The Government is currently running a consultation on the 'Reform of Council Housing Finance'. In his foreword, the Housing Minister John Healey writes, "these changes will enable councils to become, once again, significant providers of new housing" – if only those words had been written in 1997 . . .
For several years, the Defend Council Housing campaign, supported by every major UK trade union, has been highlighting the daylight robbery by the Government from council housing, and campaigning for the reasonable demand that there should be a level playing field for council housing that is retained in public ownership.
The fact this consultation even exists, and that it explicitly promises "a level playing field between transfer and retention", is therefore a tribute to the DCH campaign.
Currently, councils are only offered funding to meet the Decent Homes Standard if they, in some form, privatise their council housing stock – through full stock transfer, Arms-Length Management Organisation (ALMO) or Private Finance Initiative scheme. DCH has been fighting for the 'fourth option' of direct funding for council housing.
There are over one million people living in council homes which do not meet the Decent Homes Standard (one in three of all council housing tenants). Yet for decades council tenants have paid more in rent to Government than is spent on the upkeep of council homes. It is a robbery from some of the most vulnerable people, undermining one of the most valuable institutions in British society. DCH estimates that over £30 billion has been siphoned out of council housing in the last 15 years.
The Government's commitment "to develop a sustainable, long term system for financing council housing" is therefore long overdue. Also welcome is the promise of capital grants in excess of £6 billion to meet the backlog of outstanding works to those estates and streets where tenants have refused to be blackmailed into transfer or ALMO. However, the promise of a level playing field is not yet a reality.
The government's impact assessment gives further evidence that the proposed settlement falls well short of what is required. Under the present system the Government will be taking more than £22 billion over 30 years – under the new proposals they would still be taking more than £10 billion.
Twelve years after the election of a Labour Government, after numerous conference defeats (which ultimately led to the Labour Party abolishing votes at conference) DCH concludes, "the proposals fall short but the door is opening". Please respond to the consultation and give that door another nudge.
The consultation document can be downloaded from the Department for Communities and Local Government website, and the deadline for responses is 27th October 2009.
For a full response from Defend Council Housing see www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk
Saturday, 29 August 2009
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The Equality, within limits, Bill
The Equality Bill is currently being debated by Parliament, and will continue to be scrutinised once MPs return in October from their summer break.
However, like many other parts of the Bill, most aspects of the Bill relating to age discrimination will come in much later through secondary legislation and therefore the Government is consulting on proposals: 'Making it work: Ending age discrimination in services and public functions'.
If you read the consultation paper you would be forgiven for believing that age discrimination does not affect young people, only older people. There is barely a reference to any of the discrimination faced by young people.
During the passage of the Employment Bill last year, John McDonnell MP tabled amendments to outlaw the lower pay rates in the National Minimum Wage legislation, and earlier this year Lynne Jones MP forced a vote to the Welfare Reform Bill on the lower benefit rates on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). It has never been satisfactorily explained why a 20 year old worker should receive less pay for the same work or why a 24 year old JSA claimant should survive on £14 less per week than an unemployed 25 year old.
The Government states it will “allow different treatment based on age only where it can be objectively justified”.
Older citizens have organised themselves into effective lobbies through various local pensioner action groups and the National Pensioners' Convention. They also live for longer in old age than young people do as young people.
Perhaps this explains the main form of youth discrimination identified in this consultation is that "many providers of holiday accommodation impose age limits such as "no unders 21s"". Readers may wish to pause to digest the full implications of this devastating impact on the formative years of young people.
Currently less than one in ten young workers are unionised and youth unemployment is at its highest in more than 15 years.
If trade unions are to recruit young people they need to be fighting on their behalf and fighting for their equal treatment. This means challenging the blatant ageism which means a 20 year old worker will be paid £2000 less per year for the same work as a 22 year old on the minimum wage, and an unemployed 24 year old is expected to live on £700 less than a 25 year old.
To take a quote from the consultation out of context: "there is clear evidence that age discrimination harms people's quality of life and life chances". However since this Government is also keen to "ensure burdens arising from changes are minimised" such discrimination will only be brought within the scope of the Bill if significant pressure can be brought to bear. Young people need trade unions to fight with them, and as the demographics of trade union membership increasingly shows, trade unions also need young people to fight with them.
The consultation document can be downloaded from the Government Equalities Office website and the deadline for responses is 30th September 2009.
However, like many other parts of the Bill, most aspects of the Bill relating to age discrimination will come in much later through secondary legislation and therefore the Government is consulting on proposals: 'Making it work: Ending age discrimination in services and public functions'.
If you read the consultation paper you would be forgiven for believing that age discrimination does not affect young people, only older people. There is barely a reference to any of the discrimination faced by young people.
During the passage of the Employment Bill last year, John McDonnell MP tabled amendments to outlaw the lower pay rates in the National Minimum Wage legislation, and earlier this year Lynne Jones MP forced a vote to the Welfare Reform Bill on the lower benefit rates on Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA). It has never been satisfactorily explained why a 20 year old worker should receive less pay for the same work or why a 24 year old JSA claimant should survive on £14 less per week than an unemployed 25 year old.
The Government states it will “allow different treatment based on age only where it can be objectively justified”.
Older citizens have organised themselves into effective lobbies through various local pensioner action groups and the National Pensioners' Convention. They also live for longer in old age than young people do as young people.
Perhaps this explains the main form of youth discrimination identified in this consultation is that "many providers of holiday accommodation impose age limits such as "no unders 21s"". Readers may wish to pause to digest the full implications of this devastating impact on the formative years of young people.
Currently less than one in ten young workers are unionised and youth unemployment is at its highest in more than 15 years.
If trade unions are to recruit young people they need to be fighting on their behalf and fighting for their equal treatment. This means challenging the blatant ageism which means a 20 year old worker will be paid £2000 less per year for the same work as a 22 year old on the minimum wage, and an unemployed 24 year old is expected to live on £700 less than a 25 year old.
To take a quote from the consultation out of context: "there is clear evidence that age discrimination harms people's quality of life and life chances". However since this Government is also keen to "ensure burdens arising from changes are minimised" such discrimination will only be brought within the scope of the Bill if significant pressure can be brought to bear. Young people need trade unions to fight with them, and as the demographics of trade union membership increasingly shows, trade unions also need young people to fight with them.
The consultation document can be downloaded from the Government Equalities Office website and the deadline for responses is 30th September 2009.
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