This is an article published in Labour Briefing The contradiction between Labour’s official housing policies and the more radical aspirations … MoreRead more…
Labour needs to be pressed to put council housing at the top of its priorities list
MARTIN WICKS reflects on Labour’s housing policy in the wake of the party’s conference in Liverpool THE contradiction between Labour’s … MoreRead more…
A campaign against local government austerity?
According to Owen Jones a statement is being released later this week which organisers hope will be signed by local … MoreRead more…
Reading Labour council proposes to “market test” services
An emergency measure for local government crisis – suspend debt payments The virtual collapse of the council in Northampton is … MoreRead more…
Adoption of “the full” IHRA document – prelude to a witch-hunt?
“My fear is, if we similarly enshrine this definition into law, outside groups will try and suppress – rather than … MoreRead more…
An attack on freedom of speech and dissent
The attempted with-hunt of critics of Israel mirrors the with-hunt in Israel against critics of the Israeli state The article … MoreRead more…
Defence of the Israeli state is the real motive for the campaign against Labour ‘anti-semitism’
According to Margaret Hodge Corbyn is an “ant-semite and a racist”, even though as late as March she said she … MoreRead more…
We need 100,000 council homes a year, not “affordable homes”
Labour’s Housing Green Paper, Housing for the many, has a fundamental flaw at its heart. It says that a Labour … MoreRead more…
What happened in Barnet?
Adam Langleben, Barnet Labour councillor, has made a video which is circulating widely, which gives the impression that Jewish voters in Barnet have deserted Labour in droves. In the media he has reported that Jewish voters had told him “not this time”…Read more…
Marc Wadsworth and “perceived” anti-Semitism
The expulsion of Labour Party member Marc Wadsworth relates to the press conference in June 2016 announcing the results of the Chakrabarti report on anti-Semitism. As with all events it’s best to place them in their historical context. The press …Read more…
Labour’s Housing Green paper – Part 2
Labour should introduce a duty on councils to build council housing in the framework of the housing revenue account Labour’s Housing Green Paper has a fundamental flaw at its heart. It says that a Labour government “will introduce a duty (on coun…Read more…
Labour’s Housing Green Paper – Part 1
We need 100,000 council homes a year not “affordable homes” “We have a housing crisis in this country that can only be solved by local government building more. Labour’s 2017 manifesto promised to build 100,000 council homes to ‘rent or buy…Read more…
Walking out of a Zionist Federation dinner
Those Labour politicians who supported the demonstration organised by the Board of Deputies against the Labour Party, did so on the grounds that they were standing in solidarity with “the Jewish community”. In fact there is no such thing as the Jewish …Read more…
Anti-Semitism, real and counterfeit
What is the scale of the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, real or imagined? I am not a Labour member so I don’t directly know what happens in Labour meetings around the country, though I obviously read reports and speak to friends wh…Read more…
Swindon – the real picture Part 2
Crisis of housing affordability Both David Renard the Council Leader and MP Robert Buckland highlighted from the Centre for Cities report the fact that house prices in Swindon were lower than many other places on the list. That might attract people fro…Read more…
Swindon – the real picture (Part One)
What’s happening with earnings? News from the Centre for Cities report was picked up by local politicians as an opportunity to declare how well things were going in the town. The rate of productivity per worker saw the town ranked seventh, whilst…Read more…
Labour should end Right to Buy
During his first leadership election Jeremy Corbyn was interviewed by Red Brick, the blog of London Labour Housing Group. He was asked about the issue of Right to Buy (RTB). He responded that he would vote against the extension of RTB to housing associ…Read more…
Is Labour’s Housing policy shifting leftwards?
Is Labour’s housing policy shifting leftwards? It’s official policy of suspending Right to Buy (RTB) sales was introduced by Teresa Pearce1 when she was temporarily Shadow Housing Minister. This was after John Healey had participated in the…Read more…
Councils need government grant to fund large scale council house building programme
This is an article published on the Labour Briefing website Raising the ‘borrowing cap’ is not a solution to the council housing shortage There has been much talk of late about councils being able to “ borrow to build” new council housing. …Read more…
“Tenants pay for housing fiascos, from post-Grenfell bills to ‘self-financing’ “
This was a letter published in the Guardian. The suggestion that lifting the borrowing cap will enable councils to build council housing on a grand scale ignores the funding crisis faced by local authority Housing Revenue Accounts. Council HRAs still h…Read more…