Butt pledges no council evictions due to Universal Credit rent arrears

Counihan Campaign in Brent 2012

I understand both Cllr Eleanor Southwood, Brent Council lead member for Housing and Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, promised that there would be no evictions of council tenants in rent arrears due to Universal Credit delays, following the unanimous approval of the motion below at Brent Constituency Labour Party GC.

MOTION: RENT ARREARS and UNIVERSAL CREDIT

This GC notes the clear evidence that where Universal Credit has been rolled out more people are made homeless as a result of rent arrears. The main causes of arrears are the five week delay in first  payment of Universal Credit and other delays caused by DWP error.

We therefore call on Brent Labour Group to follow the lead of Camden Council in refusing to evict tenants in such circumstances and to urge registered social landlords and private landlords to do the same.

CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

The demand was first made at the meeting on Universal Credit held at Chalhill Community Centre on November 18^th 2018.  Report on Wembley Matters HERE

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Brent Council to consult on closure of Roe Green Strathcona School

Extravagant thanks to the staff of Roe Green Infants School for providing extra places for primary children over the last 6 years cut little ice at Cabinet on Monday when it was decided to consult on the phased closure of the Strathcona site in Wembley which has been run as part of Roe Green Infants under an Executive Headteacher.

Roe Green Infants had come to the aid of the local authority at a time of rising primary school rolls and agreed to run a 5-11 school on a separate site in Wembley.  They are now faced with making staff redundant and as the two sites are run as one school in terms of staffing this will affect both the Infants and Strathcona.

The report to Cabinet stated:

The proposals, if implemented, are likely to impact on the required staffing for Roe Green Infant School; the proposal would lead to a reduction in overall staffing levels which would, therefore, result in the possibility for the need to consider redundancies. The number of staff affected will depend on the nature of a phased closure. There may also be opportunities to reduce the impact on staff, for example, by transferring existing staff to the main Roe Green Infant School site. The school would need to follow the Managing Change in Schools policy and procedure including consultation with affected staff and trade unions to effect the changes in due course.

Gail Tolley, Strategic Director of Children and Young People, said that in 2015-2016 GLA projections had still indicated a rising roll in Brent's primary schools but migration, Brexit and statistical issues meant that projections for 2018-19 had been reduced. There had been a need for Strathcona at the time but it was no longer required as neighbouring schools could absorb the displaced pupils. The report gave the following figures. The key information is in Reception places comparing in the first column the number of available places (PAN - Planned Admission Number) and in the second the number of reception children actually in the school in  October 2018. It can be seen that some of the controversial expansions (see previous articles on this blog, ) created with considerable building costs, have not been successful in attracting pupils and that there are 208 spare places in Strathcona's local area. This is equivalent to a one form entry primary school.

Hidden behind the figures is of course the impact of an uncertain future on the school staff and upset for children and parents who will have to find a new school, depending on when the Strathcona site closes. This will be a matter for the consultation the Council will launch but they have said that new admissions will cease from 2020. 

Leader of the Council, Cllr Muhammed Butt, said at the meeting that the local authority had to look at provision and start a discussion with the school and its stakeholders. He said that they would make sure concerns regarding the staff were taken into consideration. The authoirty had to make best use of its resources and the spnding of the Direct Schools Grant.

It is likely if the trend continues that more primary schools will be affected and that the Planned Admission Number (PAN) will be reduced to take account of the demographic changes.  The new Ark Somerville, to be built in the York House car park in Wembley, has been reduced from 3 forms of entry to two and will not take pupils until the demand from new developments in the Stadium area emerges.

Barry Gardiner to address Momentum-Trades Council-Peoples' Assembly meeting on austerity on Thursday

Barry Gardiner MP has agreed to speak to Thursday's meeting on austerity.  With the political situation so fluid (this has been written at 16.20 on Tuesday) a General Election may have been announced by Thursday!

Carlton-Granville debate continues on Twitter

Reactions to yesterday's Cabinet discussion of the Carlton-Granville Centre proposals rumbled on this morning on Twitter.  I am grateful for the partipants copying me into the exchange. Here is a selection:

Bellowing Butt loses his cool and sees red over South Kilburn

David Kaye of Kilburn Labour Party clearly hit  raw nerve when he began his speech at tonight's Cabinet Meeting. He had begun to say that a problem with the Brent Cabinet (all Labour Party members) was that they didn't, on the South Kilburn issue and others follow Labour Party policy.

Hardly were the words out of his mouth then Muhammed Butt bellowed across the room, 'THIS IS NOT A PARTY POLITICAL MEETING!' When Kaye tried to elaborate a furious Butt continued to shout him down.  Eventually Kaye made his contribution moving on to the details of the South Kilburn Carlton/Granville scheme and the feeling of the local community that their views hadn't been taken into account ,and the role of the South Kilburn Trust (Watch video below)


However, in apparent contradiction of his earlier claim, at the end of the contributions from the public Cllr Butt did allow Cllr Miller to make a speech about Labour Party policy in reply to what David Kaye was not allowed to say!

In a nutshell the community wanted the Cabinet to approve Option 4 for the Carlton-Granville site which would contain community space and no housing. The Cabinet were  recommending Option 3 which would build 23 social housing homes on the site. Leslie Barson thought that the combination wasn't practical and that complaints about noise from the community centre by the new neighbours would curtail its activities and make in unviable. There was less community space in the proposals then there had been before and the new developments on the estate already did not provide enough community space.

Not for the first time the issue of the South Kilburn Trust came up. Pete Firmin for the local tenants' association put it succinctly: 'The problem with the South Kilburn Trust is that South Kilburn residents don't trust it.' It had no elected representatives on its board and was not truly independent of the Council. Contrary to the views of residents it had supported the installation of an HS2 vent in Canterbury Road.

A speaker from South Kilburn Trust claimed that of the 8 trustees three were local residents and one was the former tenant of South Kilburn Studios. After the Cabinet had, inevitably, approved Option 3 there was an altercation in the public gallery when residents challenged the Trust on this claim - they were appointed, not elected, and not representative. This conflict has arisen elsewhere in the borough when such organisation appear to be a non-elected buffer between residents and councillors.

Lesley Benson, head of Granville Nursery Plus, said that the school had eventually accepted demolition of its prize winning extension as part of the development plans. She said that she was no cheer leader for the Council but they had been involved with other stake holders in an innovative way of working where 'robust' conversations had taken place.

As with the Kings Drive 'residents garages replaced by home's controversy there was a tension between the need to build new homes  for those on Brent's massive waiting list and the impact of the new homes on existing residents and their facilities. Such conflicts are likely to increase as Brent Council continues its policy of in-filling on estates.

Cabinet members said they had taken notice of residents' concerns by discarding a proposal for a denser build of 63 homes on the site. Residents asked why they had not ensured that the hundreds of other homes being built on South Kilburn were not  let at social rent.

As we left the Civic Centre we were surrounded by the huge blocks and towers of Quintain's unaffordable Tipi 'built for private rent' development advertised by pseudo Russian Revolution style posters...

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING - free screening of Naomi Klein's documentary Tuesday March 12th 7pm

Time: March 12, 2019 from 7pm to 10pm
Location: Kingsgate community centre, NW6 2JH
Street: 107 Kingsgate Road
City/Town: London
Website or Map: https://www.facebook.com/even…

  

From Transition Kensal to Kilburn 

 

Join us for a free screening of Naomi Klein's documentary, This Changes Everything.

Filmed over 211 shoot days in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change.

Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond.

Interwoven with these stories of struggle is Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Throughout the film, Klein builds to her most controversial and exciting idea: that we can seize the existential crisis of climate change to transform our failed economic system into something radically better.

After the screening we will be discussing how the struggles of our local community relate to those depicted in the film. We will reflect on the ties between us, the kind of lives we really want and why the climate crisis is at the centre of it all.

CIPFA shows how important Brent libraries are to residents

The CIPFA report into public libraries compares the London boroughs with each other. In these tables Brent is 'h' with a black graph block. Brent controversially closed half its libraries creating two major hub libraries at Wembley and Willesden Green and four smaller libraries. Kensal Green, Barham and Preston are run by volunteers while Cricklewood is getting increasingly impatient with developer Octavia Housing as volunteers wait to start running a volunteer library there. (Note: CIPFA do not make judgements so all comments are my own.)

As can be seen from the diagram above Brent has far fewer libraries than the average borough but a slightly higher than average population.

I have long argued that Wembley Library has vastly inflated visitor figures because the electronic counters count Civic Centre staff who use the library entrance off Olympic Way as a short cut to their offices. Apart from entering and leaving at the start and end of the day, some also enter and leave for their lunch break.

As a result although Wembley has the highest number of visitors Willesden green has the highest number of borrowers. Watch our for media claims that Wembley Library has a record number of visitors:

Due to the closures Brent has a low number of what CIPFA call service points:

Overall Brent children borrow more books than average with 5 times more fiction than non-fiction borrowed. Primary class visits to the libraries will account for some of this. Adult fiction book issues is below the average but non-fiction higher which may reflect the large number of students who use the libraries.

 One area of concern is the low number of housebound readers. Some boroughs provide a delivery service, often run by volunteers, and this is something the Scrutiny Committee could investigate.

Book stocks are another measure of the quality of the service and here Brent lags. Children do better than adults which may explain the discrepancy in figures. Residents borrow more books than average even though book stocks are lower than 13 other London boroughs:

When the  'Libraries Transformation Project' was launched much was made of access to computers and other digital resources such as e-books. The figures show Brent is below the average for the number of devices available but that they are well used.

The Brent  libraries website is particularly successful and ease of on-line renewal may account for the low level of overdue fines in Brent:

A proposal to reduce the opening hours for Brent libraries, and the possible complete closure of one, was ruled out after the budget consultation.  CIPFA reports a very positive picture on opening hours with Brent out-performing the average for London boroughs.

The figures indicate that Brent is already spending lower than average on its libraries but it is also collecting less revenue, in terms of borrowing charges, fines and reservation fees. Given the low median income of Brent residents I would oppose an increase in charges but it may be an area that will be vulnerable in the future:

To access the full report follow this LINK

No Coup or War in Venezuela! Meeting on Monday March 11th Brent Trades Hall

Video: Jeff Webber speaking about the situation in Venezuela at a recent meeting with Hugo Blanco

Topical as always Brent Stop the War will be discussing what is happening in Venezuela at their meeting on Monday:

The next meeting of BRENT STOP the WAR will take place on Monday, March 11^th at 7.30pm at Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR [It’s very close to Willesden Bus Garage, buses 6,52,98,226,260,266,302,460, and just five minutes’ walk from Dollis Hill Jubilee Line station]

 

Speaker: Calvin Tucker [Morning Star campaigns manager and international election observer to the May 2018 Venezuelan presidential elections] will be talking about the situation in Venezuela.

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