Teachers organise to reject 'half-funded' 6.5% pay offer - this is why

 Initial reaction in Brent appears to challenge yesterday's media assumptions that the teachers' dispute is over.  Claims that the government has funded the increase were challenged. Schools will have to find 3% of the 6.5% from their budgets and the assumption that they have the money to have budgeted for 3.5% already is doubtful, when many Brent schools are heading for a deficit budget.

Schools are already restructuring staff and negotiating redundancies, particularly among support staff.

The last round of strikes emphasised the need for the increase to be 'fully-funded' and there is disappointment that this is not the case. There are vague assurances that there will be a 'hardship fund' for schools that cannot afford to pay the increase but no firm details.

Furthermore, there is concern that the Government has not put forward any longer term plans on making up the loss, in real terms, of the loss in teachers' earnings. It is this loss that had led (along with workload and Ofsted pressures) to the recruitment and retention crisis in our schools.

An 'Educators Say No to 6.5%' campaign has been rapidly organised and has received support from many Brent NEU members.

Warnings of likely sewage discharge into Wealdstone Brook

 

Thanks to social media we know that there appears to be yet another sewage discharge into the Wealdstone Brook at Lindsay Drive in Kenton ward.

Community Action: Brent Fights Back Tuesday July 18th

 

New building for College of North West London in Wembley Park approved by Brent Planning Committee - present Wembley Park and Dudden Hill sites will be redeveloped

 

Brent Planning Committee last night approved a new building for the College of North West London on Olympic Way/Fulton Road the site of the current Olympic Office Centre.

 

The building will replace both the current building in Wembley Park at the station end of Olympic Way and the Dudden Hill campus of the college which will be developed for housing.

 

 Early plans for Dudden Hill site (part of Neasden Stations Master Plan)

 

The current Wembley Park building will be redeveloped alongside the shopping centre, McDonalds and the theatre. The Wealdstone Brook flows within that college site and under Olympic Way.

After the CNWL's amalgamation with Westminster College as United College Group there were a number of property deals. The other Wembley Park building was sold to the DfE and now houses the Michaela School and the fairly new £5.5m Kilburn Centre LINK  building was disposed of.  LINK

Although the applicant's image above shows an open area around the college it emerged that it is likely to be secured by additional measures  given the large crowds using Olympic Way on event days.  Planning officers said that the new building  at 8 storeys would be just 2 metres higher than the Olympic Officer Centre.

The college will cater for 1,630 people including teenage and adult students but, unlike a school, attendance hours will vary,and it will operate at 60% capacity. Neighbourhood CIL will not be payable  by the applicant  but London CIL will apply.

Councillors expressed concern over security, particularly as the college is aiming to cater for more neurodiverse students, and one councillor was keen that there should be a separate entrance for them. The college responded that they believed in integrating such students as part of their inclusion policy.

A number of security features are included in the building such as anti-hostile vehicle devices but Cllr S Butt was puzzled that no accreditation for Secure by Design had been sought when this was the case with other buildings in the vicinity that had been considered by the Committee. Planning Officer David Glover insisted that this was not necessary but Butt warned that if there was an incident in the future the Council may regret that this had not been done. Glover said that the applicant could be encouraged to seek accreditation.

Councillors also asked about the loss of 27 trees as a result of the redevelopment with only one retained. The applicant will provide 41 new trees at ground floor and third floor level.

In contrast to the Mumbai Junction's 500+ objections only one objection had been received to this application and this was about disturbance during the construction period.

 (Olympic Way!)

 The Planning Statement by the applicant gives an overview of what the campus will offer:

Curriculum & Specific Requirements

 

The curriculum offer aligns with key local and national priorities and requires certain elements of specialist space. This modern and flexible building will provide the canvas for significant growth in these key strands of provision:

 

● Academic teaching quality and student success

● Technical and apprenticeship provision for young people, including STEM key stage

curriculum

● Higher level technical skills qualification for adults

● Increased quality of Profound Multiple Learning Disability facilities

 

The new campus will provide a whole of year approach to provision and will ensure access to education using multiple entry and exit points which will allow adult learners the opportunity to ‘retrain and return’ to the labour market quickly or progress to higher level qualifications. This meets the identified skills development needs of London Borough of Brent and the Greater London Authority, in a borough with a stated desire through the Local Plan (2022) to improve the skills level of its residents and increase the average wage.

 

The portfolio of provision also aligns with those areas that have been identified by Central

Government including STEM, precision engineering, green technologies, and the built

environment, as well as opportunities in practitioner qualifications in digital tech/communications and science.

 

The new campus will provide an inspiring learning environment that will impact positively on learning, learner outcomes and learner satisfaction. The site will provide for an integrated Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision through an inclusive ’Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties’ PMLD unit. The housing of this provision in one building with the rest of the student cohort, integrates PMLD students fully into the student body for the benefit of all.

 

Providing this consistent and inclusive approach does create additional servicing requirements as specific pick up and drop off is required as close to the entrance of the building as possible.

 

Through discussion with Brent and TFL officers, it has been agreed to maintain the existing layby on Fulton Way as also permitted within the extant scheme. Within the adopted highway, this layby will be capable of housing two dedicated mini bus shuttles for PMLD students, the college acknowledged that this will create a specific management requirement on the college, especially during a match day scenario. The College commits to working with the Council and Metropolitan Police to ensure that this public benefit does not result in any additional risks during special event days. We expect further details to be provided pursuant to planning conditions

Landlords who rent out properties in Dollis Hill, Harlesden & Kensal Green and Willesden Green, will legally be required to have a licence from 1 August - Cost £540 before August 1st, £640 after

 Press release from Brent Council

Landlords called to get licence to rent A new law requiring landlords in three Brent wards to pay for a selective licence will come into force on 1 August 2023. Landlords who rent out properties in Dollis Hill, Harlesden & Kensal Green and Willesden Green, will legally be required to have a licence from 1 August. A licence will cost £640 for up to five years. Anyone who applied in the next few weeks before 1 August will be able to purchase a licence at the current rate of £540. Dollis Hill, Harlesden & Kensal Green and Willesden Green were selected for licensing following a borough-wide consultation that began in autumn 2022. A report to cabinet members showed that a selective licensing scheme would have a positive impact on poor property conditions and high levels of antisocial behaviour in the three areas. Cllr Promise Knight, Cabinet Member for Housing, Homelessness and Renters’ Security, said:  The landlords who work with us take pride in renting out properties that offer decent facilities and living conditions to tenants. The licensing scheme supports landlords in offering the best they can to tenants, ensuring that tenants’ safety and security are protected. We encourage landlords and agents with properties in Dollis Hill, Harlesden & Kensal Green and Willesden Green to apply for a licence as soon as possible. You can find out whether the property you are renting needs a licence by checking out:https://www.brent.gov.uk/prslicensing

VIDEO: 'Protect our Green Spaces' debate at Brent Council

 

Climate change: learning from women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India - July 20th 6-8pm Swiss Cottage Library

 

Climate change: learning from women farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India

What we saw when we visited the women’s self-help groups transforming their communities with natural farming

Thursday 20 July 2023, 6-8pm

Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Rd,
London NW3 3HA  ALL WELCOME   


SOLVEIG FRANCIS, based at Crossroads Women’s Centre, will report on her visit in November 2022 to the growing women-led natural farmers’ movement in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.

She and her colleagues met women organised in 140,000 Self-Help Groups across 3,000 villages who are spearheading an agricultural, economic and social transformation through Community Managed Natural Farming (agroecology based on no/low tilling, crop diversity, ground cover all year round, and water conservation). They expect all six million farmers and two million landless farmworkers in Andhra Pradesh to be regenerating the soil by 2031, rejecting chemical fertilisers & pesticides, and using local seeds. This transformation benefits the land, the wildlife, the nutrition of the food, the health of the family and women’s incomes, while helping reverse climate change by cooling the earth. A new way of measuring and valuing these benefits is underway.

As news spreads, Andhra Pradesh is invited to work with other states in India and other countries to adopt natural farming. In the UK too agroecology is increasingly being taken up.  Help spread the word of this movement which gives hope to us all.

At last! The penny drops for Brent Council (at least a little) on Shared Ownership as a form of affordable housing

Wembley Matters has criticised Brent Council's definition of Shared Ownership as a form of affordable housing as put forward by officers at Planning Committee and in the Council's publicity. Contributors have quoted the Brent Poverty Commission's statement that the only form of housing affordable for Brent residents is social housing.

Credit must co to Cllr Anton Georgiou for raising the issue of the viability of shared owneship in the Council Chamber LINK.  Rather than listening to the case made, Brent Council Leader made one of his characteristic spluttering attacks on Nimbies.

A report going to Cabinet on Monday LINK contains an account of the difficulties in the shared ownership model and has repercussions for their approach, notably in Watling Gardens, of  changing tenure so that shared ownership cross-subsidises actual affordable housing.

The context is Brent Council's 2020  purchase of 92 homes in Block A and B of the Grand Union development in 2020 along with 23 shared ownership homes in Block D. The Council purchased the 23 homes to get access to the 92.

They now intend to transfer the shared ownership homes to a provider who is not named.

The report states regarding the Council managing such shared ownsership:

..the knowledge, experience and the capacity of the Council to effectively sell and manage processes such as staircasing is minimal.

 

But:

 

The Council did however consider selling homes and retaining them within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). However, the market and demand for Shared Ownership, particularly in the latter quarter of 2022 was and has remained turbulent. This is both in terms of too many shared ownership homes available in the market and appetite and demand for these homes reducing.

 

Registered Providers who work closely with Brent have shared concerns about a saturation of shared ownership in the market. Many Registered Provider include shared ownership as a form of cross subsidy for social housing for rent, this has been under further pressure following last year’s economic and supply challenges to make schemes viable. The Council also put forward a paper to Cabinet in November 2022 proposing cross-subsidy as a means for reducing the financial viability gap within the New Council Homes programme, though

politically shared ownership was not considered a favourable tenure and was only considered as a potential means of protecting the much needed social housing.

 

They suggest that there is a role for shared ownership:

 

The impact of the mini-budget back in September 2022, rising inflation and growing cost of living crisis has led to uncertainty in the market. From a practical  perspective, shared ownership offers residents who still want to buy and benefit of stability that homeownership provides and a route to do so whilst mortgage rates are high as residents can purchase a smaller percentage to keep costs down.

 

But then admit the drawbacks:

 

 

The affordability of shared ownership has however also come into question within the housing sector. Research into the ongoing cost of living crisis and housing shows shared owners are more likely to be vulnerable to financial hardship that other home owners. This is a result of both mortgage offers and the rent payments on properties being linked to inflation. Shared owners pay a mortgage on the proportion owned, which now can be as little as 10% of a property depending on when the property was build, and then pay rent which is starts at 3% of the value of the property still owned by the Landlord. Generally

25-35% is the standard amount of equity first purchased. Contractually shared ownership rents rise by the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 0.5% each year which would have seen rises of 15.7% as of December 2022 (it should however be noted Not for Profit Registered Providers capped the rent increase at 7%).

 

Generally mortgage offers for Shared Ownership homes have higher interest rates that regular mortgages too, meaning inflation has an even greater impactwhen mortgage payments and rent is combined. 

 

They go on to give figures on the actual costs of a shared ownershio home with a value of £400,000.  Note the cost of the mortgage would be much more now as interest rates have risen sharply:

 

 

A worked example of a £400K home from Nottinghill Genesis shows a breakdown of costs where a 25% share has been purchased:

•  25% share = £100,000
• Estimated mortgage = £532 (NB this is not based on current mortgage rates) 
• Rent = £688
• Service charge = £200
• Total = £1,420

• Guidance household income required = £51,160

 

It should be noted, the average salary for a working household in Brent for 2021 was £36K

 

Quite a gap, so what to do with those 23 shared ownership homes purchased back in 2020?:

 

 

In December 2022, the Council commissioned marketing company Site Sales to sell the homes as a package on the market to Registered Providers. Registered Providers invited to bid include: Clarion, Guinness, Heylo, HSPG,Keep Homes, Legal and General, MTVH, Network, Newlon, Notting Hill Genesis, OHGO, Octavia, Origin, Peabody, PA Housing, Sage, St Arthur Homes.

 

Most of the providers who responded stated the package of homes was too small to meet their organisations acquisition criteria. Expressions of interest were received from a range of Registered Providers. Offers in full received by the Council are set out in Appendix 1 (classified as exempt).

 

Each offer was assessed against the two key criteria for the Council when considering affordable housing opportunities, the financial requirements of the Council and meeting housing demand. This includes comparing the offer against the cost incurred to the Council for the initial purchase. Using this criteria it was deemed out of the three offers received only one was considered viable, details are contained in Appendix 1.

 

 

From a housing demand perspective, Offer 3 is most reflective of the current demand, specifically affordability within Brent and offers a unique opportunity to pilot the model in Brent. It also presents the opportunity to influence the shared ownership market at a local level and use this model and an exemplar of best practice. The recommendation of this report is to approve Offer 3, this is due to concerns about the existing shared ownership model and its ability to meet Brent Residents Housing Need.

 

We cannot see the actual costs involved as Appendix 1 is exempted from public view. 

At Full Council meeting on Monday 10th July Cllr Promise Knight answering a question from Cllr Georgiou said, 'We know the the political appetite for shared ownership is waning. We've listend - you brought this up six months ago - and this is a demonstration of us listening.'