No 'bedroom tax' eviction policy comes into effect in Brighton

Green-led councillors in Brighton & Hove yesterday fulfilled the party's pledge to introduce a policy saying that no city council tenant should be evicted from a council-owned home just because they cannot afford to pay their bedroom tax.

Brighton & Hove was the first city in the country to see such a declaration and yesterday afternoon it continued to lead the way on bedroom tax evictions when its plans become council policy.

It is two months since the housing committee chair, councillor Liz Wakefield, made a commitment to introduce the policy, describing the so-called 'spare room subsidy', or bedroom tax, as "immoral and harmful legislation from this morality-free coalition government".

In her final meeting as chair of the committee, before the post moves on, councillor Wakefield saw the commitment fulfilled when fellow councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty proposed the Green's no eviction policy, which was seconded by all Green councillors present and then approved unanimously by the Green, Labour and Conservative councillors serving on the committee.

The policy ensures that the council may continue to use all usual means to pursue non-payment other than bailiffs or evictions.

Councillor Wakefield said: "The Green council is proud to lead the way in fighting the bedroom tax and pleased to make it clear to our council tenants that we will not send the bailiffs round to evict them solely because they are unable to pay the coalition government's unjust, unscrupulous and often unaffordable bedroom tax."

Councillor Mac Cafferty said: "The bedroom tax is one of the cruellest components of a cruel coalition attack on the poorest and most vulnerable people. As Greens, we could not stand by while people might face eviction as a result, so we've taken a national lead with this new council policy. We urge other councils to join us and make this government's plans unworkable."

Caroline Lucas MP added: "I congratulate councillor colleagues on taking such a principled stand against this heartless government policy which is both immoral and unworkable."

Speaking for the Brighton & Hove Green Party, chair Rob Shepherd concluded: "This is a radical policy from a radical party, telling the coalition government it cannot have its own way on bedroom tax and welfare restructuring. And it’s a policy that offers reassurance to many council tenants across the city at a time when they desperately need it. No other party would have brought such a relief to Brighton & Hove residents."

The policy takes immediate effect.

BRAVO! Caroline's concise amendment to the Queen's Speech

Line 5, at end add ‘but respectfully request that your Government recognise that its programme fails to address either the worsening climate crisis or that austerity is failing; call on your Government to heed warnings that urgent and radical cuts in emissions are needed to prevent global temperature rises of 4℃ or more by the end of the century; urge your Government to recognise that, to fulfil its own commitment to keep warming below 2 degrees, around 80 per cent of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground; further call on your Government to end austerity and instead reduce the deficit through an economic programme that prioritises investment in jobs, especially in labour-intensive green sectors and that pursues a goal of 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, with policies for rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies; and further call on your Government to lift the council borrowing cap to promote council house building, to tackle the cost of public transport starting with bringing the railways back into public ownership, to end cuts to welfare and take other steps to build a resilient and stable economy.

Caroline Lucas, Brighton and Hove

Kitcat calls for 'legal, fair and affordable' suggested solutions to Brighton pay cut crisis

I posted an item on the situation in Brighton and Hove where the local Green Party and Caroline Lucas MP have condemned the Council's pay modernisation which involves a pay cut for a minority of workers and increases for others.

Jason Kitcat, Convenor of the Green Group of councillors has responded to the criticism with this article on the Liberal Conspiracy website:

My colleagues and I on Brighton and Hove Council have led this country’s first Green local authority since May 2011, although as a minority administration we can (and do) get over-ruled by Labour and the Tories when they choose to work together.

There’s much we’ve done over the last two years which has been widely welcomed including introducing the Living Wage, building more affordable homes, protecting third sector funding, becoming the world’s first One Planet City and progressing a City Deal, but it’s fair to say that staff pay has been the most controversial issue we have had to deal with.

We inherited a deeply flawed and muddled pay and allowances structure from previous administrations, and indeed from predecessor defunct local authorities.

The lowest paid were not getting a living wage and the work on resolving single status for employee take-home pay (regardless of gender) was incomplete.

The Tory-Lib Dem cuts to local government have also hit us hard: in fact, they are the second steepest faced by any council of our type. Furthermore, we cannot raise Council Tax beyond a level Labour or the Tories would support. Although senior management pay is down to its lowest level for over ten years, the budget is exceptionally tight.

So we’re consulting on a proposal that will bring in fair pay and allowances for all who work for the council.
Building on the Living Wage we’ve already introduced for the lowest paid, we now are seeking to complete the final step of ensuring single status for all council employees.

It is very clear that this is not about budget savings and not about ‘austerity’. In fact, based on the offer under consultation, the pay bill is likely to go up slightly. Which other Council in the country can claim that?
What is the offer then? The offer includes three key aspects:

1) A new fair and simple set of allowances which is easy to understand and helps the council meet the needs of our citizens.With these new allowances 90% of staff will see very little or no change at all in their take home pay. Of those that do, the majority will actually see an increase and a minority will see some detriment. Most of those seeing detriment will, it is estimated, lose less than £25 per week. I recognise even that is a lot to some people, but not the headline figures being used by some individuals.

2) Anyone who is unfortunately suffering detriment will be generously compensated for that loss with a lump sump payment. For example someone losing between £1,001 and £1,250 a year is proposed to receive £3,550 in one-off compensation.

3) We are keen to provide new opportunities for staff. We hope that, if agreed at a future committee, changes like Bank Holiday working can increase opportunities for waste and recycling staff whilst improving services to the city by eliminating changing collection days every time there is a Bank Holiday.

Some staff will regrettably see allowances reduced, but we can see no legal and affordable way merely to increase everyone’s pay up to those levels – and we therefore propose a lump sum to compensate those staff, worth very roughly about three years’ worth of any reduction.

We have to resolve these allowances now. To do so without any detriment to any member of staff would sadly be totally unaffordable, even with Council Tax rises that would certainly not be supported by Labour and Conservative councillors.

I know this process has been controversial and could have been communicated better. Some colleagues locally have concerns about it, to say the least.

I would therefore welcome suggestions from them, as well as from staff and the unions, on how to improve these proposals in any way which is legal, fair and can be afforded within the tight budget limits effectively set by the government as well as our Labour and Tory opposition.

—
For more on the proposals, see Jason’s blog here.
Jason Kitcat is a Green City Councillor. He is writing in his capacity as Convenor of the Green Group of councillors on Brighton & Hove City Council.

Mary Arnold praises Gladstone Park parents' 'exemplary work' for the school and its children

Gladstone Park parents sent a copy of their letter delivered yesterday to Michael Gove, to Cllr Mary Arnold, lead member for children and families.

Cllr Arnold replied:

Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter and for all your parents ' collective and exemplary work for the school on behalf of the children and their best interests.

I sincerely hope Michael Gove takes on board the significant improvements and recognises that changes to the management would have a disruptive and adverse effect on the school.

The local authority and  your councillors are fighting for the best outcome for pupils and parents and we trust Gladstone Park will set the example for a local solution, based on the voice of reason and avoid a forced conversion.

Crucial day for future of Gladstone Park Primary School

Gladstone Park Primary School parents yesterday presented a letter to Michael Gove at the Department for Education, backed by 572 petition signatories, calling for the school to be allowed to continue its current improvement strategy without being forced to become a sponsored academy.

They backed the request up with data evidence that showed the strong progress now being made in years 3-5 where Ofsted had previously found weakness and HMI's and the local authority's approval of the strategy now in place. Any change in school status would disrupt this progress to the detriment of the school and its pupils.

Today some of the Gladstone Park governing body will be meeting with Michael Gove to discuss the school's situation and I understand that Sarah Teather MP will also be attending the meeting. Sarah Teather lost her position working with Michael Gove in the last government re-shuffle and has since distanced herself from some Coalition policies, particularly those concerning welfare.

Caroline Lucas to join striking Brighton Council workers' picket line following proposed pay cut

The minority Green Council in Brighton recently handed over negotiations for the 'modernisation' of pay and allowances to officers of the council.

As a result about 10% of council staff  have received a settlement offer which means that while some gain, others will lose pay. City Clean workers are to strike against the pay cut and today Caroline Lucas, MP promised to join them on the picket line. The Brighton and Hove Green Party have voted to condemn the offer and expressed dismay at the decision to hand negotiations to officers.

This is Caroline's statement:

Yesterday around 10% of Brighton and Hove council staff received a settlement offer as part of a process designed to ‘modernise’ pay and allowances.

Since the negotiations began, I have made my opposition to any cuts in take home pay very clear.

I am therefore disappointed that, whilst some will gain from this process, a number will face a reduction in the money they have to live off each week.

This is unacceptable. I know from the many constituents who have written to me about this issue that they agree.

So too does the Brighton and Hove Green Party, whose members voted at a meeting last night to  condemn the offer and also expressed dismay that responsibility for the pay negotiations was handed to council officers.

With the support of the local Green Party, I have pledged to campaign against the offer made to workers, in accordance with the local and national party's democratically agreed anti-cuts and anti- austerity policies.

I plan to join striking City Clean workers and continue to stand up for workplace rights – as I promised to do when I was elected and have consistently prioritised in Parliament.

Greens should never be in the position of reducing workers' pay and to do so at a time of austerity with rising food and energy costs and benefit cuts is totally indefensible. The Green group on the council must act quickly to right this wrong.

There may well be a case to modernise pay structures which are often out-dated in local government. In one of the schools I worked in the schoolkeeper was still getting an allowance for humping scales of coal in the boiler house when the boilers were gas fired!  More seriously there are often gender inequalities involved and disparities between different groups of workers which need to be smoothed out. Modernisation may involve a narrowing in  historical differentials but in such cases there is usually short-term protection and a longer term tapering of increases so that no one ends up with less cash in their pocket this week than they were earning last week.

I understand that Brighton Council's overall wage bill is actually go up slightly as traditionally low paid workers get increases with the payment of the living wage and additional allowances and the group of workers affected by the pay cut is comparatively small.  It should be possible to sort something out quickly.

Another Brent Executive post challenged ahead of Thursday's hustings

Margaret McLennan

A  further Brent Executive post is to be contested this week with Housing, currently led by Cllr Janice Long, joining the list which includes Children and Families, Customers and Citizens, Environment and Neighbourhoods and Crime and Public Safety. The Housing challenger, Cllr Margaret McLennan (Northwick Park) is not someone normally associated with the so-called 'Young Turks'.

The hustings will be held at Neasden Methodist Church, Neasden Lane (on the roundabout) at 8pm on Thursday and the vote  takes place on Saturday May 11th at the Annual General Meeting.

Although it is generally expected that Muhammed Butt's supporters will do well with allies of former leader Ann John in rather a rut at the moment, one Buttite  member of the current Executive was less confident, remarking that Labour councillors 'are a funny old lot' and hard to predict.

Meanwhile the selection process has begun for Labour's  councillor candidates for 2014 and I have heard that there are 150 expressions of interest for 63 posts, although that has  not been verified.

If it is the case, this is quite remarkable considering the gloomy outlook for local government with the Coalition slowly strangling it in terms of finance and political power.It will be hard to argue next time that 'I didn't come into politics to make cuts'.

Significantly one backbench councillor recently remarked that s/he was seriously thinking about whether they had been more politically effective as a local activist than as a councillor.

Deadline nears to object to Barratt's vandalism of the Welsh Harp

Things are moving fast as the May 14th deadline nears for the huge West Hendon 'City' planning application by Barratt Homes.

The FORAB residents' organisation in Barnet has come out against the proposal and Patrick Vernon, a candidate for Labour's nomination for the Brent Central nomination,  has written an article on the public health aspects of the proposal, both on the Save Our Welsh Harp blog.  LINK

Meanwhile it is essential that as many individual objections as possible are sent to Barnet Council by the May 14th deadline:

ONLINE
Go to the Barnet Planning site LINK and type H/01054/13 into the Search Box. Make sure you give a name and postal address and email address to get an acknowledgement.

E-MAIL
email the Barnet Planning Officer dealing with this application quoting the above reference number:

tom.wyld@barnet.gov.uk  Make sure you give your name and postal address and email address to get an acknowledgement. 

CLOSING DATE MAY 14TH