Unite today (Friday June 16) announced that it will donate £100,000 to the Red Cross London Fire Relief appeal set up to assist the people affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The union has…Read more…
Never again
“Get stuffed”. That was the response of Boris Johnson, our present foreign secretary, when quizzed as mayor about his fire safety cuts. In just two words, Johnson embodied the hideous disdain…Read more…
#RentersVote for #ToriesOUT
This email I received below is interesting. How angry are people about being so ripped off and what are they going to do about it? “There are now more renters than people who voted Tory in 2015. In other words the #RentersVote could swing it!
Our re…Read more…
Homelessness and the Housing Revenue Account
Swindon Council’s second raid on the housing account As Swindon Council faces the decline of central government Revenue Support Grant year on year, it has scrabbled around desperately looking for ways of saving money. Its imposition of parish councils on the town without a democratic mandate…Read more…
Housing announcement: Labour’s consumer rights revolution for renters
“The Conservative’s record on housing is one of seven years of failure.
In the private rented sector, tenants are now spending £800 million every month on homes which the Government classes as ‘non-decent’. Around a quarter of this – some £2.3 billion a year – is paid by housing benefit.
Labour…Read more…
“Why I care so much about housing associations: they will be critical to delivering Jeremy Corbyn’s housebuilding target”
Today John Healey MP announced a welcome commitment to build a million homes if a Labour Government is elected on June 8.
We have to bang the Labour drum on safe, secure, decent and affordable housing for all.
Steve Hilditch on “Redbrick” is really i…Read more…
Shifting the balance of power
Devolution is finally reaching the English regions. On May 4 voters get to elect the first tranche of “metro mayors”
The article Shifting the balance of power first appeared on the UNISON National…Read more…
Lives uprooted
Hundreds of homeless families from London are being forced to uproot their lives and move to private rented accommodation miles outside the capital or else face having their support cut off, new…Read more…
UNISON London Community Service Group AGM & Seminar 6 May 17
The seminar is on Housing and all UNISON members are invited. Some key figures have been invited as speakers and panel members. Wait and see – but I think this will be really good event. Registration forms have been sent to London branches but contact …Read more…
One Housing Group raises rents for Newham key workers by 40%
Tomorrow I will be attending this public meeting in the evening to discuss One Housing Group plan to impose new tenancy agreements and massive rent rises on a number of “key worker” tenants in Manor Road, E15.
These “key workers” are employed by local…Read more…
“New Tory White Paper – Putting Jobs & Residents at Risk”. Emergency motion to UNISON Community Conference 2017
On 7 February 2017 the Government issued a white paper on the future of housing in England. The paper had been trailed beforehand as being the blueprint to fix the housing crisis and “as having affordability at its heart”.
The actual white paper has been dismissed by many commentators as being a…Read more…
Don’t deal with blacklisters
Unite will tomorrow (Thursday March 2) urge London’s Haringey council not to ‘deal with blacklisters’, in a £2bn project which will see hundreds of long-standing Tottenham tenants removed from their…Read more…
Bottom of the table
Poorer families in the UK are much less likely to own their home than their counterparts abroad, new research that highlights Britain’s chronic housing crisis shows. According to Organisation…Read more…
“Why we need to build a new housing Consensus for affordable and decent homes for all”
This was my speech to Greater London UNISON Regional Council AGM 1.2.17 on our branch motion. It was passed and selected to be a regional motion to this year’s National Delegate Conference.
“Chair, Council, John Gray, Housing Association Branch, …Read more…
Redbrick on “Housing white paper: Government reinvents the wheel”
Check out “Here are some initial reactions to the White Paper published today, having also listened to Sajid Javid’s statement at lunchtime.
Almost every news programme and every newspaper has previewed the Housing White Paper, published today, in excitable terms, building expectations that…Read more…
Housing white paper won’t help low-paid workers, says UNISON
Responding to the publication of the government’s white paper on housing today (Tuesday), UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “For years now many people have been priced out of buying or…Read more…
Why we need to build a new housing consensus for affordable and decent homes for all
Why we need to build a new housing consensus for affordable and decent homes for all
(motion from UNISON Housing Association branch to the Greater London Regional Council AGM on Feb 1. If passed it could also be submitted to UNISON Nationa…Read more…
“One article does not wipe the slate clean”
A really important and interesting article by Steve Hilditch on the Labour Housing Group website “Red Brick” about the undermining of social housing during the last decade. The CEO of Notting Hill is not the only one and actually not the worse by…Read more…
“Unions gauge support for industrial action at Clarion Group”
This article was published in the “Inside Housing” website last week. To be clear strike action in defence of trade union rights is being balloted upon as is boycotts and disinvestment.
If Clarion are not “for or against” trade union recognition as th…Read more…
Poor students frozen out
Unite community members from Durham University held a festive campus demonstration on Tuesday (November 13), to protest against accommodation costs and price increases that are leaving poorer…Read more…