I don't generally watch daytime TV but channel-hopped between the phone-in shows yesterday. The Cameron-era avarice was in full swing from most callers, incandescent with rage that some children's families might be able to afford to feed them now.
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
November 28, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I don't generally watch daytime TV but channel-hopped between the phone-in shows yesterday. The Cameron-era avarice was in full swing from most callers, incandescent with rage that some children's families might be able to afford to feed them now.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
November 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
All this means is that carers who used to qualify for carer's allowance - wrongly in the view of the government - won't get it any more. There won't be any overpayments, which is great, but all these carers now won't get any financial support at all.
Major news in the campaign to stop the Carers Allowance Overpayments scandal: https://go.carersuk.org/CA-OP?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign&utm_content=ap_d070omahrm. The Government have published the independent review by @lizsayce and its response.
Unprecedented changes for carers as Government responds to Carer’s Allowance overpayments review recommendations | Carers UK
It’s a landmark day today for the carers’ movement now that the Government has responded to the independent review of overpayments by Liz Sayce OBE.
go.carersuk.org
November 26, 2025 at 8:21 PM
All this means is that carers who used to qualify for carer's allowance - wrongly in the view of the government - won't get it any more. There won't be any overpayments, which is great, but all these carers now won't get any financial support at all.
More work needed on how many families won't get any more money because they'll still hit the overall household benefit cap.
WE WON 💥 The two-child benefit limit is GONE! This will pull 470,000 children out of severe hardship by 2027.
This is a massive victory for families, campaigners, and every one of you that played your part urging the Chancellor to act.
This is a massive victory for families, campaigners, and every one of you that played your part urging the Chancellor to act.
November 26, 2025 at 8:14 PM
More work needed on how many families won't get any more money because they'll still hit the overall household benefit cap.
Surprise (surprise).
Net additions to the housing stock - the basis of the govt's target of 1.5m new homes in England in this parliament or 300,000 a year - fell to 208,600 in 2024/25. Estimate for Labour's first 16 months is 275,600
www.gov.uk/government/s...
www.gov.uk/government/s...
Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England: 2024 to 2025
www.gov.uk
November 20, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Surprise (surprise).
I am technically on holiday but at first glance this report is so, so weird.
Now included in www.thinkhouse.org.uk :: @Clarion_Group @davidorrcbe.bsky.social REPORT :: I’m home, therefore I am. The 5 new giants of opportunity to establish a new social contract for housing. :: Awaiting Editorial Panel assessment. #ukhousing #housingresearch #housingpolicy
Thinkhouse library of UK housing reports
Thinkhouse holds a library of the best and most innovative research pieces, policy publications and case studies on the quantity and quality of the UK's housing stock.
www.thinkhouse.org.uk
November 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
I am technically on holiday but at first glance this report is so, so weird.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
Inspired by Donald Trump, backed by Tommy Robinson, channelling the Nazis – here's Labour's new policy on migration
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office
Asylum seekers’ jewellery could be seized to pay for processing costs, says Home Office minister
Idea borrowed from Denmark is latest attempt to reduce number of people seeking asylum in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Inspired by Donald Trump, backed by Tommy Robinson, channelling the Nazis – here's Labour's new policy on migration
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/17/refugees-jewellery-asylum-home-office
Let's just get the Tories out, and then we can worry about actual policy down the line.
November 17, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Let's just get the Tories out, and then we can worry about actual policy down the line.
If you didn't know which party this guy was from, you would have to google it, because it's a pretty consistent policy across all parties to wrongfully blame sick and disabled people for their poverty.
Never have I seen such a perfect example of Schrödinger's Migrant.
Zia Yusuf, asked whose PIP Reform would cut, talks about "foreign nationals". Less than a minute later, same "foreign nationals" are taking all the jobs and damning British youth to life on PIP.
🤡 Utter clownshow. ~AA
Zia Yusuf, asked whose PIP Reform would cut, talks about "foreign nationals". Less than a minute later, same "foreign nationals" are taking all the jobs and damning British youth to life on PIP.
🤡 Utter clownshow. ~AA
November 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM
If you didn't know which party this guy was from, you would have to google it, because it's a pretty consistent policy across all parties to wrongfully blame sick and disabled people for their poverty.
Often wondered if it's just as frustrating a task as an employer as it is as a claimant to engage with an organisation that has predominantly been turned into a harsh gatekeeper for social security entitlements.
New today from DWP: Claims that just one in five employers have engaged with Jobcentre Plus. Actually, it's worse than that - the DWP employer survey says most of the contacts are about workplace pensions, apprenticeships (then not DWP), child support and disability issues, not JCP services.
Businesses missing out on specialist JCP recruitment support worth thousands
UK businesses are being offered no-fee specialist recruitment support to fill vacancies as the full rollout of a national campaign launches today (Monday 3 November) targeted at key sectors.
www.gov.uk
November 3, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Often wondered if it's just as frustrating a task as an employer as it is as a claimant to engage with an organisation that has predominantly been turned into a harsh gatekeeper for social security entitlements.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
New today from DWP: Claims that just one in five employers have engaged with Jobcentre Plus. Actually, it's worse than that - the DWP employer survey says most of the contacts are about workplace pensions, apprenticeships (then not DWP), child support and disability issues, not JCP services.
Businesses missing out on specialist JCP recruitment support worth thousands
UK businesses are being offered no-fee specialist recruitment support to fill vacancies as the full rollout of a national campaign launches today (Monday 3 November) targeted at key sectors.
www.gov.uk
November 3, 2025 at 7:26 PM
New today from DWP: Claims that just one in five employers have engaged with Jobcentre Plus. Actually, it's worse than that - the DWP employer survey says most of the contacts are about workplace pensions, apprenticeships (then not DWP), child support and disability issues, not JCP services.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
Never mind shrugging aside nurse's advice, I have come across a totally unqualified "medical adviser" to a social landlord asserting they knew better than a *professor consultant* at a London teaching hospital specialising in tenant's rare illness.
November 3, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Never mind shrugging aside nurse's advice, I have come across a totally unqualified "medical adviser" to a social landlord asserting they knew better than a *professor consultant* at a London teaching hospital specialising in tenant's rare illness.
Are the TSMs out yet?
November 3, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Are the TSMs out yet?
Urgh, Sovereign. This is clearly Not Fixed.
Tried to help a tenant last/this year with something almost exactly the same, they eventually just homeswapped because Sovereign thought they had fixed it, but they had not. An internal comms and systems problem that leaves tenants unhelped.
Tried to help a tenant last/this year with something almost exactly the same, they eventually just homeswapped because Sovereign thought they had fixed it, but they had not. An internal comms and systems problem that leaves tenants unhelped.
November 3, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Urgh, Sovereign. This is clearly Not Fixed.
Tried to help a tenant last/this year with something almost exactly the same, they eventually just homeswapped because Sovereign thought they had fixed it, but they had not. An internal comms and systems problem that leaves tenants unhelped.
Tried to help a tenant last/this year with something almost exactly the same, they eventually just homeswapped because Sovereign thought they had fixed it, but they had not. An internal comms and systems problem that leaves tenants unhelped.
So important to tie all these issues together, and very neatly and carefully done by @hannahfearn.bsky.social. Some of these things have felt inevitable since the coalition's swingeing welfare cuts after 2010, and the solutions now require a real policy shift.
The latest edition of HQM is out now! Read Hannah Fearn last word column in which she outlines why living through scarcity opens the door to bad actors hqm.hqnetwork.co.uk/the-last-wor... #ukhousing
November 3, 2025 at 12:11 PM
So important to tie all these issues together, and very neatly and carefully done by @hannahfearn.bsky.social. Some of these things have felt inevitable since the coalition's swingeing welfare cuts after 2010, and the solutions now require a real policy shift.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
Isabel Oakeshott on behalf of Reform calling for Sharia law in Britain. No, I'm not even joking. That's literally what she's saying here.
The UAE where hugging in public can get you arrested, where human rights barely exist, where foreign workers are routinely abused, where critics of the regime routinely disappear, where an Indian nanny was shot by firing squad in March & where marital rape is not a criminal offence but being gay is.
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Isabel Oakeshott on behalf of Reform calling for Sharia law in Britain. No, I'm not even joking. That's literally what she's saying here.
There is still time to book for tomorrow's @hqnmedia.bsky.social Resident's Network annual conference. Book one or more staff places and get 5, yes FIVE, free places for tenants. Hear from MHCLG, Ombudsman & tenants setting up national bodies in England and Wales: hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r...
The Residents' Network annual conference 2025: Amplifying the tenant voice and shouting about success - HQN
Join us as we celebrate resident engagement and how residents are finding their voice at a national, regional and local level through a range of successful initiatives.
hqnetwork.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM
There is still time to book for tomorrow's @hqnmedia.bsky.social Resident's Network annual conference. Book one or more staff places and get 5, yes FIVE, free places for tenants. Hear from MHCLG, Ombudsman & tenants setting up national bodies in England and Wales: hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r...
Reposted by Rob Gershon
Our Residents' Network conference is only 2 weeks away, & one of our hosts will be @simplicitly.bsky.social,HQN associate. Find out more & book your place below
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
October 24, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Our Residents' Network conference is only 2 weeks away, & one of our hosts will be @simplicitly.bsky.social,HQN associate. Find out more & book your place below
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
Perfect timing from the Housing Ombudsman. A day after Awaab's Law was technically passed onto the statute books, a report naming some landlords still failing to address Damp & Mould. Despite years of terrible publicity, landlords still forcing squalor. www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/2025/10/28/l...
Latest damp and mould report
Mushrooms growing on a child’s bedroom wall among cases in latest Housing Ombudsman damp and mould report.
www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk
October 28, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Perfect timing from the Housing Ombudsman. A day after Awaab's Law was technically passed onto the statute books, a report naming some landlords still failing to address Damp & Mould. Despite years of terrible publicity, landlords still forcing squalor. www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/2025/10/28/l...
Why attempt to make this party political? Terrible behaviour. The rules weren't created under Labour and it really shouldn't matter either way. Outcomes of the actual policy are still very much unknown, as the unfulfilled intentions of the rest of the regulation of social housing act have shown us.
Awaab’s Law is a powerful legacy for a little boy who should still be here.
No family living in social housing should have their home blighted by dangerous damp and mould.
Labour's new rules will force action within 24 hours.
Negligence is no longer an option—it’s a crime.
No family living in social housing should have their home blighted by dangerous damp and mould.
Labour's new rules will force action within 24 hours.
Negligence is no longer an option—it’s a crime.
Father of boy, 2, who died from mould in flat hopes new law will save others
Awaab Ishak's death caused outrage and prompted the passage of Awaab's Law with a requirement for landlords to fix hazards in social housing more quickly and rehouse tenants if necessary.
news.sky.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Why attempt to make this party political? Terrible behaviour. The rules weren't created under Labour and it really shouldn't matter either way. Outcomes of the actual policy are still very much unknown, as the unfulfilled intentions of the rest of the regulation of social housing act have shown us.
Reposted by Rob Gershon
If Reform do get into government, the media organisation whose response will most closely resemble the cravenness seen in the US will be the BBC - probably even more than the right wing press
Nothing on the BBC Radio news this morning. Nothing I could find on their website. This is an MP from the party whose lead in the opinion polls normally ensures them wall-to-wall coverage. She spouts racist nonsense for which even she feels obliged to apologise. What on earth are they playing at?
Reform’s Sarah Pochin forced to apologise after claiming adverts 'full of black people' drive her 'mad’ | LBC
The Runcorn and Helsby MP was responding to a viewer live on air who complained about the demographics of advertising.
www.lbc.co.uk
October 26, 2025 at 8:37 AM
If Reform do get into government, the media organisation whose response will most closely resemble the cravenness seen in the US will be the BBC - probably even more than the right wing press
This is just so satisfying for people like me who are very miffed at the entire policy direction. Clearly there will be different factors at play in future elections but the idea their vote can be eroded like this feels possible anywhere.
But Lab falling to barely over 10% has no historical precedent - drastically lower than any vote share they have ever received in 115 years of standing candidates in the area.
October 24, 2025 at 8:41 AM
This is just so satisfying for people like me who are very miffed at the entire policy direction. Clearly there will be different factors at play in future elections but the idea their vote can be eroded like this feels possible anywhere.
Clarion Housing has featured in 14 out of the entire 18 months' worth of Severe Maladministration failure reports from the Housing Ombudsman, so it's no surprise it has structural problems it is still pretending don't exist.
And so, in light of Clarion's ongoing highlighting of Things Not Yet Fixed: hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...
Opinion: HAs are still cutting corners – so, where's the regulator? - HQN
By Rob Gershon, HQN associate
hqnetwork.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Clarion Housing has featured in 14 out of the entire 18 months' worth of Severe Maladministration failure reports from the Housing Ombudsman, so it's no surprise it has structural problems it is still pretending don't exist.
And so, in light of Clarion's ongoing highlighting of Things Not Yet Fixed: hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...
Opinion: HAs are still cutting corners – so, where's the regulator? - HQN
By Rob Gershon, HQN associate
hqnetwork.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 2:27 PM
And so, in light of Clarion's ongoing highlighting of Things Not Yet Fixed: hqnetwork.co.uk/news/opinion...
Reposted by Rob Gershon
Our Residents' Network conference is only 2 weeks away, & one of our guest speakers, Tenant Voice Advocate Emma Nichols, will be expanding on creating a national tenant voice for Wales. Find out more & book your place below
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
October 23, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Our Residents' Network conference is only 2 weeks away, & one of our guest speakers, Tenant Voice Advocate Emma Nichols, will be expanding on creating a national tenant voice for Wales. Find out more & book your place below
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing
hqnetwork.co.uk/events/the-r... #ukhousing