GENERAL CONFERENCE 2015 – MOTION 1: HOUSING

GENERAL CONFERENCE 2015 – MOTION 1: HOUSING 

Branches will recall that Conference unanimously adopted Motion 1 on the subject housing in the following terms:

 

“The NEC is instructed to start an affordable housing campaign, working with CWU Youth, the equality sections and other trade unions where possible. This should focus on affordable housing that families, as well as workers on low incomes and wages can afford.

 

Additionally the following must be pursued –

 

• Increasing investment in genuinely affordable housing including from government, pension funds and ethical investors.

• Affordable housing for families and workers on low income.

• Bringing down the costs of renting from private landlords, increasing security of tenancy and quality.

• Lifting the restrictions on local government preventing council house building and working with other social landlords to increase the stock of affordable housing available.

• Maintain existing social/council housing stock by limiting the right to buy

 

The campaign is not limited to these points and the NEC could use other relevant issues that supplement the points above. Bringing down housing costs would in effect be one of the best pay rises we could deliver for members.”

 

This paper seeks to bring branches up-to-date on developments since the adoption of that motion.

 

Branches will recall that prior to Motion 1 being adopted, CWU Youth had already adopted housing as a key priority area (indeed Motion 1 was one of the two motions from the 2015 Youth Conference forwarded to General Conference).

 

This led to the launch to an internet-based campaign designed to highlight the lack of regulation and generally low standards in the private rented sector under the header of Unscrupulous Landlords. The campaign also sought to encourage members to give details of their particular “bad stories” which could be used to pursue the campaign’s objectives.

 

As part of this campaigning work, CWU Youth had established a good working relationship with campaign group Generation Rent. Generation Rent and CWU Youth representatives have shared platforms on a number of occasions over the last 6 months.

 

Shortly after Annual Conference, Generation Rent approached CWU Youth to see what support might be possible for a publication they had compiled entitled “A Queen’s Speech for Housing”. This was designed to pull together the various strands of the housing debate into one overarching document that could be presented as a programme for resolving the current housing crisis.

 

When drafted, the document anticipated a hung parliament in which advancing a constructive policy towards housing would become a key element in the post-electoral horse-trading.

 

CWU Youth provided an introduction to the publication and it was distributed on the basis that it had been supported by CWU Youth. This was useful in consolidating the widespread view of the CWU’s support for and leadership in this policy area. The Queen’s Speech for Housing document is attached to this letter to the NEC for ease of reference.

 

Following the General Election, further informal discussions took place with Generation Rent about how the CWU’s policy objectives outlined in Motion 1 could be pursued.

 

It was agreed that a joint approach to those MPs who were successful in the ballot for Private Members Bills would be fruitful.  

 

(Generally speaking, those MPs who come in the top 10 of those essentially drawn out of a hat have the chance of presenting a Private Members Bill of their choice to parliament. Those MPs favoured by the ballot can expect to receive many approaches from interest groups seeking a sponsor for a Bill.)

 

The Private Members Bill ballot was announced on 4 June and it became apparent that Karen Buck MP (Labour, Westminster North and Regents Park) would be approachable on the question of intervention in the housing market.

 

A meeting therefore took place with Ms Buck and her research assistant to explore the possibility of her support for either a Private Members Bill on rent capping or a Private Members Bill to enshrine much higher standards and regulation of the private rental sector. (These are summarised in section 5 of the Queen’s Speech document).

 

At the meeting for the CWU were Simon Sapper, National Officer; John Colbert, Campaigns Manager and James Mills, Press Officer.

 

As a result, we reached an agreement with Ms Buck that she would indeed sponsor a Bill on regulation of the rental sector. In her view, there was a very realistic possibility of this Private Members Bill clearing all the parliamentary hurdles and actually becoming enacted as legislation.

 

The Homes (Fit for Habitation) Bill was consequently lodged with the parliamentary authorities by 23 June 2015.

 

Next Stages

 

There are a number of immediate next stages that we can identify.
The first is for the precise terms of the Private Members Bill to be drafted. This is primarily a job of parliamentary drafts men/women. They will take the policy objectives that Karen Buck provides to them (which she in turn will get from us and Generation Rent) and convert them into parliamentary language.

 

The Bill will then be tabled for a first reading which is usually a formality and then a more substantive debate under a second reading. Because these debates always take place on a Friday morning there is a particular challenge in ensuring that sufficient MPs are in the Chamber for the Bill to have a reasonable chance of success.

 

The first reading is likely to take place before parliament rises for the summer recess in late July with the second reading probably in November 2015.

 

As part of the process of building support for the CWU’s campaign on housing in general and the Private Members Bill in particular, the possibility of fringe events at the TUC Congress and the Labour Party Conference are being actively explored.

 

Part of that exploration is to see what support may be possible from our jointly owned law firm, Unionline. The Unionline board has already expressed the suggestion that they would like to become more involved in supporting some of the union’s key policy objectives. This is a not unknown attitude for a law firm to adopt as can be seen with the Unionline’s most prominent rivals, Thompsons.

 

However, through the Head of Legal Services, we are seeking to discuss with Unionline something more than just financial support in the form of sponsorship for fringe events. We would also wish to explore with Unionline to what extent they could adjust the portfolio of services they offer their customers to embrace some of the key concerns of tenants and then expand that further to embrace homeowners as well.

 

This would mean that there is a close synergy between the policy objectives we are seeking to achieve through Karen Buck’s Private Members Bill and the expertise and service we offer our members and their families through our jointly owned law firm.

 

There is an added community of interest here because Karen Buck, as reported above, is supported by the GMB who are partner-owners of Unionline.

 

Summary

 

Branches can see from the foregoing report that no time has been lost in attempting to progress the issues so clearly adopted by our conference as a policy priority. Further reports will be supplied on a regular basis.

 

Any queries on this LTB should be directed to Simon Sapper, Assistant Secretary, at CWU Headquarters.

 

Yours sincerely

 
 

Dave Ward

General Secretary  

 
 
COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION