Nov 252012
 
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Let me explain.

I’ve been away for a couple of days in a hotel room.  The hotel was fine but it wasn’t my home.  I wrote a couple of pieces whilst I was there.  The pieces were more reflective than has been my custom of late.  We need more reflection.

At least, I need more reflection.

I’ve just arrived back home and sitting back in my familiar surroundings, anything but luxurious but – even so – comforting and family-underlining, the rain pitter-pattering on the sitting-room window, the recorded football on the tele, so it is that I am reminded of the great importance of familiarity in general: because for our politicians and rulers, you see, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt but – instead – too much confidence on the part of their subjects.

To feel safe in your castle as all Englishmen and women are supposed to feel is the greatest challenge to all political rulers who aim to desegregate a tapestry of national expectations.  Whilst you fear losing the very soul of your life, you will be cowed into almost any kind of behaviour.  But if you feel your loved ones are protectable behind the four walls of your home, then almost anything may be contemplated.  I can, in this sense, understand those who argue against gun laws – not, I hastily add, because I believe in anyone bearing arms at all but, rather, essentially because I appreciate now more than ever the importance of feeling permanently in control of one’s own destiny.

Which is what I think most profoundly is behind the assertions of such a constituency.

And that sense of control is what Disability Living Allowance aimed to provide; that sense of control is what the NHS which kept the wolf from the door was looking to add; that sense of control is what many of those top-down policies of empowerment we berated New Labour for engineering simply steamed ahead and implemented, day after day, to a wider benefit of us all.

To want to eliminate all those things is, in a sense, the UK equivalent of a rampant US desire for nationwide gun control.  Our “guns” – what allowed the British to protect themselves from the elements – are inventions such as the NHS, Legal Aid and the Welfare State.

As well as a wider network of social-care instincts.

Thus we come to understand that home is a shield which rightly emboldens us all – and DLA, the NHS, Sure Start and all were astonishing extensions of those shields I allude to which allowed us to believe, precisely, in better: better ways of seeing, thinking and living.

I tweeted rather sadly this morning the following sequence of ideas:

Did civilisation get too expensive for those who rule? Is that what this Coalition is all about? Reducing the costs of Western compassion?

And to me, it doesn’t half feel as if this is the case.

They can’t, of course, say that universal education has created a mass of highly intellectualised people which perhaps in many matters knows better than our governors.  They can’t admit this because they are tied hand and foot to the concept of meritorious pyramidal organisation.  Those at the top must be better than those at the bottom, because otherwise those at the top couldn’t be at the top.  It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy which, if questioned, would lead to all kinds of awful potentialities: maybe, for example, an utter and total reworking of that aforementioned – and for me, quite dreaded – pyramid of often dysfunctional relationships.

And the Lord forbid that such eventualities might take place.

*

Chris has a pertinent observation today, when he says:

[...] there’s a belief that the only knowledge that matters is direct experience; Tim seems to think that only the poor can truly understand poverty.This is doubtful. And what’s even more doubtful – in fact plain wrong – is that direct experience of poverty is necessary to know which policies are best to relieve poverty.

Something which I’d be inclined to agree wholeheartedly with.  Being evidence-based is far more important to the justice and fairness one can bring to bear on a matter than whether one was born rich or poor.  Being a person of kindly outlook – with an awareness of others, an empathetic personality and the ability to actively listen – are all far more useful to one’s ability to reach out than whether or not one has suffered personally the disadvantages of deprivation.

Such disadvantages may drive one unremittingly to help others, of course.  On the other hand, they could just as easily encourage us to trample whenever the opportunity presented itself.

It is in the essence of an individual where we must judge people’s integrity – rather than in terms of the origin of the acts themselves.

And so Chris is equally interesting when he concludes with these final biting lines:

It is not the background of Cameron, Freud and Osborne that stops them making effective anti-poverty policy. It is their ignorance and ideology.

Only I wonder if it is truly ignorance and ideology.  To be honest, I think it might be the biggest and most unpleasant practical joke of latterday political times.  A humongous practical joke, in fact.

For them, we are simply buttons to be pressed.  And if you really want my opinion, whilst I admire all that New Labour achieved, I’m going to be blaming Blairism, iPods and technological gadgets equally for this unending robotisation of how a society must function.

Yes.

Social mobility means you walk the streets with your frozen hands clasping firmly a PAYG phone.

Social mobility means you can never know if your parents will ever see their grandchildren.

Social mobility means you will never live in a face-to-face community again.

Social mobility – of this kind, I mean – leads us to a desperate scrabbling for a smidgen of human warmth.

And without that warmth, we have no hearth.  And without a hearth, we have no home.  And without a home, we have no shield.  And without a shield, above all we are as defenceless as the men and women who once occupied the caves.

Oh yes.  We have running-water and central-heating, but without the wherewithal to properly purchase it, it all becomes a mirage.

Hold on to that home.

Hold on to that shield.

Embolden yourself before it’s just – infamously – too late.


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Feb 202012
 
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I’m not sure this is applicable the world over – but someone claims it’s possible in Spain:

Si estás en peligro de perder tu piso por no pagar la hipoteca, hay una solución totalmente legal: Alquila el piso a algún familiar (que no aparezca en la hipoteca) por un precio simbólico de 1 ó 5€ al mes durante 100 años y registra el contrato en el Registro de la Propiedad. El banco se quedará el piso, pero no podrá echar al inquilino gracias a ese contrato y tan sólo le tendrá que pagar el alquiler simbólico al mes. Es totalmente legal, hasta que los bancos consigan cambiar la legislación, pero es la mejor solución a los embargos injustos que están haciendo. Cuanto más gente lo sepa, más efecto tendrá…IMPORTANTE

Which loosely translated, runs as follows:

If you’re in danger of losing your flat because you can’t pay the mortgage, there’s a totally legal solution: Rent the flat to some family member (who doesn’t appear on the mortgage) for a symbolic rent of 1 or 5€ a month during 100 years and register the contract in the Register of Property.  The flat will revert to the bank, but the bank won’t be able to throw out the tenant thanks to the contract and the latter will only have to pay the symbolic monthly rent.  It’s totally legal, until the banks manage to change the law, but it’s the best solution to the unjust repossessions that are taking place.  The more people who know, the better the result … IMPORTANT

What do you think?  Anyone know if this is applicable in the UK?


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Feb 162012
 
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Cameron on what makes the United Kingdom such a great deal:

“We are stronger together than we ever would be apart …” in what he describes as “… a warm and stable home.”

Tell that to False Economy, as of February 16th, 2012:

Housing cuts

See other sectors »

Yorkshire Housing Foundation

Charity. Stay Put equipment and adaptations, plus Home Improvement Agency service for older people.Local authority funding cut: …

Support Care Ltd

Charity. Funding for accommodation-based mental health service. Local authority funding cut: £20,013.1. Details: Received …

Stonham Housing Association

Charity. Provider of housing and support for vulnerable and socially excluded people. Local authority funding cut: £51,701. …

St Anne’s Shelter & Housing Action

Charity. Supporting people with learning disabilities, mental health problems, and people with drug or alcohol problems.Local …

South Yorkshire Housing Association

Charity. Manages more than 6,000 homes throughout the Sheffield City region, providing care and supported housing. Funded under …

Somali Mental Health Project

Charity. Funding for mental health floating support servivce. Local authority funding cut: £5,124.36. Details: Received …

Sheffield YWCA

Charity. Funding for accommodation based services for young people. Local authority funding cut: £25,862.72. Details: Received …

Salvation Army

Charity. Funding for accommodation-based homelessness service. Local authority funding cut: £42,450.58. Details: Received …

Roundabout

Charity. Provides shelter, support and life skills to Sheffield’s young homeless.Local authority funding cut: £111,602.92. …

Refugee Housing Association

Charity. Accommodation-based service for refugees. Local authority funding cut: £101,079.2. Details: Received a total of …

Pitsmoor Youth Housing Trust

Charity. Supported housing accommodation provider in Sheffield for homeless 16-21 year old single young people, including …

Phoenix House

Charity. Care home for people with alcohol and substance abuse problems. Local authority funding cut: £25,970.4. Details: …

Credit Union

Charity. Funding to provide loans to prevent homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £50,000. Details: Received £50,000 in …

Ben’s Centre

Charity. Provides a ‘damp’ day service to street drinkers. Local authority funding cut: £2,250. Details: Received £45,000 in …

Action Housing Association

Charity. Works to enable vulnerable people to establish a home and live responsibly in society. Funding cut affects …

Doorstep

Charity. Offers drop-in centre for young homeless people aged 16-25, information on benefits, education and training, finding …

Christian Action Resource Enterprise

Charity. Charity located in North East Lincolnshire dedicated to relieving poverty, hardship and distress to those sectors of …

Nacro

Charity. T4 Project – helps people who are engaged in treatment for either drug or alcohol use to access good supported …

Foundation Housing

Charity. Charity working with offenders, the homeless, women who are victims of domestic abuse and young people at risk.Local …

Equity Housing Group

Charity. Not-for-profit registered social landlord providing affordable homes for those in need of housing and those on low or …

Action Housing and Support

Charity. Works to enable vulnerable people to establish a home and live responsibly in society. Local authority funding cut: …

Stonham Housing Association

Charity. Funding for St George’s Resettlement. Local authority funding cut: £28,382. Details: Received a total of £464,551 in …

Coventry Cyrenians

Charity. Provides services to homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Coventry and Warwickshire to empower them to …

Beat the Cold

Charity. Aims to reduce the incidence of fuel poverty and cold-related illness. Informs, advises and makes referrals for …

Viridian Housing

Charity. Housing association providing social housing. Local authority funding cut: £91,952. Details: Received £91,952 in …

Sandwell Homes

Charity. Arms Length Management Organisation. Local authority funding cut: £700,000. Details: Received £1,357,700 in 2010/11; …

Sanctuary Housing

Charity. Local authority funding cut: £47,722. Details: Received £47,722 in 2010/11; cut by £23,861 in 2011/12, and by a …

Midland Heart

Charity. Housing and regeneration group. Local authority funding cut: £6,838. Details: Received £6,838 in 2010/11; cut by …

Jephson Housing

Charity. Housing association. Local authority funding cut: £60,210. Details: Received £60,210 in 2010/11; cut by £30,105 in …

Harborne

Charity. Local authority funding cut: £45,390. Details: Received £45,390 in 2010/11; cut by £22,695 in 2011/12, and by a …

Black Country Housing Group

Charity. Local authority funding cut: £113,292. Details: Received £113,292 in 2010/11; cut by £56,646 in 2011/12, and by a …

ASRA Housing

Charity. Housing, care and support provider.Local authority funding cut: £59,594. Details: Received £59,594 in 2010/11; cut …

Accord Housing

Charity. Housing association. Local authority funding cut: £4,512. Details: Received £4,512 in 2010/11; cut by £2,256 in …

SIFA Fireside

Charity. Affected funding for two services targeted at homeless people – health and wellbeing forum, and community catering …

Yarlington

Charity. Provides affordable homes for rent or shared ownership in south Somerset. Local authority funding cut: £99,636.49. …

Western Challenge Housing Association

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £42,205.02. Details: Received £42,205.02 in 2010/11; no …

Taunton Association for the Homeless

Charity. Specialises in the housing and support of vulnerable, single homeless people.Local authority funding cut: £75,700. …

Riverside Group

Charity. Registered providers of social housing nationwide, providing support to people of all ages and circumstances.Local …

NOVAS

Charity. Works with diverse communities, tackling the issues of homelessness, crime and community safety, and domestic …

Mendip YMCA

Charity. Offers schemes to help and assist young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Local authority funding …

Magna West Somerset

Charity. Community-based housing association. Local authority funding cut: £43,136.84. Details: Received £328,120.38 in …

Flourish Homes

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £189,710.04. Details: Received £776,158.25 in 2010/11; cut …

Chapter 1

Charity. Specialises in providing accommodation and support for vulnerable people. Local authority funding cut: £13,531.03. …

Carr Gomm Society

Charity. Charity offering housing and support services to vulnerable people with a range of special needs. Local authority …

Bridgwater YMCA Foyer

Charity. Provides supported accomodation for 53 young people at three sites. Local authority funding cut: £50,252.96. Details: …

Barnabas Housing Association

Charity. Hostel for single homeless people. Local authority funding cut: £89,010.12. Details: Received £659,432.70 in …

Shelter

Charity. Specialist housing advice and information for anyone who is homeless or has a housing problem. Local authority funding …

Gloucester Nightstop

Charity. Arranges temporary and emergency accommodation for young homeless people in the homes of trained and vetted …

Shelter

Charity. Homelessness charity. Local authority funding cut: £1,652. Details: Received £6,608 in 2010/11; cut by £1,652 in …

St Petroc’s Society

Charity. Homelessness charity. Includes funding for the Breadline resettlement centre, used by the street homeless of Penzance, …

Coastline Housing

Charity. Funding for The New Connection, which provides crisis accommodation for the homeless in Cornwall.Local authority …

Churches Together in Penzance Area (CTIPA)

Charity. Funding for the Breakfast Project, which provides food for the homeless on weekday mornings.Local authority funding …

Guildford No 5

Charity. Provides direct access supported accommodation for single homeless people with support needs who may in addition have …

The You Trust

Charity. Provides care, housing and advice services for those faced with exclusion from their family or community.Local …

Salvation Army

Charity. Funding for Catherine Booth House, which provides accommodation and parenting support for families and expectant …

Emmaus Oxford

Charity. Emmaus tackles the problems of homelessness through a network of self-supporting Communities, where people are offered …

Community Soup Kitchen

Charity. Funding awarded to provide a community soup kitchen for homeless or socially excluded individuals. Local authority …

West Kent Housing

Charity. Housing association providing affordable homes and services. Local authority funding cut: £55,934.81. Details: …

Medway Cyrenians

Charity. Houses and supports vulnerable, single, homeless people aged 16 and over.Local authority funding cut: £17,979.98. …

Avante – Step Ahead (Crisis 10)

Charity. Crisis support for young homeless people. Local authority funding cut: £1,951. Details: Received £27,876 in 2010/11; …

Ashdown Medway Accommodation Trust (AMAT)

Charity. Provides services and accommodation primarily for single homeless people aged 25 and over, both with and without …

Furniture Helpline

Charity. Provides low cost recycled furniture and electrical goods to people on low incomes. Local authority funding cut: …

Oxfordshire Rural Community Council

Charity. Rural housing enabler. Local authority funding cut: £11,500. Details: Received £11,500 in 2010/11; no funding in …

Hometree House Association

Charity. Funding for activities for the club.,Local authority funding cut: £400,. Details: Received £400 in 2010/11; no …

BYHP

Charity. Works with young people aged 16-25 who are homeless, inappropriately housed or at risk of becoming homeless in …

SHAP

Charity. Arrangement relating to homeless young people accommodation. Local authority funding cut: £19,000. Details: Received …

Turning Point

Charity. Provides services for people with complex needs, including those affected by drug and alcohol misuse, mental health …

Stepping Stone

Charity. Provider of housing, support and charitable services for people who are homeless or at risk of losing their home.Local …

St Vincent Housing

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £258,000. Details: Received £258,000 in 2010/11; no funding …

St Edmunds Charity

Charity. Supported accommodation facility for men and women whose lives have been impaired by alcohol misuse and who have an …

Shelter

Charity. Homelessness charity. Local authority funding cut: £858,861.13. Details: Received a total of £1,064,621.13 in …

Sanctuary Trust

Charity. Aims to provide programmes and services as an answer to homelessness and homeless related issues. Local authority …

Sanctuary Housing Trust

Charity. Housing association. Local authority funding cut: £3,705. Details: Received £3,705 in 2010/11; no funding in …

Salvation Army

Charity. Funding for strategic housing services. Local authority funding cut: £102,645. Details: Received £433,312 in …

Rochdale Petrus Community

Charity. Provides supported housing and related services to homeless people. Local authority funding cut: £139,791.64. …

People First

Charity. Housing association. Local authority funding cut: £21,256. Details: Received £185,000 in 2010/11; cut by £21,256 in …

Next Step

Charity. Affordable housing for special needs. Local authority funding cut: £7,213. Details: Received £76,000 in 2010/11; cut …

Newbarn Ltd

Charity. Offers communal support, advice and accommodation for fifteen people who have difficulty managing on their own and …

Making Space

Charity. Funding for strategic housing services. Local authority funding cut: £8,940. Details: Received a total of £150,887 …

Guinness NC

Charity. Social housing provider. Local authority funding cut: £93,000. Details: Received £93,000 in 2010/11; no funding in …

DePaul UK

Charity. Helps young people who are homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged.Local authority funding cut: £36,426. Details: …

Contour Housing

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £161,000. Details: Received £161,000 in 2010/11; no funding …

Open Door Furniture Recycling

Charity. Community based furniture scheme. Local authority funding cut: £50,470. Details: Received £50,470 in 2010/11; no …

Riverside ECHG

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £26,674. Details: Received £186,784 in 2010/11; cut by …

Oldham Family Crisis Group / Threshold

Charity. Joint funding under Supporting People. Local authority funding cut: £324,001. Details: Received £1,546,621 in …

FRC Trading

Charity. Social business distributing low cost furniture to low income households. Local authority funding cut: £25,375. …

First Choice Homes Oldham

Charity. Registered social landlord. Local authority funding cut: £143,115. Details: Received £971,138 in 2010/11; cut by …

DePaul UK

Charity. Funding for Oldham Reconnect, a mediation service for homeless young people and their families.Local authority funding …

Anchor Trust

Charity. Not-for-profit provider of housing and care for the over-55s. Local authority funding cut: £34,785. Details: Received …

Shelter

Charity. Homelessness charity that runs a housing helpline, has a network of housing aid centres, and works with local citizens …

Nightstop Teesside

Charity. Provides emergency temporary accommodation for homeless young people aged 16-25 in the homes of trained volunteer …

First Stop Darlington

Charity. Provides home and dry service for people in poor accommodation, plus information on securing housing.Local authority …

United Anglo Caribbean Society

Charity. Tackling homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £18,105.63. Details: Received £28,969 in 2010/11; cut by …

Threshold Centre Ltd

Charity. Tackling homelessness; and reduce youth homelessness through targeted prevention activities with at risk groups. Local …

Thames Reach

Charity. Day centre facilities for homeless ppl & ppl at risk of homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £62,500. Details: …

P3

Charity. Tackling homelessness; and reduce youth homelessness through targeted prevention activities with at risk groups. Local …

London Irish Women’s Centre

Charity. Tackling homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £38,366.72. Details: Received £61,386.75 in 2010/11; cut by …

Food For All

Charity. Day centre facilities for homeless ppl & ppl at risk of homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £17,128.75. …

Eaves Housing for Women

Charity. Increase access to services for women with no recourse to public funds to enable them to exit domestic violence or …

Central and Cecil incorporating Cara Housing Trust

Charity. Tackling homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £38,138.28. Details: Received £61,021.25 in 2010/11; cut by …

Cardboard Citizens

Charity. Reduce youth homelessness through targeted prevention activities with at risk groups. Local authority funding cut: …

Broadway Homelessness and Support

Charity. Day centre facilities for homeless ppl & ppl at risk of homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £41,316.88. …

Barnardo’s Families in Temporary Accommodation Project

Charity. Tackling homelessness. Local authority funding cut: £87,592.03. Details: Received £140,147.25 in 2010/11; cut by …

Trinity Homeless Projects

Charity. Provides nine staffed hostels and move-on accommodation in Hillingdon and promotes independent living for the homeless …

P3

Charity. Provides a range of support services for young people who are homeless and/or vulnerable. This is a holistic response …

ASRA Greater London Housing Association

Charity. Anand Day Centre. Local authority funding cut: £6,366.02. Details: Received £48,969.36 in 2010/11; cut by £6,366.02 …

Stevenage Haven

Charity. Stevenage Haven is an emergency homeless hostel that also provides day services and support to ex-residents and help …

Stevenage Furniture Recycling Scheme

Charity. Recycles used furniture donated by the community to those on low incomes. The withdrawn funding was to extend shop …

Nottinghamshire Housing Advice Service

Charity. Provides housing and housing debt related advice and advocacy services for the people of Nottinghamshire, in order to …

Newark Emmaus Trust

Charity. Housing, care and support for the young homeless.Local authority funding cut: £7,500. Details: Received £12,500 in …

Kirkby Trust

Charity. Provides educational, recreational and social activities for young people and their families and provides support and …

Hope for the Homeless

Charity. Homelessness charity in Worksop. Local authority funding cut: £6,000. Details: Received £32,000 in 2010/11; cut by …

Friary Drop-in

Charity. Local authority funding cut: £4,600. Details: Received £18,200 in 2010/11; cut by £4,600 in 2011/12.

Family First

Charity. Furniture service. Local authority funding cut: £19,870. Details: Received £19,870 in 2010/11; no funding in …

Cedar Housing Nottingham

Charity. Provides housing, education and support services for vulnerable people affected by homelessness.Local authority …

Broxtowe Youth Homelessness

Charity. Aims to prevent young people from becoming homeless and inform young people of their options and provide emergency …

Spencer Contact

Charity. Seeks to relieve poverty and hardship in and around Northampton by supplying free second-hand furniture. Local …

Sofawise

Charity. Recycles good quality furniture that is no longer needed and makes it available at an affordable cost to those in …

Phoenix Furniture Project

Charity. Collects and redistributes unwanted furniture and household goods in Kettering and the surrounding area. Local …

Northamptonshire YMCA

Charity. Funding for mentoring services under homelessness theme. Local authority funding cut: £15,200. Details: Received …

Northampton Hope Centre

Charity. Supports homeless and socially excluded people. Local authority funding cut: £3,000. Details: Received £3,000 in …

Daventry Contact

Charity. Furniture redistribution charity. Local authority funding cut: £8,976. Details: Received £8,976 in 2010/11; no …

Corby Furniture Turnaround

Charity. Collects donated furniture and passe it on to low income people who live in the local area. Local authority funding …

Accommodation Concern

Charity. Independent housing advice and homelessness organisation in the boroughs of Kettering and Corby. Local authority …

Leicester YMCA

Charity. Homeless drop in centre and education/skills project. Local authority funding cut: £25,950. Details: Received …

Centrepoint Outreach

Charity. Homelessness charity. Provides a drop in centre and rough sleeper facilities, redistributes furniture and household …

LAMP homeless charity

The Christian charity works with homeless 16-25 year olds by providing secure accommodation and individual ongoing support, as …

Foundation Housing

Charitable organisation, which had provided support and housing to vulnerable families, single and young people for 25 years.

Summergrove

Summergrove is a housing project for families affected by substance misuse + often domestic violence. It is a safe haven for …

Summergrove housing project

Summergrove is a housing project for families recovering from substance misuse and often domestic violence. It is a safe haven …

Amber Valley pest control charges

Amber Valley Borough Council is introducing fees for some types of household pest control, and increasing existing fees for …

Social policy research

Since the coalition came to power no new research contracts have been awarded nationally in all areas of social policy, putting …

Community Support Service

The cuts in funding to the Community Support Service following the removal of its ringfencing to its budget has led to cuts …

Bromley subsidised pest control

Bromley Council has voted to axe subsidised pest control for residents on income benefit as part of its 2011-13 cuts package.

Bromley sheltered housing

Bromley Council plans to cut funding for sheltered housing, saving £500k in 2011/12 and £800k in 2012/13 from its £1.15m …

Bromley Supporting People funding

Bromley Council has voted to cut its reduce commissioning of Supporting People services, saving £300k in 2011/12 and £600k in …

Bromley private sector renewals grant

Bromley Council is cutting £350k from its private sector renewals grant, which will impact on the assistance available to help …

Trafford’s Housing for Vulnerable People

Trafford’s budget for housing for vulnerable people has been cut by £450,000 in its February 2011 Budget.

Blackburn Council Services (many!)

Mobile library service to be cut and library opening hours reduced. Arts and cultural events / provisions to be cut include …

Manchester neglected buildings

Manchester City Council plans to save £12k in 2011/12 by reducing work on neglected buildings, and £13k through reducing its …

Manchester supported housing

Manchester City Council plans to axe 340 supported housing units, which provide homes for the city’s most needy people. The …

Manchester Advice

Manchester City Council plans to shut its Manchester Advice service, which provides free and confidential advice and …

Asylum Seekers Unit (Your Homes Newcastle)

The Home Office has decided not to award Your Homes Newcastle’s Asylum Seekers Unit (ASU) an extension on their contract …

Refugee Council

The Refugee Council, which provides essential and in some cases life-saving support to asylum seekers, refugees and their …

Bristol housing support

Bristol City Council is planning to reduce its Tenant Support Service budget by 20 percent in 2011/12, meaning that either …

Bristol pest control

Bristol City Council is proposing a number of reductions in its pest control service as part of its 2011/12 budget: * the …

Supporting People

Proposals to slash £1.1m from the cost of supporting elderly, sick and frail residents have been drawn up

Dorset property repair and maintenance

Dorset County Council’s property management division supports the delivery of the council’s capital programme, manages and …

Dorset County Council planning services

Dorset County Council is proposing the following cuts to its planning service in 2011/12: • ending staff support to tourism …

Framework homelessness charity

Framework, Nottinghamshire’s leading homelessness charity, is warning that the level of budget cuts proposed by …

Salford City Council staff

Salford City Council is set to shed hundreds of jobs under plans to save £39m over three years. Town hall bosses say they …

Southwark Council staff

Southwark Council has threatened that it may need to make 1000 employees redundant over the next 3 years in order to save …

Planning Aid England

The government has decided to terminate funding for Planning Aid England when its current contract ends in March 2011. The …

Camden Council district housing offices

Camden Council is planning to close its five district housing offices, as well as merging telephone and face to face contact …

Camden housing repairs

Camden Council is planning to cut the housing repairs it carries out through a number of measures: a) Ceasing to carry out …

Camden tenant and leaseholder service charges

Camden Council is planning to increase tenant and leaseholder service charges in order to raise an extra £1.55m a year by …

Shelter Cymru in Wrexham

Wrexham Council has voted to withdraw funding of £44,000 to Shelter Cymru, the charity serving homeless people.  The authority …

Peterborough urgent housing repair work

Peterborough City Council is planning to cut funding for urgent repair work on private housing by around 40 percent. The …

Huntingdonshire housing

Huntingdonshire District Council is axeing its annual £500k budget for social housing grants, and is also cutting funding for …

Rough sleeping and homelessness prevention advisors

The government decided to axe its rough sleeping and homelessness prevention advisors in July 2010. The eight advisors helped …


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Jan 202011
 
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This is awful:

It would be stretching it to say visible homelessness has entirely disappeared in recent years, but the problem – and the complex health and social issues that derive from or are intensified by having nowhere to live – has been massively ameliorated, not least by targeted investment in housing through the £1.6bn Supporting People (SP) programme. Indeed, as SP funding melts away, its funding ringfence removed, and its infrastructure corroded by cuts made on an astonishing scale and at terrifying speed by desperate councils, it increasingly looks like another lost and unacknowledged Labour success story.

In Nottinghamshire, for example, the Tory-run county council’s proposal to slash SP by 65% from April – drawn up, unbelievably, even before the chancellor George Osborne had delivered his comprehensive spending review bombshell last October – has since been compounded by Labour-controlled Nottingham city council’s own plans for 45% cuts to SP. Other councils, too, are planning big reductions in SP funding.

These cuts, as councils’ own bleak risk assessments admit, will wreak devastation on the lives of tens of thousands of the most vulnerable people – a list that includes homeless people, care leavers, teenage parents, ex-offenders, victims of domestic violence, refugees, and people with mental illness or a learning disability. Hostels and refuges will close. For the sake of the few pounds a week that enables a floating support worker to visit them, the SP cuts yank away the safety net that has brought them a measure of stability and safety, and shielded them from breakdown, rough sleeping, hospital or prison.

I do wonder however if the unacknowledged success story Patrick Butler talks about isn’t now falling apart as a consequence of a wider failure.  That is to say, the failure of a Labour government which was insufficiently ambitious in its desire to re-engineer capitalism.

So does anyone else feel we’ve allowed the wolf to return to our doorsteps because we simply refused to implement the process end-to-end?  Too much shabby belief in the trickle-down effect and not enough hard work amongst the dirty dirty? 

Those buzzwords of support, which aid in the Third World invokes these days, cover not only subjects such as targeted micro-loans (more here) but also community Internet and mobile phone access for all for everything from business information to educational tools (more here).  They aim from the ground up to capitalise on a sense of community amongst people that we on the outside often judge to be existing in an outright, rank and utterly unempowering poverty, using very few, yet pointedly structured, resources to demonstrate that a liberation of spirit and enterprise is a very few short steps away.

And so the success stories keep on flooding in (more here).

Has our mistake then been one of not caring to do to ourselves as we would choose to do to others?  Has our own pride in our “civilisation” led us to a fall of unpredictable consequences?  By wishing to only ameliorate the poverty which traditional capitalism engenders through mechanisms such as those which Butler quite rightly draws our attention to, have we been guilty of not taking that poverty we have clearly been suffering from sufficiently seriously?

Those typical images of the Third World of yore (you know the ones I mean – the poor helpless souls without a chance in hell of surviving the year who are always defined through photography and well-meaning advertising as being in need of our graciously continued and benevolent support) – and which, even as we speak, similarly exist as ever-widening pockets of poverty across the British Isles – should, of course, thoroughly shame us.  And I am sure that most socialists were appropriately ashamed. 

But perhaps not quite enough to worry too much about rigorously examining how best to implement that end-to-end analysis I spoke of earlier in this post – once, that is, the initial phase of immediate disaster support had been enabled and programmed into the kind of coherent policy Butler mentions.

Which is why the question does need to be asked.  No one believes any more in simple amelioration for the Third World – except in moments of extreme man-made crisis or natural disaster.  So why then, at home, in some way or another, did the Labour government run with this concept for thirteen years?  Why did it not face head-on the contradictions of traditional capitalism – supposedly the best guarantor of market freedoms we have yet discovered and yet clearly also one of the the worst exponents of poverty generation on the planet?

We need to ask this question and we need to be honest about its answers.  And recognise that in so doing we will define the seeds of what became our own destruction.

As well as that of the poorest in society we once chose to properly represent.


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