[Ben Reeve Lewis is doing a lot of filming just now …...]
I’m about 7 weeks into filming a Channel 5 documentary to air in June on rogue landlords.
What started out as a bit of a chore has been made enjoyable by the daily presence of the crew, Lucy and Ed.
Not just their humour and friendliness but also the free Costa coffees they arrive with each morning…….and biscuits.
Getting the hang of filming
I feel I am only now starting to master the difficult ‘Walking shot’ so beloved of TV programmes. With a bit more practice I’ll have it down pat. Stick with me Lucy, I’ll get there.
What I haven’t been able to master is to cut down on foul mouthed rants and sarcasm at inequality in modern British society but then to even attempt to do so would be a betrayal of the very core of my being, my inner child if you will.
I apologise in advance of the programme folks but I’m afraid…
Love me – Love my invective. The two go hand in hand.
Now I could obviously do loads of foul mouthed ranting at Osborne’s last budget in terms of what it offers private tenants, which is a big, fat f****g zero, but I’m going to ignore the obvious.
To be honest because my grasp of macro-economics is probably on par with Cyril Smith’s skills at hang gliding and I wouldn’t be able to argue my corner effectively in the comments section.
There’s a blast from the past. Who’d a thought that fool would be back in the headlines in 2015?
Homes for Britain
Right on my radar though is the news of this week’s biggest protest march over the housing crisis in the name of ‘Homes for Britain’ which managed to unite such disparate creatures as ‘Cathy Come Home’ director Ken Loach with the Mr Bean of party politics, Nigel Farrage.
Ken saying in his speech “Don’t you wish we had politicians with the vision of Bevan”. By God yes mate!!!!!!!!!! Politicians with morals instead of sound-bites?
Regular readers will know I am in a bit of a quandary about who to vote for this year. Normally I’m left of centre labour but party politics has denigrated to such an extent that I am thinking of spoiling my ballot paper with the words “None of these idiots” written on it.
Labour offers nothing to private tenants or the homelessness crisis that can’t be found in a rant by a toothless redneck in an Alabama bar, displaying the charm of Ian Duncan-Smith and the wit of Alan Hanson.
At the rally, Farrage predictably trumpeted:
“Tighter immigration controls would reduce housing demand”
Anger at the unfairness
The anger at unfairness that causes me to get up each day and harass rogue landlords was ably summed up by the comments of Frances O’Grady, general exec of the TUC when she said:
“The property market has become a giant casino where a generation of young people grow up without a hope whatsoever of getting a council house or buying their own home.”
Today, as Ed, Lucy and I were walking the three miles back from the car to my office, (London parking restrictions) while I secretly practised my walking shots, I talked of my anger at how in the past few years houses are only referred to as investment opportunities as opposed to homes, so I was intrigued to read the comments of Mariam Ahmed from Leeds who said:
“If you don’t have a home, you don’t have anything. Home means love, family and security”
Spot on the money m’dear, it aint just bricks and mortar. It IS if you are an investor but that that’s a world away from what would effectively be called a ‘service user’, commonly known as a ‘Family’.
Such is the linguistic shenanigans of the whole thing. Deep breath……………………………
Cathy come home
Speaking of ‘Cathy come home’ (14 paragraphs back…do try and keep up) 2016 will be the 50th anniversary of what was originally a BBC drama programme but one which birthed Shelter and whole cultural approach to housing.
People are wondering what has changed in that time. I would suggest, as one who is based in an inner London homelessness unit and been involved in homelessness since 1987, that its actually grown worse in the past few short years.
Writing of the situation on Red Brick, Steve Hilditch says:
“From the high point and optimism of the passage of the 2002 Homelessness Act, homelessness as an issue has almost disappeared off the bottom of the political agenda. The rights of individuals have been seriously eroded, especially since the Coalition came in, the experience of homeless people has become much worse, public and media attitudes have hardened seriously”
I agree with Steve when he says:
“One of the measures of civilization is how a society treats its homeless people. It seems to me that we have regressed a long way.”
With Cathy come home ringing in my ears I fell across a strangely non-committal and fuzzy article on Inside Housing about the fall in Local Government Ombudsman’s complaints over homeless families being placed in bed and breakfast accommodation.
B&B for homeless families
Legally families shouldn’t be in them for more than 6 weeks. Councils routinely fail to comply simply because of the amount of people coming through their doors, prompted by the government’s inability to address the homeless crisis.
LGO spokesperson Dr Jane Martin says encouragingly:
“I am pleased to see our investigations are showing fewer concerns about the way councils are responding to the issue of homelessness”
Adding:
“While I applaud the steps that Harrow and many other councils are taking to improve the situation for homeless families, as the law states, councils must not leave families in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than six weeks”.
Well love……..try dealing with 500 homelessness applications a week as many inner London authorities have to, against a backdrop of out of control London rents and a benefit cap that leaves many people several hundred pounds short of the rent.
Then I’ll join you on the podium slagging off councils for using B&B indiscriminately.
What made me smile this week.
Obviously…given the above…very little!