a strong defence of working people funding Labour via the annual £3 political levy and  surprised many with a  proposal for donations to be capped at £5,000, which will include discretionary contributions from the unions.  

 

COME AND SHARE YOUR VIEWS

 

This will be an ideal opportunity for members to debate these two current issues which are affecting the type of democracy in which we live.

Our meetings are open to all party members and those eligible to become party members and we welcome new supporters and interested individuals.

 

For more information email the Branch Secretary, sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

Next Branch meeting 6 November

The next branch meeting is planned for Tuesday 6 November.

For more information email the Branch Secretary sruislipandmanorlp@blueyonder.co.uk

In the mean time all branch members are invited to attend the Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP on Wednesday 24 October click here for more information.

TUC march for a future that works 20 October 2012

Ed Miliband promoting a future that works

Today in London tens of thousands of people from across Britain marched together in protest against the austerity being imposed on the country by the Tory led coalition government.


Protestors against the Government's austerity strategy marching up Regent Street towards Hyde Park

The marchers gathered in Hyde Park and amongst the many speakers Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, made the following speech:

"I am here to join with people from all walks of life.
From all parts of our country.
Think about the faces in this crowd.
Young people looking for work.
Like Ashley Parsons from Wolverhampton who you saw on the film.
Let us say we stand with all the young people who want to work in Britain today.

We have nurses determined to fight for the future of our National Health Service.
Let us say we stand with them and all the men and women who serve in our NHS.

Construction workers, like Colin Roach from Greater Manchester, recently laid off.
Let us say we stand with him and people across the whole of British business who want an economy that works for them.

And all the off-duty police officers here today.
Let us say we stand with them as they seek to protect front-line policing and improve communities across Britain.

None of these people think Britain owes them a living.
They are not asking for the earth.
They just have a simple request.
They want a future that works for them.
They believe we do better as One Nation.
Private and public sectors working together.
North and South
Trade unions and British business.

A clear reference to the Andrew Mitchell affair

But they do not see that future under this government.
Instead, they see a government dividing our country.
Andrew Mitchell may finally have resigned.
But the culture of two nations runs right across this government.

They cut taxes for millionaires.
And raise taxes for ordinary families.
They leave young people out of work while the bonuses at the banks carry on.
They even have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who tries to travel first class on a standard class ticket.

It’s one rule for those at the top and another rule for everybody else: everybody like you who plays
 their part and does the right thing.
The trouble with this government is that while they are think they are born to rule, it turns out they are not very good at it.



Off-the-wall demon-stration aimed at
Michael Gove, Education Secretary,

A few weeks ago, I asked:
Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, u-turning, pledge-breaking, make it up as you go along, back of the envelope, miserable shower than this government and this Prime Minister?
What have they done since?
They’ve tried to prove me right.

Just this week:
David Cameron tried to keep his Chief Whip, even though the rest of us could see he had to go.
He made up an Energy policy on Wednesday, without any idea of how he could achieve it.
And he clings to an economic plan that is just not working.

David Cameron: a weak, clueless Prime Minister, who cannot stand up for the interests of this country.
And they are not just incompetent.
Their old answers just don’t work any more.
Trickle-down economics.
Cutting rights at work.
David Cameron calls it the “sink or swim” society.
But you don’t build a successful country with sink or swim.
You do it by building One Nation.

And that is what the next Labour government will do.
Of course, there will still be hard choices.
With borrowing rising not falling this year, I do not promise easy times.
I have said whoever was in government now there would still need to be some cuts.
But this government has shown us cutting too far and too fast, self-defeating austerity, is not the answer.

Pointing out that cuts
are preventing growth

We would make different but fairer choices including on pay and jobs.
So here is what we would do.
Day one, with me as Prime Minister, we start to give all of our young people a stake in the future.
We will tax the bankers’ bonuses and start putting young people back to work again.
We would build 100,000 homes.And get our construction workers working again.
We will end the privatisation experiment in the NHS.
And repeal the Tories’ NHS bill.
And to all the small businesses across Britain, I pledge instead of a country that serves its banks, we would have banks that serve our country.

I tell you one cut I would never make:
I would never cut taxes for millionaires while raising taxes for everybody else.

One Nation is a country where those with the broadest shoulders always bear the greatest burden.
One Nation is a country where we give hope to our young people again.
And One Nation is a country where we defend and improve our great institutions, like the National Health Service.
One Nation.
A country united not divided.
A future that works.
A future that Britain builds together

Private sector rents sucking life out of the economy

Shelter Housing charity policy team member, Peter Jeffreys, has estimated that the proportion of  private sector rents increases over inflation since 2000 equates to £8 billion per year. A large proportion of this excess has been paid to banks to fund landlords’ buy-to-let mortgages which takes money out of circulation within the economy. “If banks were re-lending this money, again it might not be a problem. But, as we’re constantly hearing – bank lending has dropped massively since 2008.”

Had the £8billion been retained by tenants it would have largely been spent on consumer goods and services which would have a significant impact on boosting the economy. Private sector tenants in London are paying on average between 42% of 46% of disposable income on these higher  rents.  This is in turn is increasing Government expenditure on housing benefits which have doubled over the last 10 years to £20 billion.

Mr Jeffreys points out that “the balance of government spending on housing has shifted from spending on house building to spending on housing benefits. Our analysis shows that if just 8% of private rented tenants moved to affordable social homes the government would recover £200 million in savings." and  recommends building affordable social homes and a reformation of the private rented sector as a means to solve the problem.