Agenda item

9.20 pm – Councillor Andrew Johnson moved, seconded by Councillor Harry Phibbs, the special motion standing in their names:      

“This Council notes and endorses the recent comments made by Leader of the Opposition, The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, that:

1.        “Those on the waiting list for council accommodation should move up that list if they are contributing to their communities, being good neighbours, and seeking work”

2.         “Need matters, but actually you should be rewarded with extra points, and councils around the country are starting to do this, and I want more of them to do it, if you for example work or contribute to your community."

This Council resolves:

1.         To continue to meet its statutory obligations in respect of urgent housing need, and;

2.         To enable social housing in Hammersmith & Fulham to be accessed by residents who work or make a contribution to the local community, and;

3.         To ensure that the future scheme of allocation for social housing will seek to give greater priority for those applicants who can demonstrate a positive community contribution. These will include:

·        Those in employment

·        Those looking to start their own business

·        Those undertaking certain training

·        Transfer applicants with a positive tenancy history with no previous rent arrears

·        Those who can demonstrate a contribution to the local community through certain types of voluntary work

·        Current and former members of the armed forces, including the Territorial Army.”

Speeches on the special motion were made by Councillors Andrew Johnson and Harry Phibbs (for the Administration).

Under Standing Order 15 (e) (vi), Councillor Stephen Cowan moved, seconded by Councillor Andrew Jones, an amendment to the motion as follows:

“Delete all after the final line of the third paragraph that reads “… for example, work to contribute to your community” and replace with:

• “This Council recognises that it is increasingly impossible to allocate homes if the political will to build and maintain local social housing isn’t there and the supply is being drastically cut. The Council therefore deplores the Conservative Administration’s approach to housing in this Borough which has seen them:

• Insulting all residents of social housing by branding them as locked into a “dependency and expectancy culture”
• Refusing to grant planning permission for any genuinely affordable social housing to rent since they were last made to do so when Ken Livingstone was London’s Mayor
• Planning to demolish up to a third of all Council housing stock
• Selling off much needed genuinely affordable council homes to property speculators instead or re-letting them to residents on the housing waiting list
• Encouraging property speculators to use “confidential” financial modelling as a means to allow them to avoid GLA and this Council’s own planning requirements to build affordable social housing
• Refusing to build any genuinely affordable homes to buy that gives people on average incomes opportunities to get onto the property ladder
• Wrongly making local residents on the housing waiting list accept Private Sector Landlord properties rather than a council home which is detrimental to their rights, forces them to need housing benefit support and can often lock them into the welfare trap
• Has introduced draconian homeless policies that has seen one Maladministration case and at least two settlements to avoid further maladministration judgements
• Allows property developers to build small Tokyo style micro flats that do not meet the Council’s own specifications of the type of homes needed in this Borough for home ownership and rent.
• Successfully lobby the government to adopt a policy of “near market rents” and an end to secure tenancies

The Council recognises that there is a developing housing crisis and calls for new housing policies that works for the majority of Borough residents seeking a home to buy or rent.”

Speeches on the amendment were made by Councillors Stephen Cowan and Andrew Jones (for the Opposition) before it was put to the vote:

FOR                            11

AGAINST                   26

NON VOTING            0

The motion was declared LOST.

Speeches on the substantive motion were made by Councillor Stephen Cowan (for the Opposition) and Councillor Stephen Greenhalgh (for the Administration).

Councillor Andrew Johnson (for the Administration) made a speech winding up the debate before the substantive motion was put to the vote:

FOR                            26

AGAINST                   0

NON VOTING            11

The motion was declared CARRIED.

9.52 pm – RESOLVED:

This Council notes and endorses the recent comments made by Leader of the Opposition, The Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP, that:

1.        “Those on the waiting list for council accommodation should move up that list if they are contributing to their communities, being good neighbours, and seeking work”

2.         “Need matters, but actually you should be rewarded with extra points, and councils around the country are starting to do this, and I want more of them to do it, if you for example work or contribute to your community."

This Council resolves:

1.         To continue to meet its statutory obligations in respect of urgent housing need, and;

2.         To enable social housing in Hammersmith & Fulham to be accessed by residents who work or make a contribution to the local community, and;

3.         To ensure that the future scheme of allocation for social housing will seek to give greater priority for those applicants who can demonstrate a positive community contribution. These will include:

·        Those in employment

·        Those looking to start their own business

·        Those undertaking certain training

·        Transfer applicants with a positive tenancy history with no previous rent arrears

·        Those who can demonstrate a contribution to the local community through certain types of voluntary work

·        Current and former members of the armed forces, including the Territorial Army.