By Andrew SkudderHorsham Constituency Labour Party was well-represented at this year's annual Labour Party conference, held in Brighton. It is the most visible way in which the constituency helps to shape the party's policy. In this article I would like to briefly explain this, and some other ways in which Horsham contributes to national policy.
All constituency parties are entitled to a delegate at the conference, and Horsham CLP always send a delegate to vote on our behalf on matters of policy or internal administration.
Throughout the year Horsham has been contributing to party policy by submitting comments and suggestions to various policy papers that have been sent out by the National Policy Forum, so we can see the impact of our contribution when those policy documents are presented to the conference.
One of our local members, Carol Hayton, happens to be a member of the NPF, so we also have some influence there.
Before the conference, constituency parties and trade unions can submit contemporary motions to be debated and voted on at the conference. At the start of the conference all the motions are collected together and delegates vote on which will be taken forward for debate, with only the most popular getting through that stage.
Horsham submitted a motion on housing which was supported by many local Labour Parties across the UK. The motion included a proposal asking for councils to be made to build more council housing and for the government to help with the funding for that building. The text of which is included below.
Deliver sustainable future for council housing to meet need
On 3rd August the National Housing Federation called upon the Government to ‘ ensure we build the right numbers of homes for social rent now, so that housing supply meets demand.’ These comments were made in light of research forecasting five million people on housing waiting lists by 2010
We share the NHF’s concern that the Government’s affordable housing strategy is failing to deliver on a scale or with a level of urgency appropriate to need.
The recent funding announcements, whilst welcome, will deliver only a small proportion of the housing needs of 1.8 million households currently on waiting lists. Furthermore diversion of Decent Home Funding to support this programme will deprive many tenants of the promised improvements to sub-standard homes .
The announcement of reform to the Housing Revenue Account is also welcome but the controversial debt redistribution proposals, and the need for further consultation and primary legislation could seriously inhibit progress towards the building and maintenance of council homes.
We are also concerned that the lack of compulsion on councils to address their local affordable housing needs and to ring fence future housing receipts will allow some to neglect their responsibilities to their communities. A neglect already evidenced by some Tory councils such as Hammersmith and Fulham.
In light of the above we call upon the Government to make the development of policies that will deliver a sustainable future for council housing an urgent priority.
At the initial meeting this motion gained the most votes of all constituency motions and so was debated during the week, when it was passed overwhelmingly. One early result was the announcement of an extra £181m funding for council house building.
Last year Horsham CLP also put forward a motion on social housing which also gained more support than any other motion and was selected for debate and passed by the conference. During the year representatives from all the constituencies that proposed that motion visited Westminster to meet with the housing minister and put their case for greater provision of social housing. Included below is the text of Horsham CLP's 2008 conference motion
Last year Horsham CLP also put forward a motion on social housing which also gained more support than any other motion and was selected for debate and passed by the conference. During the year representatives from all the constituencies that proposed that motion visited Westminster to meet with the housing minister and put their case for greater provision of social housing. Included below is the text of Horsham CLP's 2008 conference motion
Government must lead and fund a council house building programmeDuring the conference our delegate voted on many matters. Some were mostly of interest to Labour members only, like the move to one-member-one-vote for the constituency section of the National Policy Forum, but others were of wider interest, like the emergency resolutions on the Royal Mail, the East Coast Mainline and the plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Horsham voted in favour of all these proposals, which were all passed by the conference.
On 8th August the Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted that there would be 45,000 homes repossessed in 2008.
Despite the slump in house prices the cost of a starter home is still beyond the reach of many first time buyers.
Council House waiting lists stand at record levels.
The housing crisis is becoming increasingly severe.
Housing starts are at a standstill.
As market solutions to the housing supply fall by the way side as a result of the credit crunch, it is increasingly apparent that the only sustainable solution is a government delivered and financed strategy that will enable affordable homes to be built for those in need.
At Warwick the NPF discussed the possibility of allowing councils to apply for Housing Corporation Grant and so, in part, addressed the call for a level playing field. But this proposal will not adequately ensure that all local authorities can or will take up any opportunity offered. Many, particularly Tory authorities, are unlikely to identify ways in which they can raise the balance of funding required. It is only by providing solutions to the funding problem and obliging councils to address the demand for affordable rented homes in their neighbourhoods, that real progress will be made.
We therefore urge the government to drive forward an effective council housing construction programme, not just by setting targets for others to achieve but by providing the financial resources and the compulsion that ensures those targets are reached.
Horsham CLP is an ambitious party, and while it is from an area where the Tories dominate the electoral landscape, it still has a part to play in the development of policy and takes full advantage of that. Policies that can go on to affect the everyday lives of local residents. As a member of your local Labour Party it is possible to make a suggestion at a constituency meeting that will eventually become part of the national party's policies.
As well as the official delegate, several other members of the local party attended the main conference, including the Chair, David Hide and our Campaign Co-ordinator, Carol Hayton Other members visited Brighton to go to some of the many fringe meetings taking place including two of our younger members who attend Collyers Sixth Form College. As prospective parliamentary candidate I visited the conference too, attending most of the debates in the main hall and a couple of fringe events each day.
Outside of the official conference debates, all our members who were there took the opportunity to learn more about an assortment of topics at the conference exhibition stalls hosted by unions, companies, pressure groups, charities and organisations. There were also opportunities to meet members from other areas and compare notes with them, forging new links between different constituencies.
The least formal part of the conference is the fringe. This consists of small-scale meetings, many of which are held outside the main complex and thus accessible to anybody whether they have a conference pass or not. These meetings often feature ministers or senior MPs, union leaders and well-known figures as diverse as Professor AC Grayling and Feargal Sharkey. These meetings are a chance to talk about very specific topics.
Our members attended too many fringe events to list, but they included debates on social housing, Europe, protecting workers' jobs, Trident replacement, sustainable economics and intellectual property rights in relation to file-sharing.
As you can see, belonging to your local Labour Party, even in an area like Horsham with no elected representatives (yet), can let you take part fully in the democratic process.
If you would like to take part in events like this and help shape the party's policies, consider joining Horsham Labour Party (see the link to the right). You can make your opinion heard at meetings of the constituency party, feed those opinions up to the National Policy Forum and maybe get them put forward at the annual conference where they can get accepted by the party.