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Norwich City Council Labour Group News News and weekly updates from the Norwich City Council Labour Group. For Norwich Labour Party members and activists. ISSUE 48 The coming battle on housing... Since the 1920’s Norwich City Labour councillors have developed a proud tradition of building council housing as both a means to tackle the vagaries of the private rented sector, provide secure and stable tenancies and break the link between low pay and poor housing. Nearly 30,000 council homes were built in Norwich thanks to Labour! The Tories Right to Buy in the early 1980s has devastated the city’s housing stock, resulting in a virtual halving of our stock. Their enhanced discounts since 2010 has seen a vast rise in the RTB and subsequent loss of council homes. However, through careful investment and working in partnership with housing associations, we have still been able to facilitate the building of new social housing. Housing Associations in Norwich are crucial valued partners and This week’s significant providers of affordable homes for thousands of people. news! 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) The coming battle on housing... Free recycling for electric items. New visitor permit parking system explained. 10 reasons to back the Labour City Council! Labour Group contact details 2015-16 Since the election — key points to remember.. In their Queen’s Speech shortly after the election, the Tories announced the extension of the right to buy to housing associations and further attacks on council housing. A) Our country is in the midst of an urgent and growing housing crisis. In England, we are building less than half the number of homes we need to keep up with demand. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP NEWS, CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES Over the past five years, David Cameron and his government were asleep at the wheel. The last government presided over the lowest level of house-building (home completions) in peacetime since the 1920s. As a result home ownership is becoming a distant dream, more people are renting in an unstable and expensive private rented sector, there is an acute shortage of affordable homes and rough sleeping and homelessness have soared. The Tories plans for housing don’t add up 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Replacing the homes: The Government claims every home will be replaced one for one but the Government made the same commitment in the last Parliament but they’ve failed miserably with only one home started to be built for every 10 homes sold. Nobody will believe their promises now. Fewer affordable homes: Housing experts and the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) have said the Government’s proposals could lead to fewer affordable homes. Uncosted: The Government claim that this policy will be funded by selling off high value council homes but the Government has no idea how much this will raise and whether it will cover the cost. Impact on housing associations ability to build: The credit rating agency Moody’s have said this could impact on the financial viability of housing associations and their ability to build. Legal implications: Legal experts have raised serious concerns about forcing independent charities to sell off their assets. Leader of Norwich City Council, Cllr Alan Waters says “To increase home ownership, the priority right now must be to build more homes, including badly needed affordable homes. The Tories should be judged on their record on home ownership and affordable housing in the last parliament. Home ownership is at its lowest level for 30 years and affordable house building has fallen to the lowest level for at least five years and the homes built for social rent dropped to their lowest level in over two decades” Labour City Councillors will oppose the Tory attacks on housing in Norwich and campaign to save social and council housing within the city. Labour City Councillors are moving a motion on tomorrow at Full Council calling on the below ;MOTION Proposed by Councillor Vaughn Thomas and seconded by Councillor Harris. “The Queen’s Speech included plans for legislation to extend the right to buy to housing associations, freeze working age benefits for two years, lower the benefit cap and remove automatic entitlement to housing benefit for 18-21 year olds. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP NEWS, CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES Council, RESOLVES to ask the leader of the council to write to the Prime Minister and the Interim Leader of the opposition saying that :1) it believes such moves will; - a) have a huge impact both on housing associations and on local authorities, as councils would have to sell off their most valuable homes to fund replacements. b) make it harder for people on lower incomes who are already struggling to access a decent home at a price they can afford and result in the loss of vital social and affordable homes. Reproduced from the EDP and Evening News 2) freezing working age benefits for two years, lowering the benefit cap and removing automatic entitlement to housing benefit for 18-21 year olds fails to reflect the reality of the housing crisis. Britain is not building enough homes, which means the cost of housing and therefore the housing benefit bill is going up. 3) millions of people have no choice but to rely on housing benefit to secure a roof over their head. That includes an increasing number of people in work – the number of people in work who still have to claim housing benefit has more than doubled from around 445,000 to just over a million in the last five years. 4) cutting housing benefit for under 21s fails to take into account the reality of many young people’s lives. It could have a serious impact on vulnerable young people who have left home, including those who have been rough sleeping and may be forced to return to it. It could also mean that young people would be unwilling to take risks such as moving for work because there would be no safety net for them. 5) the best way of helping people on lower incomes into home ownership is by increasing the supply of affordable housing. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP NEWS, CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES Free recycling boost — Don't bin it, bring it! Labour City Council know the importance of recycling and keeping Norwich clean. Before Labour took power in 2006, Norwich was the ‘dirty city’ of Norfolk with low recycling rates. Now it is one of the highest. City Academy in Earlham Road on Saturday 27 June. The event is free and open from 8am to 1pm. Access is from Bluebell Lane Unwanted hairdryers, toasters, kettles, blenders, vacuum cleaners and other small and medium electricals can once again be recycled to raise money for charity at our latest Don’t bin it, bring it! event. This is the fourth in our series of Labour Norwich City Council-run free recycling events and they have all been a great success so far. More than £10,000 has been raised for Norwich’s local British Heart Foundation store in Castle Meadow and six tonnes of electricals have been saved from landfill. Electricals in both working and non-working order can be brought along. The working items are donated to the charity store for re-sale and the cash raised is used nationally to fund its life-saving work. The non-working electricals are recycled, generating recycling credits for the city council’s waste and recycling services. The Council will accept most small household electrical items including: computers, games consoles, music systems, vacuum cleaners, small kitchen appliances, hairdryers and phones. Unfortunately we cannot accept large items that cannot be easily lifted including: fridges, freezers, washing machines, and commercial or industrial items. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP NEWS, CAMPAIGNS AND UPDATES The new City Council visitor permit scheme The use of visitor permit is subject to terms and conditions. Please make sure that you have read and understood these as by using your permit you will be deemed to have accepted them, and you might receive a penalty charge notice, or have your permit rescinded if you use a permit incorrectly. Visitors' permit terms and conditions (24 Kb pdf) The visitor permit scheme offers both a ‘short stay’ permit, which allows for visits of up to four hours, and/ or up to sixty ‘day scratchcards permits’ per year, which are validated at the time of use, and are valid up to 10am the following day. Residents’ ‘short-stay’ visitor permit You can have a permit for any period between one and eighteen months (whole months only). The permit charge is calculated by adding the administration charge to the monthly parking fee. Admin Charge 4-hour 'short stay' visitor permit £10 Replacement clock £10 Monthly parking fee 75p Example cost for a 12 month permit £19 Permits are supplied with a ‘clock’ similar to that supplied to blue badge holders, that needs to be set to the time of arrival. Residents’ visitor ‘one-day’ scratchcards Up to sixty of these are available to each eligible household per year. They are valid for a year from the date of purchase, and are validated by scratching off the appropriate panels. Price each Residents’ Visitor ‘one-day’ £1 scratchcards (City Centre) Residents’ Visitor ‘one-day’ 50p scratchcards (outer area) Maximum issue per year (rolling twelve months) Minimum purchase 60 £10 (ten permits) 60 £10 (twenty permits) Please contact the City Council customer contact team for more information. Those with care needs. If you are visited regularly for a short period, your carer might have a permit on their own vehicle, and you will not need to worry. If, however, you have longer term care needs in your home, please contact the Council. They may be able to issue a permit to cover your needs. Please see our terms and condtions page for more information. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP REAL ACHIEVEMENTS ACROSS NORWICH 10 Reasons to back Labour in Norwich Your Labour City Council is now building the first new council properties in nearly 30 years. Working with others since 2008 Labour has delivered 2,238 new homes, including 655 new affordable homes, 300 of which were built on former council land. Despite the massive Tory/Lib Dem cuts in funding, Labour has protected significant frontline council services through effective partnership working and efficiency savings. Labour has focussed on seizing every chance to develop jobs, growth and investment into Norwich, through stimulating the local economy. Investing in infrastructure, unlocking growth; developing new homes, amenities and modern business accommodation are key to stimulating local labour markets and tackling unemployment. Labour work with partners and stakeholders, including businesses, New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP), Visit Norwich and the universities, to raise the city’s profile and attract visitors, students, new businesses and investment to the city. An example of this has been Labour’s support for the new engine testing facility for KLM UK at Norwich International Airport, helping to secure the future of 341 jobs. Labour set up the Community Wardens which cover Norwich, backed up with 100 mobile CCTV cameras, alley-gates and the use of powers to tackle anti social behaviour. Labour is running a 100% Council Tax benefit scheme – rather than a local scheme which the Tory government wanted. This would have drawn people on low incomes into paying Council Tax. Norwich City has been paying its staff a living wage for over 25 years but recently became an accredited Living Wage Council and is working towards ensuring that all it's contractors pay a Living wage to their staff. Labour is tackling homelessness in Norwich through the innovative Learning, Employment and Accommodation Project (LEAP). This gives unemployed homeless people the opportunity to learn new skills and get a job and a home. Labour has taken decisive action to bring over 100 empty homes back into use through the use of incentives and enforcement, including the use of compulsory purchase. Labour has more than doubled Norwich’s recycling rate in a two-year period, which is now at over 40 per cent. Norwich City Council is in the top 10 authorities in the country for reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. Norwich City Council was the first city in the UK to run a collective switching programme. This has enabled households across Norwich to easily get the best deal for their energy as part of the council’s work to reduce fuel poverty. The overall average saving per household was £171 a year with £501 being the maximum saving offered. 66% (two thirds) of those who signed up were offered with a saving on their utility bill. All this has been achieved at a time when the Tory-led Government has slashed council funding to give tax cuts to the rich. NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP ~ USEFUL CONTACTS 2015 / 2016 NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP CABINET 2015-16 LEADER CLLR ALAN WATERS [email protected] 07774 229776, 64 Heartsease Lane, Norwich, NR7 9NS Economic Development & Culture, Championing the City, Marketing and communications, Strategy and policy, Strategic partnerships, Council performance, Transformation and organisational development HR DEPUTY LEADER, HOUSING AND WELLBEING CLLR GAIL HARRIS [email protected] 01603 661102 / 07810223174, 6 Raven Yard, King Street. Norwich, NR1 1PQ Health and wellbeing, Housing options and homelessness, Housing management, Housing property, Tenant Liaison ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINBLE DEVELOPMENT CLLR BERT BREMNER [email protected] 01603 471134, 12 Morello Close, Norwich, Norfolk, NR4 7NF New homes building, Private sector housing, Sustainable Development, Environmental Strategy, Waste Strategy, Transport, Planning, Parking, Strategic Housing FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY CLLR VAUGHAN THOMAS [email protected] 07877885194, 6 Northumberland Street, Norwich, NR2 4EZ Financial and social inclusion, Living wage, Equality and diversity Digital inclusion, Housing Benefits and Council Tax Reduction scheme, Affordable warmth and Energy efficiency, Sport and Halls NEIGHBOURHOODS AND COMMUNITY SAFETY CLLR KEITH DRIVER [email protected] 01603 632320 / 07717503366 , 29 Mansfield Lane, NR12JT Neighbourhood development, Community enabling, Waste, Clean Streets, Refuse and Recycling, Graffiti Removal, Trees, Environmental protection, Licensing & the Night Time Economy, Public protection, community safety and safeguarding, Emergency planning Food Safety PARKS, MARKETS AND OPEN SPACES CLLR PAUL KENDRICK [email protected] 33 Boundary Road, Norwich, NR6 5JF Parks, Open Spaces, Play areas, Allotments, Cemeteries, Markets RESOURCES AND INCOME GENERATION CLLR MIKE STONARD [email protected] 500268, 16 Recorder Road, Norwich, NR1 1BP Finance and investment management, Commercial property, Asset management, Procurement, ICT, Democratic services, Member Development, Customer access, Customer services, Legal Revenues, Freedom of information NORWICH CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES ~ MAY 5TH 2016 The self nomination process for standing as a City Council candidate for May 2016 will open soon. Keep an eye out for updates from the Norwich Labour Party Secretary NORWICH NORTH Catton Grove Crome Mile Cross Sewell NORWICH SOUTH Bowthorpe Eaton Lakenham Mancroft Nelson Thorpe Hamlet Town Close University Wensum NORWICH CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP OFFICERS 2015-16 Leader of the Labour Group. Cllr Alan Waters Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. Cllr Gail Harris Group Chair. Cllr Marion Maxwell Vice Chair. Cllr Sue Sands Group Whip. Cllr Sally Button Deputy Whip. Cllr Patrick Manning Secretary. Cllr Paul Kendrick Treasurer. Cllr Bert Bremner Political Assistant. Sam Earl