Sunday 11 October 2015

My week ahead, 12 - 17 October 2015

Monday 12 October, 4pm – Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm – Labour campaigning 

Tuesday 13 October, 5pm – Early Warning Group

Wednesday 14 October, 5pm – Housing Working Group

Saturday 17 October, 10am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

My first meeting as a substitute of the Housing Working Group this week, I have a big interest in housing – and know we have a major issue with the lack of housing in this country. Of course the Tories and Mr Cameron are going to solve it! Starter homes for £250,000!! The only people happy about that will be the house builders and developers who will make even more money, but who can afford quarter of a million for a starter home? My two daughters are both trying to get on the housing ladder , my oldest has a house in Ipswich with a mortgage but my youngest who is a teacher in London struggles just to pay the rent on a one bedroom flat – and she is a lucky one as she has a job.

The Tories just don’t understand the issues that concern residents – we were hoping to help over 2,000 families in Ipswich with their fuel bills by installing solar panels on their council homes (and do our bit to help save the planet) but the Tories pulled the rug from underneath us with the cuts to the feed in tariffs.  More concerning was that Ben Gummer and Tory leader Nadia Cenci both agreed with the Government decision that has seen these residents lose the chance to get solar panels.


With his re-election Mr Gummer seems to have become even more distant from his constituents, we cant all afford two homes – one in London and one in Ipswich (if he has a home in Ipswich?) subsidised by the taxpayer. Those solar panels could have helped residents with their fuel bills and made life a bit easier for them. People are struggling and any help we can give them we should. Bus as the Ipswich Tory leader indicated this weekend that she does not believe there is any poverty in the UK it is no surprise that they are not bothered about helping others.

4 comments:

@stokeparkcllr said...

But what you fail to point out, is that we have ALL residents in mind, not just council tenants or profit for council, because it's the rest of the people who pay for these subsidies through their own bills. The solar take up was good and always known not to be sustainable so unfair for rest of us to pay. I could've had solar panels fitted, my hubby actually can do it himself as he is trained, but I refused out of principle. I don't think it's fair to everyone, only the few.

Alasdair Ross said...

What about helping solve the problem of 'climate change' - plus the loss of over 1,400 jobs in the solar panel industry

- and do you really believe there is no poverty in the UK?

Stokeparkcllr said...

I don't believe in man made climate change, as you know, and happy to admit it.
The sun is the main reason for climate change, as Pers Corbyn, Jeremy's brother would be pleased to show evidence of to support that theory.
And I believe only in relative poverty, which will always exist because the ones with the least can always be compared to the ones who have the most, or even the average. Real poverty is a rare thing in this country and Left rhetoric just loves to disagree with this.
Problems do arise when people find their circumstances have changed but we always look after families and what I saw as poverty A few decades back - no car, no fridge, no new clothes, no new shoes, no phone, no central heating is what I will compare real poverty with.

Ben Redsell said...

Er... Nadia... I don't think anyone doubts that the sun causes climate change. The entire theory is based on CO2 and other greenhouse gases trapping the sun's radiation within the atmosphere and heating the planet slowly.

Climate change is not related to weather, which is what climate change deniers appear to believe. It is related to the climate of the entire planet - and as changes speed up, as the climate changes faster than it ever did in the past, it is clear that it is the impact of human beings on the planet.

It really is very simple. As the population of the human beings on this planet has exploded, so has our effect on the environment around us. We've upset that delicate balance and we're seriously damaging that environment. I'm afraid those who believe otherwise will be considered cranks, just like those who believed they could live without technology, or the idiots who argue that we can do without modern farming methods without reducing our global population.