Ask your MP to 'stick around' next Friday for the vital NHS Reinstatement Bill

Next Friday March 11th  Caroline Lucas will take the NHS Reinstatement Bill back to the House of Commons. [1] I have emailed and tweeted Barry Gardiner MP  to ask him to attend the debate.  I hope others will do so for their constituency MP.

The private members bill has received cross-party support and has among its signatories Jeremy Corbyn, who signed up before becoming Labour Party leader.

The bill would reinstate the secretary of state’s responsibility for the health of UK citizens, something the Health and Social Care Act removed. It would fully restore the NHS as an accountable public service by reversing 25 years of marketization in the NHS.

Many MPs return to their constituencies on Thursday nights but thousands of people have signed a petition urging their representatives to vote in favour on the NHS Reinstatement Bill next Friday. [2]

Caroline Lucas MP said:

I hope that MPs stick around next Friday to have a say on the future of our health service.

This mobilisation of grass roots campaigners and NHS staff is hugely inspiring. Across the country we’re seeing people making a stand against the ongoing marketization of our health service. The NHS is saddled with a wasteful internal market, and increasingly widespread outsourcing of services. When you add this privatisation to the near-constant Government attacks on the NHS workforce you can see why so many people are supporting the NHS Bill.
 
The NHS bill would put the public back at the heart of the health service. MPs now have a chance to put their commitment to a public NHS into action by backing this bill on 11th March.

If we work together we can save our crisis ridden health service for future generations.

[1] The NHS Reinstatement Bill:

[2] Petition in favour of the NHS Bill  

Will the Wembley luxury flat bubble burst?

Wembley Park from Barn Hill this morning

Few local people are able to buy or rent the luxury flats that are being thrown up by Quintain and other developers in Wembley Park and it now looks doubtful if overseas investors will be interested.

Morgan Stanley warned this week that  prices of upmarket London flats could fall by as much as 20% this year reflecting the impact of stamp duty increases on buy-to-let homes, a weaker global economy and Brexit fears.

The Evening Standard quoted Trevor Abrahamson, head of Gentree International:

Asian buyers - from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China - are walking away from their commitments to buy properties in, for instance, east London and None Elms. They would rather lose 10% than complete for purchase and lose a lot more, even before the developments are complete. The changes to buy to let is the 'straw that broke the camel's back.'

In pockets of London's newly developed areas, where there is a lot of speculative developments, the outcome could quickly turn nasty with buyers drying up, developers having to cut prices and investors dumping their newly acquired flats before construction of them has finished.

The area around Wembley Stadium is rapidly looking like a jumble of unchecked, speculative development rather than the pastel shaded mixture of homes and parks pictured in consultation documents of yesteryear. Dominated by rabbit hutch flats with high spec kitchens, private student accommodation and hotels, the regeneration is beginning to look high risk.

Coincidentally  RIBA have published a study of 'rabbit hutch' homes and concluded:

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Based on our sample, the average new home in England is only 92% of the recommended minimum size.

The average one bedroom home from our sample of 1,159 homes across 41 sites
is 46 sqm. It is 4 sqm short of the recommended minimum for a single storey, one bedroom home for two residents.

4 sqm is just a number. But in lifestyle terms it means...
The equivalent of a single bed, a bedside table and a dressing table with a stool.

3 sqm is the equivalent of a 3 seat sofa and a desk and chair.

4 sqm is the space that allows you to work at home at the computer in the day and also have an extra sofa when you’ve got friends round in the evening. 4 sqm might not sound like much but it could make everyday life a lot more comfortable.

The average three bedroom home from our sample of 3,418 homes across 71 sites
is 88 sqm. It is 8 sqm short of the recommended minimum for a two storey, three bedroom home for five residents.

8 sqm is just a number. But in lifestyle terms it means...
The equivalent of a single bedroom and the furniture you’d expect to t comfortably within it. 7 sqm is the equivalent of a galley kitchen and a coffee table. 8 sqm is the single bedroom you’re missing. It’s the space for a new arrival to the family, the space that means the kids have a room of their own or a spare room for a guest to stay over. It’s the space that could take the kitchen out of the lounge and the sounds
a and smells that go with it.

Brent Youth Parliament elects new officers

From Brent Council

Members of Brent Youth Parliament (BYP) which represents almost 75,000 young people elected their new leadership team recently.

The new executive was elected after speeches and voting among all 72 young people who are members of the parliament, representing their school, youth group and organisation.

The new executive for 2016 are:

• Leesha Varsani – Chair
• Najib Rahman – Deputy Chair
• Shivani Trivedi – Media Representative

In addition, Dilan Dattani was elected as Brent's UK Youth Parliament representative and Jai Patel as deputy representative.

Leesha, who is a sixth-former at Alperton Community school, said:

I want to make sure we are the voice of young people in the borough and that our views are heard among councillors. There are many important issues facing young people and I want to make sure BYP has an impact.

BYP was founded in 2007 and is made up of young people aged from 10 to 19 years old, from all walks of life. It works with the local authority and its elected members to improve services for young people and represent their views.

For more information please email byp@brent.gov.uk.

Defending the Council's role in allotment management

I could only attend the first half of last night's consultation  meeting on self-management of allotments. My impression by the time I left was that the majority of the large audience of allotment holders was sceptical about such a scheme - although that might have been changed by later presentations.

Council officers made it clear from the beginning that the consultation did not constitute a recommendation for allotments to be self-managed, 'nor is there a requirement to do so.'

Despite persuasive speeches from  Richard King of Barnet Allotment Federation and Richard Wiltshire of the National Allotment Society (there were other speakers later) the Q&A sessions revealed problems, not least (although it was said to be only a few hours a week), the amount of work involved in self-management (budgeting, managing lettings, rent collection, bank account, public liability insurance, dispute management) seemed daunting. 'We just want to get on with gardening' someone muttered.

The self-managed Allotment Association would take over maintenance of trees, paths, fencing and water and the question immediately arose of the inequality between allotment sites where some would face flooding problems or contain a large number of mature trees that would require maintenance.

Such inequalities would require such allotments to put up rents in order to have a fund to cover major expenditure while others would require less of a contingency and so would have lower rents. A response that there would need to be a 'levelling off' between sites  before they were handed over to Associations was not very convincing.

The audience were not much impressed by the guest speakers revelation that self-management had increased rents and that this was justified by the new freedom they had to improve the allotment.

Speakers from the audience suggested there was a need for an overall body to manage cross-borough waiting list rather than each independent self-managed site to have its own waiting list.

The argument, particularly from Barnet, that self-management was preferable to poor council management ('Easy Council' Barnet wants to get rid of everything anyway) was not in general favourable received, with  praise for the work of the current Allotments Officer, in allotment management, training, promoting organic gardening and sustainability and the overall Council food growing strategy,  despite more general criticisms of the Council.

Brent has 22 allotment sites, only one of which is currently self-managed, with the 21 managed by the Food Growing and Allotments Officer. At the end of January 2016 there were 1,064 plots of which 1,029 were let and a waiting list of 201 individuals.

Officers did refer to the Council's need to make savings and the possibility of budget cuts in the service but also stated that there were no plans to sell off sites to developers.

The legal position is that Section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 puts the Council under a duty to provide a sufficient number of allotments with powers to improve, maintain and manage allotments. However, he legislation does not set minimum standards and these powers are discretionary - not a duty: 'Each individual authority can decide how to use these powers and what proportion of its resources to allocate to the service.'

The proponents of self-management quoted this as a reason to opt for self-management as it would be easier to defend allotment provision if it was self-financing.

The almost forgotten 'Big Society' was quoted.

Brent Uncut (if only!) event on March 12th

At the Green Party Conference there was a discussion on whether we could work as part of a 'progressive alliance with the Labour Party. Opinions and experiences were mixed with some claiming that although Momentum had come out of the Corbyn leadership campaign it was little more than an election machine for the Labour Party who would back any Labour candidate, regardless of whether they supported anti-austerity or Corbyn, as a defeat would be seen as a blow for Corbyn.  I hope to post a video of the discussion later.

Meanwhile Brent Momentum has sent out the following invitation. Brent Momentum's event is called Brent Uncut, although of course Brent Labour Council has cut local services to the bone as a consequence of central government slashing local governnment finances. I  would be interested in any comments you wish to make.

What would Brent look like without austerity? Brent Momentum with Brent Trades Council and Brent Fightback presents Brent Uncut: Fighting Austerity for a Better Borough. Come along for a day of workshops and discussions, with:

Shelly Asquith (National Union of Students), Melissa Benn (journalist, writer, campaigner), Dawn Butler MP,  Muhammed Butt (Leader, Brent Council) and Michael Pavey (Dep Leader, Brent Council).

Participate in workshops on: education, transport, health, energy/climate, housing, PREVENT, welfare/disability and culture.

Brent Uncut will be held from 10 - 4 pm on Saturday 12 March 2016 at  Neasden Methodist Church, Neasden Lane North, NW10 0AF.

Please sign up and share via Facebook.

You don't need to be an expert or have been to events like this before. Everybody has great ideas and contributions to make for how we can improve our local area. Come along and be part of the movement for a more democratic, equal and decent society.

In solidarity,

Team Momentum

Where places are available in Brent secondary schools after September 2016 offers

Yesterday was 'offer day' in Brent for Year 6 children to hear news of whether their applications for a secondary school place for September 2016 had been successful. Children who applied by post, rather than electronically, will receive a response today or tomorrow.

The full quota has been filled by most Brent secondary schools with Ark Elvin (formerly Copland), Crest Academy and Newman Catholic College (boys only) having vacancies or small waiting lists.

The table below gives details of how the places were allocated and is worth studying in terms of equal opportunities. Is there an equal distribution of children with special educational needs? What is the impact of 'feeder primary schools' for children from primary schools without such links? What proportion of places go to children with siblings already at the secondary school? How many places were offered to current Year 6 children at the two 'all through' (containing both primary and secondary schools) Preston Manor and Ark Academy (Wembley Park).

There is a continuing imbalance  of school provision between north and south Brent which will be worsened if the proposal for a new North Brent secondary free school goes ahead and if the proposed Gladstone Secondary Free School continues to fail to find premises.

The plight of children who are only children or the oldest in the family (ie no sibling connection), who do not attend a feeder school or the primary department of an all through school, without SEN and who live some distance from their desired school is particularly concerning.

Guidance for parents who are not happy with their school place allocation is available on the Brent Council website HERE

Grunwick Crowdfunder now open - commemorate 40 years since this epic strike

Greens call for arms embargo against Saudi Arabia

Greens in the European Parliament  today call for an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia in the wake of serious allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law by the country in Yemen.

Ahead of the vote in the Parliament today, Greens have put forward a motion condemning the Saudi Arabian-led coalition airstrikes against Yemen; calling for a halt to military confrontation and expressing deep concern that some Member States are still supplying arms to Saudi Arabia in breach of EU arms exports rules. Greens also say that ongoing licensing and direct military training by EU Member States should be considered complicity in war crimes.

Molly Scott Cato, Green MEP for the South West, slated the UK government for initiating a secret deal with Saudi Arabia to ensure both states were elected to the UN human rights council and for being the largest arms supplier to the region since 2010; export licences to the kingdom under the coalition government of 2010-2015 totalled nearly £4bn. She said:

It is barbaric and totally immoral that we supply military equipment to a regime engaged in war crimes. Clearly Cameron sees the vested interests of the UK arms industry as more important than the lives of innocent children in Yemen. As for Saudi Arabia chairing the UN human rights council, this is an outrage that insults the many thousands of women, minorities and dissidents who have had their rights abused at the hands of this oppressive regime.

See also a full response to constituents who have contacted Molly regarding the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.