Stage, Screen & Radio - December/January 2015 - 19

Housing

Housing for need not greed
BECTU members Rastko Novakovic, Emily Collin and Naomi Taylor are leading BECTU's
input into the campaign for affordable housing. Here they explain how you can get involved.

he UK is in a housing
crisis. Rental prices in the
metropolitan area have
gone through the roof.
The bedroom tax, a concerted effort
to demolish council estates, and
widespread housing and real-estate
speculation is all affecting BECTU
members in different ways. When the
increase in housing and living costs
well exceeds the increases in wages,
we see the gap widening and people
across the UK start to struggle. Housing
- despite the marketing jargon - is
becoming increasingly unaffordable for
working people. Many people across
the UK are being pushed out of their
own cities, towns and villages or into
working poverty. Unions are not just
about jobs and working conditions,
but should campaign on all issues
that seriously affect working people.
Making this worse is the
internationalisation of the UK property
market, characterised by the regular
staging of MIPIM: Le Marché
International des Professionnels de
l'Immobilier, translated as the
International Market for Real Estate
Professionals. MIPIM is the world's
largest property fair, bringing together
international property buyers and
sellers including UK local authorities,
and London hosted the first UK MIPIM
from 15-17 October. Thirty-five cities
and local authorities from across the
UK gathered to schmooze developers
and make unaccountable deals.

STANDARD OF LIVING

BECTU General Secretary Gerry
Morrissey says: "More and more of
our members are finding it extremely
hard to remain in their rented
accommodation or to buy a house
and maintain a decent standard of
living. International investment has
made this worse. That's why I was
delighted at our members' proposal,
which our NEC supported in
September, to support the 'No to
MIPIM UK' campaign." The campaign
is coordinated by Radical Housing
Network, a London-wide network of
housing groups including council and
private tenants, leaseholders,
squatters and the homeless.
Morrissey was a signatory to a letter

Homes should
be for living in:
demonstrators
outside MIPIM in
London in October

Rent
controls
should be
brought
back ...
demolition
of council
estates
must stop

in The Guardian which asked London
mayor Boris Johnson not to attend
MIPIM. Hundreds of protesters
gathered in front of the fair and the
entrance was shut down for a morning.
Under public pressure, the organisers
were forced to rename the session that
had been entitled Investing in affordable
housing: is it worth it? An alternative
MIPIM conference was organised and
attended by over 1000 people who
debated in sessions on homelessness,
financialisation of housing, private
sector housing, evictions etc. A spoof
Standard Evening paper was distributed
to 15,000 Londoners. Then on 22
November at TUC's Congress House,
trade unionists within and around the
Radical Housing Network met under
the umbrella Trade Unionists for
Housing. BECTU reps met with UNITE
Community and Housing Workers, Just
Space and Defend Council Housing to
discuss how we can raise the profile of
housing campaigns and work across
the trade union movement to build a
strong and united voice on housing.
Measures debated were UNITE's
official policies including renationalising

the banks (which would protect
mortgage holders), the much-needed
boost to council housing and a stop to
privatising public land and homes, be
it public space or social housing. There
was agreement on the necessity of
rent controls to be reintroduced.
Demolition of council estates needs
to stop and refurbishment is a viable
alternative (You can download the
excellent handbook Staying Put: An AntiGentrification Handbook for Council
Estates in London here: http://justspace.
org.uk/2014/06/19/staying-put-an-antigentrification-handbook-for-councilestates-in-london/). At the TUC's BIG
Youth Debate on Jobs, Homes and
Voice in November, activists stated that
we need to tell the politicians that our
vote in the general election will be cast
on the strength of their housing policies.
BECTU's Arts & Entertainment
Division has passed a motion to
support the March for Homes on
31 January called by Defend Council
Housing and South London People's
Assembly. Come and join BECTU
members who will be marching to
City Hall with GMB, RMT and UNITE
members. You can also get involved
by participating in union-organised
campaigns within their branches,
getting involved in their TRAs, or
within local community housing
groups, writing to your local MPs, and
by signing the petition supporting the
New Era Estate. If you are interested in
joining the 'trade unionists for housing'
meetings, the next will be on 24
January at 11am at St George's Town
Hall, 236 Cable Street, London, E1 0BL.
Housing is a fundamental right and for
affordable homes to progressively
become a rarity is a social injustice that
cannot be allowed to continue. Our
unions need to lead a fightback. l

Who to follow:
Just Space http://justspace.org.uk/
Defend Council Housing http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/
Radical Housing Network http://radicalhousingnetwork.org/
UNITE Community http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/communitymembership/
Focus E15 Mums http://focuse15.org/
New Era Estates https://www.change.org/p/new-era-should-not-become-the-end-of-an-era
Digs_Hackney Renters http://hackneyrenters.org/
#TradeUnionistsforHousing on Twitter

December/January 2015 Stage Screen & Radio

http://justspace.org.uk/2014/06/19/staying-put-an-anti-gentrification-handbook-for-council-estates-in-london/ http://justspace.org.uk/2014/06/19/staying-put-an-anti-gentrification-handbook-for-council-estates-in-london/ http://justspace.org.uk/2014/06/19/staying-put-an-anti-gentrification-handbook-for-council-estates-in-london/ http://justspace.org.uk/2014/06/19/staying-put-an-anti-gentrification-handbook-for-council-estates-in-london/ http://justspace.org.uk/ http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/ http://www.radicalhousingnetwork.org/ http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/communitymembership/ http://www.focuse15.org/ https://www.change.org/p/new-era-should-not-become-the-end-of-an-era http://www.hackneyrenters.org/

Stage, Screen & Radio - December/January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Stage, Screen & Radio - December/January 2015