The foundation of a cohesive and thriving community is people’s ability to live in decent, secure homes. There are over 900 households on ADC’s housing list who need to be able to access housing at well below market rents. Between April 2018 and December 2018, 50 households in Adur were placed into emergency accommodation. The Conservative Government’s definition of affordable rent at 80% market value does not tally with real wages of the local workforce. People who live in public housing should not be stigmatised. 42% of households are in work, 28% are retired, 7% unemployed, 93% are British nationals** Public land managed by councils should not be considered out of bounds for public housing because they are sited in desirable locations. Until 2019, Adur District Council has not built any public housing for 30 years. ADC has very little land to develop and is currently assessing council garage compounds as sites to develop therefore recognise that they need land. ** http://benefittosociety.co.uk/campaign-research/ Further reading https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/20/council-houses-were-once-a-glory-of-the-public-realm-lets-return-to-those-days https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-announces-new-generation-of-council-housing https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/insight/insight/is-lifting-the-council-borrowing-cap-good-news-for-has-58524 http://www.arch-housing.org.uk/news/latest-news/lga-offers-financial-support-for-council-house-building.aspx

Aberdeen City Council are seeking to fill the hole created by their mis-spending by not only hiking up tax, but also slashing public spending from almost anything worthwhile in the city. Everything from Lollipop Men & Women, to Libraries, Road repairs, Sports Facilitates and even charities like Aberdeen Performing Arts and SHMU face the chop. All so that public money can be spent to prop up private spending on money-pits like Marischal Square. This budget should not be passed without a transparent open book investigation into public spending, to find out why Aberdeen's finances are in such a desperate state, and hold those responsible to account.

Many UK constituents voted for their MPs because they represented the political party that they support. MPs who have left their party should respect their constituents by offering to stand in a by-election. This will prove that they are still driven entirely by the desire to fairly represent the wishes of the majority in their constituency, and not by their own agendas

University Students are finding themselves in relative poverty and facing evictions as a result of Universal Credit and Housing Benefit assessing Student Loans as income. University students accrue debts for student loans in order to pay for course tuition fees and maintenance costs. Interest rates, on a sliding scale from 3.1% on a sliding scale up to 6.1% are charged from the day students receive the first loan instalment, although this amount is set by the Government and revised annually. However, this alone is a Human Rights Violation. The United Nations committee that oversees the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) has stated: "Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education". Despite this, students are realising the importance of a Higher Education for themselves and their children, to enable a better standard of living away from the reliance on minimum wage jobs, (often zero hour contracts)which is likely to result in reliance of welfare "top-ups". Yet they are being sanctioned from Universal Credit because of their eligibility of the student loan this results in a loss of housing benefits. We are now seeing students, many of which are parents of young children, living in poverty with a reliance on foodbanks, facing eviction and suffering mental health issues. Besides the ICESCR, the UK Human Rights Act 1998 gives effect to European Convention rights. One of those provides that: "No person shall be denied the right to education." European case law suggests that states are under an obligation to afford an effective right of access to institutions of higher education that exist. Yet we are hearing repeatedly that university students are being advised by governmental departments to give up their studies in order to claim full benefits! We, therefore, are asking you if you are insistent on expecting students to pay their own fees and maintenance with a repayable loan, then view it as a loan when assessing them!

Chris Grayling isn’t fit to do his job, he has awarded a £14m contract to Seaborne Freight, a company with no ferries and no cash, without due diligence. He has overstepped the mark and stopped Thanet District Councils democratic budget setting meeting. He needs to go!

Sir Christopher Chope has repeatedly blocked legislation intended to protect the lives and rights of young women. Today, he killed legislation intended to protect young women at risk of female genital mutilation. He does not represent British society and should not be entitled to influence British politics.

Yes Clackmannanshire and other local groups have been campaigning to highlight the injustices of UC and the increase in poverty created by this policy. To date our local MP will not meet with his constituents, we want to be able to have an open and public dialogue with him about why he should be challenging this Policy and sticking up for his constituents needs in London. We have been excluded from meetings, had no response to our emails and been dismissed by him in the local press. We need to make our case more robust and seek the support of the general public to pressurise him into coming out the shadows and facing the people of Clackmannanshire in a neutral public forum. IE A local public meeting with a neutral Chair.

It is important for our City that we no longer allow buildings to either crumble or be burned down, as the last two listed buildings have found their fate. In my view we have lost too many of our buildings that have represented the skyline of our City.

My son has just lost a school friend in a tragic road accident this week whilst he was cycling to school Tuesday morning. A car and Tyler collided and he sadly sustained fatal injuries, sadly a helmet was not worn. This MUST stop. On spot fines or confiscate cycles if a helmet is not wore by the cyclist. Helmets should be the norm, to make it less trendy for these teenagers to go without one. Everyone will be in the same boat so it becomes less of a stigma.

With the current system, which allows the defecting MP to be disingenuous to the election system (leaving dishonourable people the opportunity to take advantage of the popularity of a political party to ‘ride the wave’ into a MP seat for the sole intention of gaining officer for themselves rather than delivering that parties representation as promised in the election contract, and go AGAINST the will of those who elected the MP by breaking manifesto promises in any way they chose without repercussion ) and a betrayal to the voters. There are many people who vote not for their local candidate (as there is a good chance that the local electorate will not even know their candidate), but vote instead as support for a political party that shares their values (the party which is clearly labelled on the ballot paper when they put their cross in the box to vote), or even the party leader, and these people's vote should not be dismissed at the whim of the MP after election!

The current design of Universal Credit is one of the evils of our age. The design of Universal Credit was supposed to make it easier for people on benefits to move into employment. A key feature is that it is paid monthly and wraps all benefits into one payment including rent. There is a huge problem with paying benefits monthly. Because of the often chaotic nature of the finances of people on benefits, most poor people run out of money long before the month end. The result is that children go hungry for days, even weeks at a time and food banks proliferate. Moreover paying claimants the money needed for their rent, which they are supposed to pass on is folly. 73% of Universal Credit claimants are now in arrears on their rent, this is causing real strain on housing associations. Basically housing associations and landlords have become the lender of last resort to those on Universal Credit. But there is a sensible quick fix that will make Universal Credit work. It is repackaging an old idea. Pass a law that anyone in employment paid under £20,000 pa has the right to be paid weekly. Admittedly that will cause a short term cash flow issue for many employers. But that could easily be overcome if the Government lent every employer the right amount of money to move people to weekly pay. They already know all this information due to the HMRC real time submissions that employers are obliged to make to HMRC any time any payment is made to any employee. It would be dead simple to work out exactly the cash flow shortfall an employer would face, this could be advanced as a Tax and NI Credit and it could be repaid over an agreed period again by an adjustment to the amount of Tax and NI an employer has to make. Then simply, pay Universal Credit weekly and pay any rent element direct to the housing association or landlord. Then insist that ATMs and point of sale equipment in the supermarkets use fingerprint recognition technology and give access to benefit accounts using the ID God has given us all. At a stoke of legislation this would reduce the problem of running out of money for too long. Basically claimants are likely to be able to budget better on a weekly basis and if they make a mistake like drinking too much it only impacts their family for a week and not a whole month. So join me in asking Parliament to pass legislation to achieve this. It is so simple and sensible that it is quite remarkable that it has never been suggested. Adrian Hill

The current litter policy used by LCC is not fit for purpose the only thing it is doing is assisting a private company in making lots of cash and fast. The very small amount of funds that are kept by Leeds Council is only 24% at its highest and this money does not go back to helping the community and even if it did it amounts to nothing. We want Leeds to be a clean City but we DO NOT want Leeds to be a City people DO NOT want to visit because of the way Authority's treat people.