Showing posts with label Grant Shapps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grant Shapps. Show all posts

Friday 23 October 2020

URGENT - Londoners Stand Up for the Freedom Pass: Email Secretary of State, Grant Shapps NOW!

 

Image from Transport For All

From AgeUK London

In a matter of days we will find out if Freedom Pass and 60+ Oyster card concessions will be further reduced or even cut entirely. You may have seen the story in the news as part of the coverage around conditions attached to the next funding deal between the government and Transport for London. 

 

We started the campaign to protect older Londoners' travel concessions back in June but the next few days are vital. The government need to know the impact that this will have and they need to hear from those most affected. We have until 31 October to stand up for older Londoners and keep transport affordable.

 

Click here to email the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps MP.

 

Affordable transform is not a luxury it's a lifeline and can transform lives. Taking travel concessions away from older Londoners who live in the city with the worst pensioner poverty rate in the country and some of the highest living costs in the world will drive up poverty and exacerbate the capital’s social isolation crisis.

 

Please help spread the word


Once you send your email (which you can personalise) you will see an option to share the campaign on Facebook or Twitter. You can also forward this email on to all those that may be interested. We need to get as many people emailing the Secretary of State as possible.

 

We are very concerned that the 60+ Oyster card may be most at risk. If you are a 60+ Oyster holder or know someone that is, it is particularly important to be heard.

 

Time is against us. The next funding deal will be announced by 31st October. Now more than ever, let's raise our voices!

 

Thank you for your support,

 

John, Abi and the Age UK London team

 

P.S. Here is a powerful case study from Deborah, a 60+ Oyster card holder who told us her story earlier this week.

 

Thursday 8 May 2014

Caroline Lucas v Farage on BBC Question Time tonight

Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, will get the chance to take on Nigel Farage on BBC Question Time tonight.

The programme begins at 10.35pm o BBC1 and Grant Shapps, Shirley Williams and Chuka Umunna are also on the panel.

Saturday 12 May 2012

Shapps warns Brent Council over extended B&B stays

Coalition policies having exacerbated the housing crisis, the Housing Minister has now lambasted local councils, including Brent, on the way they are dealing with the consequences.  The following item is from the Inside Housing website LINK


The housing minister has warned 20 councils to improve the way they deal with homeless people. Grant Shapps wrote to the local authorities in England on 23 April after becoming worried about the amount of time they were leaving families languishing in bed and breakfast accommodation. The minister is concerned councils are breaching rules barring them from placing families in B and Bs for more than six weeks.

Hammersmith & Fulham, Bromley, Westminster, Brent and Wandsworth councils in London, as well as Cornwall Council are among those singled out.

Mr Shapps wrote: ‘While this government has removed targets… this does not mean I am relaxed about local authorities placing families in B and B for extended periods.’

He urged councils to ‘prioritise this issue’ and offered the help of his officials to reduce B and B use. ‘I am writing to you privately about this at this time, but we will be monitoring the statistics closely,’ he warned.

Nigel Minto, head of housing at London Councils, said the government’s welfare reforms, including caps to local housing allowance, have led to a reduction in affordable available private rented stock.

Communities and Local Government department figures released in March show a 37 per cent increase in B and B placements from 2,310 households in the last quarter of 2010 to 3,170 in the same period last year.

A spokesperson for Bromley Council said the authority is experiencing a significant increase in households placed in temporary accommodation.

‘This is due to a number of factors, including a very competitive private rented sector furthering the gap between housing benefit levels and market rents, fewer households able to become owner-occupiers and the impact on households of the present economic situation,’ she said.

Under the Labour government’s Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) Order 2003, councils must not place families in B and Bs for more than six weeks and must only place families with children in B and Bs when there is no alternative.

Mr Shapps told Inside Housing that breaching the six-week barrier is ‘clearly against rules and regulations that have been in force for nearly a  decade’. Councils that fail to follow the 2003 order can be subjected to a judicial review.
 
Campbell Robb, chief executive of homelessness charity Shelter, said: ‘This is yet another indication of our fraying housing safety net, which is struggling to catch all those who are now in need of it.’

Sunday 29 April 2012

The housing emergency that will soon devastate Brent families

The entrance to a Chalkhill block of flats
 "They are making the poor, poorer," was the reaction of one parent when Chalkhill Primary School held a briefing about the Coalition's welfare reforms.

The school, recognising that many of its families would be hit in the near future had arranged for Reed in Partnership and Brent Housing to explain what was happening and 50 or so parents attended the meeting on Friday morning.

As the parents realised,that their lives were about to be turned upside down, the anxiety in the room deepened.

Brent Housing admitted there was little good news but emphasised the need for planning ahead of the main impact of the changes which will hit in April 2013.  They offered advice on how to bid for properties and transfers for council and housing association tenants (Call 020 8937 5211) and help for those renting in the private sector (020 8937 5211/4441/2369).

They suggested that the reforms might mean moving to Barnet or Harrow or further afield for some tenants. They were able to offer to help negotiate new rents with private landlords when the London Housing Allowance (LHA) no longer covered the full rent, perhaps with a 9 month protection if the rent was increased pending finding new accommodation.

For many, the combination of the reduced Housing Benefit,. the overall income cap, changes in the hours needing to be worked for Working Tax credit, and the likely charging of at least 20% council tax to all but the most vulnerable,  will bring about a drastic reduction in income The red columns add up to the £500 weekly limit):
 
Household size
Total Income
(IS/JSA, CTC, CB –approx)
Max HB from April 2013
LHA rate South Brent
LHA rate North Brent
2  adults, 2 children
£260.70
£239.30
£290 (2 bed rate)
£219.23 (2 bed rate)
2 adults, 3 children
£332.10
£167.90
£340 (3 bed rate)
£288.46 (3 bed rate)
2 adults, 4 children
£403.50
£96.50
£400 (4 bed rate)
£346.15 (4 bed rate)
2 adults, 5 children
£474.90
£25.10
£400
£400
2 adults,  6 children
£546.30

£0

£400

£400


It is clear that many families will not have enough to spend on food, heating and necessities after rent has been paid and thus will have no option but to move out of London unless they can find work.

This was where Reed In Partnership came in with its offer to help 'progression into work' , emphasising that it was not 'forcing people into work'. They offered:
  • Individual appointments to make 'better off' calculations comparing income from work with income from benefits. 
  • Opportunities to go on courses, develop English language skills, and help looking for long-term sustainable jobs.
  • Step by step help with housing, childcare, budgeting, connection with appropriate programme
  • Help into volunteer activities that would contribute to a CV
  • Help with interview skills and appropriate clothing
  • Help with public transport , providing travel cards while waiting for first pay packet
A mother who had received help from the programme spontaneously stood and said how much it had helped her. She said that they had helped her buy clothes for her job interview and that now she was employed she was better off than when she was on benefit and less socially isolated at home.

Reed In Partnership contacts: Marilyn Grundy 07534 189 557
Wembley Works, Forum House, Lakeside Way, HA9 0BU
Sessions: May 3, 17, 31 9am-noon

I am sceptical that with the numbers of people involved and with current high levels of unemployment in Brent how many people will be able to benefit but it clearly offered some a glimmer of hope. However for some mothers with very young children at home it does not seem to be an option. For many moving to 'cheaper' areas, probably with even fewer job opportunities (that's one reason why property is cheap after all) will be the only alternative to penury.  While Reed claims it isn't doing the forcing it is clear that the policy is doing just that and agencies such as Reed deliver that policy on behalf of the government.

Overall, the impact of all this must be to increase the number of children living in poverty with inevitable consequences for health and educational progress. If families are forced to move out of London children's schooling will be disrupted and nuclear families will be separated from support from their extended families and communities, finding themselves isolated and possibly facing racism and prejudice from the receiving communities.

According to Saturday's Guardian, back in 1994, Housing Minister Grant Shapps stood in what they call the London ward that represented Chalkhill, then a notorious concrete block estate.  Shapps boasts, "My brilliant slogan was 'Vote for me on Thursday and we'll start knocking your house down on Friday', and I came within 103 votes of taking a safe Labour ward".

I would like Shapps to come back to the Chalkhill Estate and  talk to people whose lives he and his Coalition colleagues are about to wreck.
 
It appears to me that this government is like the military, making war and killing people in a far away country. by clicking on a computer screen. They are as remote from the lives of ordinary people in places like Chalkhill and the impact these 'reforms' will have on their lives, as those military personnel were from the lives of ordinary people in Iraq. I suppose the question is are they oblivious to the consequences, or is that what they want?

For more on these issues go to this article LINK

The Chalkhill meeting showed the importance of outreach work by the Council at a venue where they can meet families affected by the welfare 'reforms' and rise awareness of the issues. I hope other schools will hold similar meetings.

From Shelter



Sunday 9 January 2011

Government minister hits out at Brent charges increase

The political blame game over cuts and increased charges in Brent has taken a new turn with local government minister Grant Shapps criticising Brent's increased fees introduced on January 1st - including the 127% increase in allotment fees which put the price of a small allotment up from £33 to £75. Shapps said councils "should not be using residents as cash cows."

Full story on the BBC website 
More on Brent charges on this blog HERE