Residents on the Cressingham Gardens estate in Lambeth are celebrating a small victory in their three year-long campaign to save their homes from demolition after being granted a judicial review….Read more…
Union solidarity saves the day
Last night (Tuesday July 14) ex-Unite shop steward Paul and his daughter Roisin were still safe in their home after a judge at Croydon Crown Court granted a seven day stay of eviction. Paul…Read more…
Nasty business in Bromley
Eviction threat to diabetic carer and daughter AS a responsible council worker and trade unionist, Paul Rooney thought it his duty to criticize the policy and workings of Tory-controlled…Read more…
The shambles that wrecks lives
More than 30 Unite Community activists and local residents protested outside an ex Unite shop steward’s house today (Monday July 13) to stop bailiff’s evicting him and his severely disabled daughter….Read more…
#uNDC15 Housing Composite
“President, Conference, John Gray, National Executive Committee speaking in favour of Composite F on Housing on behalf of the NEC
Conference, in that wonderful East London expression, it is the “bleedin’ obvious”, that housing is a key issue for our union.
Many of you here today, like me,…Read more…
Homes for people not profit
#unDC15 There is a massive housing crisis across the UK as a result of Government policies. Too little social housing is being built and apart from Scotland, those that are built are being sold off. In many places rents are unaffordable and the bedroom tax has created more poverty and homelessness.
Delegates backed a call for government and Labour councils to stop implementing the bedroom tax;Read more…
The end of social housing? 10 Tory plans to finish it off
Hat tip to progressive Housing blog “Redbrick” where I have stolen their arguments about Government housing plans and put my own slant on it. They highlight 10 problems with these plans for social housing :-“The new Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) – which precludes building for…Read more…
Home threat hotspots
New research from the Ministry of Justice shows that more than 8,300 people face losing their home every week in England. Londoners face the highest risk of losing their home because of…Read more…
Why “Right to Buy” will be another nail in the coffin of the Housing Association movement
The 1966 BBC television play “Cathy Come Home” about homelessness and its back drop is credited with with kick starting many modern day Housing associations.
Sadly, some (not by all means all) have forgotten their social mission and instead become mon…Read more…
Winner takes it all
The London property market while considered a boom for one group of people is a crisis for many others. The day after the Tories secured a majority in the general election sales of luxury…Read more…
“Height of insanity”
The Tories’ latest right-to-buy housing scheme will spell disaster for London’s already beleaguered housing market. A key part of the Conservative manifesto, extending right-to-buy to housing…Read more…
Housing sell off: ‘sheer stupidity’
David Cameron has confirmed that his right to buy extension to all housing association homes will now be part of the Queen’s Speech tomorrow (Wednesday May 27). The scheme, in effect, is…Read more…
Tories’ high rise of housing woe
Only a week after the Tories have begun their latest five-year reign of power, new, record-breaking figures released last Thursday (May 14) from the first few months of 2015 have shown the massive…Read more…
Looking into an abyss
As the Tories swung into power last week – despite securing little more than a third of the share of the national vote – they are now unfettered by a coalition government, and have already begun…Read more…
In search of the impossible
Grand Central, a luxury development to be constructed on a derelict site in Cambridge, will only have eight affordable homes. This is in an area where over 2,000 people languish on council house…Read more…
West Ham Labour On the Knocker in Sratford & Ilford North
Picture update of campaigning activity by West Ham Labour members in Stratford & Ilford North. We have been door knocking, telecanvassing and delivering leaflets all week. The new blocks of flats in Stratford are notoriously difficult to get i…Read more…
Stop London’s ‘social cleansing’
Unite Community is launching a London-wide campaign bringing together residents whose estates are threatened by regeneration schemes which divide communities and force families from the areas they…Read more…
House building and living rent to fix housing crisis
#stuc15 The STUC is to call for a major house building programme, focussing especially affordable and council housing, not only to meet need but also to boost employment and the economy. It also called for work with Shelter, other charities, community groups, and the People’s Assembly, to build a broad based campaign to support a living rent.
UNISON Scotland’s Susan Kennedy, backing the USDAW,Read more…
Young workers speaking up for housing
The UK is caught in a deepening housing crisis, which is particularly hitting younger people. House building is stuck at a historically low level meanwhile the waiting list for social housing has…Read more…
Homeless Sweets Way homeless
Walk through Sweets Way housing estate in Barnet, North London, and it’s a ghost town – broken glass on the streets, windows boarded up as if in preparation for a storm, kitchen and bath items laying…Read more…