As Portsmouth schools face further cash slash, MP asks Secretary of State: What more is left to cut?

Funding per-pupil will fall by £242 between 2016-20, with class sizes rising and staff numbers falling

Today in the House of Commons, MP for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, once again challenged the Secretary of State for Education on school cuts in the city.

Mr Morgan asked Damian Hinds, ‘can the Secretary of State tell us where Portsmouth should make savings, as they are already having to do – should they cut teachers? Increase class sizes further? Shorten the school day?’ The Portsmouth MP told the Conservative front bench ‘parents and teachers in my constituency deserve better’.

This is the latest development in Mr Morgan’s campaign for fairer funding for city schools and this weekend he met with local teachers to discuss their concerns, having visited three city schools the day before.

The MP previously raised the issue of school funding directly with the Prime Minister, following several local cases involving teachers paying for basic supplies and pupil’s school meals from their own wages.

New research by the school cuts coalition of unions (NEU, NAHT, ASCL, UNISON, GMB and Unite) shows that 75% of secondary and 56% of primary schools in Portsmouth have seen class sizes increase since 2014. At the same time, they are set to lose over £3million in funding by 2019/20.

Stephen Morgan MP said:

‘Schools in Portsmouth have been doing all they can to shield their pupils from the damage caused by the Government’s decision to cut £2.8 billion from school budgets since 2015. But the lack of investment is really starting to bite.

‘Our city’s schools are set to lose £3.6m by 2020. From my conversations with local teachers and parents, the experience on the ground varies wildly from that expressed at the dispatch box by the Secretary of State this afternoon.

The Government continues to be willing to turn a blind eye to the crisis in our schools.’

A Fife MP has blasted the government for ‘abusing’ third sector groups, after Kirkcaldy Food Bank revealed demand has reached unprecedented levels.

According to figures discussed at the food bank’s board meeting last night (Tuesday), March saw a record number of emergency food parcels (742) issued to a record number of people (1491).

That amounted to 13,419 meals – compared to 4464 meals issued in March 2015.

Joyce Leggate, chairperson of Kirkcaldy Foodbank, said: “Since November last year – with the exception of February – we have at least 100 new clients coming forward each month for support and family numbers are rising.

“During 2018, benefit issues – delay, sanction and change – were the reason given by 55 per cent of clients for the nature of the crisis which led to them contacting us.

“Captured data shows 28 per cent of all clients are experiencing problems with benefit delays and Universal Credit but anecdotal evidence strongly suggests the true figure is much higher.”

Joyce said rising demand was a chronic worry, particularly given the foodbank relies 100 per cent on donations from the public.

In recent months it cost the food bank £4k a month – over and above food donations – to buy enough food to meet demand currently.

That bill rose to £6k last month and is expected to be the same again in April.

“We reached a point last year where we were only six weeks away from closing because of a discrepancy between supply and demand but our call-out for help brought a considerable swell of support from the public,” said Joyce.

“The Kirkcaldy community is so generous, it’s humbling.” 

She added: “However, the reality is that as quick as we can catch-up, we find ourselves catching up again and we can never take our eye off the ball.

“There’s nothing worse than having to turn away a family, saying we have nothing left to hand out.”

Worryingly, the foodbank has for the first time had pensioners come forward for help.

“We’re not sure whether it’s the effect of fuel bills, but we had two pensioners come in one morning recently saying they couldn’t survive on their state pension. It was quite startling,” said Joyce.

Reacting to Kirkcaldy Food Bank’s figures, Lesley Laird MP said it was evident the government was increasingly reliant on using third sector groups to prop up the welfare state and that was unacceptable.

She said:  “Let’s be clear. What we have is a deliberate unpicking by this government of all the progress fought for over decades by our parents and our grandparents. 

“When they survived the Great Depression their enduring mission was to ensure that future generations would never have to go hungry or worry about heating their homes. 

“Sadly, the increasing reality for too many people in our community that is exactly what is happening.”

She added: “With an additional one million children likely to be in poverty and pensioner poverty once again on the rise, this Government is undoing all the measures put in place by my predecessor, Gordon Brown, when Labour lifted a million children out of poverty and pensioner poverty levels dropped to 18 per cent.

“When we reflect that the full impact of Universal Credit is yet to fully hit then little wonder that foodbanks across the country and right here on our doorstep are saying there is a very serious problem. 

“While the Tories are saying ‘No connection. Nothing to see here.'”

The post Kirkcaldy food bank demand reaches record-high appeared first on Lesley Laird.

Yesterday, I hosted a Westminster Hall Debate on global road deaths. As a committed campaigner against preventable traffic collisions for many years, I called for this important debate because it is crucial that we raise awareness of one of the greatest epidemics of our time.

Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East, is supporting plans for St George’s Day to be made a bank holiday in England. St George’s Day falls on 23 April. St George has been the Patron Saint of England since the fourteenth century. According to legend, St George was a Roman soldier of Greek origin who was executed by the Roman emperor Diocletian after he refused to recant his Christian faith, although today St George is most famous for his mythical victory over a Dragon, a tale that remains very popular with both children and adults.

Emma said “I support the proposal to make St George’s Day a bank holiday in England. St George was someone who stood up to injustice and was prepared to stand up for his beliefs, even when it cost him his life. A sense of fair play and standing up for the underdog are some of our country’s best values, and such shared values should be celebrated by making St George’s Day a national holiday.”

Do you want St George’s Day to be an official bank holiday? I want to hear from you. Please email me at: emma.reynolds.mp@parliament.uk

April 2018

The post Emma supports plans for St George’s Day to be a bank holiday in England appeared first on Emma Reynolds MP.

Alongside site staff and managers, Ruth George MP was joined by Directors from the Casey Group, and inspection staff from the Environment Agency, for a visit to Arden Quarry on Wednesday 11 April.

The party spent two hours on a walking tour of the site to observe operations including deliveries and compacting, leachate control, lining and capping, gas extraction and heat exchange. Photos were taken around the site covering all aspects of operations including the weighbridge, compacting, lining and capping, shafts, piping, leachate tanks and the gas engine.

All waste received at the site is pre-booked with the contents of each delivery fully listed. Lorries are turned away if the paperwork does not match the load. Lorries enter the site via a weighbridge which is always staffed whilst the facility is open.

The waste is mainly from domestic refuse and is non-hazardous. It mainly arrives from Derbyshire County Council transfer sites at Glossop and Waterswallows Lane so has its origin locally.

On delivery, the waste is emptied in to lined cells and compacted down before covering.

Leachate is drawn off and pre-treated before entering the sewage system; there is no leaching into watercourse, the water-table or drains.

Landfill gas is piped into an on-site engine and used to generate power.

Whilst fully acknowledging the need to respond to complaints and to minimise odour from operations, some of the nasty smells experienced in New Mills and Hayfield turn out to be from other sources such as coal fires and silage. For instance, for a period since March this year, a nearby farm has had permission to spread sewage waste on fields starting in and this is bound to release an unpleasant odour when it is taking place.

The Casey Group welcomes visitors at open days and will accommodate groups at other times by arrangement either via the Liaison Group or direct with the Site Manager. The Environment Agency makes unannounced visits each month.

The company has plans to engineer gentler gradients for both operations and roads on site as well as to improve appearance with landscaping.

The post Ruth George MP visits Casey Group Arden Quarry landfill site appeared first on Ruth George MP for High Peak.

Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin has slammed Government NHS underfunding after the latest figures revealed that just 81.6% of patients who attended A&E departments at Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust hospitals in March were seen within four hours.

Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust, which runs Dewsbury and District, Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals, fell well below the national target of 95% – and saw a significant increase in wait times compared to March 2017 where 92.6% of A&E attendees were seen within four hours.

The latest figures, released by NHS England, show the worst A&E waiting times since records began across the country, with just 84.6% of people visiting A&Es being admitted, treated or discharged within the four hour timeframe.

Batley and Spen MP Tracy Brabin said: “We have doctors, nurses and hospital staff working tirelessly to help people but they are hamstrung by a Government that refuses to acknowledge a crisis of its own making.

“Year after year of underfunding by the Conservative Government has led to this shocking new low and the figures highlight just how desperate the need for proper investment in the NHS has become.

“The NHS is one our nation’s proudest assets, but staff pay freezes, underfunding to health and social care and a recruitment crisis caused by Government policy is putting its future at risk.

“As we have seen through the winter, Pinderfields Hospital is already under incredible pressure, and with the downgrades at Dewsbury District and the reclassification of Pontefract’s emergency department, the picture is not likely to improve.”

“It is time for the Government to face up to what is happening and give the NHS the investment it desperately needs.”

The figures were released in the week that an investigation by the Labour party revealed that thousands of NHS beds have been left unused in ‘ghost’ wards since 2006.

As of 1^st September 2017 there were 1,429 beds locked inside ‘ghost’ wards – an 185% increase compared with 1 September 2013.

Notes to editor

The full statistics for Mid Yorks NHS Trust and for across England can be found here https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/

Denton and Reddish MP, Andrew Gwynne, has joined health groups and charities in championing the battle to end malaria with this year’s World Malaria Day theme, Ready to Beat Malaria which underscores the collective energy and commitment of the global malaria community in uniting around the common goal of a world free of malaria.

On World Malaria Day 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are calling on all concerned parties to be ready to end malaria – a disease which can be fatal and which affects millions of people, claiming thousands of lives annually. This year’s World Malaria Day coincides with activities to commemorate the 70th anniversary of WHO – over the last 7 decades, WHO has been providing support to countries to fight malaria.

Ready to Beat Malaria is the theme of this year’s day. The theme underscores the collective energy and commitment of the global malaria community in uniting around the common goal of achieving a malaria-free world.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. Luckily it is a preventable and curable disease, yet the global burden of this disease is very high. According to the latest “World Malaria Report”, released in November 2017, there were 216 million cases of malaria in 2016, up from 211 million cases in 2015. The estimated number of malaria deaths stood at 445 000 in 2016, a similar number to the previous year (446,000).

Andrew Gwynne MP said:

“I join the World Health Organization and their partners in calling for urgent action to get the global fight against malaria back on track.

“After years of progress we are seeing recorded cases of malaria on the rise across the world, but with new prevention methods like insecticide-treated mosquito nets, indoor residual spraying of insecticides & preventive therapies have significantly reduced malaria in certain parts of the world.” 

Clwyd South MP Susan Elan Jones has signed up to the Department for Work and Pension’s Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

The scheme provides guidance for employees to encourage the recruitment and retention of disabled people and people with long term health conditions by giving them suitable employment opportunities, as well as adequate support in the workplace.

According to the Disability Living Foundation, one in five of the UKs population are disabled. In January 2016, the UK employment rate among working age disabled people was 46.5% compared to 84% of non-disabled people.

Susan Elan Jones MP who spent 15 years working for charities before becoming an MP said: “I’m very proud to sign up to this scheme, which ensures that people living with disability or long-term health conditions are given the respect and support they deserve in the workplace. My first job in the charity sector was for a disability organisation and I have a long-standing interest in how we as a society can ensure all disabled people reach their full potential.”

Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock has once again pressed Prisons Minister Rory Stewart on the Government’s plans for a new prison on the Baglan Industrial Park. The exchange comes after two representatives from Stop NPT Prison group joined Mr Kinnock for a meeting with Rory Stewart in London, and off the back of the latest public meeting held in the Aberavon Beach Hotel.

The post Massive success! £6 million for Britain’s Children of Alcoholics appeared first on Liam Byrne MP.

Today at Justice Questions I asked the minister, Rory Stewart, how many recommendations from the Dame Sally Coates review of education in prison and the Charlie Taylor review of the youth justice system have been delivered by the Government.

He said he would need to check! I look forward to following up with the minister soon.

Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham has called the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Holme House ‘damning’ and expresses his concerns that young offenders are being held at Holme House.

The report outlines a number of judgements including staffing levels being a cause for concern through the year, as well as sickness rates impacting negatively on all aspects of prisoners’ lives despite efforts to accommodate this. Easy access to illicit drugs has also impacted on the lives of prisoners and staff, which has resulted in increased levels of violence. Another conclusion of the report are that it is difficult to treat prisoners fairly at all times due to lack of resources.

Areas for development that have been suggested in the report include: asking the Government to address the issue of staffing by saying what plans are in place to improve staff recruitment; getting answers to why there is a proportion of Young Offenders at Holme House when they should be at a Young Offenders Institution.

Discussing the report, Alex Cunningham MP said:

“This report is damning on so many fronts and it is clear that despite the best efforts of the Governor and his team, things don’t appear to have improved. It is quite shocking to see it declare that drugs remain a major and growing issue; staff sickness levels remain very high; there are insufficient staff to ensure prisoners are treated fairly; and that Holme House is seeing more violence towards staff and between prisoners. 

“I’m also concerned to learn that that young offenders are being held at Holme House when they ought to be in Kirklevington.

“I visited the prison last year to discuss the problems with drugs and lack of staff in particular and was assured that a new regime was paying off and staffing levels had increased.  Sadly this report concludes otherwise.

“The failure of the Government to tackle the problems at Holme House which have seen little – if any –  improvement in recent years is deeply disappointing and I will be writing to the Justice Secretary to demand a comprehensive inspection and an action plan to deal with the drugs problem; recruit, retain and support the necessary staff; create a proper regime to educate, support and rehabilitate prisoners; and hold contractors responsible for repairs to account for failing to carry out their contract effectively.”

ENDS

For more information, contact Alex on 020 7219 7157 or on alex.cunningham.mp@parliament.uk

I’ve written here before about the savage cuts imposed on Liverpool since 2010 and the impact they are having on people’s lives.

New calculations from Labour show the shocking impact on each and every household in Liverpool. Even I was taken aback by the levels of cuts per household.

It’s not just what’s in the pie, but how it has been cut up. Under the Tories some of the most deprived areas in the country have been hit the hardest, while Tory councils are given a better deal.

On average, Tory councils will have £128 less to spend per household, while Labour councils are hit four times harder – losing £524.

But what about Labour-controlled Liverpool? How hard has every household in our city been hit?

The figure is shocking and you can find it by clicking here and entering your postcode.

Surprised?

That is the price households in Liverpool have had to pay for having a Tory government in Westminster.

Despite the cuts, which will amount to £444 million by 2020, the Labour- council here in Liverpool has protected the most vulnerable, invested in our communities and helped boost our local economy so more money can flow into the city in future years.

For instance, an extra £6 million is going to children’s services and the Labour-led council will spend £12 million on services for people who are homeless and £3.5 million to protect 42,000 people from the full impact of government reductions in council tax support.

That is the sign of a caring council that puts the values we all hold dear at the centre of what it does, despite the pressures loaded on to it by this Tory government.

That is why I am voting Labour in the local elections on Thursday May 3 and why I am inviting you to join me.

Please support our Labour candidates across the constituency – Angela Coleman in Wavertree, Frank Hont in Childwall, Nigel Parsons in Church, Joanne Calvert in Old Swan, Sue Walker in Kensington and Paul Kenyon in Picton.

A vote for Labour on May 3, is a vote to protect our city.

On Friday 20^th April I visited Glebelands Primary School I had such a lovely time and would like to thank all the pupils for their brilliant questions – my favourite was: “Do you get nervous making decisions?”

I will continue to do everything I can to support all the fantastic local schools in Leicester West.

The post Liz meets Glebelands Primary School pupils appeared first on Liz Kendall.

NEWS AND COMMENT FROM CHRIS LESLIE – Saturday 21^st March 2018
(for more news also see my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/chrislesliemp)

Ever since I became MP for Nottingham East, the cases most frequently raised with me relate to migration and the rights of individuals to visit or remain in the UK. In fact, I cannot remember a day when I was not wrestling with the creaking bureaucracy of the Home Office on some outstanding visa, asylum or residency situation. So when the ‘Windrush Generation’ scandal hit the headlines this week I was appalled but not surprised that the Government had treated Commonwealth citizens, invited to Britain before the 1960s, with such disregard.

After the Second World War a significant African Caribbean community settled in Nottingham and other towns and cities to help rebuild Britain and contribute to our industries. They didn’t apply for passports because they were granted ‘indefinite leave to remain’ at that time. Yet more recent policy changes requiring proof of residency status for bank accounts, jobs or tenancies were introduced without anyone apparently remembering that such a significant population might suddenly encounter a real burden evidencing their existing – and undisputed – rights.

So my colleague David Lammy and many other MPs were right to highlight the impact that Theresa May’s “hostile environment” policy towards migrants has had on these long-standing residents and quite rightly forced the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to apologise and change tack dramatically this week.

If you or anyone you know may be affected by this situation I would be keen to hear about any difficulties or problems encountered so that I can raise these directly with the new ‘taskforce’ set up in the Home Office to disentangle this saga. This shoddy affair has already done genuine damage to our reputation abroad – especially in the week of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit – and will have done little to reassure anxious EU nationals in Britain about the Home Office’s capacity to competently and compassionately administer their status post-Brexit.

NOTTINGHAM

• Yesterday I visited Nottingham Academy to join their sixth formers and other students to hear Holocaust survivor Simon Winston talk about his experiences evading Nazis during the Second World War and the horrors that can result from antisemitism and discrimination. As a very young boy Simon escaped from a ghetto in what was then Poland and hid for several years in dreadful conditions while his family and community were massacred. This school event was arranged by the Holocaust Educational Trust who aim to provide opportunities for students across the country to learn about this period of history so that it is not forgotten, especially at a time where sadly there are extremists willing to distort or attempt to deny or rewrite this appalling chapter of recent history.

• The Local Government Boundary Commission for England has released its final proposals for new council wards in Nottingham City. In Nottingham East there will be minor changes to Dales Ward and St Ann’s Wards and more significant changes to Arboretum and Berridge Wards. I am happy that most of the proposals in the Commission’s report broadly reflect strong community links and boundaries in the neighbourhoods within Nottingham East, however, I am concerned that the proposed Hyson Green and Arboretum Ward crosses the strong boundaries of Gregory Boulevard and Alfreton Road to include fragmentary parts of Radford and Bobbers Mill.

• In May 2019, Nottingham will be jointly hosting a global gathering of UNESCO City of Literatures with Norwich. This week-long programme of cultural events, dubbed ‘Nottwich 2019’ will see cultural leaders from 28 countries come to both cities. Sandeep Mahal, director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, commented: “Nottwich 2019 is a wonderful opportunity to show the rest of the world the things that make Nottingham and Norwich Unesco Cities of Literature”.

• There has been further recognition of Nottingham’s universities as Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham and have been nominated in several categories for three awards schemes. Nottingham Trent University has received nominations for the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2018 and both universities have been shortlisted for the 2018 The Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Awards and the Guardian University Awards. The University Of Nottingham’s work ‘the Dinosaurs of China’ exhibit was particularly noted in their Nominations for these awards. NTU’s work in outreach with 14-19 year olds from under-represented and disadvantaged backgrounds and their high student satisfaction ratings helped them get their nominations.

• A former lace mill on Newdigate Street is set to be developed into 56 studio flats for students after plans were approved by councillors. The five-storey Grade II-listed building was built more than 200 years ago and also made camouflage netting during the Second World War. Hilary Silvester, the chair of Nottingham Civic Society, said: “It’s a good reuse for this old building. It’s better than if it dwindled away and crumbled away.” She added: “It seems it’s going to be well-managed. [I hope] they are not going to change the windows too much. I would not want [them] to change the outward appearance because the windows are very important; they are the eyes of buildings”.

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Last weekend a joint intervention from British, French and American forces pinpointed some of the chemical weapons research and manufacturing facilities in Syria which the Assad regime had been using in recent years to produce the banned gases deployed indiscriminately on his own population. The horrors of the attack in Douma, with the pictures showing children foaming at the mouth, killed in basements where these gases seep in and sink to the lowest levels, provided evidence that past ‘agreements’ between Russia & Syria to ban these weapons were ineffective.

The 1925 Geneva Protocol had agreed that chemical weaponry should never be used, but recently the deployment of chlorine, sarin and of course Novichok nerve agents here in Britain shows that this ‘red line’ is being flouted with regularity. Briefing from the chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the National Security Adviser and the Royal Air Force on the mission to isolate some of the factors of production in these weapons convinces me that the action was necessary and appropriate. The evidence of helicopter usage by Assad and other intelligence highlighted both the cause and the humanitarian grounds as the legal basis for this action. At present the intelligence suggests that these facilities were degraded with no loss of civilian life because of the action taken away from populous areas in the middle of the night.

On Monday the Prime Minister made a statement to MPs about the chemical weapons facilities. With Russia vetoing action and vetoing independent investigations in Douma it was clear that the diplomatic route at the United Nations Security Council was no longer possible. Faced with that reality, countenancing inaction yet again seemed to me a greater risk to civilian lives in Syria than taking these specific steps to degrade the facilities identified. I respect those who come from a pacifist tradition and believe that all military intervention is always wrong, but on this occasion I disagree. The rules of the international community banning these abhorrent weapons had to be enforced, there wasn’t a viable alternative, and for the sake of protecting the future civilians who would undoubtedly be gassed by Assad if we turned a blind eye, it was in my view the right thing to do. Ultimately, I do not believe we could just turn away and walk on by on the other side, given such atrocities and the ability we had to do something to minimise them in future. While parliamentary approval for limited and specific action like this might have been preferable, this is simply not safe or viable in all circumstances – because sometimes it would be wrong to share intentions widely in advance or put our service personnel at greater risk.

• On Tuesday afternoon, MPs debated the scourge of antisemitism in Britain today. It was simply heart-breaking to hear several of my Jewish Labour colleagues – Luciana Berger, Ruth Smeeth, Margaret Hodge, Louise Ellman and others detail the abuse to which they are constantly subjected. While all parties and organisations need to get their houses in order, it is simply impossible to listen to these speeches without acknowledging the fact that the Labour Party is still in need of confronting this problem. We all need to share in the responsibility of rooting out this corrosive evil, and without delay.

• The Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London this week was accompanied by some speculation about the value of this network of 53 nations. It is certainly worthwhile to connect these countries diplomatically and with broadly shared values – and there are benefits to Britain in maintaining these links. But when Liam Fox and other hard Brexiteers suggest that the Commonwealth can somehow substitute for the European Union in economic and trade terms, this is sadly misguided. The Commonwealth accounts for just 9% of our exports, whereas the EU accounts for 43%. Moreover they are typically far-flung countries whose trading priorities aren’t necessarily with the UK. Geography cannot be wished away and we should focus our trade priorities with our nearest neighbouring countries if we are to take a sensible, evidence-led approach.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  

It was really encouraging that the House of Lords votes so convincingly on Wednesday to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill and call on the Government to negotiate Britain’s participation in a Customs Union. As you will know, this is essential for avoiding queues and checks at ports and borders and the imposition of obstacles that would harm our trade and employment prospects in the UK, not to mention risk a hard border in Ireland. This will now come to the Commons before the summer and I think that Theresa May’s ‘hard Brexit’ approach may not have the numbers in Parliament – but we will have to wait and see.

Last weekend the new ‘People’s Vote’ campaign was launched – and I’d be interested to know your views. Whatever your view before the Brexit referendum, it is now more clear that a vast array of issues are at stake and when the UK and EU propose a final deal, this is so significant that it deserves to be ratified by the public themselves. It is not certain what that deal will look like, and we will know more when the Government and EU Commission publish their proposal in the autumn. Why shouldn’t the public have a say on whether those proposals are right or wrong? Would you sign a bill without checking it first? The idea that this is a ‘done deal’ is completely wrong and there is nothing certain or irrevocable about Brexit. 2018 will be a crucial year of decisions and the People’s Vote campaign is certainly one to watch.

Regards

Chris Leslie

Labour & Co-operative Party MP for Nottingham East

I am pleased to hear that Welsh Government has given grant of almost £400,000 to make routes safer in Llanelli West area including roads leading to Furnace Sqaure and Pembrey Rd area.

Thanks to all residents & schools who fed in ideas and in particular to County Council officer Thomas Evans, Delyth from Town Council and Darren from the Rural who worked on the bid. Hope the work can begin soon.

Nottingham Labour has delivered on its 2015 manifesto commitment to introduce a selective licencing scheme to improve the standards of accommodation in the private rented sector of our city.

Most of the standards we are asking landlords to follow are basic safety requirements that anyone would want for their home. These include: 

·         Ensuring that all gas installations and appliances are in a safe condition at all times and that an annual gas safety check is carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

·         Ensuring that electrical appliances made available in the house by them are kept in a safe condition and proper working order at all times.

·         Ensuring that the electrical installation in the house is kept safe and in proper working order at all times.

·         Ensuring that at all times a suitable fire detection and alarm system is installed in the house and is maintained in proper working order. 

·         Ensuring that a carbon monoxide alarm is installed in any room in the house which is used wholly or partly as living accommodation and contains a solid fuel burning combustion appliance.

 Licences will cost landlords with Nottingham Standard accreditation £480, the equivalent of £1.85 a week per property over the five years of the scheme and £780, which equates to £3 a week if they haven’t got accreditation. Under current HMRC rules the licence could be classed as an allowable expense and may therefore reduce the tax liability for some landlords depending upon their individual circumstances.

This means there is no justification for rent increases by landlords and that the vast majority of landlords should absorb the licence fee and the cost of any necessary improvements to properties as part of the day-to-day costs of running of their business. Income from the licence fees will only go towards the cost of setting up, operating and delivering the schemes.

Selective licencing is good news for thousands of Nottingham’s private rented tenants, who will know what is expected of their landlord in terms of property management and standards. Rogue landlords will also be investigated and action taken.  

It is also good news for responsible landlords who are operating legitimately and complying with the law, as Nottingham’s reputation for providing quality housing increases.

Cllr Jane Urquhart
Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage.

The post Final details confirmed for licensing scheme to improve private rented housing in Nottingham appeared first on Nottingham Labour.

I was born in Egypt in the last year of the Second World War as Jews were being exterminated in Hitler’s gas chambers in Europe. I grew up thinking that we would never forget the horrors that a culture of anti-Semitism can bring.

Yet here we are, over 70 years later forced to talk about anti-Semitism and in particular consider its presence within our political parties. Anti-Semitism remains far more pervasive in the political cultures of Eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary. Shocking instances of anti-Semitism occur regularly within the Conservative party – look at Nick Timothy’s recent article on George Soros where his rhetoric about a “billionaire” who “broke the Bank of England” and who interferes “in the democracies of several European nations’ – was shockingly anti-Semitic. While all of this is true I never, ever thought that I would experience significant anti-Semitism as a member of the Labour Party. But I have and it has left me feeling an outsider in the party of which I have been a member for over 50 years.

I am a Jew. My upbringing was entirely secular and I have always been an atheist. I have never practised Jewish religious traditions in my home, neither of my two husbands were Jews and I have been a consistent critic of the governments of Israel down the years. But my Jewish heritage is central to my being.

Recently my sisters have trawled through the correspondence and diaries of my grandparents and family who came from Germany and Austria. My grandmother on my mother’s side lived in Vienna when the war broke out. In her early fifties, she thought she was too old to be harmed by the Nazis and chose to stay in her home. We have the last letter she wrote to her son, my uncle, in 1941, nine days before she was forcibly taken to a concentration camp in Lithuania and shot and killed in a trench outside the camp’s gates. (She never even stepped through the gates of the concentration camp.) In that letter she said – twice – “don’t completely forget me.” And in a postscript to the letter (that she clearly thought would be vetted by the Nazis) she wrote: ‘Thinking about you will help me to endure what is coming. I am sceptical that we shall ever meet again. Who knows when I can even write to you again.”

Her husband, my grandfather was one of seven children. Yet my siblings and I are the only surviving branch of that family. The others either died childless or were killed in the concentration camps. My only surviving aunt from that side escaped the gas chambers because she was a doctor in the British army. An uncle on my father’s side spent much of the war in a village in the Ardeche before he was finally captured, deported and killed in Auschwitz. When I visited Auschwitz I walked into the room full of the suitcases of those murdered in the gas chambers and was confronted by a battered brown suitcase with my uncle’s initials on it. Goodness knows whether it was actually his suitcase but that moment was utterly chilling for me.

All of this is part of my heritage. It is what I am today. I can’t forget. It is one reason for my joining the Labour Party in the 1960s. I believed that the Labour Party was the party that fought against racism and intolerance. It was the party that defended the rights of minority communities and fought all bigotry and prejudice. It was the natural home for Jews who had been subject to inhumane acts  for no other reason than their race, their ethnicity and their religion.

In the 2010 General Election I was challenged by Nick Griffin, the Leader of the British National Party in my constituency, Barking. I thought I would face anti-Semitism in that campaign, but surprisingly there was very little evidence of it. The most memorable incident was on Election Day, when a BNP activist at a polling station shouted at me that I should go back to Germany. My retort was that I couldn’t, because they had killed most of my family.

So it has been truly shocking for me to receive a trail of vicious anti-Semitic tweets in the last two years, both from right wing extremists, but also from Labour party members and supporters. I know that my inbox is nothing compared to that of my honourable friends, the members for Liverpool Wavertree, Liverpool Riverside and Stoke-on-Trent North who, unlike me, are all activists in the Jewish community. I also know that social media has facilitated an explosion in utterly despicable stuff coming to all of us with any public profile.But when so many horrible anti-Semitic tweets clearly come from the left, those with the authority to act to stop this should do so  promptly and decisively. When I expressed my views on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party this is what I got:

“Bullshit. Zionists who seek to control UK foreign policy are terribly scared as they don’t own or control Corbyn”

“Anybody else think treacherous cu*t @margarethodge needs deselecting to stand as the terrorist, Zionist Tory party.”

“Jewish lobby losing their grip on Labour. Happy happy days”

“Rather than having a go at Jeremy u should be standing outside the Israeli Embassy calling for the prosecution of Netanyahu for war crimes and the attempted destruction of Palestinian Society. But of course you can’t as you’re a friend of Apartheid Israel.”

It is vile attacks like these that concern us. It was in response to these that we Jewish Labour MPs met to consider what we could do, well before the controversy surrounding the racist mural hit the press. We are experiencing a surge in anti-Semitism on the left. In part it has always been there. There have always been those who see every Jew as a paid-up member of the Netanyahu fan club. People who fail to make the appropriate distinction between being a Jew, voicing support for Israel as a place for Jews to live safely and proclaiming support for the Government in Israel. People who now consider the term Zionist as a term of abuse. People who deny the holocaust and people who simply hate Jews. But something has changed in the last couple of years and anti-Semitism has gained a new, misplaced and dangerous legitimacy on the left.

Maybe it’s in part due to a blinkered response to the financial crash of 2008, with capitalism, the elite and the very rich blamed for the crash and in the same way that historically Jews have been railed against as having control of capital and international banking, that stereotype still holds sway and Jews are depicted as the greedy super rich responsible for the crash and willingly treading on the backs of  the poor. Maybe it’s the very one sided approach the left have to the horribly complex problems confronting the Middle East. Maybe it’s the rhetoric associated with the new populism that was so dangerous in the 1930s and that pits one community against another, be it Jew against Gentile, or white against people of colour.

Certainly for as long as the Conservative Party allows someone to hold the position of Foreign Secretary after he described black people as ‘piccaninnies with ‘watermelon smiles’ or asserted that Barack Obama had an “ancestral dislike’ of Britain, as long as the Conservative party allows that rhetoric to go unpunished, then they lack all legitimacy in attacking Labour for the very real problems we have on anti-Semitism.

My Jewish identity has never defined my politics. My visits to Israel made me a strong critic of the Israeli Government; my secular values have kept me apart from much of the British Jewish community. But I have never felt as nervous and frightened as I feel today at being a Jew. It feels as though my Party has given permission for anti-Semitism to go unchallenged. Anti-Semitism is making me feel an outsider in my Labour Party.

I know that that is not what the Leader of the Labour Party believes in or wants. But his failure to act swiftly and decisively has left him open to the accusation that those who allow anti-Semitic people to peddle their intolerant message are guilty by association. The answer for him must be to properly acknowledge the problem and to act resolutely to stamp out this dangerous, invasive cancer that is infecting our politics. To that I simply say: enough is enough.

Following the recent rise in violent crime in Tower Hamlets and across London, Bethnal Green and Bow MP, Rushanara Ali, has called on the Prime Minister to give the Met Police more funding and prevent any further budget cuts. 

As I have previously mentioned in my statements on Shop Direct, I am bitterly disappointed that Shop Direct failed to engage with the council, Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, or myself about their plans to move to the East Midlands, including over the 18 months that this was being considered.

The Shop Direct distribution centre in Shaw currently employs 705 Shop Direct employees with 636 agency employees. This is devastating news for the Shop Direct staff and their families and the anticipated redundancies will have a dreadful effect on the local community.

I’ll be working closely with the council, unions and the Mayor’s office to ensure that Shop Direct management are co-ordinating properly with trade union representatives and staff, and that they keep their commitment to support staff impacted by these potential redundancies.

It was essential to bring together all parties affected by the proposed relocation to the East Midlands round the table and we met in the Mayor’s offices on Friday, 13th April. We conveyed our disappointment at the lack of prior notice from the company. Secondly, we put an offer on the table to explore whether there was any possibility that Shop Direct might reconsider its decision, perhaps relocating to sites elsewhere in the city-region. Oldham Council tabled alternative proposals of a site of a similar size, accompanied by a favourable business package, at Broadgreen Park, Chadderton. It was disappointing that there was no willingness from Shop Direct to engage on these proposals.

Given that they appeared to have made their decision, the meeting then looked into getting the best possible support for the workforce, and securing a future for the sites affected.

Many of Shop Direct’s staff have worked for the company in one form or another for many years, in some cases several decades and for a number of generations. The professionalism and commitment from Shop Direct’s employees has been second to none. The Mayor put a proposal to the meeting to establish a taskforce, led by The Growth Company, which was agreed by all parties. We will continue to do all we can to support the 1,992 people affected by this abrupt decision and to maintain jobs on the sites affected, albeit through new employers.

I have also written to the Prime Minister to demand that the Government is fully engaged in the process of supporting constituents through this difficult time. It is imperative that staff and local businesses in the area are provided with focused support by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy including skills and re-training packages, employment advice and financial support. It is imperative that Oldham Council is also given support as part of its ‘Get Oldham Working’ project; given half of its budget has been cut by your Government since 2010, this will put even more pressure on them.

Shop Direct is not in financial trouble. It reported an increase in underlying profits before tax of 10.2% to £160.4m last year. It has seen sales growth increasing over 5 consecutive years. The decisions it has made are purely commercial. The proposed site in the East Midlands will employ fewer staff as Shop Direct moves towards increased automation. Given that automation is likely to lead to huge challenges for the UK labour market as a whole, urgent action is required from the Government. I have therefore also urged the Government to put in place measures to support workers impacted by the ascendance of automation.

I addition I have requested an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss plans to support constituents. It is important that all action is coordinated with all relevant agencies which, unfortunately, has not been the case to date.

Please be assured I am committed to do all I can to ensure constituents are not left to deal with this alone.