Maidstone Weald Labour Party

The West branch continues it's important campaign on social housing.

The Chart shows clearly the ongoing situation of reduced completions and the almost total removal of Local authorities from the production of new houses for social purposes. Leslie Turner continues this theme:

"And the issue today of the 'Independent review of regulation of social housing' at the 'Cavereview@communities.gov.uk/cave review' gives some glimpses of the Government intention in regard to social housing as for instance para. 19 says (inter alia) 'The government seeks to minimise the level of public sector finance provided to housing associations for new supply of social housing, .......' (does that mean 'keep to a low level'? ) And at para 22 : "The purpose of the review is to find the best option for regulation, recognising that it is unlikely ever to be a perfect substitute for an efficiently functioning market..." : that seems to say that even past governments' successes in the supply of social houses failed, but history shows clearly that they did indeed supplant the market in low-cost affordable social houses and it was the failure of the market which did not function for that purpose.

May I, in the hope that you will publish this in the local Labour Blog, draw attention of members to the Early Day Motion No 136 put down on 16 Nov 06 and signed in the House of Commons by over 80 MPs including some 57 Labour entitled /*'Funding Decent Council Housing' ; */which welcomes the decision of the last Labour Party Conference to call on the Government to provide the fourth option of direct investment in council housing as a matttter if growing urgency.....' and goes on for another 18 lines to explain how it can be done '..without major government spending..' This could also form the substance of a part of any new leafletting in the areas where there are council/housing association households as it now looks as if the latest generation of young familied people are often stuck at home, or overcrowded in them, and it might give them some hope next May!"

Last Wednesday an enjoyable Chistmas party was hosted by Leslie Turner at his home. The evening included a toast to Keir Hardie, as Leslie has a picture of him taken from the original Labour Party building in Maidstone that is now sadly no longer present.

1 UNITARY AUTHORITY
2 REGENERATED ALL SAINTS ROAD LINK
3 LEEDS-LANGLEY BYPASS
4 TOWN CENTRE MODERNIZATION
5 BETTER TRAIN- BUS LINKS
6 EAST-WEST TRAIN STATIONS UPDATED
7 TACKLE HOMELESSNESS
8 SOCIAL HOUSING
9 CLEANER, GREENER BOROUGH
10 FAIRTRADE TOWN STATUS
11 FOOTBALL STADIUM
12 CIVIC CENTRE



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DID YOU KNOW?

HIGH STREET TURNOUT IN LOCAL ELECTIONS.

1999- 24.5%
2000- 22.1%
2002- 22.9%
2003- 22.0%
2005- 25.0%

ELECTORATE IN 1999 4,542
ELECTORATE IN 2003 5,863.

from Richard Coates LGC Secretary

'LET'S BUILD' by James Heartfield
Published Sept 06 by Audacity Press - £15.0 , 256 pages

Those of us who have been campaigning during the last few years over the issues related to the Housing Crisis and have wanted to ensure that our facts are accurate and our quotes genuine, would have been glad of this book along the way. But as the Crisis is on-going and no nearer to being solved, at least for working people, it will become one of the sources most consulted by those who are intent upon convincing the politicians, nationally and well as locally, that this is a core issue not just for the Labour Party's electoral chances but for the health of our Society.
Its sub-title is 'Why we need five million new homes in the next 10 years”; not only does it discuss the Reasons to answer that, and gives the statistics, but it goes over all the arguments needed to debate the NIMBY trends, the problems associated with the growth of Towns, the Green Belt and other land designations such as SSI and AONB and the effect of them upon land availability; it also discusses the demise of the small farmer, the industrialisation of farming and the agricultural uses the land – and shows how a new look at it would reveal space for people to live in.
In a chapter entitled “The phantom housing boom” the author argues that in the inverted world of housing 'the housing boom is not a housing boom at all, at least it is not a boom in new house production, rather it is a boom in house prices'. Putting it into perspective he argues that houses are in short supply relative to the increasing number of incomes chasing them and that the shortfall is in relation to growing expectations of home ownership (fostered by Tories and Labour alike). In discussing the continued growth of the numbers in Local Authority temporary accommodation he indicates how the low paid suffer from the shortage.
There is good discussion on the history of planning laws and he mentions the origin and reasons why Statutes have replaced the Great Landowners whose landownership ensured that their law controlled building in the villages and the countryside and how that has been replaced since 1947 by the 'contract' with the owners of land to extinguish their right to develop at will and replace it with the present regulatory system.
No Councillor should be without this book.

Leslie Turner Dec 06

Compass is a left wing think tank and it has launched a consulatation process on the replacement of Trident. As a local party we are keen to get involved in the debate, and hope that you may be as well. Please feel free to leave comments as well at the bottom of this article.

Compass believes it to be absolutely crucial that there is a full and rigorous public debate. As well as the survey we've also sought to set out the arguments, both for and against in a balanced way to inform those taking part in our consultation.Trident is Britain’s only nuclear weapons system and constitutes the UK’s nuclear deterrent. Despite the long life span of the Trident system, the lengthy procurement process for replacing or renewing the system means decisions need to be taken imminently for any replacement system to be ready when Trident’s working life ends in 2024.

The Labour Party manifesto for the May 2005 General Election stated that “we are committed to retaining the independent nuclear deterrent”. Since the election, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other ministers have reiterated that position, advocating that nuclear weapons remain an important part of the country’s force balance despite the fact that threats to the UK have evolved. The Government will publish a white paper detailing its preferred option and starting off a 3 month consultation period in December. There is expected to be a vote in the House of Commons in early 2007 on whether Britain’s nuclear weapons system should be replaced. We want to know what you think on this important issue!

Click on this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news_comments.asp?n=344 for all the information we think you need to make an informed decision.

The consultation survey can be found at this link http://www.compassonline.org.uk/surveys/december_2006.asp it will take you less than 3 minutes to complete.

Once you've filled in the consultation you may also make comments and view other people's comments on this important debate, we encourage you to leave comments.

We'd like to get at least 1000 responses to our survey, the consultation will remain live until Monday 8 January 2007, after which we will publicise the results. The results will help to inform our decision as to whether or not to carry out any further campaigning work around this important issue.

Below is the original letter that was sent to the Kent messenger and published in it's edited form. It furthers the campaign from the West branch on social housing.

"Wallace and Gromit might have said that it's the 'Wrong type of Houses' but that is only partly the problem. The housing crisis, highlighted by your correspondants complaining of mushrooming housing, really started when Thatcher and successive governments since, sold the Council Housing and then did nothing to replace it. The number of Social Housing starts has fallen to an abysmal low and the housing waiting lists rise inexorably. Many cannot afford to buy and have to continue to live with their parents, or parents in law, until their mid-thirties or more, a fate worse than death it seems to me. The long and the short of it is that we desperately need more social hlusing to meet the demand and we cannot turn our backs on our children as your correspondants, one I note a former Labour Councillor, seem to suggest. Gridlock will occur even without the additional housing because the numbers of people using the roads still rises whether they are living with their parents or living alone and if we have to live with the fact that we cannot water our lawns I don't feel that this is too much to bear in the short term. The authorities need to get their act together and build the social housing, roads and water reserves as a matter of urgency. Those who seem to think that Maidstone must stay as it is without change, regrettably are living in cloud cuckoo land."