Ben Wealthy

Compassion and Christmas go hand in hand. The work of wonderful charities, made possible by remarkable volunteers, can be relied upon to bring warmth to the festive period in ways our weather naturally fails to. But yesterday something rather chilling happened which undermines our season of goodwill and warrants some reflection. The Charity Commission ruled that a tweet sent earlier this year by Oxfam linking benefit cuts to poverty could have been "misconstrued as party political campaigning". The tweet in June referred to a "perfect storm" caused by zero hour contracts and high prices. A complaint was lodged by Conservative MP Conor Burns who said he was "shocked" by how "overtly political" it was. Politicians, especially Conservatives, are somewhat confused about what charities exist for. A poll of MPs carried out by nfpSynergy found that 78% of Conservative MPs said it is a negative trait for charities to "be political." This c

I was really lucky growing up because we had loads of books at home. But books are like hugs, lie-ins and the sun (that rare yellow object in the sky, not the newspaper) - you always want more. My local authority, Harrow Council, is consulting on the closure of four libraries. One of those on the shortlist is Rayners Lane, the library of my childhood, where I attended storytime sessions before I could walk and sought solace to study for my GCSEs. The tales of our public libraries are intertwined with our own, aren't they? Anyway, I want to share some views here which would be difficult to express through a multiple choice questionnaire. Closing, or indeed cutting, something is almost always a consequence of failing to reimagine it. By shutting a service a council is rarely suggesting it is no longer needed, just that it has not been adapted to meet new and changing needs - usually for a complex combination of reasons. We should be braver in rethinking our libraries before shel

New  figures , published by lender Kent Reliance, have revealed private landlords will own £1tn worth of property by next year. The figure currently stands at £930.7bn, three-and-a-half times what it was in 2001.  Through times of austerity this represents extraordinary growth and an immense hoarding of wealth by a small elite, about 2% of the population are private landlords, who do very little to actually earn their money. We are not talking about innovators, researchers, scientists or manufacturers here. Private landlords have ridden one of the few waves to be found in post-recession Britain, the property game, propped up by desperate tenants and government handouts. The boom in the private rented sector is actually being subsidised by the taxpayer -  £9bn of housing benefit payments end up in the pockets of private landlords each year Those of us who have been renters in the years since the crash have seen repairs go undone month after month and rents invariably rising in

So, nimbyism works. The decades long ground war to besiege town halls with petitions, traffic surveys and legal challenges has, I know this is hard to accept, been incredibly effective in halting the cause of new homes.  New research published by the Institute for Government confirms what we've all known for a long time. Essentially areas with high levels of home ownership tend to have lower levels of growth in new housing stock. Nimbys organise, mobilise and very often win – the findings suggest the nimby-effect could have prevented up to one million homes being built between 2001-2011.  The report identifies a number of policy factors which give in-built advantage to nimbyism: weak or absent regional planning coordination, limited local fiscal autonomy and development control (any change of land use is subject to planning permission). Clearly a shift in power is required.  Nimbys have fought an aggressive war over decades - fuelled by rising home ownership, a sense of ent

Housing affects us all: whether we are paying our own mortgage or someone else's. The condition and cost of our homes impacts upon almost every aspect of life, from children's education to care for older people.  Harrow, along with every other London borough, is in the midst of a housing crises. Harrow Council's waiting list is 4,000 long, house prices are increasingly unaffordable and rents are rising - with limited enforcement of decent standards.  The local Conservative Administration has committed to making Harrow a fairer place. This is welcome, but to make it possible housing must be at the heart of their 2014/15 budget.  In a letter to the Harrow Observer, published on Thursday 12th December 2013, I outlined what housing change should look like in Harrow and called for political action.  Dear Editor Councillor Susan Hall is right to say that Harrow Council should have a strong fairness agenda. But a budget that doesn't put hous