Live webchat with Grant Shapps, local government and housing minister, Tues 7 Dec, 2.30pm - 3.30pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're very pleased that our webchat guest on Tues 7 Dec is local government and housing minister Grant Shapps. He has recently been in the news over homeowners' rights and the government's social housing policy.

On Mon 6 Dec, he's setting out how the government intends to put more power into the hands of local councillors. Part of this is that the govt wants to encourage women, particularly mothers of school-age children, to consider becoming councillors. Grant would like to know what you think about becoming a local councillor? Are there any obstacles to you doing so? If you're already a councillor, what are your experiences, and what do you think are the opportunities for women in local government?

Grant is the MP for Welwyn Hatfield, he's married with three children - a boy aged nine and six-year-old twins.

Hope you can join him on Tues, 1.30pm-2.30pm. But if you can't and you have a question or comment, please post it here.

[ilovecrisps]

Actually the first question was about housing
And so were most of the others!

[GrantShapps]

@stretch

I would like to become a councillor. Unfortunately, I have 4 children and childcare would be an issue. Also I live in a HA house, so not sure I'm the 'sort' of person they would like.

I would like Superv1xen's question answered.

That ís exactly why I came on here. I am interested in why you think someone in a Housing Authority house couldn't be a councillor? Although I understand why you might be busy From that brief description I would say you sound like ideal councillor material. Somebody like yourself might have experience of health care, of childcare, of education and of the facilities available to children, play areas and green spaces to say the least, right down to the detail of street clutter blocking a buggy. Then there's personal experience of living in social housing - that sort of first hand experience is invaluable.

In terms of childcare, allowances for carers are available when councillors attend meetings.

[GrantShapps]

@madamimadam

We've also been asked to identify services that we'd like to volunteer for in the same survey.

Is this also planned as part of the Localisation Bill? That we step in and run services that you cut? If you do expect people to volunteer as carers in homes, run education services etc, who will pay for the CRB checks? And, as I am unqualified for such a role, who will pay for my training?

Or will you take anyone who's keen and has the time, no questions asked?

And what then of the people who have the skills to do these jobs but inconveniently also need to be paid for them?

Aren't you actually asking the public to cover the jobs of public service workers for free?

That's not a BIg Society to me, it's a Sub-Third World one.

It definitely isn't the case of replacing paid people with volunteers. It is though a question of how we think about society.

Do we think that the ONLY people with a duty to look after others are employed by the state?

No of course not.

We live in neighbourhoods and it is right that people should be able to look to their community to help out.

That's how all kinds of services from running the local scout group to the local museum operate and there's every reason to expand this concept further.

If people had more power and control over what goes on in their communities then this would help a lot. And that's exactly the kind of power that we're about to provide through our localism bill. More power to people to help make sure that change is in your hands.

[LadyBlaBlah]

Even experienced MN'ers cannot type answers that quickly. 2 mins between posts

[JustineMumsnet]

@LadyBlaBlah

Even experienced MN'ers cannot type answers that quickly. 2 mins between posts

(Yes one of his team is sitting next to him doing some he prepared last night, it makes sense because it means we cover more ground - Jamie had five typing for him!)

[GrantShapps]

@Jcee

How will you ensure that those getting involved have the necessary experience to do the job and are not power mad meddling nimbyist nutters truely represent the communities they will be serving?

Of course you're right to point out that there are no qualifications for being a councillor or by the way an MP, or even a Minister.

However there is one hurdle that you have to climb which is to get elected. Once elected most people do take that responsibility seriously and I don't think there's much evidence that power-crazed individuals are running around destroying their communities.

Of course if this did start to happen then theyt would doubtless be booted out at the next election!

[ilovecrisps]

Housing please
I need to go and feed my baby!

[swanker]

That large authority also recently advertised for volunteers to carry out statutory duties (statutory data collections) because there has been a staffing freeze for so long there are no longer enough paid officers to manage the workload. (advert had to be rescinded of course, once people noticed!!!)- so how is that not replacing paid people with volunteers?

[madamadore]

Dear Grant
we lived until recently in a local authority block of flats and benefited, along with our neighbours, greatly from the Decent Homes programme. We had our grotty old inefficient windows replaced with doubled glazing - which meant our heating bills dropped dramatically - and the block generally got a bit of a facelift which made it a more pleasant place to live.

What is this government planning to do in this area i.e. making improvements to the council housing stock (as well as the rest of the housing stock), in particular to make it more energy efficient - which saves money at a time when most people are struggling to keep up with cost of living.

[GrantShapps]

@granted

I would like to know how he intends to help those priced out of buying a house (as opposed to a teeny tiny studio flat) to house their families in, or alternatively when he intends to improve security of tenure and rights for tenants so that they are at a comparative level to other European countries. I would like to hear him agree that it is unreasonable for children to be brought up in homes where they can be moved on the whim of a landlord every 6 months and where they are not allowed to decorate their romms in any way or have pets.

I would like to make it crystal clear that first time buyers do NOT want easy access to ridiculous multiples of their salaries to enable them to buy a house, or shared ownership, or rules to enable us to borrow enough to see us in debt we can never conceivably repay. We just want CHEAPER houses, and preferably more of them.

What policies does he have for building, or encouraging the building of, thousands (or even millions) of new homes, including new socially rented homes, to replace all those lost under Right-to-Buy?

Can he confirm how many properties he personally owns and whether he is a buy-to-let landlord?

Thanks. :)

Hi Granted, A lot of issues to cover in your various posts. I've already mentioned that councillors can get carer's allowance, so help is available. But, just like being a mum, there are no fixed hours for councillors. Meetings apart (and I've already covered those), being a councillor is a great job for somebody who wants to read their correspondence in the morning, organise their thoughts in the afternoon and fire off some e-mails as and when they want. You really can set your own hours here.

I have come on to encourage people to consider being a councillor but am happy to discuss anything else in my remit.

In answer to your question about how we will encourage building of new homes, we have secured a package that will help deliver the homes this country needs and are investing nearly £6.5 billion of taxpayers' money in housing over the Spending Review period (between 2011 and 2015).

£2bn is to be invested in refurbishing and repairing social housing through the Decent Homes programme and almost £4.5 billion to fund new affordable homes to provide up to 150,000 homes to households who cannot afford to meet their own housing needs in the future.

We are giving housing associations much more flexibility on rents and use of assets, so our aspiration is to deliver as many as homes as possible through our investment and reforms.

We need a more flexible system of affordable housing- offering stability when it's needed; helping people move for work; and protecting vulnerable households.

Housing associations will now have another option to offer households who only need support for a fixed period. We are calling it Affordable Rent. This new funding model will allow greater flexibility, focus state support on those in greatest need for as long as they need it and secure greater value for money for taxpayers. We will be publishing further details on affordable rent in early next year.

The only property I own is my own. I've never had a property that I've let or a second home.

[Jaybird37]

Brian Coleman?

[madamimadam]

Could you please answer Superv1xen's question about housing, Grant? I'll repost it below to save you or your aide some time:

ie can you PROMISE existing council/housing association tenants that the proposed changes to local authority tenants will NOT affect us? 

and what can we expect the household income before familes are kicked out told to find a private rented property is going to be set at?



Are you going to do anything to help mere mortals on or just above the minimum wage get on the property ladder so we do not have to spend our whole lives moving our families around insecure, substandard and overpriced rented accomodation.

and, speaking of landlords, is anything going to be put in place to stop them charging extortionate amounts to rent out their aforementioned "properties" ?


You know, just so half the country don't spend their whole lives on housing benefit.

[GrantShapps]

@mellicauli

No one seems to be interested in councillors I note.

Given that, why do you think giving them more power is a good idea? What powers are being so wrongly exercised at the moment that need to be devolved? And what mandate do you have for doing it?

Or would you just like to foist off a lot of unpopular decisions on a load of mug Mums so you don't have to take the flack for it anymore?

I can tell you why Mums aren't interested in being councillors. This is because it is a poorly paid job with unsociable hours for little or no thanks. Most Mums already have a job that meets just this description.

Hi Mellicauli, It's not bad; but it could be better. That's why we want to remove interference and red tape from Whitehall so that councils can get on with the job of deciding for themselves what their electorates need. We have talented councillors but we need more, we need people who are representative of their community. Imagine seeing an issue in your neighbourhood and instead of just being in a position to complain about it, being in a position to pick up the phone and do something about it.

In terms of poor pay - it's important to remember that being a councillor is not a job, it's a vocation. There's no salary, but there are allowances to compensate people for their time. If you saw my mailbag, you'd know that many people are amazed that councillors get paid at all, and think those that do get paid too much. While the levels of allowances should be realistic, we also acknowledge that councillors can't be expected to work for nothing. That work is valued.

[Jcee]

I think it's apparent that lots of mumsnetters have varied and relevant real life and career experience, are articulate and are ideal candidates to be councillors.

However being realistic, the system, processes and current set up mean being a councillor is inaccessible to many due to family,carer or work commitments and if you want to create a true big society where everyone has the option to get involved then the infrastructure needs addressing otherwise it'll just be the same old White middle aged men old same old

[ilovecrisps]

we need realistic house prices

not everyone who is priced out is eligable for social housing

a 1 bed flat is 350k where I am a 3/4 bed house over 750 and usually closer to 1 million

how much would you need to earn for a standard mortgage for one of those?

pleased you don't own multiple homes? do you commute in each day?

[GrantShapps]

@mrsden

Mr Schapps,

Why would anyone want to be a councillor when your Government is determined to push tough decisions onto Councils so that you can turn around and say "it wasn't our decision, talk to your Councillor"?

Pickles talks down Councils all the time, only this weekend he was moaning about how much Chief Execs get paid. Being a councillor or working for a council is a thankless task and is only set to become harder now that your Government is slashing budgets and at the same time expecting councils to do more and more. Do you really think that hard working, talented people want to take the blame for your spending cuts?

It's definitely true that councils will have to face their share of the deficit reduction. Let's not forget that you only have to look across the Irish sea to understand what happens if you don't get the deficit under control.

So, yes councils will need to take their share.

However, in addition to budgets being lower, we are un-ringfencing lots of spending meaning that local councillors will be in a far better position to decide how the money is spent. This extra flexibility will make the job of councillors a little bit easier.

You ask why we keep pointing out that some Chief Execs are earning more than the PM and the answer is that this demonstrates that some Authorities haven't worked out that they need to take care of their backend spending - like on these top salaries - rather than cut front line services.

[LadyBlaBlah]

Yes, localism - we'll cut your cash and trim away the very limited powers you had and then we call that localism and devolving power to the community in the hope that you won't notice.

[Worcswoman]

I've no objection to becomming a councillor but I wouldn't know how. My question is: Does Mr Shapps not think the recent cuts encourage an 'own nothing' benefits culture given the near 50% reduction in housing benefit for homeowners (on benefits) when those who rent are much better off - they get their rent paid with at most a 20% reduction and also do not have to fund buildings insurance and maintenance costs? Why work? Why buy? Why try?

[GrantShapps]

@ilovecrisps

Does this gov share nu-labs desire to keep property prices at their current artifically inflated levels? If not what changes in fiscal policy can we look forward to in order to bring about a much needed correction?

Agree with others re your posts and desire to discuss councils
you're housing minister we want to discuss housing.

Hi ilovecrisps

I think that one of the reasons why housing is in such a mess is that prices shot through the roof during a ten year period from 1997 to 2007. This left housing unaffordable in this country for too many people.

We think that what's required is stable house prices. We will ensure that the top level financial scrutiny is in place to prevent banks from lending after they can no longer afford to do so - like Northern Rock did.

Many other policies to ensure that more homes are built too.

But I think your basic thought is right. You would now need to be 37 on average to buy a home in this country, unaided by parents, and that can't go on.

Appreciate that quite a lot of the discussion so far has been on Local Government, that's because I happen to cover both briefs and launched a call to encourage people to put themselves up for election as councillors today.

Best.

[LadyBlaBlah]

I am getting a bit overwhelmed with the number of posts hence reading. Less chat, more of a shoe horning in of soundbites.

[NotAnotherNewNappy]

Hi again Grant ,

Thanks for not answering replying to my question. It's great to hear that you may indeed be sticking to the promises about your made about giving social housing tennants more of a stake in their homes in your pre election white paper and manifesto.

Please can you direct me to where this part of your proposals are outlined in more detail? Since May I have googled 'tories give tennants more of a stake in social housing' etc almost everyday and even the greatest search engine on earth can't find them!

Many thanks again and good luck sleeping soundly in your bed at night when you have worked so hard to make normal families live in fear of losing the roof over their heads,
Nann

[packofcards]

I would love to become a councillor, but I have 3 dc and just found that I am pg with dc4. I work nights and I am a cub leader and assistant scout leader. I would not have the time unless I drop something.

[bosch]

I'm one of around 1,200 Planners who volunteer with Planning Aid. Please reconsider cutting the entire Planning Aid budget.

It's been estimated that for every hour of work by a planning adviser (ie funded through Planning Aid), an additional five hours of professional volunteer time is secured.

I really love volunteering with Planning Aid, it's one of the best things about being a Planner. But as volunteers we need someone to put us in touch with the people who need our help.

[GrantShapps]

@Worcswoman

I've no objection to becomming a councillor but I wouldn't know how.

The To Be A Councillor www.beacouncillor.org.uk/howto/ website will give you all the info you need about where to start.

@Worcswoman

My question is: Does Mr Shapps not think the recent cuts encourage an 'own nothing' benefits culture given the near 50% reduction in housing benefit for homeowners (on benefits) when those who rent are much better off - they get their rent paid with at most a 20% reduction and also do not have to fund buildings insurance and maintenance costs? Why work? Why buy? Why try?

Not quite clear on the further point you're making. Get back on this and I'll try to fit in an answer if we have time.

[policywonk]

Removing ringfences (not all the Coalition's doing, Labour did it too) is utterly disastrous for things like domestic violence services providers. Anything that's not electorally popular will go down the tubes, leaving the most vulnerable people even worse off. Some things require national strategies and directives.