Housing benefit system is failing Southampton’s most vulnerable tenants

Gordon Brown’s changes to housing benefit rules are harming the most vulnerable tenants and reducing the availability of affordable accommodation.

Last year, Labour Ministers introduced a new ‘Local Housing Allowance’, with housing benefit being direct to the tenant rather than to the landlord. But vulnerable tenants often struggle to manage their finances and spend their rent money on other things. Homeless charity, Crisis, has warned that this can result in rent arrears and eventually homelessness.

Landlords who were previously happy to take on tenants on housing benefit have suffered from non-payment of rent. Many landlords now routinely refuse to let to Local Housing Allowance claimants. According to the National Landlords Association, half of all landlords are reluctant to lend to tenants on Local Housing Allowance.

11,662 people in Southampton are on local housing waiting lists, and a sizeable proportion of them are on housing benefit. Housing waiting lists have risen by 401 per cent under this Labour Government – reflecting the shortage of affordable accommodation.

Conservatives have pledged to change Labour’s failed policy. Tenants will be able to choose whether to have their housing allowance paid direct to their landlord. This will increase the availability of quality low-cost housing.

Labour’s new housing benefit rules are failing the most vulnerable in our society. Some tenants struggle to manage their finances and are getting into arrears and trouble as a result. Landlords are put off from renting to those on benefit because it is affecting their businesses, slashing the availability of decent places to live.

As a city councillor in Southampton I am responsible for finance and have overseen the implementation of the new housing benefits system locally. Southampton like other local councils have had to implement new system imposed on them by Government.

I have had landlords coming to me telling me first hand what a disaster the new system is proving. It is causing real problems for local landlords as well as hurting those vulnerable tenants who are most in need. I am also told that it has become a fraudster’s charter.

Tenants should have greater choice, and be free to specify that their housing benefit should go direct to the landlord. I have been lobbying the Conservative Party for some time on this matter and I am delighted that we will reform the system if they form the next Government.

In the meantime I will be working closely with council officers and landlords to find ways to make the current botched system work better.

No To Housing on Redbridge Lane

I am objecting to a planning application for 350 homes along Redbridge Lane.

My colleagues, Cllr Paul Holmes and Cllr Ben Walker have written formally to Test Valley Borough Council opposing the development.

Redbridge Lane is a very narrow country lane and is part of the local gap between Nursling and Southampton. It is also designated as countryside under Test Valley's local planning policies.

I think it is very important that we maintain the local gap between the city and Nursling and I think the traffic implications would be severe for the local area.

A Great Turn Out For Our Troops

Southampton did our troops proud today, turning out in huge numbers to greet the men and women serving in the 17 Port and Maritime Regiment.

The Marchwood based unit which has recently returned from Afghanistan, marched from Mayflower Park, up the High Street, through the Bargate before finally lining up at the forecourt of the Civic Centre. They were met by Princess Anne the Princess Royal who spoke at length with the soldiers and presented them with their service medals.

Lottery Boost for St James' Park!

St James' Park in Shirley is set for a £1.5m makeover after the announcement this week that the park has been successful in winning lottery funding.

The plans for the park include refurbishing the former air raid shelter to provide a café, community rooms, a ranger base and toilets.

The scheme will improve play equipment and provide features for all ages while popular tennis courts will be refurbished and there will be improved access to the park.

£1.1m from the lottery will be added to the £400,000 being invested by the city council.

St James' Park was picked by the lottery to receive the funding largely because of the huge amount of community backing for the scheme. The Friends of St James' Park have over 500 members and local people have drawn up the plans and will also be involved in the redevelopment of the park. Improvement works will be completed by 2011 in time for the 100th anniversary of the opening of the park.

Sorry is not good enough - House of Commons Committee should have ordered Jacqui Smith to repay expenses

The decision by local Labour MP, Alan Whitehead not to require Jacqui Smith to repay falsely claimed parliamentary expenses was quite wrong.

Mr Whitehead serves on the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges and is one of 5 Labour MPs who asked merely for an apology from Ms Smith, refusing to call for her to repay up to £116,000 of expenses wrongly claimed by her between 2004 -2009. The committee’s decision followed an investigation by John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, who was scathing of the former Home Secretary’s behaviour.

Ms Smith claimed that her main home was a house in Peckham, a property owned by her sister where she used a room when staying in London. This allowed her to claim expenses and allowances on a ‘second home’, the four bedroom family home in the West Midlands.

Mr Whitehead was quite wrong to let his colleague off the hook. Jacqui Smith has been proved to have acted wrongly. She has been misleading about which house was really her main home and where she spent most of her time and Police evidence directly conflicted with her own account.

Any jury in the land would have said pay back the money. Having a bunch of MPs of the same party make the decision is like picking a prisoner’s cell mates and asking them to act as his jury.

It’s a pretty clear cut case to me. I think the committee should have ordered to her to pay back any expenses that were wrongly claimed.

An Evening Out With The Street Pastors

I had the opportunity to spend an evening out in the town centre and in Bedford Place with the Street Pastors on Friday.

I had heard very good reports about the work of the Street Pastors beforehand, however on seeing them in action I think they are doing a tremendous job.

I certainly feel that the team made a big and positive difference to the lives of several people that evening.

I was also very impressed by how interlinked the Street Pastors are with other services; the Police and the CCTV control room. Also there seemed to be an excellent relationship with the door staff at the various pubs and clubs. I noticed too how helpful it was for the Police to have the Street Pastors deal with the low level disturbances, which then frees the Police up to deal with more serious instances.

The public really value the work and the presence of the Street Pastors. Despite only being up and running in the city for a short time they have a great deal of recognition and are making a huge impact.

I am Committed to Improving and Investing in Our NHS

With a General Election fast approaching it is important that local people in Southampton understand my position and that of the Conservative Party on the NHS.

“The Conservative Party stands full square behind the NHS ... We back it, we are going to expand it, we have ring-fenced it and said that it will get more money under a Conservative government, and it is our Number one mission to improve it.” These are the words of David Cameron and I back him one hundred per cent.

Conservatives are committed to real terms increases in health spending year on year. David Cameron has been clear that there will be no cuts to NHS front line services under the Conservatives. With an aging population and increasing demand for health services I think this is critical.

Conservatives would trust professionals and provide the right incentives for them and to put patient choice at the heart of the NHS. A Conservative Government would:

• Give patients choice over their GP and which hospital they go to.
• Give more freedom to existing healthcare providers. We want to give NHS Trusts far more freedom to innovate and to adjust the way they provide services in response to their patients’ wishes locally.
• End box-ticking and process targets. Instead we would focus on improving the overall results of people’s treatment in the NHS.
• Stop political interference.
• Strengthen the role of the Care Quality Commission.
• Make prevention a priority.
  

Public health is central to our plan to help Britain become a healthier nation. To do this, we would help people live healthy lifestyles, develop a responsibility deal with business and build a stronger public health infrastructure.

There will be a choice at the next election and local people should know that I am committed to improving and investing in our NHS and protecting front line jobs in our local hospitals.

Weekly Political Diary

The last week has been a busy one, dealing with Council matters and meeting with resident and community groups:

Monday 21st September
- Council meetings, including a Cabinet meeting to support Bitterne Park school in its bid to provide a sixth form.

Tuesday 22nd September
- Helped with the launch of 50 new recycling bins in the city centre in partnership with Coca Cola.
- Meeting with the Federation of Small Businesses.
- Meeting with Southampton University's new Vice Chancellor.

Wednesday 23rd September
- Attended the inaugural meeting of the new Maybush Triangle Tenants and Residents Association.

Thursday 24th September
- Governors meeting at Freemantle Infants School.

Friday 25th September
- Breakfast briefing on the Port Master Plan with Associated British Ports and Williams Shipping
- Met with Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell MP and with the Shirley based charity, The Sailors' Society.
- Mobile ward surgeries and constituency casework: meeting with residents in Redbridge and Freemantle.

Saturday 26th September
- Mobile ward surgeries and constituency casework: meeting with residents in Shirley and Redbridge.

Meeting With The Sailors' Society

Jeremy pictured with Andrew Mitchell MP and Robert Adams, The Sailors' Society Chief Executive

On Friday I met with Shadow International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell MP to hear about the excellent work done by a locally based charity, the Sailors' Society.

Southampton is home to one of the biggest and busiest cargo ports in the country. It is also the UK's premier port for cruise ship departures. As such huge numbers of sailors stop off in the city, many coming from developing countries and often out of contact wih their families for weeks at a time.

Based in Shirley Road, the Sailors' Society provides a personal lifeline for seafarers, supporting them when they step ashore.

Labour Should Stop Undermining the City's Schools and Colleges

Southampton's Labour Party seem determined to undermine the city's schools and colleges.

In direct oppostion to their national party position they are anti the city's two new academies. They would send back the £35m secured by Conservatives on the city council to rebuild these schools. They did everything they could to make life difficult for the two academies in their first year; yet despite all their negativity the academies have delivered improved GCSE results for local children.

Southampton MP John Denham is directly responsible for the colleges funding fiasco. Mr Denham pulled the plug on millions of pounds of funding to improve Taunton's, City College and Itchen College. The Government is still refusing to refund the money that the colleges spent on preparing for the promised rebuilds. This is money that should be returned to the colleges so that they can spend it on improving the education of local young people.

Now Labour Councillors are trying to block Bitterne Park School from developing a sixth form. This would provide extra choice for students in Southampton and would help cater for the increasing numbers staying on to study post sixteen. Bitterne Park has been awarded £6m for new sixth form facilities and has received the backing of Conservative Councillors. Yet Labour are doing all they can to put obstacles in the way of the school.

Abandon Fluoride Plans and Invest In NHS Dentistry

It is clear that an overwhelming majority of residents in Southampton do not wish to have fluoride added to their water.

The NHS’ initial consultation attracted 10,000 responses, with 72 per cent against. In a separate and later phone poll of 2,000 residents, 38 per cent opposed fluoridation compared to 32 per cent in favour.

Whichever way you cut it local people have made it clear that they don’t want fluoride.

In a democratic, free country we should respect the views of majority. The NHS should therefore abandon their fluoridation plans for the Southampton,

No one would deny that state of dental care in the country and in particular in Southampton needs urgent attention. Nationally tooth decay is now the third most common reason that children are admitted to hospital. The statistics for some parts of Southampton are truly shocking. However there are plenty of alternatives to fluoride.

An incoming Conservative Government would seek to transform NHS dentistry from a service that is currently in seemingly terminal decline to one which delivers high standards of care to everyone who needs it.

There needs to be a far greater emphasis on preventative care and other innovations that improve oral health. The Conservatives would remove perverse incentives, such being paid the same price to put in one filling as for ten, that drive dentists to provide unnecessary or incomplete treatments.

Conservatives also propose restoring access to dentists for the million people who have lost it due to the Government’s botched reforms, providing long term health and cost benefits. As capacity builds, dentists will move to patient registration, strengthened by giving people access to new information about the results dentists achieve, empowering choices.

By using money that is currently spent on carrying out unnecessary treatments we would instead reintroduce dental screening for children in schools, so that children aged five would have their oral health addressed.

We would also give dentists the freedom to charge patients who repeatedly miss appointments. Finally we would ensure that taxpayer trained dentists work for the NHS for at least five years.

Free Bus Travel In Southampton This Weekend!

Black Watch is one of nine cruise liners docking in Southampton this weekend

Southampton's Conservative Council is teaming up with local bus companies to lay on free bus travel this coming Saturday and Sunday.

The city will play host to nine cruise liners and nearly 50,000 passengers this weekend. This will provide a huge boost for the local economy, potentially bringing millions of pounds into the area.

It is estimated that an extra 12,000 vehicles will be on the road this weekend and the City Council is keen to do all it can to cut congestion and keep the city moving. By laying on free buses it is also hoped that more people will be encouraged to use public transport in the future.

Bus travel is free in Southampton until 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. The journeys will be free as long as they start and finish within the city’s boundaries.

The Future is Bright for Southampton

This week Conservatives on the City Council took the decision to award a contract for a new street lighting partnership for Southampton.

Many of city’s 28,000 streetlights are very old and in a poor state due to years of underinvestment by previous Labour and Lib Dem Council administrations.

More than half of the street lights will replaced in the first few years of the new contract.

In addition to the extra council investment Conservative Councillors have secured nearly £30m of inward investment from the Treasury.

As well as good quality, well maintained streetlighting for the next 25 years, Southampton will have better quality, more efficient lighting, helping reduce road accidents and cutting crime and the fear of crime in the city.

Recycling Boost for Ocean Village

Earlier this week I attended the launch of a new recycling facility outside the Tescos at Ocean Village. The new machine, which takes plastic bottles and tin cans and shreds them into tiny pieces, is one of ten trial units being piloted by Tesco around the country. Southampton was chosen because of its excellent green credentials and the strong commitment that the City Council has to recycling.

If successful more of these machines will be rolled out across the city and elsewhere. As well as helping the environment, Tesco shoppers will be able to pick up points on their Club Cards!

Southampton needs more powers to manage Houses in Multiple Occupation

From meeting many residents associations over recent years I know that local people are concerned about the numbers and concentrations of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in Southampton.

Whilst HMOs play an important role in the city economy, meeting housing needs and providing choice, high concentrations are often associated with anti social behaviour, noise nuisance, parking problems and the loss of family housing.

Southampton is a student city with a growing student population. Also as a port city there is a substantial transient population. Given that, there is a considerable demand for HMO accommodation. However this demand needs to be careful managed to protect the character of communities and the residents who live there. In my view the objective should be the creation of balanced communities.

As it stands councils like Southampton have very few powers to manage HMOs. It is great news that the Government is now conducting a review on possible changes to planning laws relating to HMOs. These changes could give Southampton City Council much greater powers. The Government review has come after years of hard work and lobbying by local residents groups and the City Council.

The Communities and Local Government department published its ‘Studentification Paper’ over a year ago which argued strongly in favour of the Government changing the planning laws. It also highlighted the excellent work being done in Southampton by the City Council and the two universities to tackle issues relating to HMOs.

Currently planning permission is not required to convert a family house into an HMO. One of the options in the Government’s consultation is to require planning permission. If the change goes through the Council would be able to refuse inappropriate applications or attach specific condition to any planning approvals that are granted. Such conditions might include a requirement for adequate bin storage or parking provision. Such conditions are a regular feature for new blocks of flats but because of current planning laws they aren’t required for HMOs. Even garages and quite minor extensions require planning permission, so why not HMOs? In Northern Ireland HMOs require planning permission and it works well there, so why not here?

This is a change which I have been campaigning for, for some considerable time. In parts of Portswood and the Polygon now, some roads are already over 90% HMOs. It is therefore important that the Government acts quickly and proactively.

I have written to the Government pushing for urgent action.

Lake Park Improvements

Residents in Freemantle are being asked their views on how they would like to see Lake Park improved.

Yesterday I went along to the park to meet members of Groundwork Solent, the environmental charity who are leading the project in conjunction with the City Council.

£30,000 has been set aside by the Council for the improvements. When planning permission is granted for larger developments such as new houses and flats the developers must contribute funds towards improving the local area. The money for the park improvements comes from this pot of developer funds. In addition, Groundwork will aim to top it up by drawing in grants from other sources.

Across the city the Conservative Council is allocating more funding to local parks. The improvements to Lake Park will follow similar such works to Portswood Rec and Daisy Dip in Swaythling.

Lake Park is popular for families and dog walkers and I would like to see the works focus on improving the general appearance of the park, an emphasis on making it safer and also perhaps providing information on its history.

Policing Priorities in Banister Park and Bevois Valley

Cllr Michael Ball and I attended the first Bevois Valley and Banister Park Neighbourhood Panel Meeting this evening at Bevois Town Primary School.

It was a good opportunity to meet with the beat police, local people and partnership agencies to discuss policing priorities. It was also interesting to hear the good work that the police are doing in the Banister Park and Bevois Valley area.

The police are rolling out similar meetings across Southampton and it is a good way for local people to help set priorities in their communities and ensure faster response times from the police. This evening was the second such meeting that I have been to. Earlier in the month Cllr Vincenzo Capozzoli and I met with the St Denys Neighbourhood Team.

Civil Service Sports Ground Acquisition

The Council is moving to compulsorily purchase the Civil Service Sports Ground in Freemantle. The decision was taken by the Conservative Cabinet on Monday and marks a concrete step towards bringing the former sports field into public ownership. It has been a long standing ambition of mine to return the land to community use. I am hopeful that within the next year it will be owned by the City Council and open to use by local people and schools in the area.

State Of The Art New Sports Facilities At Test Playing Fields

The layout for the new sports facility at Test Playing Fields (click to enlarge)

The Conservative Council is pushing ahead with plans to build state of the art new sports facilities at Test Playing Fields (off Lower Brownhill Road). This will be delivered in partnership with Southampton Solent University and the Football Foundation.

The new community facilities will include a synthetic turf pitch, a Multi User Games Area and associated changing rooms and parking. Holy Family Roman Catholic Primary will benefit from free time tabled use of the Multi User Games Area.

I was pleased to agree the Solent University lease on Monday. The City Council already has a superb sports partnership with Solent, where their students run extra hours of sport for children on the west of the city. The next step is this fantastic new facility which will benefit the local community and nearby schools.

Council Depot Moving to Dock Gate 20

The Council today took the decision to purchase land in the docks near Dock Gate 20. The Council intends to use the site for a new town depot, providing a recycling centre and base for Council bin lorries.

The existing Chapel based facility is in an appalling state and needs considerable investment. Test Lane was one site being considered as part of the study and residents were advised by the Council in the interests of openness. However, it has now been ruled out as land at Dock Gate 20 was considered to be more suitable and better value for money. The land has been acquired from the private owners and development will likely take place by 2011.

Due to commercial confidentiality the Council was unable to discuss Dock Gate 20 before now. Now the deal has gone through I am delighted that Council can now reveal that Dock Gate 20 rather than Test Lane is the preferred site.

The decision is a victory for local Councillor Paul Holmes who has been campaigning hard on behalf of the Old Redbridge community.