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7 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Tony Devenish: What so... · 0 replies · +1 points

It doesn't really matter who the candidate is as long as the policies continue to alienate much of London's population. The biggest two issues are housing and air quality and the party needs to reconsider its current stand on both.

A commitment to 50% of new housing being for social (not "affordable") rent and lobbying central government for things like allowing city-wide landlord registration, rented property standards, ending to right-to-buy and bringing back rent controls would be a big vote winner. My area is slowly reverting to pre-WWI conditions as slum landlords buy up former social housing (ironically flats that were built to get people away from such landlords) and rent them out on a room-by-room basis, spending sod all on maintenance (I recently went flat hunting with a friend and was appalled by the conditions most of the flats were in - something I would expect to find in a developing country not western Europe).

A commitment to serious reconsidering London's road network and the potential of closing roads to through traffic or one-way systems would also go down well.

7 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Tony Devenish: A polic... · 0 replies · +1 points

This is really poorly thought out.

1. Most young people in London don't pay council tax because they largely live in shared houses renting out rooms on an individual basis. The only people that would benefit would be the landlords.

2. Councils are already strapped for cash and selling land off where they can. Better for them to retain it and try and make some kind of long-term rental income from it rather than the classic short term Conservative approach of selling stuff off to cover a deficit, which only serves to aggravate the problem in the long term.

3. The same applies to TfL. They should be encouraged to create long-term income streams from their assets, not sell them as a one off.

8 years ago @ http://www.conservativ... - Tony Devenish: There a... · 0 replies · +1 points

"Surrey still employs 1,500 staff. I would estimate that half of these have little or nothing to do with Social Services."

I don't think I've seen this level of ignorance since Harry Phibbs' last post.

I worked for a rural county council covering a smaller county than Surrey. We had something like 6,000 staff. I believe the facilities management department alone (cleaners, grounds maintenance, dinnerladies, receptionists etc) accounted for over 1,500 staff because we had something like 500 buildings to look after.

As well as social services, county councils are also responsible for highways, public and school transport, libraries, fire stations, trading standards etc etc. I can't believe someone who is a councillor would not be aware of the diverse roles these councils have, let alone moan about Surrey having 1,500 staff - this figure is very low and suggests that the council has a lot of privatised services, which will of course be costing the council far more than delivering in house.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Tim Bonner: Ignorant, ... · 2 replies · +1 points

"The problem, however, is that with, very few exceptions, land use policies enacted to punish land owners and dismantle traditional land use systems have proved disastrous both for the countryside and the populations it feeds."

What utter rubbish.

The creation of council farms - splitting up huge estates and creating affordable and secure tenancies for small family farms had a hugely positive effect on the rural economy, giving farm labourers the chance to have their own farm instead of working for the lord of the manor.

Large landowners - such as those who dominate the Countryside Alliance - are terrified of land reform because they might actually have to do a proper job rather than just living off (usually inherited) ownership of land.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - Judy Terry: Our planni... · 1 reply · +1 points

You do realise that the streetlights are run by the Tory county council?

And that they are also responsible for the roads and the vast majority of your council tax bill?

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - The boundary proposals... · 0 replies · +1 points

I'm surprised you aren't aware of this, particularly as it's mentioned almost every time the review is brought up.

If you need some evidence, here's a BBC factcheck: "The review is based on the December 2015 register"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37351172

The controversy is because millions of people were not on that version of the register.

8 years ago @ Conservative Home - The boundary proposals... · 2 replies · +1 points

No, it's on registered voters - this is why it's causing so much controversy.

9 years ago @ Conservative Home - Judy Terry: There is a... · 0 replies · +1 points

"one of whom was already seconded to a national infrastructure project which then employed her, leading to the inevitable question: why was she eligible for ‘redundancy’?"

Presumably because she was a permanent employee at the council and the secondment is only temporary? Is it really that hard to understand?

As for the council "cutting" 537 jobs, how many of these have just been outsourced (which always ends up costing more in the long-run)?

My understanding is that the merger of Suffolk Coastal and Waveney is largely for political reasons - Suffolk Coastal is a solid Conservative council, whilst Waveney is a swing council. A merged council would always be Conservative, so the aim is really to prevent Labour regaining control of Waveney. Good old gerrymandering...

9 years ago @ Conservative Home - The rate of home owner... · 0 replies · +1 points

But the people at the top of the tree (and government) will continue to benefit as landlords, so they certainly won't be changing anything anytime soon...

9 years ago @ Conservative Home - The rate of home owner... · 0 replies · +1 points

It's because in many cases the state simply gave people their homes at the end of the communist era. Certainly I know in Moscow, if you live in a council-owned flat, you can just ask for ownership to be transferred to you.

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