The Sheltered Housing Services Consultation asks for views on the current service and the proposed changes at 10 of the Council's sheltered housing schemes.
The proposals include:
changes to the amount of support time provided.
changes to the Sheltered Housing Officer's working week
the promotion of activities across all the schemes
opening up some of the schemes to people under the retirement age who need specialist housing support
views on the current night service
This may sound like a consultation about how to improve the service.
It isn't.
It's a precursor to planned cuts in services.
However, perusal of the documentation reveals the main driver: saving money:
"We have taken into account that we spend a large amount of money on support for older people in sheltered housing. Currently £721,860 is spent on support for 635 tenants in 21 sheltered housing schemes across Reading. However, sheltered housing tenants represent only 3.5% of the total population of older people in Reading."
People who live in sheletered housing tend to be 60 or over.
Many of them are on low incomes.
In short these are some of Reading's most vulnerable citizens.
Labour made no mention of this in their election literature or their manifesto.
Four months into running the Council they are planning to slash services to Council tenants and in particular older Council tenants.
Were the Greens aware this is what they signed up to when they let Labour back in?
People often say you can judge a society by the way it treats its elderly..
This cut is wrong and not one Liberal Democrat councillors would have made.
Only we have pledged to protect the most vulnerable children and adults in Reading.
We got the Council to agree to this at the last meeting.
How quickly Labour councillors have forgotten.
I have launched this petition - please sign it here.
I am a firm believer of the positive role effective scrutiny of Council policies and services can. Scrutiny plays a key role in terms of developing policy, improving services for residents and holding elected politicians to account. Sadly some politicians use it to score political points which isn't very productive.
For many years in Reading councillors have led the scrutiny process and I am pleased that the Coalition Administration of Reading Borough Council is doing more to open up the Council to the public - the people the Council is there to serve for example making Council spending more transparent.
When I was Chair of Scrutiny (2008-10) on the Council I worked hard to increase public involvement in the scrutiny process by involving residents in detailed scrutiny reviews of dementia care and private rented housing.
As a Council the next step is to develop the scrutiny role of our own tenants to improve the Housing services all tenants receive and to put more power in the hands in the hands of tenants themselves. Co-regulation has been around as a concept for a couple of years now but remains relatively under-developed in Reading. The government has signalled that it wants to see a bigger role for The housing co-regulation model allows for tenants and housing providers to work together to challenge, raise performance and share best practice.
Effective tenant-led scrutiny will be at the Council's new approach. This will help the Council as a landlord to focus more on what matters to local tenants. I will be joining tenants, senior managers housing staff and councillors at a workshop next month to discuss how we are going develop and embed tenant scrutiny into the way we work in Reading. I think this is the right way to go.
One of the areas of housing policy I am most passionate about is around improving the quality of life of residents - regardless of where the live and what type of housing they live in, but particularly those residents living in areas that have been neglected for whatever reason.
I first became interested in this when I was first elected and I noticed areas of Reading including my own ward which were rundown and in need of some TLC - in part because the then Labour-controlled Council focussed on meeting Decent Homes targets and forgot about improving estate areas.
In particular I am thinking of Hexham Road which until we began campaigning was largely overlooked by the then three Labour councillors and Labour-run Council. As I blogged in 2008 over on my ward blog:
"There is no doubt that the whole estate is in need of urgent regeneration. With the Council's focus on meeting the government's target on decent homes, it's hard to know where the investment will come from. It's certainly something I will continue to campaign for as much as I can, as I think decent neighbourhoods are as important as decent homes.
As we we walked round we noticed that there was evidence of vandalism inside the flat blocks on Hexham Road, but thankfully less of the graffiti that had been a problem last year. It seems too easy for yobs to get into the flats, break glass and do damage inside the blocks. The Council's attitude seems to be "there's no point repairing things as they will just get damaged again' I don't think this is the right thing to do by local residents who have to live in the blocks. Everyone deserves to live in a pleasant environment - particularly if the accommodation is owned by the local council.'
It was around this time I developed the idea behind decent neighbourhoods. Between 2006 and 2008 I campaigned both in and outside the Council Chamber around the theme of improving estate areas which had been neglected by Labour.
In 2009 the then Labour-run Council bowed to pressure from me and other Lib Dems and created a new funding stream from the Housing Revenue Account to fund estate improvements in areas where the majority of housing stock in Council-owned and managed. Since then this money has funded a number of improvements in estates across the Borough including Hexham Road estate in my ward where the fund contributed to new trees and bulbs being planted to improve the look and feel of the estate.
Other works funded by the Council's Decent Neighbourhoods Fund include:-
The youth development project at Hexham Road
Landscaping projects in Caversham, Southcote, Coley and Whitley
An anti cycle/motor bike chicane has been installed at Hexham Road,
Additional street lighting in Whitley Wood and Southcote
Improvements at Aveley Walk play park.
The work that has been undertaken has been done in close consultation with ward councillors and residents so it is not about imposing the Council's vision on a neighbourhood - quite the opposite.
In my role as Lead Member for Housing, I am delighted in building our budget we have been able to keep our commitment to improving estates. In the coming year we will be investing £400,000 in this important work to improve local neighbourhoods. This is not something we have to do as a Council but I think it is very important and demonstrates our committment to improving the quality of life of residents in all our neighbourhoods.
If you live on an estate in Reading and have an idea for something to improve your local environment please contact me and I would be happy to pass ideas on to the Neighbourhood Team.
In March 2009 I asked the then Labour-run Council in Reading three questions about illegal subletting in properties managed by the Council - something which at that point had been identified as a big issue nationally. I have copied the questions I posed then, below:
Experts estimate that 5% of social housing properties in inner city areas could be being unlawfully sub-let.
a) How many Council properties is the Lead Member aware are currently unlawfully occupied within the Borough?
b) What investigations have been carried out by the Council into the extent of the problem of illegal sub-letting of Council properties ?
c) How many properties has the Council successfully recovered from unlawful occupancy in the past 12 months?
I was keen to raise these issues after nationally the Audit Commission found that 1,600 properties across 60 councils were recovered from unlawful tenants in 2009/10. The Audit Commission published a report: "Protecting the Public Purse 2010" which suggested that unlawful subletting could represent around 1% of all tenancies in metropolitan areas. This could mean up to 70 tenancies in Reading.
The response I received to my questions didn't say much at all. It suggested very little fraud took place. This indicated to me that that much more could be done and should be done to proactively identify potential housing fraud to protect Council tenants and taxpayers.
.
One year later, in March 2010, the Annual Fraud Report presented to CCEA Scrutiny Panel (which I was then Vice Chair) identified a need for greater targetting of Council resources to proactively identify fraud. One of the areas identified for further investigation was Housing Tenancy Fraud.
In my role at that time as Chair of the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel I requested a report be brought forward outlining progress so far and planned action for dealing with Housing Tenancy fraud in the Council's own stock.
Several months on, as Lead Councillor for Housing I was pleased to see report I requested all those months ago tabled at tonight's meeting of the Community Care, Housing and Health Scrutiny Panel.
This report revealed my close scrutiny of this subject has borne results, and an improved approach - exactly what scrutiny should do.
Key findings of the report included-
A Housing Fraud Panel was set up in April 2010 to proactively manage cases of tenancy fraud. This approach ensures "a more joined-up and efficicent process for tackling individuals cases.
As a result of this closer working the team have looked at 21 cases of possible illegal subletting or non residency of RBC properties.
Of the 21 cases referred for further investigation a total of 5 (24%) of properties have been returned to RBC ownership or re-let.
The Council estimates that re-letting these properties to families temporary accomodation approximately £55k could be saved to date.
More work is planned by officers to increase awareness and knowledge of Tenancy fraud both with Council staff and the Council's tenants. We will also be investigating the use of civil proceedings to recover unlawful profits - something other housing providers have pursued successfully.
I fully support this work as Council houses are valuable public assets in high demand. Any fraudulent tenancies represent an abuse of the public purse and damage the chances of people in housing need by putting increased pressure on waiting lists.
I am pleased that the questions I raised over a year ago led to this more proactive, robust approach. This approach was fully supported by all members (cross-party) of HHCC Scrutiny Panel this evening - including Labour councillors. I will be recommending to my coalition colleagues that we continue in this vein, as well as urging officers leave no stone unturned in identifiying potential housing tenancy fraud. This is in marked contrast to the complacent approach taken by my Labour predecessors which in failing to identify potential fraud failed tenants and taxpayers.
A few weeks ago I blogged about housing and the Coalition government's plans. Since then a couple of things have happened: firstly, a consultation paper was published on social housing, secondly the government has decided to review some of its proposals re housing benefit. As someone who is deeply interested and committed to housing issues it has been positive that people have been discussing housing and housing policy but frustrating that a number of Labour politicians, both locally and nationally have sought to inflame the debate rather than help to find solutions to the massive shortage of affordable housing we face in a very difficult economic climate.
As I said in my previous post on this issue I am actively monitoring announcements from government in relation to housing to ensure we get the best and fairest deal for Reading residents. I am keeping an open mind about proposals as far as possible whilst draft policies are put forward and seeking the opinions of others to test my own against. To reiterate, it is a Coalition government so I don't expect to like every policy that is published or even agree with it. That said no one Party won the election so it is important that politicians work together for the good of residents.
One size certainly does not fit all in relation to housing policy. In relation to the first paper, on social housing, Having looked at it and thought about it I am not very keen on the proposal to introduce shorter fixed term tenancies for Council homes (2 years has been mooted) and would need to be persuaded that this was a good idea before I would consider putting it forward as a proposal in Reading. I would be concerned about upheaval for families and the impact it might have on neighbourhoods.
I personally would like to have seen more emphasis in the paper on tackling the problem of housing supply - this is the main reason housing waiting lists have increased. That said I am very pleased to see that the housing revenue account is set to be reformed and that empty homes may be counted towards new homes in future. We need to do more to increase housing supply after Labour so comprehensively failed on this despite 13 years to do it.
It's worth saying that at this point this is simply a consultation paper and the government is seeking feedback. Thankfully, unlike the previous Labour government the Coalition Government is not forcing councils to implement every proposal it publishes. That is what localism means after all. In relation to social housing the CLG consultation paper makes it quite clear that it will be up to councils and elected councillors to decide what is right for their areas. We are currently examining the detail of this paper - there is some welcome new thinking in relation to overcrowding, under-occupancy, empty homes and council house waiting lists which we should consider to ensure we are getting the most out of our social housing stock. The current system of social housing allocation and funding left by Labour is not unproblematic and there might well be things we can do to make it fairer and more equitable to local residents. It is good that these proposals are out to consultation and I look forward to reading others' responses.
In relation to housing benefit, I attended a meeting a few weeks ago with a group of Liberal Democrat councillors with an interest in housing to convey some concerns to ministers about some aspects of the proposed housing benefit reforms. Unlike Labour councillors I avoided speculating publicly and in the face of rumours circulating about rented rooms in Reading being block booked I preferred to go on what frontline officers were telling me. Which was...that rooms were not being block booked.
That said some aspects of the reforms do cause me concern and I am pleased that the government has listened to some of the thoughtful comments made by MPs, stakeholders and councillors and decided to delay the implementation of changes to housing benefit for existing claimants. I was concerned that the original timescales might be too short to enable tenants in private rented housing to seek alternative cheaper accommodation, particularly in Reading where rents are high.
Other changes the government announced today include:
Temporarily widening the discretion of local authorities to pay housing benefit directly to landlords. This power will be used to secure tenancies where landlords are willing to reduce rents, helping to push down prices and minimise disruption to families.
The government has agreed new funding totaling £190m over 5 years (including £50m announced today) to smooth the transition for families who can no longer afford their rent and need help to adjust. The government has also committed to work with local authorities to ensure that these funds are used to help the most vulnerable, including the elderly, the disabled, and those with children at local schools.
The government has also said it will continue to examine options for improving ease of access to the private rented sector for housing benefit recipients.
That said we must not forget that Labour planned to reform housing benefit, however hard they try to deny it.
Despite the difficult economic circumstances we are in, housing projects are continuing to move forward across Reading: extra care and affordable housing is being constructed on Dee Park, construction of new extra care housing on the old Avenue School site is set to begin soon, and empty homes continue to be brought back into use to name a few projects. In terms of improving existing housing, work continues to bring Council housing up to Decent Homes standard and enforcement activity continues in the private rented sector
As an administration we will continue to work hard to increase the overall supply of housing and ensure support exists for new and existing tenants in both the private rented and social housing sector. We are also in regular contact with tenants, residents, both our MPs, officers, and other stakeholders, to build local support for this vitally important agenda
Another day, another visit to Reading West constituency from a senior Labour figure - yesterday it was Deputy Leader Harriet Harman. Labour must be really worried about losing here. And from the feedback we're getting - they should be.I spoke to one gentleman on the doorstep in West Reading who said he had supported Martin Salter at previous elections. I pointed out he was standing down. "That's the problem" he replied. And it is clearly a huge problem for Labour in Reading. The same resident told me he wasn't planning on voting Labour this time. Many people I've been speaking to on the doorstep across the constituency are ditching Labour and backing the Lib Dems this time. Anyway, I read online that Harriet Harman was in town to unveil her Party's housing policies for the election. Apparently they include plans to build 50,000 council houses by the end of the next Parliament. This is a drop in the ocean when you consider the demand for affordable housing in places like Reading. It's a bit like Labour's 'death-bed' conversion to political reform. Er, in the next Parliament. A Guardian article I read last summer made the point that back in the 1950s local authorities built around 250,000 units a year. The current rate has been reduced to a trickle - with around 130 new council homes being built each year. You can see the impact of Labour's failed housing policy wherever you go in Reading - with overcrowding a major issue and approximately 6,000 people left languishing on the Council's housing register for years. Nationally the number of people waiting on council lists for cheap housing is expected to reach 5 million by 2010. Labour politicians have had 13 years to reverse the harm done by the Conservative's Right to Buy policy and enable councils to build the homes they needed and they have failed to deliver. In Reading this can be seen by the chronic shortage of larger, family-sized properties. Gordon Brown talks about 'reforming' housing policy to enable councils'to keep rent from council homes and invest it locally. This is welcome but why did his government fail to deliver this between 1997 and 2010 when they had the power to do so? For years council tenants in Reading and elsewhere have been subsidising the Treasury when rent should have been spent on investing in existing and new council homes. The Lib Dems nationally and in Reading have led the way in arguing for reform of housing finance and devolving power down to councils to make decisions over social housing. Of all the candidates in the race to be Reading West's next MP I have been by far the most vocal in campaigning for action to tackle Reading's affordable housing crisis - to include making better use of empty homes and the private rented sector (both areas that were neglected for years for Labour-run Reading Borough Council). I am passionate about the right for everyone to live in a decent home and I'm proud to stand up for people in Reading who have been badly let down by Labour and the Tories because I believe strongly in fairness and social justice. Locally over the past year I have stood up for council tenants hit by Labour's double whammy: rent rises and unfair charges for basic services , as well as campaigning for tenants in private rented housing threatened with eviction. As Nick Clegg has rightly said, Labour cannot be trusted when it comes to their election manifesto. And Labour politicians will promise anything to cling on to power when it comes to housing. But the electorate here in Reading is not stupid and locally evidence of 13 years of Labour's failed housing policy is there for all to see.
The Reading Evening Post has picked up on Shelter's campaign to highlight the dire shortage of affordable housing across the UK , including here in Reading. But as I pointed out to Anna Roberts who penned the story - the true picture in Reading is actually even worse than the one Shelter describes. A recent report I commissioned as Chair of the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny panel investigating the problem of overcrowding in our Borough revealed the number of people on the Council's housing waiting list has risen from around 4,400 in April 2008 to approximately 6,000 in February 2010. There is no doubt that this increase is linked with the impact of the recession - something I have consistently raised as a councillor over the past 2 years. Across Britain this figure rises to 1.8 million families - this is a damning indictment of Labour's failed housing policies. In Reading the demand for larger homes vastly outsrips supply and it's damaging the health and well-being of thousands of children and families in our Town. There are 186 families registered as needed a property with 4 bedrooms or more and only 3 x 5 bedroom properties belonging to the Council! I have been vocal in campaigning to highlight the lack of affordable social homes for families in Reading for years. An independent inspection of RBC agreed with me highlighting lack of family housing. When the housing strategy was discussed I argued for the Council to work with housing associations to provide more larger family houses to help meet local demand for good quality homes. But the timescales for delivery are still too far in the future because the rate of building is just too low. I've also campaigned extensively to get the Council to use it's powers to encourage more landlords to bring empty properties back into use and for standards to be improved in the private rented sector. We struggle in Reading to have the space to build large amounts of new housing so the Council and other housing partners have to be creative about getting more out of existing stock. Over the past 2 years RBC has placed 600 households in the private sector. This is not all the solution but it is part of of it. In Scrutiny last month we discussed the need to review the Council's under-occupiers policy to make moving into smaller homes more appealing to residents and how to get more out of existing council housing. Council officers are not to blame for the housing crisis we face - responsibility lies with the Labour government and it's failed housing policy. The Lib Dems have long argued we need to restore more powers to councils to build social homes and retain council rents. House building in the UK is at it's lowest level since the 1920s and there is an urgent need to build more affordable housing after Labour failed to reverse the damage done by the Conservative's Right To Buy policy which saw many of Reading's family-sized council houses sold off. Under Labour the Treasury has taken millions of pounds worth of tenants' rent when it should have gone on building more council homes locally. The policy of the Labour government has been to focus too much on so-called first time buyers and to overlook can't-afford-to-buyers - the thousands of people who have been priced out of the market. The latest stamp duty cut announced in Darling's pre-election Budget will not help those who have no chance of getting a mortgage or raising enough cash for a deposit. The housing bubble that the Labour government fuelled a few years ago ended up with many people getting into massive debt trying to get a foot on the housing ladder only to find they couldn't keep up repayments on their mortgages. Buy-to-let in Reading has ended up with too many buy-to-leave empty homes. Too many repossessions have taken place in Reading and the recession has had a terrible impact on people - particularly in relation to housing. We need to look at sustainable ways to tackle the housing crisis and to give everyone a fair chance of decent housing. The recently announced Lib Dem policy to bring hundreds of thousands of empty homes back into use as social homes (which would also create thousands of construction jobs) must be part of that package.
I love my role as councillor and the opportunities it gives me to help local people and improve their quality of life - not just in my ward but right across Reading. I particularly enjoy my role as chair of scrutiny as it enables me to get a better understanding of issues Borough-wide and to hear from other councillors and other bodies not just the Council in relation to a number of key local issues. In scrutiny we have no budget or decision-making power as such but we can recommend action to the executive and external agencies - including health bodies on matters of public interest or concern. Last night in HHCC Scrutiny Panel (which I chair) I got cross-party support for recommendations I drafted which aim to improve children's health in the poorest parts of the Borough. This follows an in-depth Scrutiny Review into the issue last year. I will link to the recc's here when they are available online. To me these issues and what lies behind them - pockets of real poverty and deprivation in our town - are so important that they should be above party politics. Commitment from politicians is needed to make a difference to communities in the longterm. Sadly not everyone shares my view and lately some politicians have descended into playing politics rather then working to improve life for residents. I try to avoid playing the man, not the ball - others don't and I think it damages our politics in Reading. There are no easy solutions to improving children's health tackling child poverty and many of them lie at a national level and require fundamental changes like a fairer tax system to deliver change. However, I am campaigning to ensure that child poverty and poor health stay at the top of the local political agenda in Reading to focus the minds of politicians and key partners - i.e. the PCT. The recommendations will go to to the Labour Cabinet meeting in April (hopefully) for a response. We must not accept the status quo - children only get one chance at life and in 2010 everyone should be able to enjoy equal life chances wherever they live in Reading. The review I requested of the impact of the NHS Walk In Centre revealed it to have been a huge success - with around 15,000 visits from patients since it opened. This is great but access to healthcare must be better in other parts of town - notably Whitley and Battle (Oxford Road area). We heard that the long promised Battle Health & Wellbeing has not progressed as a direct result of the recession. This is a concern giving health inequality in our area has worsened during that time.On overcrowding, something I've been campaigning on for months now, I was really pleased to secure cross-party support for a greater focus on helping support tenants who are over-crowded but also investigate ways to make more housing stock available. The 30% increase in the number of people on the Council's housing register (up to 6,000) is putting real pressure on stock. Lots of ideas were discussed and a full review and potentially scope for policy change will be put forward in October. It will need to include a combination of solutions - including making better use of existing stock and the private rented sector. 186 families are suffering living in overcrowded housing and I will not rest until that number has reduced significantly. Housing repairs to council houses is something I have regularly received complaints about from residents over the years. This is doubtless the same for many other councillors - so I got the issue on the scrutiny agenda. Last night we discussed what could be done to reduce the number of 'avoidable calls'. Housing repairs relate to 47% of all contacts from residents to the Council - around 41 thousand calls! This is bad for tenants and a bad use of time and money for the Council. An action is being developed and HHCC Scrutiny Panel will be monitoring delivery closely. Following the CQC inspection of Older People's Services a few months ago I had requested an update to scrutiny as to what is being done to improve areas where areas of concern had been identified by inspectors. There is no doubt that this more in-depth scrutiny of key services over the past 2 years since I've been chairing HHCC Scrutiny Panel has delivered improvements in key areas faster, as well introducing more accountability for members and local people. This is just a brief snapshot of some of the issues we discussed last night - all of them really important. Being involved in scrutiny is one of the more hidden aspects of a councillors' work but I am hopeful we can make a real impact on housing, health and social care for residents in Reading. We had 20 items on the scrutiny panel agenda last night - not too bad given when I took over in May 2008 there were something like 32 on an average HHCC agenda.I still think we need to consider setting up a separate health scrutiny committee in Reading just to be able to do justice to all the health issues that come up. But overall it was a good, productive meeting and I'm pleased to say pointless party political bickering was kept to a minimum!
I got a phonecall out of the blue earlier this week from a woman living with her a family in West Reading. They are overcrowded. Three children are currently sharing one bedroom. I get calls like this pretty regularly but that doesn't mean that individual cases are not heartrending. I asked the female caller what impact the current housing situation is having on family life.She told me that her children - three girls and one boy - have no personal space and nowhere to do homework in peace. It affects their social life as they cannot invite friends round. "I want to move somewhere larger so that my children can have room to breathe" she told me. It's calls like this which spur me to campaign for a better quality of life for local people. They are the basic reason I stood for election as a local councillor and why I would like to be a Member of Parliament. I am not content to shrug my shoulders -I want to work to help local people, particularly those in need.
Overcrowding - a Reading-wide issue As a local councillor I have been contacted countless times in recent years by families in the same predicament as the women who called me earlier this week. I have long been concerned that the people contacting me in my ward are the tip of the iceberg so last October I tabled some written questions about about this issue which revealed the true extent of the problem faced by hundreds of families. With this in mind I have been campaigning for more family-sized houses to be built in Reading in the coming years to meet local need. I was keen to dig deeper to get more information about this isue and get more attention from politicians and officers in Reading on this issue so via my role as Chair of Scrutiny I asked officers to prepare a focussed piece of work on the issue of overcrowding. We are due to discuss that report on Thursday evening in a meeting of the HHCC Scrutiny Panel. The facts contained within the report I commissioned are worth highlighting:
The number of people on Reading on the Council's 'housng register' has risen from 4,400 (April 2008) to around 6000 in February 2010 - an increase of 30%
This increase is partly due to the impact of the recession but one of the most common reasons given is overcrowding
In February 2010 there were around 186 families in Reading registered with RBC as needing a propertywith 4 or more bedrooms
Data is not available for overcrowding in privately-rented housing -which could also be a signficant figure
The supply of larger family homes either housing association or Council-owned is in short supply and the local authority in Reading is simply unable able to meet demand. Too few affordable homes are being built each year in Reading. Under successive Labour governments councils have been prevented from building the number of council houses that local communities need to replace the loss of thousands of council houses which were sold off via the disastrous Right to Buy policies introduced by the Conservatives. Officers in the local authority are doing everything they can but their hands have been tied by government which has dicated housing policies to councils far too much. Currently the pressure is greatest on properties that are 4 or more bedrooms.
The Council currently owns 133 x 4 bedroom properties and 3 x 5 bedroom properties
RSL (housing assocation) partners built 28 x 4 bed and 2 x 5 bed properties in the last 2 years
22 x 4 bed and 1 x 5 bed houses are planned by 2013
I'll leave you to do the math...!
Overcrowding is a problem across Reading, but there are some wards where the problem is particularly acute. Based on figures about percentages of tenant transfer requests these are - Caversham (20.5%), Minster (14,8%), Battle (10.3%) followed by Katesgrove and Southcote (8.3%), Redlands (8.2%) and Abbey and Church (8.1%).
Finding solutions
In Reading and many parts of the South-East the affordability of housing is a major issue. A recent national survey showed that only 23% of families under 40 living in the South East can afford to get on the housing ladder. More council homes must be built in Reading to meet the needs of our growing population. Larger affordable homes for families are urgently needed and thanks to pressure from the Lib Dems on the Borough Council the Council's Housing Strategy 2009 -2014 the blueprint for future housing in the Town includes plans to alter the housing mix towards more family-sized housing. There are very few large sites in Reading and the outskirts of the Town where large-scale new housing can be developed so we need to get better at getting more out of our exisiting housing stock. Long-term empty properties being brought back into use must also be part of the solution which I have actively supported. RBC is looking at ways of getting the most out of existing council stock - including extending some properties and encouraging some tenants who are technically 'under-occupying' council homes to move into smaller properties. As you can imagine, persuading people to downsize is not easy. A report on this is due in the autumn.The private rented sector has a key role to play - hence the need to raise standards in the sector - since 2008 600 households have been placed by RBC's housing team into the private sector via the increasingly-popular Deposit Guarantee Scheme. On a national level I am grateful to Shelter for pointing out the terrible impact that overcrowding is having on children and families. I will continue to campaign to get action taken to help families affected here in Reading.
I'm pleased to say my campaign for a fair deal for Council tenants in Reading is really gaining momentum. You may recall as part of my campaign I have been calling for better value cleaning services for RBC. tenants on estates in Reading.
The Labour politicians that run the Council in Reading are planning to start charging tenants for cleaning services later this year (due to the black hole in the Council's housing budget - courtesy of the Labour government's failed housing finance policies), and despite the fact that a recent survey carried out by the Council found that thousands of tenants are dissatisfied by the cleaning services they receive from RBC.
The scrutiny review I led towards the end of last year found that there was much room for improvement in this Council service area with cleaning in many areas patchy at best. Labour were forced to delay the implementation of charging for cleaning services after the poor feedback from tenants.
It is disappointing that so many tenants are clearly not getting value for money services from their Council. Anyway, this evening I received a letter from a resident who lives in West Reading supporting my campaign and deeply dissatisfied with Labour:
"I wish to say I was very pleased to see in the local paper that someone is standing up for Council tenants against these charges. My son who has earning difficulties...and his wife who has a part-time job...really can't afford extra with the rent going up as well...to around £80 per week that they are expected to pay - and as there are only 2 other flats who pay full rent (no subsidy) - they are the only ones affected - it's certainly not fair on them."
My correspondent goes on to say that cleaning on the estate where her daughter lives receives very little thorough cleaning: 'only a sweep through every fortnight and no reports on items that need mending/repairing'.
I like getting feedback from local people as it helps me keep in touch with what they think as opposed to what Labour politicians think local people are thinking...
The letter finishes: "Thinking of you and hoping you will get help from other councillors."
I received an email along a similar vein last night:
"I would like to thank you again for all your sterling efforts...I know you will do your best to press the issue. I believe that a lot more Labour councillors will lose their seats in the May election, which can only help!
My campaign for fair deal for Reading's Council tenants continues.
It may not have generated many headlines but the Labour administration's decision to put the rent up on Reading Borough Council properties will hit many Council tenants - namely those who are not in receipt of benefits and who account around 30% of all RBC tenants (there are around 7,300 Council tenants in total).
As Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Panel in Reading I been actively monitoring the impact on the recession on residents in Reading over the past year to ensure people who needed help were getting it from the Council, and a couple of sad things this study revealed was the increase over the past year of number of people accessing RBC debt services, and claiming financial support to help them meet their housing costs.
As I said in a Council meeting when the issue of the proposed rent increase was debated a few weeks ago - it is with a heavy heart that as a political Party we, the Lib Dems, lend our support to plans to increase charges for some of Reading's poorest families many of them just living above or on the poverty line.
But thanks to the way that successive Conservative and Labour governments have messed up housing finance RBC is left between a rock and a hard place when it comes to securing the future of council-owned housing stock. The Council is forced to charge tenants more because government keeps taking money away from councils like Reading to spend elsewhere.
We do not and should not point the finger of blame at Council officers who are struggle to balance the books in the Council's housing department: the failure to reform our arcane system of housing finance is a failure of this Labour government over a period of years.
The same Labour government which has abandoned its commitment to fairness and demonstrated time and time again through its own policies that is is not on the side of the poorest, including Council tenants.
As Nick Clegg has said repeatedly: the only Party that is genuinely committed to fairness for all is the Liberal Democrats.
The way council housing is currently funded is unfair on councils but more importantly it's unfair on council tenants. The way that council housing finance is centrally controlled by government makes it impossible for councils to have any real power or autonomy over their own spending and by extension limits this limits power they have to set rents and manage their own housing stock.
Alongside my Lib Dem colleagues on Reading Borough Council, as housing spokesperson I have campaigned for many years for an end to the system of so-called 'negative subsidy' - an unfair tax on Council tenants.
The sad fact of the matter is that were it not for the millions of pounds worth of rent RBC is forced to pay back to the Treasury every year there would be no need for the Council to increase the rent.
The Lib Dems would like to see the cash raised by local councils through rent spent on improving council housing stock in local areas and on building more new council houses - not subsidising government spending elsewhere.
And nationally reform is on its way, apparently, but the government's 'change of heart' will not bring change soon enough for tenants here in Reading or anywhere else. A consultation was launched by Labour nationally but nothing will happen this side of the General Election or this financial year. So the rent has gone up.
Service Charges
Problems for tenants do not end with rent increases. Thanks to the way Labour has structured finance nationally RBC has been forced to start charging tenants extra for services they used to receive as part of their rent.
Several tenants contacted me recently angry about Labour's charging plans. One tenant wrote:
"It is clear to me that these charges represent just another tax on the hardworking families that the Labour government - and Labour-dominated Reading Borough Council claim they want to help."
A report going to Cabinet next week reveals 55 tenants have written to RBC saying they oppose the plans to vary tenancies to allow Labour to introduce service charges.
Higher rent and service charges will make life even more difficult for tenants who are in arrears. RBC plans to send out leaflets with all the rent increase letters to encourage tenants to "contact the rent service if they experience any problems paying their rent."
I challenged the Labour Lead Member for Housing, Cllr Deborah Edwards, at the last full Council meeting about the way the Labour-administration treats tenants who fall behind with rent payments.
Does threatening tenants who fail to pay their rent on time constitute support, I asked. I quoted from an incredibly crass article which featured in the Council Tax Payer funded December edition of Housing News entitled "Rent comes first: Don't be Ho, Ho, Homeless this Christmas"
Cllr Edwards failed to apologise publicly to tenants for the article despite my requests for her to do so, choosing instead to attack those tenants who contacted me who were deeply offended by the article for being "thin-skinned".
Is this what people expected when they voted Labour all those years ago? On seeing the article one tenant commented to me:
"This is the sort of thing you might expect from a Tory Council, not a Labour one!
"Blue-red, red-blue, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown what’s the difference?
That’s why the Tories won’t change any Labour policies – because they’re all Tory policies in the first place."
But it's not all doom and gloom. I'm really pleased to see the Labour-administration have pledged the continuation and extension of the so-called Decent Neighbourhoods Fund in Reading over the next financial year. Investment in the infrastructure of housing estates in Reading is something I have actively championed and campaigned for over a period of years.
To the frustration of tenants and residents, Labour in Reading have taken their eye off the ball and allowed estates to become rundown and neglected in their headlong rush to chase 'Decent Homes' targets. Decent homes are important but so are our neighbourhoods: people want to live in clean and safe areas - and I think they have a right to expect that their Council will work to keep them that way.
I have seen the tangible benefits that investment in estate areas can bring communities on an estate in my own ward - Hexham Road. As PPC for Reading West I will campaign for estates across West Reading and West Berkshire to benefit from the same investment, and the same improved quality of life for the benefit of residents who live on them.
I was selected to be the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West last Friday and it feels like I haven't really stopped since.
Although I already have a blog which I write with my lovely ward colleagues Cllr Glenn Goodall and Cllr Kirsten Bayes, I wanted to have a space where I could post updates from the campaign trail as we get closer to the General Election.
I also wanted to give people living in West Reading and West Berkshire a way of finding out more about our local and national Lib Dem campaigns, and what I stand for.
I'm not promising I will always have time to post updates - but I'll try and post them when I can in between campaigning, working and grabbing time to relax with friends and family.
A bit about me: I've lived in Reading since 2003 but I was born and raised in North London (and as a result I support Arsenal!)
I studied English Literature and Politics at the University of Edinburgh and like many people I came to Reading originally for work.
I love living in Reading (although I don't love commuting to work in London). When I'm not campaigning I love going to the cinema although I don't go as often as I would like. The last film I saw was Nowhere Boy (about John Lennon) although the last film I loved was the excellent Avatar in 3D.
I got elected as a councillor on Reading Borough Council in 2006 and I've spent most of my time since then campaigning and getting things done for local people.
I speak on housing issues on behalf of the Lib Dems on Reading Borough Council and I also Chair a scrutiny panel which covers housing, health and community care. Details of my campaigning in these areas over on my ward blog.
I care passionately about better housing for all and have spent the last few years campaigning for cleaner, greener, safer - and healthier neighbourhoods here in Reading.
These are bread and butter issues that are all about helping to improve the quality of life of ordinary people.
I feel honoured to be chosen as the Lib Dem candidate and I pledge to throw my energy into campaigning for a better quality of life for everyone living in Reading West.
With the retirement of Martin Salter - a popular, hard-working local MP a vacancy has arisen for a new local champion - someone to who is unfraid to speak out for local people and get things done.
I would like to thank everyone who has been in touch to wish me luck and to offer their support.
There will be plenty to do between now and the elections.
Would you like to get involved in the campaign to elect a new local champion for Reading West?
Whatever your skill or interest we'd love to hear from you. Please visit our campaign website and leave us your details.
The friendly team behind the Lib Dem campaign in West Reading is made up of local people of all ages.
It doesn't matter if you haven't been involved in a politics before - now is a great time to get involved with so many issues that need action, and very important elections only months away in Reading.
Back to this week and I've been very busy since I was selected.
The recent freezing weather has made a lot of people's lives very difficult in Reading - particularly the elderly and those on low incomes - and I have been doing my bit to support them and keep them informed.
There was a nice article and editorial in the hard copy edition Get Reading today (which made up for the unflattering picture of me they printed on the website earlier in the week!)
Oh well, you have to get used to that kind of thing in local politics - especially in Reading.
I have been regularly tweeting about my activities both as a councillor and Reading West PPC since I was selected on Friday. You can follow me here.
Twitter divides opinion but I love it and would encourage everyone to try it before they dismiss it.
Last week TV presenter Anne Diamond interviewed me on her BBC Radio Berkshire lunchtime show about the way I use social media tools to engage. You can listen to our chat here.
I was delighted to see our Party Leader announce he will be taking part in an online public question time on Twitter on 20 January where he will be asking young people what issues they face. I have actively supported the Youth Cabinet and championed issues affecting children and young people in Reading.
On Monday evening I was interviewed by Phil Kennedy on BBC Radio Berkshire about my selection and Nick Clegg's speech this week on fairness.
I was delighted to hear Nick pledging to put fairness at the heart of our manifesto.
As I said in my hustings speech, fairness is very important to me and the sense of injustice about the state of things on my own doorstep was what first attracted me to the Party.
I was also pleased to hear Nick say it was time politicians started treating voters like grown-ups and not pledging to do things they cannot deliver. Gordon Brown and the Labour Party have left the public finances in a total mess and to quote Nick again "the politics of plenty are over".
Nick has spelled out his four steps for a fairer Britain in this short video:
I got a call from BBC South yesterday keen to interview me to do a piece about the problems many young people in Reading are facing during this recession.
A few months ago I got the Council to hold a special summit to find out what more could be done to help and support young people.
I also campaigned to ensure Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems developed policies action to tackle youth unemployment. I spoke out at the last Lib Dem Conference in support this issue.
You can watch my speech here:
I am very excited about the local Lib Dem campaign for a fairer Reading and I can't wait to get out and about meeting more local people.
I am keen to find out what issues local people in West Reading and West Berkshire are concerned about.
