For almost the last 30 years there has been a shortage of housing in fact lets not be PC about this there has been an abject failure to build houses at the rate required to match national and local need.  Housing experts and economists will tell you that housing supply is an “inelastic demand” put simply there is never enough house available in the right place at the right time, and at the right price. Read the full story

Directly elected police and crime commissioners are getting a step closer as the government set out its stall. There is much political wrangling over this.  What I want to see is that only people of good character are able to stand for these positions.  They should have passed suitable checks expected of anyone in public life for example a school teacher etc.

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Ollie Haydon Mulligan, Regional Organiser for the Labour Party helped to relaunch the Haydon Wick Branch in the Haydon Centre on the 22nd September.  The Branch covers not only Haydon Wick but Abbey Meads, Ash Brake,  Redhouse,  Oakhurst,  Priory Vale, St Andrews Ridge,  and Taw Hill.  Ollie talked about the challenges facing Labour in opposition, fighting for jobs and social-justice in the face of masochistic cuts and an unprecedented attack  on local authority funding.  Swindon has to make £45m worth of  ’savings’ – which will fall mainly on the elderly, the vulnerable and the young.  Facts that he passed on included ….

• There are nearly 150,000 job losses already announced or in the pipeline in 153 public bodies according to the GMB’s round up published this morning in advance of the TUC Congress in Manchester
• The Government has announced plans to cut NHS Direct
• The Local Government Association has warned that frontline services face a shortfall of £12.5 bn in 2013/4, rising to £20 bn by 2014/5. The gap will be created by rising demand for services, combined with cuts in government grants
• Contact a Family, the charity for families with disabled children, has raised concerns that the 2011 changes to Housing Benefit will hit disabled children especially hard.
• A survey by Every Disabled Child Matters reveals that local authorities are already cutting services for disabled children and their parents including short breaks, play and leisure, education, transport, health, training and equipment
• The Police Superintendents’ Association has warned the government that there will be “consequences” for public order if the police are not exempted from the cuts
• The Department for Education’s own assessment of the equality impact of the decision to stop the Building Schools for the Future programme confirms that this decision will have a disproportionate impact on the poorest children
• Health Minister Simon Burns has announced that the government will not go ahead with the previous government’s plans to make car parking free in English NHS hospitals.
• The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has highlighted that the pub it is based on is closing down – and that cuts in funding for the Community Owned Pubs scheme are to blame.
• It has been widely reported that councils are turning off streetlights to save cash.
• Seventy per cent of over-65s think that the elderly will be hardest hit by the cuts, with 69% expecting local authorities to cut funding for personal and nursing care. The results of a survey for care and housing charity Anchor carried out last month by ICM are reported in Putting Older People’s Issues Back on the Agenda
• Welfare to work blogs are starting to report that ‘most’ of the 16,000 temporary  Jobcentre Plus staff, who were recruited to deal with increased demand for services at the start of the recession, will now not have their contracts renewed
• A new study from the Young Foundation has warned that departments and agencies  facing cuts of 15 – 25 per cent are planning cuts of 30 – 50 per cent in funding for civil society groups.
• The total “tax gap” reached £42 billion in 2008/9 – 8.6 per cent of the tax individuals and companies have a legal responsibility to pay. Measuring Tax Gaps 2010, published on Thursday by HMRC looks at the ‘gap’ between the tax that should be collected and the amount that is actually collected. £42 billion is the highest ever in cash terms and the per centage tax gap is the highest since 2005-6, when it was 8.8 per cent
• A TUC report “Where the money goes“ shows that the coalition government’s planned spending cuts are likely to impact much more heavily on the poorest UK households than the richest
• ConDems are paying lip-service to the ‘Big Society’ – while cutting the DWP Volunteering Programme (launched in April 2009) which placed over 13,000 people unemployed for over six months into volunteering opportunities.

Officers elected were Tony Mayer (Chair), Mark Dempsey (Vice-Chair), Rochelle Russell & Michelle d’Agostino (Secretaries), and John Keepin (Treasurer).  Anyone interested in future meetings is invited to contact Rochelle or Michelle.

Asif lives in Abbey Meads and is a lawyer.  If you have any questions or want to lend a hand in the local or national campaigns please email victor4nswindon@googlemail.com or swindonlabour@gmail.com