Redlands Liberal Democrats

Minister backs empty homes campaign

Well, I've finally had a letter back from Ian Austin MP, Communities and Local Government Minister in response to my call for action on empty homes.

His reply came shortly after I blogged that the Labour government had gone quiet on empty homes since the May local elections.

Mr Austin says, in his letter which I received today:

"Thank you for your letter...I am pleased that you found the seminar hosted by my predecessor, Iain Wright MP, useful. The seminar was well received...I too am keen to tackle the problem of empty homes and to encourage local authorities and local communities to do more to reduce the number of empty homes across the country. In particular, I am keen for local authorities to make full use of this power if appropriate."

He goes on to say:

"I will be working closely with officials to consider what further action the Government can take to help encourage local authorities to tackle empty homes in their area and to address any barriers preventing them from taking action."

I'm delighted that Mr Austin has, belatedly, joined the campaign for action on empty homes.

I have been actively campaigning locally since 2006, prompted shortly after my election by a call from the Empty Homes Agency to draw my attention to the poor record of Labour-run Reading Borough Council on this issue.

A quick check on UK Parliament website TheyWorkForYou.com reveals that Mr Austin has only mentioned the issue of empty homes once since entering Parliament in 2005.

The first and only time he discussed the issue was one month ago - following his appointment to CLG.

Locally, Labour councillors backed measures to reduce the number of empty homes only after being embarassed into action by a highly successful, long-running local Lib Dem campaign.

Before this they were virtually silent on the issue despite apparently winning awards over a decade agofor their work in this area when Cllr Tony Jones (then a Labour councillor) was responsible for housing in Reading.

Only a few weeks ago he slammed the lack action from Labour on this issue which has led to an increase in the number of empty properties across the Borough.

It must be particularly galling for him after the success he enjoyed in this area a few years ago.

The main reason for the higher than average number of empty properties in Reading has been the fact that for years there was no strategy or resources to tackle the build-up of empty homes. 

I will be keeping a close eye on what the government does next on this issue to see if Mr Austin's words are backed by action.

I must admit I was disappointed that his officials only sent me a copy of minutes of the seminar I attended, rather than anything like a detailed action plan.

Locally, I will continue to lead the campaign for action to ensure that Reading Borough Council is doing everything it can to reduce the number of private properties currently lying empty in the town.

More empty promises?

 Me and my ward colleague Cllr Glenn Goodall with Katesgrove Lib Dem councillors Gareth Epps and Warren Swaine and a group of local residents campaigning to bring this private property on Christchurch Road (which has been empty for several years) back into use.

A few weeks ago I wrote to Ian Austin MP, new Minister responsible for empty homes to find out what progress had been made on this issue nationally since the seminar I attended in April along with other empty homes campaigners.

After I sent the letter I received a message from my friend and campaigner David Ireland, Chief Executive of the Empty Homes Agency:

"Thank you for copying me in to your excellent letter to Ian Austin, coincidently I had just written a similar letter to John Healey [housing minister]. One of my board members collared him last night too, but he (Healy) was dragged off for a briefing from Richard McCarthy on empty homes before he said anything.

Lets see if either of them respond. The government have hung their whole response to empty homes on that seminar and the foreword Margaret Becket did for our guidance, so I'm not letting them just drop it as a one-off."   

Needless to say I haven't heard anything back from the Minister yet: I'll be on his case soon if I don't hear anything. It took CLG three months to send me the minutes of the meeting held in April so I won't be holding my breath.

I sincerely hope that the government has not lost interest in doing something about empty homes, so soon after then Housing Minister, Margaret Beckett backed calls for action earlier this year.

I was very sad to read earlier this week in Inside Housing that financial support for the excellent Empty Homes Agency, a charity, has also been cut.

This the worst possible time for the Labour government to be neglecting to do everything it can to help actively encourage local authorities to reduce the number of empty private rented homes in their area.

Particularly when we know that demand for low-cost, affordable housing has never been higher in our area.

We heard last week at the HHCC Scrutiny Panel meeting the number of empty homes in Reading has risen almost 10% since February while at the same time the number of people contacting the council to apply for a council housing has more than doubled.

The facts as they stand are stark:

• As of May 1 2009 there were 489 private sector homes in Reading that had been empty longer than 6 months

• There are currently around 4,000 people registered on the council's housing waiting list

My Lib Dem colleagues and I will continue to campaign for action to reduce the number of empty homes in Reading and to improve access to affordable housing.

It's good to know also, that although nationally Labour may be letting us down on this issue, Lib Dem housing spokesperson, Sarah Teather MP, has said publicly that getting action on empty homes is one of her top three priorities.

Housing and the credit crunch

After a boiling hot week spent rushing to and from work/Council Chamber via buses, tubes and trains this evening I will be chairing what should be a very interesting meeting of the Housing, Health and Community Care Panel.

Tonight the Panel's discussion will be focussing mainly on housing issues in Reading. Regular readers of this blog will know that as Lib Dem housing spokesperson this is a subject I spend a lot of time on.

Top of the agenda is an update report on how housing in Reading is being affected by the credit crunch. I first asked the question about a year ago.

Some key headline findings we''ll be discussing ahead of tonight's meeting:

Officers are seeing a sharp rise in numbers applying to the housing register

There has been a sharp increase in the numbers of people accessing debt advice through RBC's rents service.

We are seeing a sharp increase in the number of people claiming housing benefit - something the Lib Dems identified as an issue back in April.

The number of empty homes in the Borough has risen by nearly 10% to nearly 500 across the Borough - notably in Abbey, Battle and Southcote wards. Proof that it were needed that is worth having a strategy, dedicated officer resource and regular monitoring reports to keep the issue high on the Council agenda.

This is an approach that Cllr Tony Jones endorsed earlier this week.

The picture in Reading, as always, is mixed however, with some positives to focus on too:

• the number of people in arrears in Reading has fallen
• there has been no significant increase in homelessness
• and no increase in the use of temporary accomodation

As more than one Council officer has said to me the recession has also led to improved partnership working with new partners such as Job Centre Plus and helped bring a more flexible approach to problem-solving.

As discussed yesterday I think it's vitally important that as councillors we investigate issues which resonate beyond the Council offices and housing is surely one. No sooner had the press release gone out about this meeting and Radio Berkshire were on the phone requesting an interview.

Nationally, Labour politicians have sought to grab the initiative on housing issues by announcing plans for extra council houses.

Great - well, until you read the detail which stacks up to about 20,000 additional houses (to be built across the UK!) and the money to pay for them will be coming... out of existing budgets (so this means cutting something else).

It's not the first time Labour has announced 'new 'cash which in reality is 'recycled' from other front-line services.

It's been all go on the housing front this week. I'm pleased to say that after months of delay Labour's housing minister John Healey announced earlier this week the reform of council housing finance to allow councils to keep their own rents.

Like my colleague Cllr Prue Bray, Leader of the Lib Dems in Wokingham we have been actively campaigning for an end to the 'tenant tax' in Reading for ages, with Labour and the Tories following some way behind.

Before anyone gets too excited however, it's worth remembering that in true New Labour fashion rather than producing a Bill ahead of the next election we are offered...another consultation.

I have written to the Lead Member and the Head of Housing urging them to respond positively to the consultation and to tell the Labour government to stop stealing Reading tenants' money sharpish!

Ok, so I made that last bit up, but let's face it, it's what we're all thinking!

Loads more to blog about as lots going on this week including an update meeting I had yesterday to look out how we can engage local universities to improve student housing following our successful PRS scrutiny review.

There's also lots of other interesting stuff on our agenda tonight which I'll get round to at some point.

Now to get across London in the heat...

Some home truths

If you are a regular reader of this blog you may recall that back in April I was invited to attend a seminar hosted by the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) on the issue of tackling empty homes. I relished this opportunity to lobby ministers and civil servants face to face for action.

In many ways it was the logical next step of successful my local campaign.

Well, since then there has been a reshuffle and Ian Wright MP has been replaced by another Ian - in this case Ian Austin MP, who will take on the responsibility for housing and regeneration within CLG.

Today I wrote him a letter:

Dear Mr Austin,
 
First of all I would like to congratulate you on your appointment to your new post within CLG.

I attended a seminar organised by the Department for Communities and Local Government on the subject of tackling empty homes on 23 April.
 
I found the event extremely useful as it enabled me to share my knowledge and experience on this important issue with other councillors, officers, civil servants and experts such as David Ireland of the Empty Homes Agency.
 
It was nice to feel listened to and I felt that my participation did help shed light on the problems faced by local councillors in takling this issue.

However, since the event was held I have not heard anything from your Department and I am left wondering what next steps are planned in relation to empty homes. This is disappointing.

The then Parliamentary Under-Secretary Iain Wright MP impressed on me his keeness for the government to look at ways to empower local authorities and local communities to do more to reduce the number of empty homes across the country. I welcome this.

In Reading we are lucky enough to have an empty homes strategy and an officer who is able to dedicate much of his time to tracking down errant landlords and attempting to bring empty propertries back into use. This was only possible because of a motion to Council which I tabled alongside an active local campaign.

Not all local authorities are so lucky. As the seminar revealed, the amount of resources councils are able to devote to this important issue varies widely across the country and not all councillors and officers see the wider benefit to the community of reducing the number of empty properties in their area.
 
I am writing to you to find out what follow-up activity is planned both directly with attendees following this seminar and what you personally plan to do to continue the work of your predecessor, Mr Wright, in relation to tackling the problem of empty homes.
 
Now, more than ever, it is important that the government works even harder to ensure that all obstacles to progress in the battle to reduce the number of empty homes are removed.
 
I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Daisy Benson
Chair, Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel.

Let's see what happens! I'll post the Minister's response here.

A week is a long time in politics

The last week has been an exceptionally busy one for me. Constituents have been contacting us in their droves about issues as diverse as parking, rats, problem alleyways and streetcleaning.

I also had a number of Council meetings. I kicked off another year as Chair of the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel with a meeting with officers and members to plan our July meeting.

The plan is to have a strong housing focus with a number of topical items including an update on the impact of the credit crunch on housing in Reading and an update on work to tackle the number of empty homes in the borough.

On Friday I held a meeting with the new Area Director of Berkshire PCT, Bev Searle, and we discussed ways in which we could make the scrutiny of health issues more effective. I have so far lost the battle to create a dedicated health scrutiny panel (and to be fair resources being as they are it probably isn't feasible at the moment).

We agreed at the meeting that public health is an area where potentially councillors can bring useful insight and pressure to bear. In September HHCC Scrutiny Panel and the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Panel will be revisiting children's health and the issues behind poor health (notably health inequality).

Bev was a breath of fresh air and I felt encouraged that we could make real progress on some of these issues this year.

I am keen to make scrutiny even more focussed this year, perhaps by reducing the number of issues the HHCC Panel investigates (I hesitate to say 'looks into' as my Chief Executive regularly reminds me, this is not the job of scrutiny!) Certainly we have come a considerable way from when I started and when all members were asked to do was simply 'note' reports. You can read my rant about this approach here.

On Wednesday I visited Dee Park and received an update on the long-awaited regeneration scheme.There is relief that the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly the Housing Corporation) has stumped up some cash to get the scheme off the ground. However, 'Phase 3' (penciled in for 2016) which contains many of the community benefits (notably the provision of an expanded primary school) is dependent on Council cash which makes this bit look much more uncertain.

Who knows what money will be left for local councils by 2016, or indeed who will be running the Council by then? Influentialfigures have already signalled that the future looks bleak for our public finances. This was borne out by a meeting I had with the Chief Executive recently in which he explained that SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives), led by former RBC Chief Exec Trish Haines, are conducting workshops with LAs to discuss future planning along the lines of

"What services will councils be able to provide in three years time...when there is basically no money?"

What struck me as I wandered around Dee Park was how much green space there was. Admittedly it is underused and probably poor quality. However, as a councillor for south and east Reading I was struck by the fact that here was more green space on Dee Park than much of Katesgrove and bits of Whitley put together! The size of Dee Park and the fact that land can be sold off for private housing to pay for other goodies is what makes the scheme viable. Regeneration is clearly needed, it's just such a shame that residents have had to wait so long to see progress.

Smaller scale regeneration which is so needed in places like Whitley Street Estate, Hexham Road, Orts Road and parts of South Reading are far harder to achieve. This is why the Council's new decent neighbourhoods fund (which we campigned for) is so needed.

Back to the ward and our inboxes and answerphones have been filling up with objections from residents to proposals to introduce yellow lines on Lydford Road. This follows the Council's annual consultation on revisions to parking restrictions.

The reaction is understandable: any reduction in available parking for residents was always likely to be met with frustration from residents as we told officers earlier this year. A number of residents have cited visitor parking and notably the impact of parking connected to the University as causing problems.

We will be calling on RBC officers to conduct a proper review of parking in the University area and continuing to heap pressure on the University to do more to reduce overspill parking. Other institutions have responsibilities to act too: the Hospital and Alexandra Road Mosque being two other examples.

A constituent from Alexandra Road wrote to me in the week to complain about the quality of street cleaning and general maintenance of the streetscene. He mused that the lack of local elections seemed to be the key factor...I couldn't possibly comment!

However, I agreed with him that the current state of our roads and pavements leaves a lot to be desired. As I've said before, one of my biggest bug bears is the fact that street cleaning is still not as good as it could be and I am saddened that I've been unable to change that yet despite a considerable amount of nagging - but I live in hope.

Rats are still causing a nuisance for residents with one constituent contacting me to say the number of rats she's seen in and around her garden has caused her to stop wanting to go outside. Glenn has done a lot of digging on this issue and I've asked him to see if he can get some action to reassure residents.

Glenn and I also had a very productive meeting with officers about tackling graffiti which I will post an update about shortly.

All in all a busy week, but I wouldn't swap this job for the world.

Taking our Empty Homes Campaign to the heart of government

Last Wednesday I went to Admiralty House in Whitehall, former 'grace and favour' residence of John Prescott.

I was invited to a government seminar on tackling the problem of empty homes organised by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).

This seminar was set up at the request of ministers as the issue of empty homes has risen up the national political agenda in recent months.

Other attendees included David Ireland, Chief Executive of the campaigning charity the Empty Homes Agency, officers from Manchester City Council's private sector team, civil servants, and a small selection of councillors and officers from other councils. I was one of only about three councillors at the event invited, I guess, because of my track record campaigning for action to reduce the (above average) number of empty properties in Reading.

It was fascinating to see inside government and also to get the chance to put my views directly to ministers about the need for action on this issue. Admiralty House is a beautiful venue with lots of lovely paintings and antique furniture (although having recently seen In The Loop at the cinema I did keep expecting an angry press officer marching in at any moment!) It's more or less just used for events now, I think.

Iain Wright MP , parliamentary under secretary at CLG, hosted the event and to be fair to him did seem genuinely keen to understand why more progress was not being made to reduce the thousands of empty homes in England - the EHA puts this figure currently at around 760,000.

The consensus from those gathered was not that councils lacked the right legal powers, more that not all councils see this issue as a priority for them and many do not have enough resources to tackle the problem effectively. I know for example that one council just outside Reading officers have only two hours per week to devote to the issue, compared to our one full time officer. Manchester City Council on the other hand has a whole team of people working on empty homes.

Anyway, it was clear from talking to them that the civil servants did not have much of a clue about what was going on locally and rely heavily on feedback from people on the frontline. It must be hard making policy when you don't know the true picture out there (and this may explain why we end up with so many crazy diktats from government!) For that reason I thought the seminar was a worthwhile exercise and may mean that a more thoughtful policy comes out of Whitehall at some stage (or not!)

When I spoke to our empty homes officer in Reading before I attended the event to get his view as to what the biggest single barrier is to reducing the number of empty homes locally he told me it was the fact that for years the issue had effectively been forgotten about and nothing had been done.

Iain Wright made a short speech at the event and stated "I cannot understand why all councils and councillors are not motivated to do something about empty homes". Speaking as a former councillor he said he thought that councillors would have had pressure from their constituents to act, if nothing else.

I said that the reality in some areas is much different and asked him the following question:

"Does the Minister know, how many councils a) have an empty homes strategy b) have dedicated resources to tackling the problem of empty homes?

Needless to say Iain Wright did not know and said he would need to check the facts with his officials. Having a senior politician failing to answer a straightforward question like this I felt like to an extent I had arrived. At a national level that's what political debate is like, I fear, with people in senior positions knowing often less than you might expect or hope for.

I felt I had the edge, having investigated the issue at a local level for the past two years and needn't have worried about whether or not I was senior enought to attend: by the end I felt I must have been some kind of expert the looks the civil servants were giving me!

Given the setting I did my best not to score a political point at the meeting but the simple fact is that not all councils are proactively reducing the number of empty homes in their areas and more to the point, for years, Labour-run Reading Borough Council had no empty homes strategy and did nothing about the problem. I would dearly loved to have pointed this simple fact out to Mr Wright but it seemed churlish at the time.

David Ireland in his speech acknowledged the role played by local campaigners like me who took up the issue of empty homes and ran with it. He spoke elogquently about the scandal of thousands of newly-built executive flats lying empty in their thousands from Salford to South London.

Something David said that may seem obvious but I thought was nonetheless shocking: the best time to bring empty homes back into use was during the years of the property boom -  when there was a shortage of properties in many of our towns and cities (like Reading). The recession has just made things slower and more expensive for councils to tackle.

He mentioned an excellent social enterprise charity called Canopy in Leeds who work with homeless people giving them building skills, doing up empty properties and then leasing the property to a local homeless person. I would like to see something like this tried out in Reading. I am aware that there are a couple of charities looking into bringing empty homes back into use locally.

The recession and the housing market crash has had a terrible impact on the problem of empty homes:

• The recession has led to a 4% increase in vacancy over the last year and a 9% increase in long term empties
• Increase in reposessions and a weak market returning less empty homes to use
• Over-supply of new flats (in Reading we know that 90% of properties built in
• the last two years were 2 bedroom 'executive' flats)
• Stalled regeneration schemes (like Dee Park in West Reading)

It was clear talking to other people at the event that we are only at the beginning of the journey in tackling empty homes in Reading. The first battle was getting the Labour administration to adopt an empty homes strategy, via a Lib Dem motion to Council, then ensuring that resources were put in.

I used our recent scrutiny review into empty homes as an opportnity to ensure that we keep the pressure on Labour in Reading to do something about this issue.

It could take a couple of years for the positive effects of these measures to feed through, but I feel it will be worth it. The pressure on our local housing stock is that great that we need to be thinking innovatively about ways in which we can reuse exisitng housing.

As we speak the empty homes officer is investigating around 90 empty properties in the Borough and if only one of these properties was brought back into use that could provide much needed accomodation for a family or homeless person.

I have met with the officer responsible at RBC and am confident with proper support he will start to have a real impact on reducing the number of long term empty properties across the Borough.

In Redlands we are seeing progress already with 35 Christchurch Road (corner of Kendrick Road) being refurbished as we speak.

You can find more details about where these empty properties are in Reading via this post which I wrote following our scrutiny review into the subject. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to report an empty home in Reading that you would like me to investigate.

Pressure grows on Labour for action on empty homes

A few weeks ago I blogged about our empty homes campaign gaining momentum in Reading.

An update on empty homes is on the Cabinet agenda on 14 April. 

This issue came to the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel first a few weeks ago.

I have received a lot of positive feedback from residents in the ward to the news that the long-term empty property on Christchurch Road is being refurbished with a view to bringing it back into use soon.

This is a good first step but across the Borough there are still a lot of properties sitting empty in Reading and the record of the Labour-run Council has not been good in this area. The Executive only took action after a long-running Lib Dem campaign.

Anyway, you can download the Update report to Cabinet and the Labour administration's response to recommendations agreed by members of HHCC Scrutiny Panel in March, here.

I drafted these recommendations following a detailed discussion with David Ireland, the UK's leading expert on tackling empty homes and Chief Executive of the independent campaigning charity, the Empty Homes Agency.

He suggested some key areas where Reading Borough Council's strategy and approach to bringing empty homes back into use could be improved.

I have to say having read the offical response to our recommendations I'm less than impressed. Reading the report might give you the impression that we don't have an empty homes problem in Reading or worse, that no additional effort is required. 

There must be no room for complacency from Labour-run RBC on this issue. Nationally, Labour ministers seem to have acknowledged, after a long period of burying their heads in the sand that councils need more support and guidance if empty homes are going to be brought back into use.

Inside Housing recently launched a national campaign to highlight the need for action on empty homes. I have added my name to the'Empty Promise' petition on the No 10 website and I would encourage you to do the same.

I will continue to shine a light on this critical issue and campaign for more action from RBC which becomes more urgent the deeper we slide into a recession.

Perhaps as a result of my active campaigning on the subject I have been invited to take part in a seminar being held by the Department for Communities and Local Government into tackling empty homes later this month where I hope to be able to pick up more best practice advice from other members and officers about what else we can do here in Reading.

Empty homes campaign goes from strength to strength

The eagle-eyed amongst our readers may have seen me on Meridian TV  last week talking about the problem of empty homes in Reading. If you want to you can watch the very short clip here.

I have David Ireland, Chief Executive of the campaigning charity the Empty Homes Agency ,to thank for this piece as he recommended me to the producer of the news programme.

It was also David who called and left a message on my answerphone all those years ago (in 2006) alerting me to the scale of the problem in Reading. This was the prompt I needed to get stuck into this issue.

I am and continue to be very grateful to him for all his hard work in this area. I am also grateful to the local residents I have spoken to over the last few years who have pressed me to keep the campaign going in the face of Labour apathy.

I'm glad to say the Labour government is finally to the EHA, as this press release issued by the Department for Communities & Local government shows.

Some key facts about empty homes in Reading (taken from the background report tabled at last week's Scrutiny meeting):

• According to latest Council statistics (taken from Council Tax and other records) there are around 300 long-term empty privately-owned properties in Reading (i.e. empty for more than 6 months)
• Of these there are around 11 'priority' empty homes in Reading either in prominent areas or causing anti-social behaviour
• Reading’s percentage housing stock that is empty (3.46% in 2007) is higher than figures
  for England (3.02%) and the South East (2.35%).
• Empty homes are most common in parts of the town with high density of private rented housing
• There are empty properties across Reading, but the wards with the highest numbers of empty homes are currently Southcote (79), Abbey (55), Battle (39) Park (39), Katesgrove (31), Redlands (30)and Minster (30).

Following our discussion last week at HHCC Scrutiny Panel on the subject of empty homes in Reading,  I am pleased to say at long last I have some good news about two long term empty properties in the ward.

These two properties, Alexandra House on London Road (corner of Fatherson Road) and 35 Christchurch Road (on the corner of Kendrick Road), have stood empty for many years and as such are two of the most prominent empty properties in Redlands. I wrote about my battles to bring these back into use in December. You can read more background to our local campaign here: http://www.redlandslibdems/emptyhomes

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the Council's indefatigable empty homes officer, these two properties are slowly, but surely, being brought back into use. I have listed the latest news below :

Alexandra House

Officers have contacted me to report that significant internal works have been carried out since their last visit (though you wouldn't know it from the outside). The agent advised officers that they were aiming to complete works by the Autumn, but the cold winter has put them back by a couple of months.

Officers from Building Control and Planning are also on the case checking works and compliance with Planning conditions.

35 Christchurch Road

Following discussions between the new empty homes officer and the agent, work began in February to bring this property back into use. Works are expected to be completed by the end of May. Officers anticipate a further 6 weeks for gas fitting, final decoration etc. Officers from Building Control will be monitoring the works to check it is up to standard.

As we said at the time, when the Council's Labour administration caved in and agreed to a new empty homes strategy , a strategy alone is not enough: resources of time etc are needed to make things happen.

The two small pieces of work I've outlined above show what can be achieved if the necessary officer time is available to to be dedicated to this sometimes slow, often painstaking work.

There is no doubt that the extra resource the Council has belatedly attached to this important work has speeded up the process of bringing empty homes back into use. So far, the Council's energetic empty homes officer has made contact with an incredible 90 owners since August 2008!

However, the Council has a number of legal powers to help this process but has so far been slow about using them. This continues the theme of the need for more effective enforcement activity  which Reading Lib Dems have been campaigning for, for some time.

If landlords refuse to co-operate the Council must consider taking out an empty dwelling management order (EDMO).

EDMOs allow local authorities to take over the management, not the ownership, of a property. The guidance shows that even the threat of an EDMO can have a significant impact on encouraging owners to work with councils to bring homes back into use.

To be clear, the impact on a neighbourhood level of restoring these properties - reducing anti-social behaviour, restoring pride in the local area and providing much needed homes for local people - is huge.

The long-term positive impact that this vital work could have on the whole of Reading, therefore, is potentially massive in my view.

In a recession, the number of empty properties in Reading is sadly expected to grow. It is vital that the Council works energetically with landlords to make sure these properties can be used as homes for those that need them.

It can be done: in Lib-Dem controlled Brent Council, 88 homes have been brought back into use already.

As you can probably tell, I am passionate about this issue and will continue to devote energy into making sure the Labour-run Council is more proactive towards dealing with this problem in future. If you wish to report a long term empty home in Reading or would like more information please do get in touch with me redlandslibdems@hotmail.co.uk

Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel meeting

This evening I chaired a meeting of the Housing, Health and Community Care Panel.

You can access the reports we discussed via the Council's website here.

We had a big agenda (partly because scrutiny panels only meet a few times a year and also because the Panel has a very wide remit as you might have guessed!) but the subjects covered were really interesting. I would like to thank all those who contributed to the meeting.

I spent some considerable time preparing for the meeting and discussed with a range of people involved ways in which scrutiny could add value.

Like a stuck record you could say, I made the point again tonight that I think it's very important that as a Council we move away from 'rubber stamping' reports and providing leadership and challenge to officers to lead to better services for residents of the Borough - otherwise, what are we there for?

Over the past few years, one Party rule in Reading has led to a culture where to put it politely, overview has been given more weight than scrutiny in overview & scrutiny committees.

It's up to individual members to take the initiative, in my view and I hope that's what I have done. Certainly not all members are engaged in scrutiny, but, there isn't much I can do about that.

Some personal highlights from the meeting:

- Recommendations to Cabinet on improving residential care services in the Borough (including Edward Hughes care home) were agreed by the Panel following the public meeting I chaired on the subject in January.  This issue was referred to Scrutiny back in September and will hopefully be agreed by Cabinet on 16 March.

- Following the scrutiny review into private rented housing in Reading, we agreed a good set of positive recommendations to Cabinet covering a range of areas. The proposals were also endorsed by the Environment Scrutiny Panel at its meeting on Tuesday evening. I'll blog the details soon. A report on the public consultation event highlighted the high level of public participation (including tenants, students and landlords) - over 74 comments received, with a number of comments received via the web too.

-  Discussed a report on tenant participation agenda with tenants and officers- very positive and helping to make Council services more responsive to local people. I praised the Hexham estate improvement consultation as a great example of tenant involvement. Clearly more work to be done to ensure the voices of younger tenants and tenants from private sector are heard. We have asked for an update report to come to the Panel on this aspect.

- Investigated the impact of the credit crunch on housing in Reading.It felt like a long time since we discussed the issue last Summer when very few Councils were discussing this. I will blog more about this next week -the early signs seem to show Reading is coping well (number of homeless people has not increased, but clearly we need to monitor the situation.

The Council's deposit guarantee scheme is playing a key role in making sure people don't lose their homes. I raised concerns once again about risks to tenants and landlords in private rented sector. An update report is coming to the next meeting. We have also asked for a review of debt advice service as this is key to helping residents.

- Empty homes update: following my successful campaign to get the Council to adopt an empty homes strategy now we need to make sure things happen. We finally have a strategy and officer dedicated to this area. However, the report showed there are still hundreds of homes in the Borough lying empty and a concerted effort is needed to get them back into use. We agreed a set of recommendations to Cabinet calling for action. Some other interesting stuff which I'll blog next week.

-  Admission of minors into adult mental health wards: I blogged about the background to this last week. Update from the Primary Care Trust suggested officers are some way from agreeing a cross-Berkshire commissioning solution. I rrequested an update to the next meeting to ensure that this issue remains on the agenda of local health bodies. Good to see Paul Farmer in attendance (although doubtless he will be disappointed this issue has not been resolved)

- CSCI inspection; Following the critical inspection report published last year, the action plan we requested at the December Panel meeting showed officers are now clearly focused on areas identified of weakness in the Community Care service which was encouraging. We thanked officers and requested update reports to future meetings on areas where further improvement is still needed.

- Received the not such good news that plans for a Battle 'Health and Well-being centre' and a long-awaited Whitley health centre are both delayed due to the credit crunch. On a positive note, the town centre 'GP led health centre' is on track to be opened later this year, to improve access to health care to residents living and working in the centre of town

- Discussed NHS dentistry with representatives from the PCT. Figures in the report showed that too many people in Reading still don't know that there are NHS dentists they can access . I highlighted concerns about rates of tooth decay amongst children which we raised in the scrutiny review into children's health last week and called for joint action by the Council and health bodies to increase awareness amongst parents.

These are only some of the issues we discussed at the meeting (we had almost 20 items on the agenda!).  However, I haven't got time to cover them all as I'm off to Lib Dem Conference this weekend. 

However, I will be revisiting these campaigns and issues here over the coming days and weeks.

NAG-ing News

Yesterday, the Evening Post included a piece about my campaign for more support for Neighbourhood Policing. Apologies for the awful photo! (I must send them some better ones). 

Also in the local press this week, an update on the ongoing Lib Dem campaign for action on empty homes, which we began two years ago, and which has resulted in Reading Borough Council adopting a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the problem, and beginning to bring vacant properties back into use - albeit slowly.