Universal Credit in Brent - an overview

Giselle Winston, of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, gave a detailed overview of Universal Credit as it begins to roll out in Brent, at Friday's meeting at Chalkhill Community Centyre organised by Unite Community.

Rally against the far-right Brexiteer opportunists - December 9th

I bumped into an assortment of left-groups, including the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist, Socialist Party, Community Party of Great Britain and Counterfire on Thursday evening as I was leaving an NEU Climate Working Group at the NEU headquarters.

They were attended a meeting about a 'People's Brexit' aimed at making a socialist case for leaving the EU.

I picked up a CPBML leaflet which said:

Let’s return to the simplicity of our  [referendum] decision. Reinstate the red lines for Brexit. Control over our economy, our borders, our agriculture and fisheries, our food, our laws, our workplaces. That would terrify the EU would-be masters. Only then can real negotiations begin - from the true position of British strength.

Last night in Brent  at Bridge Park there was a meeting, publicised by local Liberal Democrats, with a speaker from the People's Vote campaign aimed at organising Brent residents in favour of a People's Vote on Brexit.

Both camps have some strange bedfellows.

Today I received this from 'Another Europe is Possible'. I don't think for a minute that everyone who favours Brexit is a racist, let alone a fascist, but it is proving a vehicle for some opportunists:

On December 9th, the day before parliament votes on Theresa May’s deal, the far right will march on London under the banner of “Brexit Betrayal”. We will mobilise, in massive numbers, to combat their message of hate and division. And we will demand a serious alternative: a society that works for everyone, and a final say for the people on Brexit.

Join us on December 9th - stand up to the far right

In the face of this moment, it is not enough to simply oppose racism in the abstract. Brexit is being used to attack migrants, end free movement, deregulate the economy, divide communities and legitimise racism in the political mainstream. It is driven at its core by the British wing of a movement that includes Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, among others.

Join the demo - let's oppose Brexit together

Tommy Robinson is not just using Brexit as a tool to attract followers. Brexit has from its earliest days been driven by the far right, and the far right will benefit from it for decades to come unless we defeat it and the conditions on which it feeds.

The far right is growing because the economic and political system has failed us. We need decent homes and jobs, we need a transformation of the economy that gives people control over their destinies.

Come together against Brexit and the far right

The far right is growing because the economic and political system has failed us. We need decent homes and jobs, we need a transformation of the economy that gives people control over their destinies.

On December 9th, we will rally in Parliament Square. Join us to demand:

Vote down the Brexit deal
Give the people a final say
Stop the far right - defend free movement

David Lammy MP
Caroline Lucas MP
Manuel Cortes, TSSA general secretary
Ann Pettifor, economist
Mike Galsworthy, Scientists for the EU
Amelia Womack Deputy Leader of the Green Party
Zoe Williams, journalist
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Michael Chessum, Another Europe is Possible
Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now
Julie Ward MEP
Marina Prentoulis, senior lecturer at UEA
Shaista Aziz, Oxford unites as an anti-racist city and Stop Trump campaigner
Hugh Lanning, former general secretary of PCS
Paul Mackney, formber UCU general secretary
Joseph Healy, Left Unity principal speaker
Niccolo Milanese, European Alternatives
Simon Hannah, author and Lambeth UNISON joint Secretary
Neil Faulkner, archaeologist and historian
Daniel Randall, RMT activist (pc)
Don Flynn, migrants rights campaigner

Brent Council fights the cuts via a letter to government ministers

There has been a bit of a battle going on in the Labour Party with activists concerned that Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt, hadn't signed one of several statements/declarations on local government cuts. He appeared to be backing the most mild statement which amounted to little more than a quiet quibble.

Now a motion on the 'Breaking Point' campaign over cuts has been tabled for Monday's Full Council Meeting.  Rather than mounting a militant campaign, going out to the community and building mass support amongst those most affected by the cuts, they are going to send a letter to the government...

Even headteachers furious at school cuts managed to march on Downing Street.

We have Climate Extinction - how about Local Government Extinction?

Breaking Point

Full Council – 26 November 2018 Motion selected by the Labour Group

This Council notes that many council budgets are now at Breaking Point. Austerity has caused huge damage to communities up and down the UK, with devastating effects on key public services that protect the most defenceless in society – children at risk, disabled adults and vulnerable older people – and the services we all rely on, like clean streets, libraries, and the teachers in our schools.

•   Government cuts mean that Brent has £177m less to invest in essential and much loved public services than under the last Labour government in 2010; 


•   With an aging population and growing demand adult social care faces a gap of £3.5 billion – with only 14% of council staff now confident that vulnerable local residents are safe and cared for; 


•   Government cuts have seen local authorities left with impossible choices, and 80% of council staff now say they have no confidence in the future of local services; 


•   Brent schools will have lost out on more than £6k per pupil over the last decade, equating to a loss of an entire academic year’s funding; 


•   Northamptonshire has already gone bust due to Tory incompetence at both national and local level, and more councils are predicted to collapse without immediate emergency funding; 


•   Councils now face a further funding gap of £7.8 billion by 2025 just to keep services ‘standing still’ and meeting additional demand. Even Lord Gary Porter, the Conservative Chair of the Local Government Association, has said ‘Councils can no longer be expected to run our vital local services on a shoestring’. 
This Council condemns Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss MP for stating on BBC Newsnight on 1st October 2018 that the government is “not making cuts to local authorities”, when all independent assessments of government spending show that this is entirely false; and that this Council further notes that Prime Minister Theresa May has also claimed that “austerity is over” despite planning a further £1.3bn of cuts to council budgets over the next year. 


 This Council agrees with the aims of the ‘Breaking Point’ petition signed by Brent Labour councillors, in calling for the Prime Minister and Chancellor to truly end austerity in Local Government by: 


•   Using the Budget to reverse next years planned £1.3bn cut to council budgets; and 


•   Pledging to use the Spending Review to restore council funding to 2010 levels over the next 
four years. 
This Council resolves to: 


Support the ‘Breaking Point’ campaign, recognising the devastating impact that austerity has had on our local community.

 

 Ask the Leader of the Council to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government setting out the funding pressures faced by Brent Council, and calling on the Government to truly end austerity in Local Government.

Brent tells Youth Parliament, never mind the cuts - we've got a nice logo

Over the year Wembley Matters has catalogued the gradual disappearance of Brent's Youth Service. As concern over gangs and knife crime mounts the Council's answer to a question from the Youth Parliament seems incredibly complacent - they are basically told there are more cuts on the way and they must rely on the voluntary sector.

Question from Brent Youth Parliament to Councillor Mili Patel, Lead Member for Children’s Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care:

What has the Council put in place for young people in response to the severe cuts to Youth Services?

Response:

Since 2015 the focus of services for young people has been in the voluntary sector through the Young Brent Foundation. However the Council continues to run regular universal youth activities from the Roundwood Youth Centre in Harlesden. Alongside this the site provides education, employment and training support for young people through Connexions services. 

To help enable all young people in Brent to connect with other providers of youth activities and services the Council has recently launched the ‘Brent Youth Zone’, a new, distinctive and mobile friendly website. A ‘search’ facility is a major feature of the website, together with information pages about health, ‘things to do’, personal safety, and employment advice. Many of the activities and services are inclusive, welcoming young people with SEND. Young people have been included in the development of the website. The logo was inspired by designs from a young person who entered a Brent-wide competition to brand the Brent Youth Zone. The website can be found at: www.brentyouthzone.org.uk

 

The Council as a whole must take further difficult decisions as part of the next phase of budget planning for the 2019/20 – 2020/21 financial years. In Children and Young People’s Services there are a limited number of services that could be considered for future savings and our continuing youth offer is an area therefore where consideration of resource savings need to be made. 

There are proposals to change the use of the Roundwood Youth Centre that will build on the current arrangements. If agreed, the site would be used during school term time for an Alternative Provision school setting, with evening and weekend youth activities being provided by the voluntary sector. This will help meet the need in the borough for local places and preventing permanent school exclusions. Currently a number of young people temporarily excluded from their secondary school setting attend alternative provision out of borough and this will be one solution to this issue. 

We are working with the voluntary sector through the Young Brent Foundation to make sure that services to young people continue from the Roundwood site and also that the broader Youth Offer across the borough is comprehensive, updated and secures charitable funding.

Brent urged to adopt 'No Eviction' policy on Universal Credit rent arrears

At yesterday's Chalkill Community Centre meeting on Universal Credit there was a strong call for Brent Council to follow neighbouring Camden LINK in adopting a policy of not evicting any of its tenants who fall into rent arrears because of problems with the roll-out in Brent.  There is a minimum five week wait for payment.There was an additional call for the Council to persuade housing associations in the borough to adopt the same policy. It was pointed out that it would be more costly to the Council in the medium-term if it had to provide temporary accommodation for families who had been made homeless.

There are currently 2,000 Brent residents on Universal Credit who are mainly job seekers and not claiming housings costs. However 45,000 are due to move over to universal Credit of whom about half will have housing benefit.

Brent Central MP, Dawn Butler, addressing the meeting, said the she feared a big rise in evictions from private rented accommodation and an increased demand for food banks.  Butler asked the audience  to send in stories of the impact of the introduction of Universal Credit on individuals and families to inform and reinforce the campaign on the issue.  However, she did not favour the 'stop and scrap' demand saying that the Labour Party had been advised that this would cause even more harm to claimants. Instead there should be a 'pause and fix' approach.

There was particular concern that people, particularly those with disabilities or learning difficulties, or the poor without broadband and computers, would be 'digitally excluded.' 40% of people in Brent do mnot have access to their own wifi. Claiming Universal Credit does not only involve an initial on-line application, itself not an easy process, but regular access to the on-line account day to day or week to week, to correspond with the DWP regularly. If accessed through a library or cyber cafe there would be no claimant advice available. Butler said that she was seeking information from Brent Council on how it was using a government grant to help claimants with advice and access.  Butler favoured direct payment of the housing portion of Universal Credit to landlords.

There is a 'claimant commitment' in order to access benefit for those without employment to be actively seeking work for the equivalent of 35 hours a week. Those working part-time are expected  to top those hours up to 35 by seeking work.  After one year of trading the self-employed will; be assumed to be earning the minimum wage for a 35 hour week.

Unite Community will be holding a follow up meeting to organise campaigning. Check out Wembley Matters for an update.

Harlesden Massive Get Festive - December 1st

Better times ahead for Brent allotments?

Looking for improvements by next Spring

Brent officers from the Parks Department met with tenants on the Birchen Grove, Kingsbury, allotment today.

The meeting had been requested as a result of concerns over difficulties in making rental payments as well as overgrown and uncultivated plots which were not being relet and thus spreading weed seeds to neighbouring plots. LINK

The officers recognised that management of Brent allotments had not been going well for 18 months to 2 years since the  non-replacement of the Allotments Officer when she moved on to another job.  An officer is going through the process of auditing the many sites in Brent and as he toured the allotment with us today he took note of the uncultivated sites and maintenance issues and another collected photographic evidence.

We were promised better communication with updates on when plots had been allocated to new tenants and action to make the billing process more efficient. I have been trying to pay rent on one of my plots for  2 years without success!  An apprentice has been allocated to deal with the paper work. I suggested as an early essential is a spreadsheet recording all the plots, tenant's name, whether it was being cultivated and whether a bill had been sent.

The efforts of the Allotment representative at Birchen Grove, a voluntary elected position, has already helped reduce the number of unallocated plots from 25 to 10, although work has not started on some because of the colder weather. There will be another tour in the Spring to make sure that clearing and cultivation is taking place. It was pointed out than unlet plots represented a loss of income to the Council.

There is now a Birchen Grove Facebook page LINK that could be linked to a sustainability network that Brent Council is working on.

Cllr Krupa Sheth, lead member for the Environment, was unable to make the meeting but has asked officers to feed back to her on the issues raised.

TONIGHT! People's Vote on Brexit campaign meeting, Bridge Park, 6.30pm

Join local volunteers for a community meeting to hear more about campaigning in Brent for a People's Vote on any Brexit deal, and find out how you can get involved.

The meeting will also be attended by a representative of People's Vote HQ, giving you the opportunity to hear more about the next phases of the People's Vote campaign and ask any questions that you may have.

If you are able to attend, please RSVP  HERE so that we know how many people to expect.

See you there!

WHEN

November 23, 2018 at 6:30pm - 8:30pm

WHERE

Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre
Brentfield
Harrow Road
London NW10 0RG
United Kingdom
Google map and direction

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