2007 oct st pauls (1)

2007 oct st pauls (1)
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Batterse Park, London, England

Batterse Park, London, England
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Hepworth, Batterse Park, London, England

Hepworth, Batterse Park, London, England
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2007 14-10-2007 08-29-28

2007 14-10-2007 08-29-28
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2007 11-10-2007 08-25-21

2007 11-10-2007 08-25-21
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Memorial Mosaic to the Homeless

Memorial Mosaic to the Homeless
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Memorial Mosaic to the Homeless

Memorial Mosaic to the Homeless
Originally uploaded by caledonianpark

2007 24-09-2007 22-09-40

2007 24-09-2007 22-09-40
Originally uploaded by caledonianpark

Putting Down Roots

 

www.mungos.org Putting Down Roots

For services to Homeless People in London.

CBE

Charles Alastair Fraser. Chief executive, St. Mungo's. For services to Homeless People in London. (London, SE14)


From Times Online
June 16, 2007
Full list of the Queen's Birthday Honours
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article1940461.ece

2007 London 05-06-2007 www.streetleague.co.uk

2007 London 05-06-2007 13-40-10
Originally uploaded by caledonianpark

www.streetleague.co.uk

Julia Unwin

In search of evils | Society Guardian | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

The text below has been amended: the interview initially stated in error that "she is a charity commissioner, holds a range of board-level positions and runs a consultancy spanning the management, governance and financing of the sector". She has been all of those things but is no longer
In search of evils

the distortion of any normal or sustainable relation between house prices and people’s incomes

Housing costs taking their toll of society-Business-Columnists-TimesOnline

Housing costs taking their toll of society
James Harding, Business Editor

One of the unplanned but most intractable legacies of the Blair decade is the distortion of any normal or sustainable relation between house prices and people’s incomes. If that link is not already broken it is certainly stretched to the limit.

The rate of price inflation may be slowing, just, but remains obstinately high.

The question that always accompanies fresh data showing a fast-growing housing market is: are we headed for a crash? The short answer, at present, is no.

Yesterday’s quarter-point rise in rates will not make much difference and was not intended to. Few of the most vulnerable borrowers pay higher mortgage interest immediately just because the Bank’s rate has gone up.

A run of four rate rises must, however, put more pressure on new buyers. Allowing for high prices and higher interest rates, they are likely to have to pay a fifth more interest each month than a year ago.

But in London, which is again driving the price increases, interest rates have the least effect because far more properties are bought with bonuses or foreign money.

The squeeze on incomes must eventually tell. Next month’s new selling regulations may cool the market a little more. But there will not be a price crash unless there is a much sharper rise in unemployment than currently looks likely.

Nonetheless, there will be a price to pay for the continuing rise in house prices. As existing borrowers see their budgets stretched, consumer spending and economic growth will suffer, perhaps at just the wrong time. And more people will be excluded from decent housing.

This will not only raise shrill demands for regulation and subsidy. It has a social cost for those excluded from the housing market.

First-time buyers and lenders are resorting to evermore bizarre and unwise tactics to get a foot on to the bottom of the property ladder. Buy-to-let investors are pushing up the price of flats and houses, making it harder and harder for young people to buy a home.

So long as house price inflation outpaces growth in ordinary people’s incomes, the drive to buy at almost any financial or personal cost will continue. General inflation was only beaten when people became convinced that policy would keep price increases low and relatively stable.

At root, the problem is a chronic shortage of housing in key areas. There is a need for many more homes in London and other cities.

Homeowners may not want this to happen, hoping instead to be bailed out by inflation. But the price we pay for the rising housing market is more than just economic.

a stubborn vein of rhetoric

Deborah Orr: He failed to stand up for the people most in need - Independent Online Edition > Deborah Orr

the people who suffer most from the consequences of criminal or loutish behaviour are the people who have little choice themselves but to live side by side with the chaos it makes, in a frustrating and draining war of attrition.

our prisons

Deborah Orr: He failed to stand up for the people most in need - Independent Online Edition > Deborah Orr

our prisons, crammed with an unending stream of illiterates, addicts, alcoholics, self-harmers and people with other forms of mental illness

The root of social exclusion ...

Revealed: Britain's 100,000 'invisible' teenage dropouts | UK News | The Observer

Revealed: Britain's 100,000 'invisible' teenage dropouts


Anushka Asthana and Jo Revill on a shocking new study that finds thousands of youngsters give education a miss - and are then lost and cut loose without help

Sunday May 6, 2007
The Observer

When Kim Page turned 14 she met an older crowd. Tempted by a lifestyle hanging around the local park, pubs and clubs, she soon lost interest in her family and school friends. Late nights made the mornings difficult for Kim, now 18. Sometimes, when her parents, Becky and Bruce, came to try to wake her up, she had not yet made it to bed. Kim started making excuses to avoid school. At first she would go in late, at 10am, then 11am. At 14 she stopped going altogether. When the country welcomed her year's GCSE results to much fanfare, Kim was nowhere to be seen.

Article continues
Today The Observer can reveal the truth about the nation's invisible children; tens of thousands of pupils who simply disappear from the school rolls each year. Kim is just one of a growing and disturbing trend. They are the truants who never come back, the excluded, the bullied, the sick, the carers, the abused, those on witness protection programmes and many more. This month Wasted Education, a shocking report from the think-tank the Bow Group, will reveal that in England:

· Last year 15,000 children in their GCSE year were missing from school registers.

· Nearly 6,000 of them who were 14 in 2005 had 'disappeared' within a year.

· When it came to exams, more than 70,000 pupils who should have been taking them did not turn up.

· Twenty thousand pupils did not sit GCSE maths and 26,700 missed out on English.

'There are certain groups in society who have fallen so far below the radar that politicians are not aware they exist,' said Chris Skidmore, co-author of the report and political officer at the Bow Group, which is close to the Conservative Party. 'These are the lost children. If you compare the number who were at school three years ago and the number who are 16 now, you see them dropping off the rolls fairly dramatically. Others never turn up to exams.'

Although a few of the children will be home-schooled, government estimates suggest that this only accounts for between 636 and 3,180 in each year. Few people know where the rest are.

One 10-year-old boy from North Wales, who cannot be named, went missing from school two years ago. When he was eventually found, it turned out he was being used as a drugs runner for criminal gangs in the area.

'It was one of the most extreme cases I had ever seen,' said a child protection officer. 'Every time he left his house he would be picked up in a car by drug dealers who were using him. He just stopped turning up for school.'

In another case, a 15-year-old girl from Manchester started having panic attacks because she was being violently bullied at school. She remains too scared to go back.

Skidmore blamed a 'relentless focus upon academic curriculum' for failing to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of children like these. He also criticised the government for focusing too strongly on A to C grades and failing to look at the children who did not even achieve a G.

In deprived wards in Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol and Birmingham, the performance using the A-G measure, which reveals the number of pupils passing any kind of exam, has actually fallen, the study said.

The report will form part of the think-tank's 'Invisible Nation' series that will be launched in a magazine of the same name this week. 'My father served as a doctor in Vietnam,' said Charlotte Leslie, editor of the magazine and a Conservative candidate for Bristol North West. 'When assisting war-blasted casualties, he said that you should treat first, not the ones who are screaming, but the ones who are not screaming because they are really in trouble. There are members of our society who have quite simply stopped screaming. Being compassionate means hearing that silence and going to help.'

In Takeley, Essex, at the headquarters of the Inclusion Trust, a charity that tries to find and support 'missing children', the staff make their way through large numbers of emails and letters from desperate parents every day. Occasionally a child walks through the door and asks for help itself.

Professor Stephen Heppell, chair of the trustees, estimates that there are 100,000 'invisible children'. 'These kids could fill Wembley,' he said. 'There is clearly a sense of crisis. The tragedy is that the costs of social deprivation repeating itself over and over are enormous. Even if we only cared about the bank notes, it would still be worth tackling this.'

His charity is helping 1,000 children through an initiative called 'Not School'. Teenagers are given a new computer through which they log on to a school system that lets them study the subjects they want in the time scale they choose. They are in constant email contact with 'mentors' and 'experts', some of whom are based in New Zealand to ensure there is somebody that they can contact 24 hours a day.

Next month the trust will publish a major report revealing the results of a £15m project that has been running for seven years into how to help these particular children.

According to Heppell, he has a solution that could instantly pull 50,000 of the missing children back into mainstream society. 'I genuinely feel like I have got a syringe in my hand that can help people and I am being asked to play darts with it,' said Heppell. One person they were able to help was Kim.

When she stopped going to school she spent much of the day watching daytime television at home and then joined her friends at night. 'We would just hang around the streets all night, chat, sometimes drink alcohol or go to the pub,' she said. 'I could not be bothered getting up in the morning, and I kept thinking of excuses. Most of the time during the day I just sat at home.' Becky and Bruce attended meetings with the local authority, although she never came with them. At lunchtime her father would come home and beg her to go in, but she refused. But somehow Not School offered her something that she was interested in.

'It meant I didn't have to get up early and did not have to do it in one block every day,' said Kim. 'I learnt loads of things - English, biology, childcare, hair dressing, maths and French.'

Instead of being given a timetable, Kim chose what she wanted to study and when. In the end she was able to persuade a local college to accept her study as an alternative to GCSEs and was given a place. Now she is preparing to go to university to study psychology.

But there are tens of thousands of missing children who never get any help. According to Jean Johnson, chief executive of the Inclusion Trust, the government is not honest when it says that 'every child matters'. 'The truth is the sort of children we deal with are not welcome in schools. Most of these children don't matter. It is an astonishing waste of talent.'

Others agreed. Frank Field, the former Welfare Minister, said that in 10 years of Labour in power the taxpayer had spent £11bn on pupils who left school with no qualifications at all. 'I have met some unbelievably bright children who've left school with no qualifications, and it is not that they have failed but that our system has failed them,' he said.

He believes that the government should put more effort into providing technical academies for vocational education which would help children who were no so academic.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said it had been doing a huge amount to help such troubled teenagers. 'Record investment, radical reform and the hard work of teachers and pupils have delivered a massive improvement in school standards since 1997,' he said. 'Some 86,000 more pupils now achieve five good GCSEs than did in 1997, and more than 81,000 pupils are entered for GCSE exams than were 10 years ago.

'However, we are never complacent when it comes to bringing on the talents of all our young people, tackling educational inequality and improving social mobility. This is why we are spending £1bn to personalise learning, identify pupils who are struggling earlier, and provide catch-up classes or one-to-one tuition where children are falling behind.'

Kim's life is now back on track. However, for tens of thousands of others, the future ahead does not seem so bright.

The lost boys and girls

100,000 The number of children missing from school

70,000 Number of teenagers who should have taken GCSEs last year but never turned up

15,000 Number of missing 15- and 16-year-olds who are not registered at a school

5,800 The number of children, aged 14 in 2005, who disappeared from the school rolls in the following year

20,000 - 26,700 The number of pupils who do not sit GCSE maths and English each year

Shelter opts for a 'prospecting' drive - Third Sector

Shelter opts for a 'prospecting' drive - Third Sector: "Shelter opts for a 'prospecting' drive

By Helen Barrett, Third Sector, 2 May 2007

Shelter will become the latest charity to launch a 'prospecting' campaign when it uses the technique nationally for the first time next month.

Prospecting is when charities pay agency fundraisers to approach members of the public on the street and ask them to sign up to lobbying campaigns before phoning them to ask for donations.

The housing and homelessness charity said its in-house fundraising team had tested the technique over several years on private sites such as festivals before deciding to hold a national campaign.

'We are happy with the results and we know it works,' said Matt Goody, head of direct marketing at Shelter.

'One problem with contacting people by phone later is that you can reach only some of them, but we reached about 700 out of every 1,000 names we collected, and a significant proportion of them signed up to regular giving.'

Shelter's campaign calls on the Government to pay for an extra 20,000 social rented homes to be built every year as part of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association has begun discussions with its members on developing a voluntary code of practice for prospecting, amid c"

sniggers ... who cares, silly old queen

BP's Browne quits over lie to court about private life | | Guardian Unlimited Business

BP's Browne quits over lie to court about private life


Cover-up over how he met partner leads to dramatic exit and costs him £15m

Ian Cobain and Clare Dyer
Wednesday May 2, 2007
The Guardian

Lord Browne
Lord Browne leaves BP's London headquarters. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty


The career of one of the titans of British industry came to a dramatic end yesterday when Lord Browne quit as chief executive of BP after lying to a court about his relationship with another man.

Following crisis talks at the company's London headquarters, BP said Lord Browne had resigned with immediate effect after losing his four-month battle to suppress newspaper reports about the relationship. In doing do, he forfeited a leaving package worth up to £15.5m.

Article continues
Lord Browne went all the way to the House of Lords in his attempts to prevent Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday, from disclosing details of his relationship with Jeff Chevalier, his Canadian partner between 2002 and 2006.

A series of hearings considered evidence about the pair's extravagant international lifestyle, disputed allegations that company resources were diverted for Mr Chevalier's use, and claims - firmly denied - that Lord Browne attempted to evade tax payments.

The 58-year-old, once hailed as "the Sun King of the oil industry" lost his case, in large part, because he claimed to have met his partner while jogging in a London park. They had, his close associates conceded last night, made contact through a male escort agency's website.

In a statement which marked the end of a remarkable career, including a decade during which the company he led was regarded as the country's most successful, Lord Browne said: "In my 41 years with BP I have kept my private life separate from my business life. I have always regarded my sexuality as a personal matter, to be kept private. It is a matter of deep disappointment that a newspaper group has now decided that allegations about my personal life should be made public.

"I wish to acknowledge that I did have a four-year relationship with Jeff Chevalier, who has now chosen to tell his story to Associated Newspapers. These allegations are full of misleading and erroneous claims. In particular, I deny categorically any allegations of improper conduct relating to BP."

Tony Hayward, Lord Browne's designated successor, who had been due to take over in July, was immediately appointed as chief executive.

The disclosure of the relationship follows the refusal by the House of Lords yesterday to grant Lord Browne permission to appeal against rulings made earlier this year by the high court and court of appeal.

The high court had decided to lift an injunction which covered a wide range of subjects, including alleged discussions between Lord Browne and Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and EU commissioner Peter Mandelson, and a dinner at one of Lord Browne's homes attended by himself and Mr Chevalier with Mr Mandelson and his Brazilian partner.

Another was a claim that Lord Browne bought a flat in Venice several years ago and, it was alleged, paid cash for a renovation bill which did not include VAT, and that he failed to pay his tax bill.

The court also heard that Lord Browne took steps to enable Mr Chevalier to remain in the UK when his visa was due to run out early in the relationship. This included paying for a university course from 2003, so he would acquire student status, and helping him to set up a company to trade in mobile phone ring tones.

Mr Chevalier claimed that when the relationship broke down Lord Browne had agreed that "if needed, [he] would assist in the first year of me transitioning from living in multimillion pound homes around the world, flying in private jets, five-star hotels, £2,000 suits, and so on to a less than modest life in Canada".

The judge, Mr Justice Eady, said Mr Chevalier sought further assistance towards the end of last year, backed by what he said could be interpreted as a "thinly-veiled threat". Mr Chevalier denies making any threats.

Eventually, Lord Browne's attempts to prevent reporting of these matters, and to maintain his personal privacy, collapsed after the court accepted he had lied to conceal the manner in which he met Mr Chevalier. Lord Browne had told the court on more than one occasion that they had met while running in Battersea Park, south London. In fact, associates of Lord Browne now acknowledge, they met through a website called suitedandbooted.com.

Mr Justice Eady said: "I am not prepared to make allowances for a 'white lie' told to the court in circumstances such as these - especially by a man who prays in aid of his reputation and distinction, and refers to the various honours he has received under the present government, when asking the court to prefer his account of what took place."

The judge added that Lord Browne told this lie at a time when he was also making a "wholesale attack" on Mr Chevalier's reliability, showing a "willingness casually to 'trash' the reputation" of his former partner.

The Mail on Sunday said it would make its evidence available to the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith. "Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken went to prison for lying to the courts," a spokesman said.

However, Mr Justice Eady said he had decided not to refer the matter to the attorney general, saying disclosure in the judgment of Lord Browne's behaviour was "probably sufficient punishment".

In a statement last night the Mail on Sunday said: "The story we originally sought to publish was a business story involving issues of great importance to shareholders and employers of BP. Lord Browne chose to suppress this story by arguing to the high court that, because the story was supplied to us by his former lover, Mr Chevalier, it breached his right to a private life under the Human Rights Act." In lying, the newspaper said, it was Lord Browne who had made his private life a public issue.

The picture I had of myself as a basically decent person before all this began has been shattered.

First person: 'I am not your typical shoplifter' | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

t started with cat food. The cat came in during my housewarming party four years ago and never left. He was my landlady's but for some reason he preferred my vibrations. I didn't mind the company but with money tight, it was the food I objected to. So I began taking two sachets of cat food every time I called in at Spar. Hidden away in my back pocket, it seemed like a victimless crime. The cat was chuffed, it saved me silver and I convinced myself that, since Spar marked its food staples so high, it wouldn't miss the income on the odd sachet of tuna in jelly. But it wasn't the odd sachet. It was lots and lots, and as the cat's appetite for food grew, so too did mine for shoplifting.
Oddly, when I eventually did get nicked, I was innocent. I had been idly looking at CDs in Woolworths when a security guard noticed me. Before long I was in a police car en route to the station. It did put me off a bit, but it was the excruciating embarrassment that brought matters to a close. It is embarrassing when you can't go out for a meal with a new girlfriend or buy your ex-stepchild a birthday toy. I couldn't focus on anything, couldn't look anyone in the face. In two years I had lost all my money, quite a lot of other people's money, my self-respect and my sense of humour. I had become the sort of person I would normally avoid. That was one of the worst things, the self-loathing that built up with every stupid grab and stash. I wanted to feel normal, to regain my own trust, to like myself again.

Obituary: Rufus Harris | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Obituary: Rufus Harris | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk: "Rufus Harris


Co-founder of Release, the group that gives legal advice to people on drugs charges

Steve Abrams
Monday April 30, 2007
The Guardian

In the summer of 1967 Rufus Harris, who has died of cancer aged 61, and the artist Caroline Coon formed Release, an underground organisation that provided legal advice and welfare services to young people arrested for drugs offences. Jonathan Aitken, who did much to smooth the way for Release, commented at the time that if Release did not exist it would have to be invented. High-profile clients included John Lennon and George Harrison, who donated £5,000 in 1969.

Release gained charitable status in 1972, following a review of its activities by the Rowntree Foundation. By the mid-1970s, Release had become 'official', supported directly by a Home Office grant, without compromising its libertarian principles. In June a conference will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Rufus was the son of an entrepreneur of Dutch-German extraction born in 1881 and his much younger Finnish wife, a medical student stranded in London at the outbreak of the second world war. Rufus was educated at Brighton College and then studied painting at St Martin's College of Art and at Kingston College of Art. He lived in North Wales for a period before returning to Lon"

Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Is it April Fool's Day?

Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails | Society | SocietyGuardian.co.uk: "Private van guards to assess whether young are tough enough for adult jails


· Experts fear for safety of remand prisoners
· Move to free up space as crowding hits new high

Alan Travis, home affairs editor
Monday April 30, 2007
The Guardian

Private security staff who operate prison vans will decide from today whether young adults awaiting trial in London are mentally strong enough to survive in the toughest prisons.

Up to 80 youngsters aged 18 to 20 are to be held on remand in Brixton, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs prisons while they await trial or sentence alongside some of the most hardened career criminals for the first time from today as the jail system struggles with overcrowding.

Serco private escort officers staffing the vans which move prisoners between courts and prisons in London will decide whether a young adult on remand is too much of a suicide risk to be held at an adult prison and should be sent instead to Feltham young offender institution.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said she was horrified that the private escorts were being entrusted with deciding who might not make it through the night in an adult jail when even experienced mental health professionals struggled to assess the ri"

St Mungo's hostel first to benefit through Government funding package

St Mungo's hostel first for refit through Government funding | 24dash.com - Social Housing

St Mungo's hostel first for refit through Government funding

Back to Social Housing

Publisher: Jon Land
Published: 26/04/2007 - 17:18:49 PM print version Printable version
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St Mungo's hostel first to benefit through Government funding package
St Mungo's hostel first to
benefit through Government
funding package
Relevant News

1. Homelessness DVD is broadcast on web
2. David Orr issues 'we can't house our children' warning
3. Homeless man 'hid hostel girl's body in suitcase'
4. Vulnerable teenagers 'put at risk' by sub-standard housing
5. Aberdeen launches collection box plan to stop beggars

Minister for the Third Sector Ed Miliband cut the ribbon today on a newly refurbished London hostel for the homeless - the first of 150 centres across the country to be improved through a Government funding package.

The St Mungo's Cromwell Road hostel was revamped with money from the Department of Communities and Local Government's Hostels Capital Improvement Programme.

Under the initiative £90 million will be invested in improvements to 150 hostels and day centres by March 2008.

Residents of the Cromwell Road hostel - which now accommodates 52 homeless men and two couples - were involved in every stage of the project and even helped to interview new staff.

The hostel supports residents as they rebuild their self-esteem and aspirations and helps them to move on with their lives.

Re-opening the building today, Mr Miliband said: "St Mungo's do incredible work with homeless people and this state-of-the-art hostel will prove the vital stepping stone for many vulnerable adults looking to turn their lives around.

"By involving residents in the redesign of their own hostel, St Mungo's have created a powerful demonstration that the best public services need to place the views of those who use them at their heart."

Charles Fraser, chief executive of St Mungo's, added: "We are very proud of the work being carried out at our Cromwell Road hostel.

"St Mungo's work is all about enabling our clients to eventually leave our services.

"Our hostels provide a safe place where homeless people can get the healthcare they need and take the first steps on the road to employment and independent living."

Speaking about the Government's bid to improve hostels nationwide, Minister for Housing and Planning, Yvette Cooper, said: "This investment is making hostels places where homeless people can rebuild their lives and make a permanent move away from the street."

Councillor Fiona Buxton, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: "Our aim has always been to sustain independence and to help people change their lives.

"Not everyone is equipped to cope with life changing traumas and social exclusion such as rough sleeping, begging and street drinking can often be the result.

"Working in partnership we have been able to bring new life to this hostel and empower vulnerable adults to make life-changing decisions. This really is a great place for residents to start to rebuild their lives and focus on developing life skills, completing training and gaining employment."

The council provides £790,000 funding a year to pay for support services at the hostel.

New Social Housing

 

the cost of democracy: it requires some effort on our part.

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The best way to give the poor a real voice is through a world parliament

What the scale of these supranational bodies demands is a more participatory democracy than any we have been offered so far. The recent fiasco surrounding the European constitution is a useful demonstration of how not to do it. First the people of Europe were presented with a meaningless question which makes a mockery of democracy. "Here is a document containing hundreds of proposals. Some of them will be good for you, others will be bad for you. You must agree to all of them or none of them. If you agree (and we will keep asking until you do), we will deem that you have consented to every measure it contains." When this pantomime of managed consent fails, the managers announce - as Tony Blair did last week - that a referendum is, after all, unnecessary. We will have a new constitution whether we want one or not, and it will be written and approved on our behalf. Nothing could be better calculated to destroy our remaining enthusiasm for Europe.

'intentionally homeless'

Cold callers 'break rules to lure right-to-buy tenants' | Communities | SocietyGuardian.co.uk

Cold callers 'break rules to lure right-to-buy tenants'


Jill Insley on the firms accused of misleading social housing renters into taking on huge loans

Sunday April 22, 2007
The Observer

Housing association chiefs are warning their social housing tenants to beware cold callers using dubious tactics to persuade them to exercise their right to buy.

Housing associations that have taken over the management of council estates around the country have told The Observer that their tenants are being targeted by cold-calling canvassers knocking on their door. This is a practice that breaks Financial Services Authority mortgage rules if it involves selling, but the firms contacted by The Observer claim that they are simply making tenants aware of their right to buy.

In many cases, the housing associations report that canvassers are making false statements and pressing tenants into signing application forms when they have no real interest in buying their homes.

Ron Dougan, chief executive of Trent & Dove, a housing association that manages more than 5,000 homes in the Midlands, says estates in Burton upon Trent and Uttoxeter have been targeted by at least four right-to-buy service firms to his knowledge.

He says some cold callers have falsely claimed that housing benefit payments would continue after a property has been bought; that Trent & Dove would still carry out repairs for the tenant even after completion of the sale; and that retired tenants would still be eligible for mortgages even when the state pension was their only income.

'They have also told tenants that the housing association will allow them to clear rent arrears on completion of the sale, encouraging them to build up arrears in the meantime, and that they can add fees for the broker's services [approximately £3,000] and any miscellaneous debt to the mortgage,' he says. 'This means the tenant will end up paying interest on an arrangement fee and wipe out the benefit of the discount the tenant receives on the value of the property.

'I'm angry about any organisation that misleads tenants into making one of the most important decisions of their lives - decisions that can create a great deal of misery if they are not fully informed.

'We've had tenants come back after buying their homes with all sorts of problems - they can't afford the repairs or their mortgage, and in some cases their homes are about to be repossessed. At an educated guess, I would say about 5 per cent of those properties we have sold have been repossessed by the lenders.'

Tenants are often told that it will be cheaper to have a mortgage than rent, but because housing association rents are much lower than those in the private sector, this is rarely the case.

Debbie Davies, a single parent and an adviser volunteer for East Staffordshire Citizens Advice in Burton upon Trent, has herself been targeted by cold canvassers. At the time she was working just a few hours a week and did not qualify for working tax credit, yet the canvasser told her that if she included the child benefit for her three teenage children in her income details, she would be able to apply for a mortgage.

'The way they wrote it down, I sounded like a millionaire, even though in a few years my children would be grown up and therefore no longer eligible for the benefit,' she says.

Cold canvassers have persuaded tenants of Trans-Pennine Housing in Halifax to apply for right to buy by telling them that the scheme is ending. Karen Morley, head of finance for the housing association, says: 'The cold callers are targeting vulnerable persons who often do not understand what they are signing - and certainly do not realise that they do not need to pay a fee to get help with the process.'

Tenants of housing association properties, particularly those who were previously council tenants, usually receive large discounts on the value of their home when buying. But this discount has to be repaid if the house is sold on or repossessed within three or five years of purchase (depending on when you bought your home).

Morley says Trans-Pennine has been asked not to reclaim discounts by former tenants who wanted to sell their home to avoid repossession.

Former tenants in this situation are unlikely to qualify for further help in finding housing from their council or housing association as they will be deemed to have made themselves 'intentionally homeless' by taking out a mortgage they could not afford.

Other housing associations whose tenants have been targeted include Aspire Housing in Staffordshire, Luminus in Cambridgeshire and Community Gateway in Preston.

Sue Washington, legal services manager for Aspire Housing, says cold callers claim to be acting in conjunction with the housing association. 'We have in the past complained to Trading Standards on this issue. The names of the organisations often give the appearance of council tie-ins or involvement.

'We frequently get "batches" of applications - often on the wrong form - which result in us having to refuse the application and advising that the appropriate form be completed and a pack is enclosed. We send these direct to the tenant rather than to the cold caller. The tenants then telephone us to say that they have said they are interested just to get rid of the cold callers and ask us to cancel any subsequent application that we receive.

'We have also been informed by the tenants of one property that the right-to-buy application had been sent in without their completing the form or authorising the action.'

'He asked for help, they gave him a bigger loan'

Six years ago Arthur Stone, a postman in Burton upon Trent, bought the council home in which he had lived with his parents since he was 10. He had been wrongly told by acquaintances that, after the death of his parents, Trent & Dove Housing Association would not allow him to continue renting their house.

He bought the property with a £17,000 mortgage from the Nationwide, and six months later took out a further £10,000 for a new kitchen and bathroom. At this point Arthur, who struggled to understand money after his employer stopped paying him in cash, could no longer work out his budget. Because he had a mortgage he was bombarded with offers for credit cards and loans, which he took up to pay his mortgage. As his debts escalated, he remortgaged - first with HSBC for £60,000 and then GE Money for £75,000.

The extra £15,000 from the GE loan was intended to pay off a loan with Household, a division of HSBC. But when he tried to pay the money into his HSBC account prior to paying off the loan, he says the bank advised him to take out a cash mini-Isa and put the remainder in a savings account. Instead of paying off the loan, he has been using the 'savings' to meet the monthly payments on all his debts and his mortgage. He owes more than £100,000.

Suman Antcliffe of Citizens Advice is trying to help. She says: 'Arthur wants to do the right thing, to repay his debts, and every time he has asked the banks for advice, they appear to have encouraged him to take out a bigger loan.'

Arthur is unlikely to be able to meet his mortgage payment next month, and Antcliffe fears that unless GE Money agrees to renegotiate, he will soon lose his home. He is likely to be treated by the housing association as if he had made himself 'intentionally homeless'.

GE Money says Arthur's mortgage was reasonable based on his income and the monthly payment was lower than those for his previous mortgage and debts, but says: 'We should have taken action when Citizens Advice first contacted us. We will now talk with Mr Stone about what course of action can be taken.' However HSBC says it cannot help, and has done nothing wrong. A spokesman said: 'Our branch teams are trained to a very high standard ... and we are confident that they followed standard procedure.' Citizens Advice is advising Arthur, who intends to complain to the ombudsman.

city at night

 

London's great allure is the promise it gives - the sense of possibility.

Make London part of Britain again | Dt Opinion | Opinion | Telegraph

With the exception of Rome, no city has been so prominent in the history of the world for so long, but in the past 20 years something new has happened. The capital has become more important than the country. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, London is the greatest city on the planet, with a fairly unimportant country attached.

One watches all of this and wonders: Where are the grown-ups?

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan

The literally white-bearded academic who was head of the campus counseling center was on Paula Zahn Wednesday night suggesting the utter incompetence of officials to stop a man who had stalked two women, set a fire in his room, written morbid and violent plays and poems, been expelled from one class, and been declared by a judge to be "mentally ill" was due to the lack of a government "safety net." In a news conference, he decried inadequate "funding for mental health services in the United States." Way to take responsibility. Way to show the kids how to dodge.

The Simon Community

Simon News: PRESS RELEASE: Numbers of people sleeping rough in London rises again

Numbers of people sleeping rough in London rises again

The count was undertaken by more than 40 Simon Community volunteers, including present and former rough sleepers, who carried out the extensive 3-5 hour search in the streets of Camden, Islington, Tower Hamlets, City of London, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark and Lambeth. The Simon Community carries out headcounts twice a year to help it to plan its outreach support programmes for those sleeping on the streets. It also enables the charity to act as an independent monitor of the figures presented by local authorities.

The Simon Community is one of the oldest homelessness charities and has been operating for 44 years. It remains entirely free of government or local authority funding, so as to offer an independent voice for the homeless and rootless on all aspects of government policy relating to homelessness and social exclusion.

Tim Nicholls, Director of the Simon Community said, “Whilst the government has achieved much in reducing the numbers sleeping rough from the particularly high figures of the mid 1990s, we are saddened to see that there are still so many people sleeping out on London’s streets, including a high proportion from the new accession countries of Eastern Europe. We have been calling for a regional strategy for a number of years and are pleased that the Mayor of London has created a London Housing Strategy. We urge him to place issues of rough sleeping, homelessness and appropriate support for those who are socially excluded at the heart of this strategy. The Simon Community hopes that this will lead to a more co-ordinated regional approach and be better than the piecemeal and parochial attitudes adopted, in recent years, by some local authorities, so that the hard to reach homeless can finally be fully supported to re-integrate and rebuild their lives.”

The Simon Community’s detailed headcount figures are as follows:

Westminster. 196 people; Camden 29 people; Kensington and Chelsea 7 people; Lambeth 16 people; Southwark 11 people; City of London 29 people; Islington 10 people; Tower Hamlets 3 people

NOTES TO THE EDITOR.

1. In November 2006, the Simon Community counted 332 people sleeping rough. In April (?) 2006, the Simon Community counted 276 people. Historically there are often higher numbers sleeping rough in the city at the beginning of the winter as the agricultural season ends.

2. On the same night that the Simon Community carried out its headcount it phoned round 66 hostels in central London to discover the number of vacant emergency bed spaces. Of the 3072 beds in these 66 hostels, 42 bed spaces were free that night.

an "overwhelming consciousness to spend money wisely"

RecruiterMagazine.co.uk - Clients need contractual relationships with agents

Clients need contractual relationships with agents

Published: 18 April 2007 Author: Ben Jones
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Recruiters and clients need a clear contractual relationship to work well together, according to a representative from a charity for the homeless.

Pete Jeffery, executive director of HR, audit and facilities at St Mungo's, said that the organisation was evaluating the way it used agency staff in order to keep tabs on spending. Jeffery revealed that up to 10% of his staff budget each year went on agency staff.

"I think the thing which has become most apparent to us, when dealing with agencies, is the need for a very clear contractual relationship," Jeffery told Recruiter.

"Agencies need to know what we expect from them, not just in terms of cost but also on an output basis."

Jeffery said that, although relations between his organisation and agencies had improved, St Mungo's had experienced problems in the past with the standard of some agency staff. A number, for example, had not been background checked with the Criminal Records Bureau — mandatory for anyone who wants to work with vulnerable people.

Jeffery said that, because St Mungo's relied on irregular funding streams from others, there was an "overwhelming consciousness to spend money wisely". It was this desire to be prudent which had led the charity to look at its use of agency staff.

Jeffery was speaking at a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development forum on 2 April on the challenges of managing agency and temporary workers.

Cally Park Islington

Bechtel engineers support for homeless young people

24dash : Printable version: "Bechtel engineers support for homeless young people


Publisher: Ian Morgan
Published: 10/04/2007"

Global engineering firm has donated £25,000 in support of Foyer's work with homeless young people in London.

Thanks to the support of Bechtel, Foyer aims to increase the participation of young people in learning by working with young people living in London Foyers to develop their communication skills and act as Ambassadors for the Foyer Network.

Foyer Chief Executive, Jane Slowey, said: "Foyer recognises the powerful effect on young people of hearing inspiring stories from their peers about overcoming barriers to learning, and achieving success on a learning programme.

"This support from Bechtel will enable us to work with young people to encourage their peers to take up learning and make a positive transition into independence."

Foyer gives a voice to over 130 local Foyers across the UK, and to the 10,000 disadvantaged young people with whom they work each year. It provides a forum for sharing best practice and accessing funding, training and a range of support, while the Foyer Accreditation Scheme ensures the quality and consistency of Foyer services.

In very poor taste

fluffytiem (530)
Originally uploaded by caledonianpark.

Funders' friend - Third Sector

Funders' friend - Third Sector

Funders' friend
By Andy Ricketts, Third Sector, 14 March 2007


Swain: 'Charities must respond to stakeholders' (Credit: Newscast)

Jeremy Swain, chief executive of Thames Reach, takes issue with Charity Commission's warning about risks to independence.

Jeremy Swain has some real scars to show for his time working in the homelessness sector. Early in his career, the chief executive of the London-based homelessness charity Thames Reach was assaulted by a man in the hostel in King's Cross, central London, where he worked.

A heroin addict who couldn't find a hostel resident he wanted to beat up took out his frustration on Swain's face. Four stitches, a broken nose and a few less teeth later, Swain had learned a tough lesson about life on the front line.

SWAIN CV
2001 Chief executive, Thames Reach
1988 Housing services manager, Thames Reach
1984 Street outreach worker, Thames Reach
1981 Hostel worker, Intake Hostel, King's Cross, London
1980 Full-time volunteer, Cyrenians
But that incident doesn't appear to have dulled Swain's appetite for speaking his mind. He is forthright in his criticism of the speech by Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather last month, in which she warned that charities risked losing their independence from their funders (Third Sector, 21 February).

"It is quite dangerous if organisations don't respond to stakeholders," says Swain, whose charity receives 71 per cent of its £18m income from statutory sources. "The danger of what she is saying is that it suggests you have all the answers and no one can challenge that. But funders have some very good ideas. The sector often starts with the assumption, which we know in our hearts is wrong, that we always know what is best for our beneficiaries."

Bitter experience has taught Swain the perils of organisations not listening to outside advice: he points to the example of two charities that Thames Reach has taken over. "The governing boards had cut themselves off from outside criticism," he says. "They put themselves in a bunker and the organisations began to spiral down.

"Of course the board should take the final decision. But it has to make sure the organisation is financially viable, and it has to do that with funders."

Leather's warning, a reaction to a commission survey of 3,800 charities, was billed as a "wake-up call" to the sector, but Swain fears it could have the opposite effect on some charities.

"Only 26 per cent feel free from pressure from funders," he says. "Far from picking out that 26 per cent as angels, I think they need to shape up.

"Suggesting they need to maintain their independence is music to their ears. That is so far away from the reality of where we are now. Rather than being a wake-up call, it is a call to roll over and have another lie-in."

Swain is also unhappy with the methodology used by the commission for the survey. "It is one of the most flawed reports I have seen for a long time," he says.

The conclusions drawn from the survey are unsound, he claims. One - about board members' involvement in operational decisions - particularly concerns him.

He says: "Do boards want to get involved in areas of activity that are quite small? No. From this, the commission extrapolated that it's the big organisations that are at most risk of mission drift and losing their independence. That is a completely biased way of looking at the question."

Swain says charities should focus on getting funding on a mainstream footing, and points to the success of homelessness charities in securing funding to tackle rough sleeping.

"We got government to accept that these were public services in need of funding," he says. And that, he insists, should be celebrated.

Swain is philosophical about how to manage relationships with funders.

"Let's ask funders some simple questions," he says. "What do you like about what we are doing? What can we do differently? We do not have to use that, but we think the people that fund us have a pretty good idea of how to meet the needs of those people we are supporting."

what people in Islington want has changed

Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

A decade ago, the major political issues were interest rates, unemployment and economic chaos. People wanted us to fix it and to get a grip, and we have. We have changed the country—fundamentally and for the better—but in doing so we have changed what people want from their Government. I can tell the House that what people in Islington want has changed. I want to talk about some of the new priorities inmy constituency—climate change, affordable housing, child poverty, and treatment of the marginalised. Although my constituents' priorities have changed, what has not changed is their belief that the problems that we face can be tackled only by radical, collective action.

Only the most ridiculously partisan observers would deny that one of the greatest achievements of this Labour Government over the past 10 years has been economic growth and stability. Looking back to the time before 1997, it is difficult to believe that before we introduced spending reviews with their three-year rolling programmes, Government Departments knew only from year to year what funding they were going to get. They lurched around between lean and fat years. They were dependent on boom and bust, and on whether their Department was fashionable or their Minister was in favour with the Prime Minister. It must have been a nightmare to plan anything. We have changed all that and allowed for the planning ofgood and stable government. Because of Labour, the British Government are well placed to take a stableand strategic view of what they are going to do domestically to tackle the biggest challenge of our generation—climate change—and able to take a lead in the world.

The draft Climate Change Bill will introduce radical change in the way that Governments work. It is based on the principles in the Climate Change Bill that I was proud to sponsor and promote. When introduced, the Bill will be the first example of its kind. It will have legally binding targets for carbon emissions. It anticipates the first carbon budget period being between 2008 and 2012, which is roughly concurrent with the comprehensive spending review and its parallel public spending agreements. The Government now have an opportunity to tie together their investment and activity with our obligations to cut emissions under Kyoto and our own self-imposed obligations under the draft Bill.

However, we need to be brave and bold and to geton with it. I hope that this will mean that evengreater improvements are made to public transport infrastructure in London and that Londoners will be able to look forward to increased investment in that infrastructure, with projects such as Crossrail and the continuing refurbishment of tube lines and stations, including the hugely welcome rebirth of St. Pancras. We will get the joining up of the East London line with Highbury and Islington and the breathing of new life into the tragically neglected North London line. We will get hybrid buses introduced across London—first, I hope, on to Islington's badly polluted streets. We will get continuing investment in the network of cyclepaths and facilities that are so encouraging cyclists in London. I speak as chair of the all-party group on cycling. All that will allow the powerhouse of the British economy—London—to cut its carbon emissions while allowing our economy to continue to grow.

While on the subject of climate change and the support given to environmental policies by the Budget, let me take this opportunity to welcome the increase in vehicle excise duty on the most polluting vehicles—up from £210 last year to £300 this year and £400 in 2008-09. When I was a member of the Environmental Audit Committee, we called for the top band—band G— to be "significantly raised", and I am pleased that in the two years since our report was published the tax on gas guzzlers will have doubled. Let me put it another way. By 2009, the cost of road tax for the biggest and most excessive Chelsea tractor—a Range Rover with a 4.4 litre Jaguar-sourced V8 engine—will be more than 10 times that of a Toyota Prius, and soit should be. The hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) seemed to commit the Conservative party to a much higher band G for 4x4s in cities. I agree. I hope that the Government listen and go further. However, I should say to the hon. Gentleman that the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands), who was sitting behind him, did not look the slightest bit happy about the Conservatives seeming to make that commitment.

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Brooks Newmark (Braintree, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

The hon. Lady has talked about how much tax will be raised and how much more is raised by one vehicle versus another, but she has not addressed the real issue—taxing in order to change behaviour. What does the Chancellor's Budget contain in that regard?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

I agree that the purpose of green taxes should always be to change behaviour and I believe that we should do it progressively so that, if behaviour changes and, for example, people buy a smaller car, they do not need to pay so much tax. In that way, we can change behaviour and say to people, "Go this way and we will help you." However, that is not the Liberal Democrats' approach, which is to set green taxes simply to raise revenue. It is interesting that their documents do not mention the amount of carbon emissions that will be saved by their green taxes.

The changes in vehicle excise duty, combined with the planned increases in fuel duty in the next three years, show the direction of Government policy. Thatis the sort of large, brightly lit—solar powered, of course—road sign that shows the Government's direction and where we expect to go together. Those of us who are alarmed by global warming should stand and applaud the Government for their lead. However, while encouraging them, we should also urge them to go further.

Our homes produce one third of the UK's carbon emissions and we cannot rely on enlightened self-interest to solve the problem by erecting a windmill here and changing a car there. We must work collectively and we need a Government who will step in to bring people together. I welcome the way in which the Budget does that.

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Photo of David Taylor David Taylor (North West Leicestershire, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, visited Freiburg in south-west Germany, near the Black forest, only a few weeks ago to ascertain the reason for its reputation for leading local authorities in Germany on renewable energy and energy efficiency. My hon. Friend mentioned her local authority at the start of her speech. Does she believe that local authorities such as Islington, which is probably a similar size to Freiburg, as well as the Government, should take a lead, and revert to the principles of Agenda 21? They were laid down many years ago and some local authorities appear to have abandoned them.

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. A Liberal Democrat Member launched my local authority's new policies on the environment. From what I understand of the new policy, it appears to subsidise putting windmills on top of houses and other such high-profile matters. Such attention-grabbing behaviour does not, in the end, save the planet. There is no point in putting a windmill on top of a house if it is not insulated and the boiler has not been changed. One does not save the planet through the equivalent of buying a different sort of car. One has to do much more—and be much more fundamental—than that. I am greatly saddened bymy local authority's attitude to its so-called green initiatives because I believe that they constitute a certain frippery.

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Photo of Christopher Huhne Christopher Huhne (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source

I am sorry that the hon. Lady has not taken the opportunity of welcoming her local council's initiative, which is the first of its kind in the countryto get the private sector in a borough to commit to greenhouse gas reductions. That is a worthwhile initiative and she runs the risk of appearing a little sour if she does not welcome it.

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

Many private industries are interested in cutting their emissions and work with local government and national Government to do that. I assure the hon. Gentleman that Islington council did not think of that first.

It is important to cut the carbon emissions of our homes, and we have already done that. We startedwith Labour priorities through the decent homes programme, which, to many council tenants means new kitchens and bathrooms, but is much more than that. It is about ensuring that our social and affordable housing is up to decent homes standards. That means making sure that they are properly and fully insulated and energy-efficient. We have begun with social housing, so that those who are most vulnerable and in most need are literally insulated against the cold. When we came to power in 1997, only one in four homes in Islington were at decent homes standard, but by 2010, every single one will have reached that standard, thanks to a Labour Government. That is progressive politicsin action and an achievement of which we should be immensely proud.

I also welcome the initiatives in the Budget to take the next step in our comprehensive action of ensuring that owner occupiers and private rented homes are brought up to the mark. The energy-efficient commitment will continue to force energy suppliersto improve energy efficiency in the homes that they serve. The Warm Front programme gives low income households grants of up to £4,000 to improve their energy efficiency. Pensioners who do not have central heating can receive a £300 discount when installing a new system. To tackle the biggest market failure of all—in the private rented sector—the Budget extends and expands the landlords energy savings allowance, which gives an allowance of up to £1,500 to landlords who invest in cavity wall and loft insulation. However, we could and should do more, although we are going in the right direction.

I also greatly welcome the kick start that the Budget gives to the Government's goal to make all new builds zero carbon by 2016. The Budget has changed the stamp duty rules so that no stamp duty will be payable on the first sale of zero carbon homes of up to £500,000. Homes costing more than that will get a reduction of £15,000. I have a special interest in that aspect of financial incentives because, when I was a member of the Environmental Audit Committee, we made recommendations in our sustainable homes report of 21 March 2006.

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Photo of Graham Stuart Graham Stuart (Beverley & Holderness, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

Will the hon. Lady give way?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

Of course I shall give way to another member of the Environmental Audit Committee. I am sure that he can tell us more about the sustainable homes report.

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Photo of Graham Stuart Graham Stuart (Beverley & Holderness, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

How many homes does the hon. Lady believe will benefit in the next year or two from the change that the Budget announced?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

The answer is many but not enough—we can always do more. Our ambition is clear and we are moving in the right direction. No British Government have previously introduced financial incentives to ensure that people insulate their homes. We are introducing those green incentives, in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on which the hon. Gentleman served with me.

The Committee recommended that the Treasury consider reducing stamp duty for green homes. Exactly a year after the publication of the report, the 2007 Budget delivered the recommendation. Various groups that put pressure on the Environmental Audit Committee and gave evidence at its meetings shouldbe acknowledged. They include WWF and its"One Million Sustainable Homes Campaign", the Association for the Conservation of Energy, and the Energy Savings Trust. They have been working hard on the issue for many years and I hope that they will continue to work with us to ensure that we move forward.

The Government now need to build on their progress and develop a comprehensive set of fiscal incentives linked to the code for sustainable homes. The Budget will ensure that no home is left behind and that, by the end of the next decade, all existing and new homes will have the highest standard of energy efficiency. As we proved with social housing, that will not happen as result of market forces alone. We can achieve our goal only by stepping in as a Government commitment to working together. We cannot simply leave matters to the market. When Labour Members talk about housing, we know that it is a priority for our houses to be green, but that we also desperately need more of them and that they must be affordable.

We need more affordable housing for people such as Ms A, who came to my surgery recently asking for help. She is married with four children. She lives in a two-bedroom flat and has been on the waiting list for a transfer for several years. Her parents have died and she took on responsibility for her teenage sister, so there are seven people in a two-bedroom flat. Ms A's oldest child is eight and autistic. Her second child is five, has severe language delay and may also be autistic. Her third child is three, has language and learning delay and behavioural problems. Her fourth child has asthma.

Ms A lives in fear that her three-year-old, who was rolling on the table moaning while Ms A was trying to talk to me at my surgery, may fall out of the window as she has no idea of danger, cannot communicate and climbs a lot. Ms A has back pain and cannot sleep at night because the eight-year-old and the three-year-old keep her awake. She is worried about her orphaned sister, who has to share her bedroom with her two nieces and has nowhere to study. Ms A suffers from depression—and no wonder. She urgently needs a four-bedroom home.

Islington council runs what is laughably called a choice-based lettings system, which means no choice and precious few lettings. One needs a certain number of points to have a chance of getting rehoused. Getting the points depends on how desperate one is compared with everyone else, who is also desperate. Ms A has 202 points and she needs about 350 to stand a chance of getting the sort of accommodation that she needs.

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Greg Hands (Hammersmith & Fulham, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

Will the hon. Lady give way?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

No, I will not.

What chance do Ms A and her children have? What chance does her sister have? This case is not an isolated one. I hear stories like it every day, which break my heart. They are just one of 13,000 families languishing on the council waiting list in Islington. Many Labour Members, particularly those who represent inner-London constituencies, will recognise this story. There are many Ms As who need bold and radical action from our Labour Government.

There is a chronic housing problem in many areas and there are many thousands of people on waiting lists. Unfortunately, the problem in my constituency is exacerbated by the actions of the Liberal Democrat council. My council has for the last six years presided over planning controls that allow six out of every seven new homes to be luxury flats.

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Photo of Martin Horwood Martin Horwood (Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source

rose—

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

It seems that the Liberal Democrat council cares more about investment bankers who want to live in luxury flats near the City than the needs of our own overcrowded families, who are in desperate need of rehousing in a decent manner. In the face of this terrible crisis, we were heartened to hear my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary, in a debate on the London economy in Westminster Hall on 20 March 2007, say:

"Building more social housing must be a priority for the spending review."—[ Official Report, Westminster Hall, 20 March 2007; Vol. 458, c. 232WH.]

The mobile phones of London Members started humming, expectations were raised and many of us sit and hold our breath—and we wait.

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Greg Hands (Hammersmith & Fulham, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

rose—

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Photo of Martin Horwood Martin Horwood (Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source

rose—

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

I want to move on to deal with child poverty, of which the lack of affordable housing, particularly in inner London, is a major cause. Indeed, 35 per cent. of children in inner London live in poverty, even before housing costs are taken into account, but once those costs are included, it jumps up to 52 per cent. There is no other part of the country where housing costs have such a huge effect on child poverty. As a result, my constituency, on some counts, has the 16th highest level of child poverty in the UK.

This morning, I visited Winton primary school to discuss the marine Bill. I have been to 25 primary schools in my constituency to promote the importance of that Bill and they are all writing to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. At Winton school, 69 per cent. of the children get free school meals, 74 per cent. speak English as a second language and 93 per cent. do not come from a white British background.

The Government's efforts to tackle child poverty have been unparalleled. Under the Tories, child poverty doubled, but now, because of sound economic management, more people are in work with their pay topped up by tax credits— [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) should listen, as there is very little understanding among Conservative Members of what tax credits are or how they work. Those of us who work in the inner cities, where there are high levels of child poverty, understand the importance of tax credits very well. As a result, 700,000 children have been lifted out of relative poverty, giving them a chance and giving them hope.

Tax credits may not be as flash as putting a windmill on your house, but they have worked. A recent report by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies found that the fall in child poverty has been the result of more parents being in work and fewer people in work being in poverty. The report said:

"The government can take considerable credit for this: the reduction in the risk of poverty amongst these groups is due at least in part to new spending directed towards families, through tax credits. The reduction in the number of children in workless families is also due, at least in part, to government policies that have helped previously non-working parents (particularly lone parents) move into work."

In Islington, South and Finsbury that means that, whereas unemployment was up at 5,319 when Labour came to power in 1997, it has now more than halved to 2,386.

Here is an example of where our policies have helped one of my constituents. Ms B is a single parent who works about 20 hours a week as a nursery nurse. Her net wages—the Liberal Democrats should listen to this; I urge them to change their ideas on tax credits—are only £127 a week, which is about the same amount that she would get if she stayed at home on benefits. However, working tax credit, child tax credit and child benefit together contribute another £123 a week, bringing her total to £250 a week. Now that really is making work pay.

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David Howarth (Cambridge, Liberal Democrat) Link to this | Hansard source

Does the hon. Lady recognise that the Chancellor's abolition of the 10p tax band will mean that her constituent's tax bill will rise?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

No, because the whole point is that tax credits will take people up to a certain limit and will guarantee a certain income. This woman, working the hours and getting the tax credits that she does, will receive a guaranteed income. That is the difference. That is why we are bringing in progressive taxation and benefits and helping women exactly like this. These are the sort of people who are our people, who we are looking after— [Interruption.]—and I am proud to sit on the Government Back Benches when my Government do things like that. We had a progressive Budget that is doing the right thing for poor working families, for single parents like Ms B. They are now able to work because of the Budget and other Labour initiatives, which were done in spite of the Opposition. We need more single parents like Ms B to feel they can afford to do vital jobs like working in child care.

The fall in unemployment over the last decade in Islington, South and Finsbury has made a real difference to— [Interruption.]

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Photo of Sylvia Heal Sylvia Heal (Halesowen & Rowley Regis, Deputy-Speaker) Link to this | Hansard source

Order. There are far too many conversations going on in the Chamber.

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

The fall in unemployment over the last decade in Islington, South and Finsbury has made a real difference to people's lives. If we are to cut child poverty further, we need to help more parents into work and ensure that it pays to be in work. Two fifths of children in the constituency get free school meals, which means that neither of their parents are in full-time work. Another measure of child poverty—based on children in families on benefits—makes my constituency the sixth poorest in the UK.

The new measures in the Budget are therefore welcome, as they will directly help those families. They include significant increases in the threshold for full working tax credit and in the child element of the child tax credit, which will help incentives to work. Perhaps most welcome though is the— [Interruption.]

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Photo of Graham Stuart Graham Stuart (Beverley & Holderness, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

Will the hon. Lady give way?

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Photo of Emily Thornberry Emily Thornberry (Islington South & Finsbury, Labour) Link to this | Hansard source

No. I am coming on to a very important point for poor families in London—and it is a change in Government policy for which we are very grateful. We are perhaps as grateful as we feel it was overdue. The change in policy is extra specific help for London's single parents returning to work. There will be an extra credit of £60 a week for the first year compared with £40 for parents in other parts of the UK. Some parents in London who do not go to work currently feel that they cannot afford it because of the high costs of housing and child care. We are really pleased that the Government have recognised that and increased the tax credits.

Another of my constituents wrote to me today to say:

"There should be help for people who want to work, even if I decide to stay off work to claim full benefit I will die of not working, I want more out of life."

Women like that should be and are being helped by us. I am glad that the Budget recognises the higher costs that single parents face in London. On top of that, child benefit for the first child will rise to £20 a week by 2010, and we will continue our investment in education across the board from early years through primary to secondary schools. Taken together, it is estimated that those measures will take a further 200,000 children out of poverty—another important step towards our goal of ending child poverty by 2020.

Along with children living in poverty, children with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, so we must make sure that we support them. I am glad that the Government have already initiated a review covering the needs of disabled children. It is especially welcome that the Chancellor mentioned the review in his Budget speech as well as his commitment to consult widely on its findings in the run-up to the comprehensive spending review.

I am glad to note that the review has already identified speech and language therapy as an area in which services may not be sufficiently responsive to need. The Michael Palin centre for stammering children, which is based in my constituency, is an NHS centre of excellence for treatment of children who stammer. It is helping thousands of children from across the country. The centre deals with a complicated and distressing disability. The effect of a stammer on children is more than just a health issue. It affects their educational opportunities, social confidence and many other areas of life. A child who stammers may find involvement in class more difficult or suffer bullying at school.

Labour Members and the Government are very serious about tackling social exclusion, so we must make sure that children's lives are not blighted by being unable to communicate properly when it is possible, with the right intervention, to really help them. The Michael Palin centre is facing problems getting its services commissioned by some primary care trusts, but I am glad to say that Islington PCT's commissioning ensures that Islington's children get a first-class service from the Michael Palin centre. However, we need to make sure that all children across London and the rest of the UK can get the help they need from the centreas well. The patchiness of response from PCTs and strategic health authorities has been recognised in the review and I hope that the upcoming comprehensive spending review ensures that there is dedicated funding for children with communication difficulties and disabilities in general. We also need to make sure that the needs of that group are reflected in the next round of public service agreements.

Let us contrast that with the Liberal Democratand Tory priorities. Every time that tax credits are mentioned in Parliament, they attack them. We know the Tory approach: record pensioner poverty, record child poverty and record levels of unemployment. They will not spell out their policy positions because they know that they are unpopular. The Lib Dems, on the other hand, have never had to take responsibility for anything, so they have no track record. In their 36-page paper on tax policy, child poverty is not mentioned once. They should be ashamed. The Lib Dem tax plans hardly mention tax credits, which is not much of an assurance for those hard-working families who rely on them. They voted with the Tories against tax credits in 1999, and they have made no commitment to keeping them.

Under the Budget, by October 2007, a couple or lone parent in full-time work with one child will have a guaranteed minimum income of £276 a week. The Tories and Lib Dems have shown no commitment to supporting Labour's guarantee to parents in work. I am proud that Labour is ready to guarantee a decent income to families. It is a pity that the Liberal Democrats and Tories will not join me.

I have spoken about some of the top priorities of people in Islington. Compared with 10 years ago, people's priorities have changed, because the country has changed. The Labour Government have made the country better and more stable by putting progressive politics into action. The solutions, however, are based on a set of values that have not changed. The values that we have in 2007 are the same as those that we had in 1997, and the solutions are progressive, radical and collective. As we face the new problems and priorities of the future, it is as clear as ever that we can only tackle the problems that we share by working together for the common good.

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6:42 pm

"Not in my back yard"

DRUGS: A BLESSED RELIEF
By Kim Church with substantial advice from Jo Weir, Chair CGCA


For years, the beleaguered residents and businesspeople of the northern third of Covent Garden and St Giles have borne the brunt of a disastrous lack of responsibility in managing the influx of drug addicts; many of whom were dwelling in the Endell Street hostel. Far from providing a conduit by which resident inmates are rehabilitated and returned into society, in the hostel they became institutionalised with little prospect of “moving on”. Some residents have been stranded there for over 10 years as prey to addiction, despair and easy access to the drugs which destroy lives.

While sinister and ruthless dealers get rich at the expense of the wretched addicts (some of whom are destined to die in the ‘care’ of the hostels), the uncontrolled drugs market flourishes. Far from being a safe haven for its charges, allegedly, the Endell Street hostel even harboured a number of dealers amongst the residents who were identified by the police and subsequently arrested and removed.

The result of the police and local government’s failure to address this urgent issue was that the community as a whole was blighted. The hostel made life hell for locals with the menace of drug addicts’ extreme antisocial behaviour: they will stop at nothing to get the next fix, intimidating, aggressive begging had become the norm and shoplifting here is higher than almost anywhere else. The vulnerable smaller shops are targeted and shopkeepers have been powerless to prevent the epidemic as knives have been brandished and physical and verbal threats made. Break ins had also become a major problem alongside the hazard of theft of phones, wallets, handbags and property from cars. This all created a bleak scenario and one which had been resignedly endured by long-suffering locals.

Police Action
However we have had a glimpse of how pleasant our area can be since the Endell Street hostel closed for refurbishment in December. Many of our problems have all-but gone and we are staggered to realise just how much negative impact can stem from a single hostel. We congratulate the police who have, at last, been handed a realistic chance to tackle the lawlessness which had beset our area. Our compliments to Sergeant Iain Petrie and his south Camden Safer Neighbourhoods team who have seized this opportunity to clean up the area. There is still much to be done; this district to the east of Seven Dials has developed such a reputation as a junkie destination that it will take a concentrated effort if we are to eradicate the dealer network and concerted work to stay on top of the problem. Alain Lhermitte, proprietor of Mon Plaisir, who had been forthright in his criticism both of Camden council and its police for their impotence in this area has been quick to add his commendation on the recent success. Alain tells us that “The closure of the Endell Street hostel has cut down the drugs and associated problems by 60%, police action has further reduced this figure and once the promised clean-up of Neal’s Yard is complete we will have a decent situation.”

CGCA
The Covent Garden Community Association is proposing to lobby Camden to oppose the reopening of the Endell Street hostel; in view of the unprecedented reduction of the impact of drugs, crime and aggressive antisocial misbehaviour they will urge them to reconsider the use of this very prominent site and likewise its unsuitability for helping those with addiction. IAACG will lend its support to their campaign and will jointly commission research into the impacts which the hostel has had on our community.

The gist of the initial representation (which the CGCA will send to the Leader, Chief Executive of London Borough of Camden and St Mungo’s Hostels) is as follows:

Drug dealers can and do prevail, and with such a ready market, the possibility of a cure is highly unlikely, since temptation surrounds them on all sides. It is not believed that concentrating addicts in an area in which they can be such easy prey for drug dealers, and where they can reliably get money from questionable practices, is a suitable climate in which to embrace successful, and effective treatment and
rehabilitation.

However, as a former school, it is believed that a better use for this site would be for elderly and infirm residents (many of whom live in sheltered housing opposite this site) to have access to some nursing/rest/care home facilities rather than being subjected to the persistent and frightening menace that the drug dealers and addicts created.

With two other hostels working in Covent Garden it is surely not unreasonable to propose that the reopening of Endell Street is very hard to justify, when such a negative impact has been created within the local community.

Soup kitchens? Not in my back yard says Tory peer

Soup kitchens? Not in my back yard says Tory peer
By Francis Elliot, Whitehall Editor
Published: 25 March 2007
John Patten, a housing minister under Margaret Thatcher, is pressing for the closure of soup kitchens run for the homeless near his London flat.

The Conservative peer and former cabinet minister is demanding action against the mainly Christian charities that offer free food to hundreds of homeless and destitute people every night in Westminster.

The demand for their charity has grown sharply in recent years as crackdowns on illegal migrants forbid the local council from providing help. Complaints about noise last summer led to threats by the local council to begin issuing Asbos to those offering charity in designated areas.

Lord Patten, who condemned the "appalling scandal" of homelessness as a housing minister in the late 1980s, now appears to have taken up the cause and is waging a parliamentary campaign to force the Home Office to take action against the charities.

In January, he asked whether the soup runs had led to more people sleeping rough. Last week, he demanded to know whether ministers had asked the charities to "desist" from providing "nightly soup runs in Howick Place".

The former Oxford MP, who rose to become Secretary of State for Education under John Major, lives in Ashley Gardens, a nearby private estate in which two-bedroom flats sell for £800,000.

Contacted by The Independent on Sunday, Lord Patten agreed he had tabled questions on the soup runs but hung up when asked whether his intervention may be regarded as an example of "nimbyism".

Alistair Murray, the chairman of the Soup Run Forum, a body that represents the charities, said: "I am surprised that John Patten has joined the hardliners. What does he propose that we do, starve people into submission?"

The provision of free food for people sleeping rough is becoming increasingly controversial. John Bird, the founder of the Big Issue, is among those who believe that, in some cases, handouts are doing more harm than good.

Some have even suggested that some of the free food is being handed to migrants who are not homeless but are simply saving cash.

But Mark Palframan, of the Simon Community, has said: "It is quite offensive that senior figures within local authorities and in the homeless industry are quite openly espousing a policy that uses hunger as a coercive tool.

"We too want to encourage people off the streets and to take up the services and support available, but this cannot, and should not, be done through the politics of hunger. Some people still need free food, and we will continue to provide this."