Supporting students in the community

Students, like all residents in Reading deserve to be effectively represented by their elected representatives on the Council, and for their voices to be heard. So today I met with Steph Johnson, Vice President (Welfare) of Reading University Students Union to discuss both ward and Borough matters. It was great to meet a fellow English Graduate and Londoner (!) and we chatted about our shared love of Zadie Smith novels among other things. I was very impressed with Steph's enthusisasm and determination to stick up for local students on important issues such as housing and crime.
Over the past few years I have worked hard to build up good relations with officers in the Students' Union as well as at Reading University, and to raise the profile of student issues more widely. Reading students make a fantastic contribution to local life in Reading and representing a ward with a large student population I have always found it important to find out what the key issues are and to involve students in decisions.
As a councillor I have also argued for closer working between Reading University and Reading Borough Council on issues such as housing and community relations as inevitably there have been some issues that have called for greater joint-working on problem-solving. This led me to set up and  lead the scrutiny review into private rented housing in 2008 and to request a review of landlord accreditation which led to the adoption of the Council's new scheme via the National Landlord Association.
Going forward there are a number of issues relating to Reading University, students and housing that will need to be considered and I will be doing my best to ensure that as far as possible we manage them as fairly and equitably as possible.
 When I was first elected I think it would be fair to say that relations between students and the local community in parts of Reading were not fantastic and thanks to the energetic work of RUSU officers and Ann Westgarth working alongside residents, councillors, the Police and Neighbourhood Action Groups the situation is now much better. That said I do still pick up complaints from residents about parking problems and noise which we do our best to try and tackle at a ward level.
In the meeting today we discussed student housing, including recent developments including the new  Landlord Accreditation Scheme and planned award for good landlords. This is part of the Council's carrot and stick approach to ensuring that excellent standards in private rented housing standards in Reading are encouraged and maintained for the benefit of students and other residents. Bearing in mind we know there continue to be examples of very poor housing in our Borough which is why officers will be focussing on rooting out bad landlords and taking enforcement action.
We also discussed issues around regulation of Houses of Multiple Occupation, as well as the development of new student accomodation both on and off campus which is currently taking place. This is a highly sensitive area to both residents and students, understandably. The issues around it are not straightforward and it is worth bearing in mind that HMOs provide accomodation not only to students but to non-students too who require low cost housing.  It is important that we try and get the balance right between housing and community needs and that we use the tools available to the Council to protect the character of our neighbourhoods and to support residents and students. I'm not sure Labour councillors got this approach right in the past which has led to for example environmental problems in some neighbourhoods. With this in mind I find it ironic that some local Labour activists have been so quick to criticise the policies of other parties so early in the Coalition's term of office both locally and nationally.
One problem continue students face, Steph told me, is anxiety around finding good quality housing to rent. This is not helped by some local lettings agents warning students if they don't rush to find a house they will be stuck with nowhere to live. It was good to hear the University and Student's Union doing more to make this a less nerve-wracking process for new students. This includes putting on housing talks for new students and a find a housemate evening.  I pointed out the Council's role in tackling poor housing and urged Stephanie to contact me direct if students came to her with any horror stories. I have helped a number of students in the past in this way. The Council also has a register of licensed HMOs which enables students to check if properties are licensed and to contact officers if they have concerns.
Over the years one of the key issues for residents living in the University area has been the build up of waste at the end of University terms.This has not helped student-resident relations or indeed resident-Council relations! The Council and the University have been working hard to tackle this problem more effectively, after years of lobbying by local Liberal Democrat councillors including myself. Also Last year RUSU ran some very effective community clean up events which really helped - I really hope officers will consider running these again as as well as making local streets look better they send out a very positive message to the local community.
Steph had some great ideas for more initiatives to improve student welfare and community relations including encouraging students to recycle more, raising awareness about burglary, and introducing a student community warden scheme - based on an idea from Birmingham University. I think this is a great idea and I will be spreading the word.
 Finally we discussed the Council's Big Society vision which was endorsed last week at Cabinet. Steph talked about volunteering projects carried out by students at Reading University which are now being recognised on their CVs. Listening to this I thought this could be a great opportunity for more student/community involvement on some important local agendas and I will be pursuing this idea further. All in all a really positive meeting. We will continue to meet regularly throughout the coming year.

Championing higher standards in and around private rented housing in Reading

Regular readers of my Redlands blog will know that I have been actively campaigning along with my Lib Dem colleagues for several years to get Labour-run Reading Borough Council to address issues connected with the private rented sector and Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs).
This week I welcomed news that the Labour government has listened to councils and councillors and has amended the law so that planning permission will soon be required to turn a house into an HMO. This is something that required action at a national level. As a ward councillor I have picked up many complaints from residents over the years about family homes being turned into HMOs and neighbourhoods changing out of all recognition in some parts of Town.
My starting point for all my campaigns has been my ward (Redlands) which has a high number of student lets and Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) but really the more I have investigated the issues the more I have learned that the private rented sector (PRS) is a significant of Reading's entire housing sector - not just in East Reading but parts of South and West Reading too.


With a massive shortage of affordable housing in Reading and a long housing waiting list the private rented sector is performing a vital role: providing cheap housing for many individuals and families - and thereby relieving pressure on the limited amount of housing association and Council-owned housing stock.

However, what concerns me is that the majority of so-called 'non-decent' housing in Reading is in this sector and when things go wrong it can be difficult for tenants and residents to get action taken.

So why I have spent so much of my time campaigning for a better quality private rented sector in Reading? Some facts about the sector (source: RBC):

• 27% of Reading's population lives in the PRS (compared to around 11% nationally)


• There is a higher proportion of older terraces (pre-1910) and flats in Reading than the rest of the UK


• 6.9% of properties Reading are HMOs compared to the national average of around 2%


• 22% of houses in the PRS do not meet the national 'Decent Homes' standards (due to poor thermal efficiency)


• 18% of the PRS are on Housing Benefit and occupy a disproportionate amount of non-decent properties


• Non-decent properties are associated with heads of households that are under 24 or over 60, especially those above 85


• The majority of empty homes are located within the private rented sector
  

Who lives in Reading's private rented sector? Answer = a whole range of different people - including a number of vulnerable groups:

• Young professionals


• Students


• People claiming Housing Benefit


• So-called 'slum rentals'


• Tied housing


• High-income renters


• Immigrants


• Asylum seekers


• People living in temporary accommodation

Where is the majority of Reading's private rented housing? :(Data by ward - source RBC, October 2008):

• Abbey: 3263


• Katesgrove: 1849


• Battle: 1714


• Redlands: 1677


• Park: 1515


• Minster: 1415


• Caversham: 1052


• Norcot: 960


• Church: 965


• Whitley: 662


• Kentwood: 654
  

One of the big issues in many parts of Reading is the growth of Houses of Multiple Occupation - HMOs. This has brought with it a range of problems including waste management, parking and hazards for tenants. The number of HMOs has grown in recent years and the Labour government has been slow to respond (see above).

Legislation was brought in a few years ago to enable councils to licence some HMOs (but not all of them) but councils have until now had very limited powers to restrict the number of HMOs and this has been a cause of frustration for residents living in some parts of Reading where people feel the balance between HMOs and other types of housing is wrong.

The majority of HMOs in Reading are currently in Park (356), Redlands (291), Abbey ward (253), followed by Katesgrove (231) and Battle (212) (data: RBC, 2008).

My campaigning for better standards in the private rented sector has been very successful so far:

• The joint scrutiny review into the private rented sector I led last year with Lib Dem Cllr Ricky Duveen, Chair of the Environment Scrutiny Panel was the first in depth look at the sector for many years


• As part of the review we held a highly-successful 'Have Your Say' event and my innovative use of Facebook to get as many students, tenants and landlords involved as possible
• It resulted in a range of policy improvements and additional investment by the Labour administration to be focussed on improving standards


• Our scrutiny review which attracted cross-Party support recommended that the landlord accreditation should be revived to give greater security to students and tenants. I'm pleased to say as a result of our campaigning a review of the scheme is now underway
• The cross-cutting nature of our scrutiny review has made joined-up enforcement action connected to dealing with issues in the PRS across Council departments (such as Planning and Streetcare) more effective


• The way I used social media to engage people led to me being nominated for a Lib Dem Voice award and being featured in The Times.
  

But my campaign to raise the profile of issues in this 'Cinderella' sector did not stop there. When I presented the findings of our review at a meeting of the Council's Cabinet in Reading last year I was adamant that it should not be left on a shelf to gather dust. The review had to be a first step on the path to triggering further action:

• Our scrutiny review has already had a major impact on the Council's Housing Strategy 2009 -2014 which was adopted last October. Labour-run RBC has at last acknowledged that the private rented sector plays an absolutely central role in Reading's housing market but it must be actively supported and improved if this sector is going to be brought up to 'Decent Homes' standard.
• Recently I have campaigned to highlight the plight of thousands of tenants in Reading who face eviction when buy-to-let landlords ran into difficulty during the recent recession.
• And we are due to receive a report to HHCC Scrutiny Panel and the Environment Panel next month reviewing the impact of the review and the impact of the recent additional investment.

With thousands of people living in rented housing or next to it in Reading it's essential that politicians continue to engage with the issues connected with PRS not just now but in the years ahead. I will keep on campaigning to make sure this happens.

Campaigning for decent homes for all

Housing - lack of good quality, affordable housing - is something that I care deeply about as anyone who knows me will tell you.

I spend a lot of time on housing casework because I think it's some of the most important work I do as a local councillor and because I have seen the difference better housing makes to people.

I feel good about campaigning for better housing and the more I do the more I realise the amount of work that needs to be done before everyone in Reading is able to live in what you and I would consider decent accommodation.

Good housing can transform someone's life chances - and bad housing can cause irreparable damage too.

A good home - a place where you can be safe, happy and comfortable - something many of us take for granted - is something I think everyone in Reading and everyone in Britain should have a basic right to.

I have been Lib Dem housing spokesperson on Reading Borough Council since 2006 and I have campaigned extensively for better standards in both the private rented sector and social housing (mainly council-owned properties) in Reading.

People who have been along to Council meetings where housing is on the agenda will have grown used to hearing me getting a bit steamed up about housing issues in Reading.

No doubt Labour and Tory councillors alike are sick of me banging on about bad housing (and Labour's bad track record) but I will continue to go on about this stuff as long as people keep on contacting me with their housing problems and I have breath in my body.

A Labour councillor accused me last week in Council of changing my tune since I've become a PPC.

As if!!

I haven't suddenly got worked up about housing because I'm now a prospective parliamentary candidate: I've been bothered about bad housing in Reading ever since I was first elected.

Labour-run RBC has neglected all types of housing over the years - this is something which surprised me when I first began campaigning because I thought Labour politicians were supposed to care about affordable housing.

Labour councillors have allowed developers to fill the Town centre with hundreds of executive rabbit-hutches but they have failed to build the type of housing local people actually need.

But housing is not just about bricks and mortar: neighbourhoods matter too, and I've campaigned long and hard to get estates made cleaner, greener and safer.

Why should the quality of life for residents living on estates be any less good than other residents? I think everyone has a right to live in a decent neighbourhood.

Labour's pursuit of the nationally-driven "decent homes" agenda has meant that council estates in many parts of Reading have been allowed to become rundown and blighted by anti-social behaviour. This is a direct result of a serious lack of investment in the right things over a period of years.

I persuaded Labour to back my plan for a 'Decent Neighbourhoods Fund' - a pot of money to improve estates in Reading. I've seen the benefits this can bring in my own backyard - on Hexham estate where genuine community-involvement is driving improvement from the ground up (not Labour's failed top-down approach).

I want everyone living on an estate in Reading to see the improvements we have seen on Hexham Road come to their area. The residents of Dee Park have had to wait too long and many tenants in other estates in Reading are still waiting for improvements.

After the millions spent by Gordon Brown and Tony Blair's governments in our name this really isn't good enough.

And its not just estates that have problems in Reading. Areas with large amounts of private rented housing - and HMOs (houses of multiple occupation) also have their fair share of problems - conversions without proper planning permission, overflowing bins, parking issues.

All these things make parts of Reading less appealing places to live. And this should matter to politicians.

I dedicated a large amount of my time and energy last year to getting the Labour-run Council in Reading to focus some effort into the much-neglected private rented housing sector.

The scrutiny review I led was very successful - we won £120,000 worth of investment in improving the sector and got officers to focus on finding solutions to the problems faced by tenants and residents living in parts of town with lots of HMOs.

More recently I campaigned for help for tenants in private rented housing who face eviction due to problems faced by buy-to-let landlords in the recession. I'm pleased to see that this issue is now getting more attention from MPs in Parliament.

For details of the housing campaigns I've run over the past four years check out my ward blog.

Anyway, back to today and I was alarmed by a report published by campaigning charity, Shelter, today which has found concrete evidence that lack of affordable housing in the UK is literally tearing families apart.

Shelter's study found:

- 1.5 million adults saying they are unable to look after their elderly parents because they can’t afford to live near them.

- 1.5 million grandparents say they are missing out on helping take care of their grandchildren because their own children can’t afford to live close by.

- One in ten parents believe their children want to live closer to them but are unable to due to soaring housing costs.

-22 per cent of 18-34 year olds stated that they were still living at home, with 45 per cent of these people blaming high housing costs.

- Over 50% this group reported that developing and maintaining relationships was harder because of living at home with their parents.

I see evidence of this everyday in my ward and across Reading.

So what does the housing crisis look like in Reading in statistics?

Questions I posed last year revealed:

• 5,000 people waiting for Council housing


• Average wait time for a three bed Council/RSL property in Reading: 20 months


• Average wait time for a four bed Council property in Reading: 22 months

Behind these figures are heartbreaking stories of people young and old desperate to get access to better housing for themselves and their families.

I'm not blaming the Council officers, they do their best to help people get further up the ladder but their simply aren't enough houses to go round. The blame for the chronic shortage of social homes to rent being built in Reading lies squarely at the door of the Labour government which has failed to deliver on it's promise of decent homes for all, by failing to allow councils to build enough council houses for their communities.

I am particularly concerned about the number of families living in overcrowded accommodation so I have commissioned a scrutiny review into this particular problem to report back to HHCC Scrutiny Panel soon. I have led a campaign in Reading for more affordable family-sized homes to rent to help reduce the number of families who are currently overcrowded.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the radical Lib Dem plan to turn the thousands of empty homes in Britain into much needed homes to rent for people on low incomes.

I will continue to campaign to keep housing high up the local political agenda in Reading - even if Labour and the Tories would prefer not to talk about it.

I am supporting Inside Housing magazine's House Proud campaign to get housing on the national political agenda at the forthcoming General Election. Please add your name to the petition to ensure that the housing crisis is the focus of all the major parties' attentions in the coming weeks.