Postal workers in Wythenshawe are on strike in a fight over management “bullying
Members of the CWU union at the Royal Mail delivery office in Wythenshawe voted to strike after managers disciplined two workers. Continue reading “Wythenshawe postal workers on strike over “bullying””
Wythenshawe’s Labour MP has distanced himself from calls for a second Brexit referendum. Continue reading “Second Brexit vote is “poor option” says MP”
Wythenshawe MP Mike Kane has dismissed the Chancellor’s budget as tokenistic which will fail to address the chaos of Universal Credit.
Dubbed, Philip Hammond’s giveway gamble, yesterday’s budget promised extra cash for the NHS, schools and funds to ease the roll out of the controversial Universal Credit reforms.
But Labour MP, Mr Kane said the cash “doesn’t eve touch the sides.” He told the reporter: “Yesterday, the Cannounced a broken promise budget. Despite what the Chancellor claims, austerity is not over. Cuts to social security will continue, schools, councils and police are all suffering.
“The Chancellor’s £1.7bn tokenistic promise for Universal Credit doesn’t get close to reversing the £7bn cuts already planned, nor does it address the huge fundamental problems with the Government’s disastrous programme. I hear every day how families across Wythenshawe and Sale East are suffering with the Tories’ broken system and this extra cash doesn’t even touch the sides.”
Mr Hammond was able to promise more spending because an unexpected boost due to higher than anticipated tax receipts and revised economic forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
But those forecasts could easily change for the worse, leaving the chancellor in a tight spot, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The think tank also warned that many public services will continue to feel squeezed for some time to come. “This is no bonanza,” said Paul Johnson, the director of the IFS, told the BBC.
“If I were a prison governor, a local authority chief executive or a head teacher, I would struggle to find much to celebrate. I would be preparing for more difficult years ahead.”
Health spending is the exception, with £20bn extra funding promised to help the NHS and pay for mental health services.
Residents in Wythenshawe are getting the chance to have their say in a bid improve social housing.
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group are in the middle of a major consultation exercise with residents to contribute to the government’ s Green Paper – A New Deal for Social Housing.
Residents are being asked to give their views when they ring WCHG’s customer contact centre and a series of events are being organised to give local people a voice on the future of housing.
Dean Slavin, leading the consultation for WCHG, says the aim of exercise is to collate 1000 responses to be presented in a report – “The Voice of Wythenshawe”, before the government’s deadline on November 6th.
The government’s consultation is centred around five themes :
The government want public opinion on it from tenants, social housing leaseholders, or shared owners. Wythenshawe residents are being asked about a different theme each week. Consultation in Wythenshawe began on September 10th and is running till October 12th.
Dean is particularly passionate about tackling the stereotypes associated with social housing and changing attitudes and language. He says there has been a positive response to the consultation so far.
He said: “The Government produced a very long and complex survey. We decided to scrap that and produce a more straightforward set of questions. The responses will be collated and presented in a report “The Voice of Wythenshawe”, before the government’s deadline on November 6th.”
There will also be a series of customer panels and they are working with tenants and residents groups in Benchill, Northenden, Village 135 and Baguley.
Green paper consultation began this week in #Wythenshawe . Here’s Jodie from our team hearing one tenant’s view on theme 1 of the paper. pic.twitter.com/peUwBYdEJ7
— Dean Slavin (@Parkwaydean) September 13, 2018
The government has attracted criticism from some quarters who see the Green Paper as a missed opportunity. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says the initiative could have spearheaded a growth in affordable housing as a way of tackling poverty.
The JRF’s Chief Executive, Campbell Robb, said: “Families up and down the country are being trapped in poverty because of high housing costs. The Social Housing Green Paper was an opportunity to right this wrong and deliver a plan that would build a new generation of social housing, that would loosen the grip of poverty on families and help people to build a secure future.
“Whilst the plans to empower tenants and give them a real voice are very welcome the lack of concrete plans to build significantly more truly affordable homes risks failing a generation. Against a back drop of rising foodbank use, families on low incomes will continue to face impossible choices about whether to pay the rent or put food on the table. We urge the Government to invest in 80,000 genuinely affordable homes a year at the next Spending Review to put things right.”
Wythenshawe’s Mike Kane has called for an overhaul of the schools watchdog, Ofsted, following a damning report by MPs.
The report, following an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee, said there were “clear shortcomings” in the performance of Ofsted, which inspects schools and children’s services.
Among criticisms highlighted in the report are that it has completed fewer inspections than planned, it has failed to meet its targets for how often schools should be inspected, and schools are being left for longer between inspections.
And Ofsted had incorrectly reported to parliament that it had met the statutory target for reinspecting schools every five years. Continue reading “Wythenshawe MP calls for “root and branch reform” of schools watchdog after damning report”
