Brent's Housing Crisis under the spotlight on Sunday

Victoria Hall in Wembley Park under construction - now occupied

Martin Cheesman, former Brent Director of Housing, warned more than a year ago that housing benefit cut would hit local families hard, with many families unable to afford the rents of housing in the area.

The cap comes into effect early next year but families are already being given notice to quit by private landlords and are having to be move into temporary accommodation, including bed and breakfast placements in hotels. The Brent Budget report to be discussed by the Council on Monday predicts this will make a significant impact on Brent's already depleted budget. Some families are having to move to Milton Keynes or even Birmingham to find affordable housing with a disruptive impact on the children's education.

Single people, and especially the vulnerable, will be badly hit by the Cap and will be required to share accommodation as Housing Benefit will not be enough to pat the rent on a one bedroomed property in the area.

The problem is compounded by developers reluctance to build affordable housing in the current economic and they have switched investment to other areas included the building of student accommodation in the Wembley Stadium area. In all there will be about 2,600 students in the Stadium area, about 10% of the population.

This could, with careful planning, have benefits for the area if amenities are provided locally that students will use and thus benefit the local economy. It could bring some much-needed creative political thinking into the borough, However if their needs are not addressed students will use amenities close to their colleges and Wembley will lose out ,with the blocks becoming little more than dormitories.

This is the accommodation, built, under way or planned: Victoria Hall, Opened September 2011 - 436 places; Quintin iQ, to be completed by Summer 2012 - 660 places; Dexion House - consent granted 14.06.11 - 661 places; Quintain NW Lands Planning Committee approved 12.05.11 subject to Section 106 agreement and GLA approval, 880 place

Clearly though if the building of affordable housing is put on the back-burner by Quintain and other developers, local families already on the waiting list will suffer as well as those made newly homeless. In the Spring council rents in Brent are likely to rise by 7%.

On Sunday Barry Gardiner MP is holding a public meeting on the housing crisis at 3pm on Sunday at Brent Town Hall.  The meeting with examine standards, costs and availability in private rented housing.

The debate on Sunday will discuss the likely impact on vulnerable private tenants in light of the coalition government’s Housing Benefit caps. It will also focus on the impact of current rent rates and housing conditions on low-waged people in work, particularly young people and students, who are finding it increasingly difficult to save for a property of their own as a result of ever increasing rent rates.

Speakers at the event will include Chris Williamson MP, shadow minister for Communities and Local Government, Jacky Peacock, director of the Brent Private Tenants Rights Group, and Navin Shah, London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow.

The meeting will start at 3pm in Committee Rooms 1-3.

December 22nd - Wembley Central by-election

The Returning Officer for Brent has decided that the by-election to fill the vacancy in the Wembley Central ward will be held on Thursday 22 December.

Anyone wishing to stand for election may submit a completed nomination form between Friday 18 November and 12noon on Friday 25 November.

The nomination forms are available from the Electoral Services office at Brent Town Hall.

  

The by-election follows the resignation of Labour councillor Jayesh Mistry.

Brent Fights Back at the People's Assembly - Video

Thanks to BNCTV for this footage of last week's People's Assembly

High Court ruling on libraries may have ramifications for Brent decision

A ruling in the High Court reported by the Independent today may have some relevance to the upcoming High Court decision on Brent libraries:

Judge McKenna, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, ruled Somerset and Gloucestershire had failed to comply with "public sector equality duties" owed to vulnerable social groups, including single mothers, children, elderly and the disabled.

The judge declared the decisions were "not merely unlawful decisions, but in substance 'bad government', and it is important to the rule of law to give due respect to these issues of equality".

The ruling means that Gloucestershire council must reconsider its plans to withdraw funding from 10 of its 38 libraries and the withdrawal of its mobile library service.

Somerset must reconsider its plans to end funding for 11 of its 34 static libraries and four of the six mobile libraries already off the road.

James Goudie QC, appearing for the councils, warned the library campaigners that the victory could turn out to be an "own goal" - and even more "draconian" reductions in library services could be introduced.

He said that, when the local authorities came to reconsider their decisions, it was at least "highly likely" they would make the same decisions again.

He said: "They might actually be more draconian from the point of view of those challenging libraries' closures than the decisions made months ago."

Preston Manor High School to take the Coop route to academy status?

Preston Manor All-through Foundation School is considering applying for academy conversion, along with several other Brent secondary schools using the Cooperative Trust model.   They are approaching neighbouring primary schools to see if they are interested in joining in the process.

Matthew Lantos, following in the steps of the headteachers of Kingsbury High and Claremont, is arguing that his school community should not be deprived of the additional £600,000 that conversion would bring. During the debate surrounding Preston Manor expanding into primary provision, he denied that eventual conversion to academy status was on his agenda. I argued on this blog that competition with Ark Academy made that likely and since then Claremont and Kingsbury High have converted.

The argument is of course that schools converting to academy status may gain for themselves but at the cost of the schools remaining within the local authority because the central education fund is cut as a consequence - up to £900,000 per secondary school according to Brent's Budget Report.  Such a loss, multiplied several times over, would severely affect Brent  being able to carry out its role as an education authority.  Ironically one of the arguments put forward for this strategy is that the role of the local education authority has been weakened making conversion more attractive.Conversion will weaken the education authority even more.

If the main reason for adopting a cooperative school model was the adoption of cooperative principles this could have been done without becoming an academy and without the funding implications. By adopting the cooperative school approach of working in clusters alongside academy conversion, academies are extended into the primary sector.

The cooperative model may on the surface look attractive in terms of ethos and values but will need close scrutiny during the consultation process.  Preston Manor's plans should make for an interesting debate when headteachers and chairs of governors meet with Krutika Pau, Brent  Director of Children and Families on Thursday evening.

More on Cooperative Trust Schools HERE

Well doggone! Dog Orders Approved

Multiple dog walker in Fryent Country Park

 Brent Executive tonight approved new Dog Control Orders for Parks and Open Spaces. It restricts the total number of dogs that can be taken onto land  by any one person to six, excludes dogs from certain areas such as playgrounds and specifies areas where dogs should be kept on leads.

A local resident spoke in favour of reducing the maximum to 4 reflecting lower numbers in neighbouring boroughs and for more controls in Edward VII Park Willesden because of the number of children using the park. She also advocated restrictions on the length of leads as dogs as those on long leads were less easily controlled.

I spoke in favour of the  restriction on numbers walked by an individual and told councillors about my experience of encountering packs of up to 15 dogs in Fryent Country Park accompanied by a single 'professional' dog walker, and the danger this posed to children, and animals such as the horses at Bush Farm.  I warned about the difficulties of enforcing the Order when many of the professional dogs walkers come from outside Brent, having been displaced by similar Orders in their own boroughs.  There was also the possibility that they would bring a friend and thus increase the number of dogs they could lawfully walk.

Cll;r Powney (yep - he's in charge of this as well) said the policy would be reviewed after a year as the Council hadn't had such a policy before and needed to assess its enforcement.   Cllr Gavin Sneddon suggested that rather than a review after one year there should be one after six months and Cllr Powney (yep, he's is charge of this as well!) accepted the proposal.

The issues behind Mistry's resignation

According to some Labour Party insiders Cllr Jayesh Mistry's resignation, although ostensibly for 'personal reasons', was because of his disillusion with the lack of power and influence of Labour councillor backbenchers and disquiet about the extent of the cuts the Council are making.

If this is indeed the case, the resignation should ring alarm bells as it reflects broader concerns about attracting  committed and independently minded people into local politics, reducing the age profile of councillors, and addressing the democratic deficit in Brent Council's  current political structure.

Brent's 'Bad News' Budget Report

The first report outlining the pressures on the Council budget for 2012-13 and beyond makes for sober reading. There is a projected over-spend for this year of £1.8m which the Council  will try and eliminate without resorting to using its reserves.If it used reserves they would reduce to £8.3m which would be below the Council's target.

In her preamble to the report Labour Council Ann John notes:

The Council has over the last year been forced to take a number of difficult decisions as to which services to support and improve and which to discontinue or limit. There have been some predictable high profile instances where citizens have objected to the curtailment of a service they particularly value. This is understandable; this Administration did not seek election on a platform of massive cuts. However the front-loaded 26% target set by Government over the life of the Spending Review means that major cuts in services are inevitable and as the size of the Council organisation will shrink, the content of what it does will also inevitably be curtailed.

Based on savings being achieved mainly through the 'One Council programme, the containment of 'inescapable growth' through a £5m annual contingency, savings already in the pipeline from previous decisions, and no rise in council tax this would leave a budget gap of:

2012-13 £4.4m
2013-14 £6.4m
2014-15 £22.5m
1015-16 £16.1m

A rise in Council Tax of 2.5% would reduce the gap in subsequent years:

2012-14 £4.4m
2013-14 £1.1m
2014-15 £19.7m
2015-16 £13.1m

The Council receives an annual grant of £2.6m if they do not increase Council Tax and this year only will receive an additional one-off grant of another £2.6m. Given the figures for 2012-13 this raises the possibility of raising Council Tax, even with the loss of £2.6m to protect services. The report warns that a failure to raise Council Tax over a number of years will erode the Council's underlying revenue position i the long term.

The Council expects a reduction in the formula grant received from central government of £13.1m in 2012-13 and a further £13,4m by 2014-15.

The report outlines the pressures on Council finances for 2012-13 these include:

• Grant reductions for housing benefit administration, social care training and unaccompanied asylum seekers
• The number of young people transitioning into Adult Social Care
• Contract prices rises in Environment and Neighbourhood Services
• Increase in cost of providing temporary accommodation when the housing benefit cap is implemented.

The report notes a further pressure arising from the increased cost of borrowing for capital projects when revenue funding sources are reducing. This means that interest costs are taking up an increasing share of total revenue resources. If the Council decides to reduce borrowing to close the budget gap there would have to be a reduction in the capital programme or the Council would need to find alternative sources of funding, presumably a difficult job in the current economic situation.

There are two further ring-fenced budgets. The report notes that there is potential for the ring-fenced Central Education Budget to lose significant amounts of money as a result of schools converting to academy status. They estimate this as up to £900,000 per secondary school.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) grant which provides government subsidy for rents will be phased out in 2012-13 and the HRA will be expected to be self-funding henceforth. There will be a one-off settlement in lieu of an ongoing subsidy of around £185m (to be confirmed) against an annual subsidy of £8.5m. Implementing government policy of convergence of council rents and those of social landlords 'implies a 7% rise' in council rents for 2012-13.

With room for manoeuvre  tight if the Council decides to implement Coalition cuts there is likely to be a rise in the costs of  Council services as well as further cuts in provision.

Cllr John sets out these proposals in her preamble to the report:

• That by the time of budget in February we bring forward a package of measures, with other public, private and voluntary sector partners to address the acute issues of employment and employability which face so many of our fellow citizens;
• That we take another look at the services and quality of life that people can expect in their neighbourhoods. It was our 2002-6 Administration that brought in the successful and popular policy of Ward Working; and it is now time to look again at neighbourhoods in a practical and meaningful way and to set out a coherent set of actions which is a Brent rather than Central Government approach to localism;
• That we concentrate on producing proposals that offers a comprehensive and targeted approach to working with young people and youth;
• That we pursue vigorously the integration of social care and NHS health services to provide a better, seamless and more focused set of services provided to local people and use the transfer of Public Health to Local Government control to make a reality of a concentration on prevention;
• That we work even harder to bring forward the regeneration of our Borough and adopt a strategy for our property which makes it integral to the economic renewal of Brent.

There is little space for this on the budget timetable set by the Council but it does include for late December: 'Consultation with residents, businesses, voluntary sector, partner agencies and trade unions on budget proposals'. This could be widened to include the whole community.  In January 2012 members are due to agree the proposals to go to the February Executive so timing is very tight.