Speech given to the Shelter fringe meeting, Brighton Party Conference, 2007

About half of the people who come to see me at surgery come because of their housing situation.

On one occasion, because a disabled child was involved, I went to visit in their own home a constituent with a housing problem. “Housing problem” doesn’t begin to describe the situation. Nice three bedroom flat – but the flat didn’t start until the first floor. And to get to the first floor you had to mount a narrow and long staircase.

Now, the daughter – quadriplegic – had to be carried up and down that staircase. That was barely manageable when they moved in and she was five – but now she was eleven. The father worked and his work meant he wasn’t there to help. And the little brother was too small and young.

When I went in, I met the daughter – who was strapped vertically to a contraption that enabled her to be placed in front of a television to entertain her in the hours and hours that she had to spend immobile. She had no movement in any limb, couldn’t speak, but she could see and hear and her brain function and understanding were normal. I can’t even begin imagine what that is like.

For over five years since they applied to move to a ground floor – they were told – no three bedroom ground floor accommodation had become available – in the whole borough!

Five years – no progress. I mean, goodness me, the council could have gone down to the local estate agents and purchased a new house – if they’d really wanted to fix the problem. Because you see – this wasn’t a case of the council saying, “sorry, we’ve got no money” – although that often is an issue – but instead it was a case of the dead hand of bureaucracy mindlessly churning through the administrative wheels without any real desire to fix the problem.

All through was lacking the basic humanity and decisiveness that should have driven imaginative or nimble thinking about how to get round obstacles and really improve people’s lives.

I am convinced that if there had been the will – there would have been a way, whether it involved estate agents or not. And indeed, I wrote a polite letter to the Council. No joy. I wrote a more stroppy letter to the Council. No joy. Come and meet the Chief Executive. Stroppy meeting with the Chief Executive. No joy. I wrote my column in the local paper about it. And yes then – accommodation was found – a great result, but one that leaves me convinced more could have been done sooner if they’d been the will.

The saddest fact is that this is in no way a unique circumstance. Not all the cases are so clear – but there are so many many people in awful circumstances – overcrowded, dreadful and temporary accommodation that isn’t temporary.

So – one problem is that way in way bureaucratic rules stifles imaginative thought and sucks the humanity out of the administrators far too often.

But another problem is the way the rules keep on changing – and that stops people being able to plan their future, and make the best of it.

Now, if you were told at the outset that it would take (say) 15 years to get accommodation – or that the likelihood was that you would never get suitable accommodation – that would not be welcome news. But it would at least allow you to make a whole series of decisions about your life and what you will do with it for yourself and your family.

And then the third problem is that when the council offers you something finally – and it is disgusting – you pretty much have to say yes anyway, because if you don’t take the first property offered to you, you normally drop right down the list again. So people are forced into accepting totally unsuitable properties out of fear of otherwise never getting anything.

All these problems are getting worse – because the overall housing situation is getting worse.

There are half a million more more households on council waiting lists than when Labour came into power in 1997. 130,000 children live in unsuitable temporary accommodation; and there are one million in overcrowded accommodation.

This Labour government is obsessed with centralisation and tick box targets, but this a problem we need to tackle on a local level; Councils need to be allowed to build houses. The need to provide an adequate supply of affordable housing has got to be one of Brown’s top priorities.

Yet the solution so far has often been to massage the figures rather than house people properly. In Haringey, we have – or I should say had – about 26,000 people on the housing list.

In a quiet re-registration exercise, Haringey Council has removed 14,687 households from its council housing waiting list – that’s just under six in ten of the total.

How did this happen? Well, Haringey Council carried out a ‘re-registration project’ in September and October last year. People on the list were written to and given thirty days to complete and return a re-registration form. Those who did not return the forms were struck off the list.

This sort of statistical sleight of hand doesn’t actually house anyone or improve their condition. There is also the problem that 55% of council housing does not meet basic standards. But that’s a whole other discussion.

Affordable housing is a basic right – everyone should have access to a decent home, yet in my constituency this is not the case.

There are solutions to be sought in the supply of housing – particularly getting more derelict land and even empty housing into use – but there is also an oft neglected issue of quality.

It is about quality of design, quality of concept and quality of materials. The built environment is vital in terms of spirit and aspiration – and protecting our environment – yet those most in need of being able to lift their eyes above the daily miseries are often those who are worst treated and find poor quality developments rammed into their areas without the sustainable infrastructure needed to support increased densities – building in crime, building in misery, building in hopelessness.

Poorly designed, badly built developments are far too often rushed through – but cruddy housing on the cheap doesn’t just let down the current occupiers, it stores up more costs and problems for the future when that housing doesn’t last. Think of all the money we’ve had to spend on redoing the housing mistakes of the 1960s and 1970s – but there’s no reason why properties can’t survive in a decent state for much, much longer. It’s because they were badly designed and badly built we are now having to undo those mistakes. But far too often we’re just repeating them again – less bare concrete in site, but the same poor design and poor construction problems behind it all.

These issues of course affect housing beyond the bounds of council and social housing – as indeed does the issue of housing overall, though limitation of time means those will have to be left to another time.

But in conclusion – we need not just more, but better housing – and housing allocation systems which are administered not just better – but smarter, with a more imaginative approach to overcoming obstacles and a greater sense of certainty given to people as to what their futures might hold. So then they can make decisions and be in control of their life and destinies.

Surgery all morning and the rain seems like it will never stop. But hurrah! Off to France for a week tomorrow!

Off to Hackney for the first anniversary of the Telgraf newspaper – the only paper which has Kurdish and Turkish languages.

My own grandparents only spoke Russian. They never learned English. And there were no newspapers in Russian to tell them what was happening back home or to engage them in the Britain they had come to. As with that many of that generation – England and life was really accessed only through the children – of which they had seven.

Nowadays – we understand clearly that integration and access are vital so that all our communities live happily ever after. It’s a fantastic thing really – how we can have our culture of origin and the culture around us – and straddle the two with no probs as the generations move forward. This type of communication really helps.

So well done to Telgraf. Well done to Barclays who sponsored it and are making particular efforts to engage with the Kurdish and Turkish communities.

Bottom left in the picture is Ibrahim Dogus. He is a most fantastic advocate for the community in London and surely much of the reason for so many of the events like this – to which he is astute enough to invite oodles of politicians!

Such an amazing and moving thanksgiving service for Tim Garden. The service – in Hampstead Parish Church – echoed the stature of the man. Having posted previously – suffice to say that his wife Sue gave the most wonderful tribute speech about Tim and their life together. She spoke of how, when they married, as he was only 21 he had to get his commanding officer’s permission to marry. He received a four page letter describing to him the folly of early marriage and the taking of a wife being ‘saddled with a mill stone around your neck’. Sue said he had coped magnificently with his ‘millstone’!

It was a lovely tribute – and what came over clearly from the service and all who spoke was what a loving family man Tim was as well as the respected professional in the other worlds he peopled.

Tremendously sad occasion.

Do you remember what the news was like during the 1980s? (And I’m envious if you just say you’re too young to know!). Back then, economic figures – the monthly inflation figures, the latest unemployment rate, the new balance of payment figures and others – all featured regularly as major stories in the main news bulletins.

For a long time now they tend to feature only occasionally in the news – but the recent turbulence in the world’s financial markets have seen financial and economic news back in the headlines repeatedly.

I’m not a financial commentator – so I’m not going to try to predict where the financial markets will go next – but there are two issues around the political impact I’ll mention.

First – the big drops in pension fund values will heighten many people’s sense of insecurity about the future. Even if they recover, there will be an extra level of worry that it might happen again, or happen worse. If you’re caught out retiring when pension fund values are on a down, it’s not much consolation to know that people who retire in future years will probably end up benefiting from long term growth in values. It’s your pension, here and now, that matters most.

And for the many people who don’t have adequate pension schemes – the choppy news is, I think, likely to be put some people off thinking about saving or saving more for a pension – which is bad news too.

Helping to give people a sense of security and control about their financial future may creep up the political agenda again. I don’t think it’s just about pensions – it’s also about simplifying things like the horrendous complicated tax credit and benefit systems, so people can feel they have an understanding of what is happening, and a sense of control over their financial fate. It will also make it more important for parties to feature the economy in their pitches to the public (a subject I’ve written about recently for Liberator magazine).

Second – if we’re facing a period of financial instability, that makes calling a general election a bit riskier. You are the PM. You are ahead in the polls. You call and election – and then what happens if there is a lurch downwards or a new crisis during the middle of a campaign?

So perhaps the events of the last few days make an October election a bit less likely. But best to be prepared – so I’m still making sure we’ll be ready in my constituency, even if that preparation is now slightly less likely to be needed. Much better to be over-prepared than to be caught out by surprise!

Receive the details of the funeral and commemorative services for Lord Tim Garden who died last week. I am really upset over his tragically early death. I am sure members of all parties understand how deeply it affects all of us in a Party when such a loved and respected member dies.

Tim came to my ‘adoption meeting’ at the start of the 2005 General Election campaign. He spoke, as always, with such intelligence and force of reason, informed by his successful military career. He was always such a great support to me personally – and I am sure his presence was a large part of why this really was a ‘packed meeting’.

Having ascended to the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet, as part of our International Affairs Team, he and I were both at our weekly meetings and Tim’s was always a clear, liberal and persuasive voice – even when Tim’s view meant that I had to rethink my position on one issue or another.

He was just one of the most impressive and wonderful Lib Dems there is – and we are truly bereft by his loss. Sue, his wife, is also a major force for good in the party – and I am sure she and the family are inundated with condolences from all of us – as he was much loved.