Hello! Welcome to the Labour Housing website.
The purpose of the website is to provide information about the Labour Housing Group, the development of the Labour Party's housing policies, and campaigns related to housing issues. It will be of interest to Labour Party members and supporters and to others interested in housing policy. NEWS FOR CURRENT MEMBERS Given the high cost of postage it helps us keep our costs down if we can communicate with members electronically. Please make sure we have your email address - just let the Secretary, Paul Eastwood, know what yours is. He can be contacted at paulre55@hotmail.co.uk LHG 2013 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Report by Paul Eastwood, LHG Secretary LHG’s 2013
AGM was held on Saturday, 16 March. The meeting was well attended by members from
across England,
reflecting the high importance that housing will be as a policy issue in the run
up to the General Election.
LHG’s
Executive Committee for 2013/14, comprises 12 members, including Kerry Pollard
( Chair ), Paul Eastwood ( Secretary ), Ross Houston ( Treasurer ), and David
Rodgers ( Membership Secretary ).
Guest speaker,
Chris Williamson, M.P., Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, gave
an excellent address to the meeting. Chris pointed out Grant Shapps’s comment
following the last General Election, that if the Coalition could not exceed the
house building programme of the last Labour Government it would regard it “ as
a mark of failure”. Since 2010, there
has been a 31% increase in people sleeping rough; statutory homelessness claims
had increased by a third; and there had been an 800% increase in the number of
households living in bed and breakfast. Chris stated:
"The
coalition government has utterly failed on housing, whatever measure you look
at. The number of new homes built has been pathetic whilst the number of people
sleeping rough has soared. We need a massive house building programme to
address the housing crisis and to get the economy moving again and only Labour will
deliver that"
LHG’s work on
policy development, includes actions to scrap the “bedroom tax”; taking housing
investment out of the PSBR, to help kick start a significant local authority
house building programme; and, restoring long term security of tenure for all
new Council and housing association tenants.
Coalition has 'utterly failed on housing'
Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central GovernmentMonday 25th March 2013 - 10:16amA speaker at the Labour Housing Group's weekend AGM condemned the coalition's record on housing, claiming it had "utterly failed". Chris Williamson MP, shadow minister for communities and local government, quoted former housing minister Grant Shapps' words that if the Tory-led coalition could not exceed the housebuilding output of the previous Labour government, it should regard it as a "mark of failure". Williamson claimed that since the 2010 General Election, rough sleeping has increased by 31 percent, statutory homelessness claims have risen by a third, and there has been an 800 percent increase in the number of households living in B&Bs. "The coalition government has utterly failed on housing, whatever measure you look at. The number of new homes built has been pathetic whilst the number of people sleeping rough has soared. We need a massive house building programme to address the housing crisis and to get the economy moving again and only Labour will deliver that," said Williamson. Labour Housing Group is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party, with members throughout England. It is currently working on policies that include plans to scrap the bedroom tax; taking housing investment out of the Public sector borrowing requirement; and restoring long term security of tenure for all new social housing tenants LONDON LABOUR HOUSING GROUP LONDON BOROUGH ELECTIONS 2014: HOUSING POLICIES FOR LABOUR A POLICY CONFERENCE FOR LONDON LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS SATURDAY APRIL 13, 2013 10.30-16.00 (Venue near Paddington – Westbourne Park) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: JACK DROMEY MP Shadow Housing Minister KAREN BUCK MP * SIR STEVE BULLOCK * Cr JAMES MURRAY * JACKY PEACOCK
FOR LONDON HOUSING POLICY DISCUSSION PAPER CLICK HERE LHG ONLINE Please help promote LHG and LLHG on-line. We are keen to make sure that the FB pages and the Twitter feeds help everyone who is interested in campaigning on housing issues to know what is going on and to share information. Many thanks to those of you who have already shared or re-tweeted our stuff – that is the way we will grow. Follow the Red Brick road Red Brick is a housing blog edited by LHG Members Tony Clements and Steve Hilditch as a housing policy forum open to anyone interested in progressive debate about homes, housing and communities. You can read it here:  It is linked to the Labour Housing Group but the views expressed are those of individual authors and are not necessarily the view of LHG. To follow Red Brick the easy way:
You can also follow LHG and Red Brick through
Red Brick is a “superb blog analysing social housing policy”. The Guardian London LHG London LHG on Facebook. Please ‘like’ our page and recommend it to your friends.London LHG is also on Twitter. All the latest London Labour housing news. Follow us at @lhglondon
|
