FIGHTING THE BEDROOM TAX AND BENEFIT CUTS

Rugby Green Party members will be meeting at 10am on Friday 1st March - meeting at 181 Oxford Street, Rugby to campaign against the Bedroom Tax and Benefit Cuts - please contact us via this page if you can help to leaflet or by email to rugbygreenparty@gmail.com or text to 07906600689 - If you want to know where we stand please see the video above.!

We Oppose The Bedroom Tax

MAKING US PAY AGAIN FOR THE BANKERS!

The Coalition government’s Welfare Reforms are due this April, having been talked about for a couple of years.  A big part of this reform is reductions inHousing Benefit; what’s being called “The Bedroom Tax”.  The government have decided that everyone with what they describe as one ‘spare’ room will have 14% of their Housing Benefit taken away from them; two or more rooms will mean a cut of 25% of their Housing Benefit.  It affects everyone of working age, whether or not you are registered disabled.  The only exceptions are those over 65.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived in your house, whether or not you consider it ‘home’ or if it’s just a roof over your head, if you’re on Housing Benefit, you need to be thinking about how you’re going to pay. 

This is supposed to be an incentive for people in social housing (what used to be called council houses) to only live in the homes that fit – single people in one-bedroomed houses, families in two or three-bedroomed houses.  It almost seems like a good idea, freeing up houses for the long lists of people waiting.  In reality, this is a nightmare for those in homes that are now deemed to be ‘the wrong size’, with no smaller properties to move to.  One of the biggest problems is that there just aren’t enough one-bedroomed properties in the county for the amount of people needing them.  There is simply nowhere for people who need the smallest houses to go.  People will be stuck in homes that are too big for them, their benefits will be cut and they won’t be able to afford to stay in their homes.  The logical conclusion to this is that more tenants will be evicted due to rent arrears, so will become homeless.  Most rents on three-bedroomed homes at £100+ each week, you would need to find at least £15 a week or £30 if you have two spare rooms.  If you are on a low or no wage, where do you get that from? 

The government has said that tenants can take in one lodger without it affecting their benefit entitlement so the shortfall can be made up that way.  Some tenants are considering that option and tenancy exchanges are becoming more popular, so tenants aren’t joining the housing list but are still able to ‘downsize’.  But many tenants have ended up in houses too big for them because their houses were allocated to them when all the kids lived at home. The kids have left home and the house is now “too big”, according to the Coalition government, so the family home needs another family in it.  It’s too brutal for these families and everyone affected and is a further tax on the less well off in British society.The Coalition government’s Welfare Reforms are due this April, having been talked about for a couple of years.  A big part of this reform is reductions inHousing Benefit; what’s being called “The Bedroom Tax”.  The government have decided that everyone with what they describe as one ‘spare’ room will have 14% of their Housing Benefit taken away from them; two or more rooms will mean a cut of 25% of their Housing Benefit.  It affects everyone of working age, whether or not you are registered disabled.  The only exceptions are those over 65.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived in your house, whether or not you consider it ‘home’ or if it’s just a roof over your head, if you’re on Housing Benefit, you need to be thinking about how you’re going to pay. 

This is supposed to be an incentive for people in social housing (what used to be called council houses) to only live in the homes that fit – single people in one-bedroomed houses, families in two or three-bedroomed houses.  It almost seems like a good idea, freeing up houses for the long lists of people waiting.  In reality, this is a nightmare for those in homes that are now deemed to be ‘the wrong size’, with no smaller properties to move to.  One of the biggest problems is that there just aren’t enough one-bedroomed properties in the county for the amount of people needing them.  There is simply nowhere for people who need the smallest houses to go.  People will be stuck in homes that are too big for them, their benefits will be cut and they won’t be able to afford to stay in their homes.  The logical conclusion to this is that more tenants will be evicted due to rent arrears, so will become homeless.  Most rents on three-bedroomed homes at £100+ each week, you would need to find at least £15 a week or £30 if you have two spare rooms.  If you are on a low or no wage, where do you get that from? 

The government has said that tenants can take in one lodger without it affecting their benefit entitlement so the shortfall can be made up that way.  Some tenants are considering that option and tenancy exchanges are becoming more popular, so tenants aren’t joining the housing list but are still able to ‘downsize’.  But many tenants have ended up in houses too big for them because their houses were allocated to them when all the kids lived at home. The kids have left home and the house is now “too big”, according to the Coalition government, so the family home needs another family in it.  It’s too brutal for these families and everyone affected and is a further tax on the less well off in British society.

TORIES CUTS TURN RUGBY INTO A CARTOON! GREENS SAYS DON'T BE FOOLED BY TORY CUTS TO STREET LIGHTING IN RUGBY - THIS IS NOT ABOUT CUTTING CARBON EMISSIONS!

Mr Burns
who plunged
 Springfield into darkness

Greens Slams Tories over fool hardy light turn off in Rugby 

Is Councillor Peter Butlin Rugby's own Mr Burns we ask?

Rugby Tory Councillor
Peter Butlin
Who plunged Rugby
into darkness

It appears we now have our own life like Mr Burns, the Simpsons character living amongst in Rugby – namely Bilton Tory Councillor Peter Butlin who like Mr Burns in one of the Simpsons cartoon episodes has now brought darkness to his town.

Peter Butlin with the support off his Tory chums on Warwickshire County Council is fronting this fool hardy scheme of turning off vast areas of public lighting in Rugby and Warwickshire to ‘save’ £500,000 and because they say they need to cut their carbon emissions. 

This from a Tory council that managed to spend £60 million (twice as much budgeted) for the Western Relief road  with resulting increase in pollution directly and indirectly for the people of Rugby especially when CEMEX builds their conveniently  sited massive waste plant next to the new road and the River Avon.

Many of us in the Green Party would welcome the  late conversion of local Tories to the merits of energy efficiency and cutting carbon emissions if they were actually doing it correctly and also taking into account community concerns over crime and public safety – but this move to plunge parts of our town into darkness is just another Tory cut in reality and nothing about dealing with climate change.

In Sheffield, the local council is installing Led lighting) Light Emitting Diode)  on its 68.000 lamps over a 5 year time frame.  These modern attractive  lights offer a more focus glow directed downward so limiting light pollution and are greatly more efficient with the bulbs lasting for 25 years and will cut at least 60% of carbon emissions.

 

Our Green Party Councillors in Sheffield are correct to point out the need to include solar lighting as well as LED lights in the provision of lighting and also that central Government should be funding this scheme as part of the need to challenge climate change and also create green jobs for the future in the UK.

Rugby Green Party also believes that a tax should be levied on the massive profits of the energy companies to provide the funds for these 21st century public lighting schemes and other energy saving projects and also the local council could seek ways to have the lighting equipment manufactured locally to provide jobs in Rugby.

A big local concern is also that crime including violent crime is likely to increase because of the areas where the lights will go off – especially near the town centre where young women in particular are likely to be at greater risk due to trying to get  home late at night and we in Green Party share this concern and in our view the turning off lighting should be immediately reviewed.

Peter Butlin and the Tories have a stark choice in our view to either cancel this frankly stupid and ill thought out plan and instead work with others who actually know how to save energy costs and keep our communities safe or face the consequences at the forthcoming County Council elections in May.

Also the local Lib Dem Councillors have a role to play and they should also ask their party in Government to stop these unfair and dangerous cuts to local councils, which is the real reason why we have this crazy plan to black out Rugby in the first place.

Regards - Roy Sandison – Rugby Green Party Spokesperson

Letter printed in Rugby Observer last week

Mid-Staffs hospital crisis shows NHS market has failed

Responding to the inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust by Robert Francis QC, Stuart Jeffery, the Green Party's national health spokesperson, commented:

"Blind to the needs of patients and the voices of staff, the Francis Inquiry clearly shows what happens when government gets its strategy wrong. The drive to be a Foundation Trust in the new healthcare market has led to the deaths of up to 1200 patients. Rather than delivering good quality health care, the Mid Staffs board were concentrating on finances to become a Foundation Trust - a fundamentally flawed policy that is a key part of the pseudo market in health care services.

"Let's hope that the government uses this as a wake-up call. The market has no place in health care and Foundation Trusts are unnecessary and poorly monitored. The NHS needs to return to being an organisation of health care provision not commissioned services.

"The market experiment has failed, it has wasted money and lives. It must come to an end now."

Tom Harris, the Green Party's councillor in Stafford since 2011, said:

"No community should ever be put in a situation where they stop trusting their local hospital. This has been a disaster for the whole town. The A&E unit is still shut overnight and the hospital is in millions of pounds of debt. Residents are fatigued by the endless stream of bad news about an institution every one if us wants to believe would offer us the very best care in our moment of need.

"The badly let down people of Stafford would love to believe the government's NHS reforms will improve care, but if there was ever going to be skepticism about changing the system then this is where you'll find it."