I was a secret Council/Housing Association Agent…and I didn’t even know it!

As they say in Yorkshire, there’s nowt so queer as folk. You can’t please everyone. One of the lighter moments of our campaign against the sell off of our Council homes to a housing association was a series of text messages I received from one individual who clearly thought that Swindon Tenants Campaign was not up to the job. I’m afraid we couldn’t meet this individual’s exacting standards.

“Your leaflet through my door… was a poor attempt”. It should have concentrated on the question of “secure tenure” he thought.

I sent a text back saying why not get involved? Tell us how you think we could improve what we are doing. Back came the message: “If you guys don’t know what ur doing (and it seems you don’t) the Council will run rings round you…”

Pressing the government to reduce Swindon’s debt

I was on BBC radio earlier in the week (after the announcement of the Swindon Housing ballot*) along with Rob Buckland, the Swindon South MP. He spoke about trying to get the ‘self-financing’ debt for Swindon reduced and the borrowing level raised. It’s a bit late in the day, only about 3 weeks before the final ‘determination’ of the debt level by the government. He wasn’t in the studio so I didn’t get the chance to talk to him directly. Nevertheless, since he was making positive noises about trying to get some concession from the government, I rang up Rob’s office, and asked to speak to him.
He rang me back in good time and I suggested that, given the timescale, he might get onto the Minister asap. Rob agreed to try. I mentioned the fact that Birmingham had won a big cut in their debt. Their Council leader said that they argued that their debt should be reduced because they had nearly reached 100% Decent Homes Standard. We we might apply the same argument for Swindon, I said, because we had achieved the DHS in 2008. Rob agreed, and he said he would get back to me on any progress.

N30 strike in Swindon

We saw this morning the biggest gathering in Swindon probably since 1984. Difficult to judge the size of it, I thought at least 500, a BBC journalist reckoned 1,000. It was very lively, with the anger of public sector workers palpable. A good cross section of unions – the big ones, UNISON, UNITE, GMB, the teaching unikons NUT, NASWUT and ATL, the probationers union NAPO. Here are some pictures. Click on them to enlarge them.

A creative poster with a sense of history

Hard times in the recession – Housing Association Chief Executives average salary of £156,141

Bad news for Chief Executives of Housing Associations. Many of them have seen their salaries fozen. Inside Housing reports that:

“A chill wind has blown through the salaries of the UK housing sector’s head honchos. Inside Housing’s exclusive annual survey of chief executive salaries reveals that more than half the bosses of the largest 100 housing associations saw their total pay frozen solid, or shift by just 1 per cent.

The total remuneration of 44 chief executives – including basic salary, bonus and car allowance but not including employer pension contributions – was completely icebound, not budging at all between 2009/10 and 2010/11. A further 12 have experienced pay increases or decreases of a single percentage point. In total, 15 housing association heads have seen their remuneration fall.”

It must be tough for them. But before you cry in your beer read on.

This year’s chief executive salary survey by Inside Housing shows that 58 association bosses earned more than prime minister David Cameron’s £142,500 salary in 2010/11.

Inside Housing says that he average total chief executive salary has risen slightly by 1.8 per cent from £153,353 in 2009/10 to £156,141 in 2010/11.

I think most of them could just about get by with a pay freeze on money like this.

“For the second year running, Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of 34,982-home Anchor, is the highest earner. She received total payments of £331,250 – up 14 per cent on last year – made up of a basic salary of £275,000, a £15,000 car allowance and a £41,250 bonus.

Ms Ashcroft is the only chief executive to have broken the £300,000 mark, but David Cowans, chief executive of 62,034-home Places for People on £287,193; David Bennett, chief executive of 79,011-home Sanctuary Group, on £283,376; and Keith Exford, chief executive of 56,658-home Affinity Sutton, who earned £269,000 including a £33,000 bonus, are not far off.”

No wonder some of the senior officers in Swindon Council are so keen to flog off our houses to a Housing Association which some of them would TUPE over to. Be assured of one thing. When ‘transfers’ take place the wages of senior officers only go one way – upwards.

Radio programme

I was asked to appear on a local BBC Radio programme on the theme of “do we expect too much”. Essentially it was a discussion about the government’s austerity programme. There were three other panellists including Toothill GP Peter Swinyard.

You can listen to it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00ks9br

It will be available for 7 days.

Unemployment, austerity and the job crisis

The latest Labour Market statistics show that the coalition government’s strategy, in particular its austerity measures and public sector cuts, are worsening the economic situation. The government’s hope that the private sector would be able to create more than enough jobs to replace those lost in the public sector has proven to be groundless.

Not only is the unemployment rate the worst for 17 years – 2.57 million – but there are signs that structural, rather than episodic unemployment is likely to blight the lives of young people and the women who are being thrown out of their public sector jobs, for many years to come.

The Mendacity of Russell Holland, or “If the ballot is successful…”

This was a piece written on the website Talk Swindon.

The idea that the Tory Party is not seeking to influence tenants is preposterous. In all sorts of subtle and crude ways, they and the senior officers on the Council are utilising all the resources at their disposal to win a yes vote. They are presenting ‘facts’ in a partial way, whilst desperately attempting to hide certain other facts from tenants.

At a Swindon Tenants Voice Meeting the other evening Russell committed a Freudian slip. Speaking about what would happen if the tenants voted in favour of transfer he began with, “If the ballot is successful…”

J30 strikes in Swindon

One of the Research Council picket lines in Swindon today. Around 150 people attended a town centre rally (see below), bringing together strikers from the PCS, NUT and

ATL and supporters.

Fresh idea number 530 – Inappropriate words?

Always game for a challenge I visited Labour’s website and saw its ‘New Politics. Fresh ideas’ page. It seems the party is asking for fresh ideas. It says:

“Our country faces major challenges

Families are struggling from the effects of the recession, and are worried about its impact on wages and jobs. Our communities feel under pressure. And our young people are finding the ladders up which they hoped to climb to a better future being kicked away.

We need a fresh approach. Our challenge is to ensure we have the right policies to build a better, fairer country. Whatever matters to you, we want to hear your views.

Because we know that politicians don’t have all the answers – we have to work together as a country if we are going to find solutions to the problems we face.”

The site says that they have 529 ideas so far. Well, I thought, I have an idea for number 530. So I typed in the following:

“Commit Labour to a mass Council house building programme. Abandon support for Thatcher’s policy of ‘right to buy’.”

A curious thing happened. A message popped up saying ‘please remove any inappropriate words’. Was it the word Thatcher? I deleted it and tried again. Same message, ‘please remove any inappropriate words’?

Any ideas what the inappropriate word or words might be?

The patronage of power and the corruption of the gravy train

Miliband Junior, the leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, wants to end elections to the Shadow Cabinet by the Parliamentary Party. Opinions vary as to why. Some suggest he wants to get rid of disloyal Blairites, others that he wants to show he is a “strong” leader, imposing his will on the Party. “Labour sources” told the Independent that the move was not about Mr Miliband “trying to assert more control over his party” but about ending the “distracting cycle of Shadow Cabinet elections”. A senior Labour source said: “We don’t need the distraction of internal elections whilst we have a job to do of holding the Government to account and preparing ourselves for the next election.”