Like many homeless, John is ex-forces. He experiences PTSD, which has led him to make a few bad life choices. And yet I find him easy to live with. He is courteous and considerate. He helps around the garden and house, and looks after my dog when I’m out, so I benefit too.

The worst part of homelessness is the loss of dignity and self-respect, and the stigma that comes with it. John makes the point that he isn’t a junkie or an alcoholic, just a regular guy. It is true that 80% rough sleepers have problems with at least one of mental health, drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, rough sleeping is a vicious cycle, either creating or amplifying these problems.

And yet John is someone many of us might admire. He’s hard working, multi-skilled and, of course, he’s served his country. But his path back to working and living in his own home again is very unclear. He has never owned a property, as he has always been on the move and never been able to build up savings. It doesn’t seem fair for him to be in this situation.

I find homelessness difficult to comprehend. Surely, in a civilized society, there is no excuse for it? Despite living in the world’s sixth biggest economy, ever more of us are living without anywhere to call home; sleeping rough, sofa surfing, in temporary accommodation or whatever. Right now, there are around 300,000 people in the UK who are homeless, more than 120,000 of them are children.

Across the country, there is a chronic shortage of social housing. For decades, successive governments have failed to build enough. This has left millions of people and countless communities without access to secure, long-term and affordable homes. In stark contrast to the pre-Right to Buy era, the vast majority of houses built since 1980 in the UK have been by private enterprise. In the UK, a much larger share of the population is renting instead of owning their homes, compared to other European countries. Out of approximately 23.5 million households, more than one in three are private or social renters.

The housing market in the last 20 years in particular has seen house values skyrocket. Throughout much of the late 20th century, most people could reasonably afford to buy a house, with the average house price amounting to four times the average salary. It has now shifted to almost 10 times more. In a just society, houses should first and foremost be homes, not financial assets.

There are so many injustices in the UK housing market, including huge generational gaps. The over 50s, accounting for less than half the adult population, now hold 78 % of all the UK’s privately held housing wealth and ‘Baby Boomers’ (or those over 65) own a staggering £2.5 trillion (2,500 billion!) in unearned property equity. For many, including most young people, getting hold of the bottom rung of the housing ladder is simply out of reach.

There are more than 100,000 houses belonging to foreign shell companies where for the most part, the owners cannot even be identified. Increasingly more houses are snapped up as second homes or holiday lets, amplifying the housing shortage for everyone else.

The country is heading towards a catastrophic situation, where hundreds of thousands of families and individuals in financial distress are facing being forced from their homes and into a system already strained to breaking point.

The delivery of genuinely affordable homes to combat the woeful shortage should be a Government priority. There is currently an overreliance on unsuitable temporary accommodation, often in private ownership, which is putting a huge strain on local authorities. Hastings Borough Council is close to bankruptcy as a result of needing to find temporary accommodation. Last year, Councils in England had to spend a record £2.4bn tackling homelessness, with £1.7bn of that spent on temporary accommodation – up more than 10% since last year. It doesn’t even fix the problem, it just kicks it down the road. The number of households in temporary accommodation will almost double in England over the next 20 years if there is no change to current policy.

Interestingly, just 5% of adults in the UK are landlords. Amongst Conservative MPs, that jumps to 20% and property developers are prominent amongst major donors to the party. Little wonder there is currently a lack of appetite to change policy in favour of a fairer system.

I was delighted to see Rother DC planning committee, which includes Green Party Councillor Polly Gray, support a tenure mix to deliver a 100% affordable housing scheme consisting of 39 dwellings at Westfield Down recently. Likewise, the creation of Rother DC Housing Company, which is now developing the Blackfriars site in Battle, which features 200 homes to include affordable homes, is a welcome development in Rother. Since 2011, Rother has only managed to deliver 516 affordable homes in total, when the annual target is 295.

There is no doubt that the issue of housing and homelessness is complex. The Green Party’s position on housing is that affordable, secure and comfortable accommodation is a basic human right, even for John. It can be achieved if the political will is there.

For more information, see: https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/our-policies/long-term-goals/housing/ .

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But while the deniers have moved to the margins we’re now faced with another tribe – the delayers. Rishi Sunak’s recent U-turn on the climate is a masterclass in different ways of dodging doing something – anything.

The first tactic is to say “someone else should do something first”.

This excuse was all over the PM’s speech. It paints a picture of the UK being weakened by taking action faster than other nations, who will take advantage of us. And yet there are loads of benefits from policies that leave us stronger in the face of climate change, that make us more resilient and that provide local employment. The UK sits on the renewables equivalent of the Middle East oil fields. We could have been, we could still be, a world leader in green technology, but thirteen years of governments twiddling their thumbs is throwing away our competitive advantage, and our future prosperity.

Then there’s blaming the situation on everyone other than us. We’ve been burning fossil fuels longer than most. Our nation was the first to industrialise, all powered by coal. We should be the leader in moving beyond fossil fuels. The Conservatives have often talked us up as a world leader – but when there’s a real opportunity to bring the world with us they’ve bottled it.

Then there’s putting all the responsibility on you and me rather than the big corporations. The world’s 100 largest companies are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gases. Yes we need to act as individuals but governments can make things happen faster and take the burden off regular people by making the multinationals take action.

Rishi was also very keen on solutions that minimise disruption for your average citizen. Great, but that then achieves nothing.

There was a lot of ‘technological optimism’; focusing on current and future technologies to solve climate change. Take the government’s ‘Jet Zero’ policy, which relies entirely on unproven or non-existent technologies and ‘sustainable’ future fuels rather than better alternatives to flying. He may as well sell us flying saucers. It’s just another way of kicking the can down the road and dodging the responsibilities of leadership.

The PM’s speech was full of big claims and little action, telling everyone that we are world leaders, that we are working towards an ambitious target. The UK’s target may appear ambitious, but he’s ducking taking responsible and meaningful action now. There has been international condemnation of the UK’s U-turn on climate policy because people rightly fear that foot-draggers will just say “we’re following the UK on this”.

Then there’s the old “but fossil fuels are becoming more efficient” line. It’s like listening to a drug addict talk about how their habit is just fine. Oil is as filthy as it ever was, as is coal. It’s just another way of Rishi sticking his head in the sand.

One thing that stands out is that the Conservatives are all for threatening people with big sticks – if they’re immigrants or protestors. They’ll lock people up just for holding up a sign outside a court reminding jurors of their legal rights. But when it comes to the climate it’s all carrot and no stick. prime minister Sunak invented imaginary ‘sticks’ on the spot; a meat tax, enforced car pooling or seven recycling bins. If he gets seven recycling bins it’ll only be because he’s got seven houses. He acts as though if there are no disincentives for planet-destroying behaviour somehow people will just choose to do the right thing. He takes an extreme opposite approach with law and order. It almost makes you believe he really doesn’t care about the future of the planet.

But then Rishi is all about talking up the downsides.

He wants everyone (oil companies included) to feel comfortable with change: “We can adopt a more pragmatic, proportionate and realistic approach to meeting net zero.” That’s like lying on the sofa instead of fixing the hole in the roof, or perhaps reclining in a comfy seat on a private jet, in Rishi’s case.

‘Appeal to well-being’ is stating that abandoning fossil fuels is abandoning the poor. It states that growth has pulled billions of people out of poverty. But this is absolutely no longer true for late stage capitalism, which increasingly only benefits the wealthiest. Wealth inequality is on the rise, not only between nations, but within nations. No one in the UK is more out of touch with reality than our PM. He doesn’t need to worry about potholes or train strikes, when all he needs to decide is whether to travel by helicopter or private jet. He has no idea what the impact of the climate will be like on those of us who can’t afford £500 loafers. If the climate breaks down it’ll be the least well off who’ll pay the most.

So when he questions why hard-working families should pay for the transition to a low-carbon economy, what he’s really doing is dodging the question of why the government is doing nothing to help them. Take this as a for instance: in the last decade Conservative governments have slashed funding for home insulation by 90%. It’s left us with needlessly higher energy bills, higher carbon emissions and fewer jobs in the green economy. It’s not Rishi’s family that’ll be cold this winter.

The only argument that Mr Sunak didn’t resort to is to say “It’s too late. We’re all doomed so we might as well party”. Of course the government needs to give the impression that matters are under control, when the reality is that there is precious little evidence to suggest it is either able or willing to take the bold action needed.

He may be arguing for delay but he’s still in denial. The result will be the same. Do nothing. Perhaps he hopes he can buy his way out of the consequences.

Our challenge as individuals is not to let a waste of space like Rishi Sunak get in our way. He may be content to do nothing but we don’t have to be. We can seize back our future. It is through action that optimism is born.

Dominic Manning, 28 September 2023

Image Credits: William F. Lamb, Giulio Mattioli, Sebastian Levi, J. Timmons Roberts, Stuart Capstick, Felix Creutzig, Jan C. Minx, Finn Müller-Hansen, Trevor Culhane, Julia K. Steinberger (2020). “Discourses of climate delay”. Global Sustainability 3 (e17): 2. DOI:10.1017/sus.2020.13. “Fig. 1. A typology of climate delay discourses.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_typology_of_climate_delay_discourses.png.

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Across the country we made a net gain of more than 200 seats.

Here in Rother Polly Gray was re-elected in Bexhill Old Town and Worsham. She comfortably got the most votes with 535 ahead of Labour’s Mark Legg (also elected) with 374.

Our next success was in Bexhill St Stephens where Arren Rathbone Ariel came top with 561 votes ahead of the Lib Dems’ Richard Thomas (also elected) on 548.

Sue Burton became our third Green councillor after she came second in North Battle with 939 votes behind the popular local Lib Dem Kathryn Field who received 1092 votes.

It means Polly will have two new excellent colleagues. It might just lighten her load. It probably will just mean all three will be working their socks off. But at least they’ll have one another for support!

Meanwhile we came very close in our fourth target ward, Eastern Rother, where I received 563 and Catherine Glover received 466 votes behind two Tories on 605 and 578 respectively. Labour only managed 300. It’s a clear target for next time. I missed out by just 15 votes! I will now have more time to support our three excellent councillors.

Overall the council remains in no overall control – Tories 10, Independents 10 (of whom 7 belong to the Rother Association of Independents), Labour 8, LDs 7, Greens 3.

For those of you interested in results elsewhere;

In Wealden the Tories lost control and 25 of their 34 seats! It’s now LDs 13 (+9). Greens 11 (+9), Independents and Others 10 (+5), Conservatives 9, Labour 2 (+2).

In Lewes the Tories lost every single one of their 19 seats. It’s now Greens 17 (+8), LDs 15, Labour 9.

Over the border Ashford Greens picked up 6 seats and now have 8 (Ashford is NOC), In Folkestone Greens gained 5 and are now the largest party with 11, the Tories lost Tonbridge and Malling where the Greens gained 6 to sit on 8.

So, there you go!

There’s likely to be a General Election next year and we’re well set for the county elections in 2025. We are always looking for more members to help with running our campaigns.

Clearly the Conservatives have some hard thinking to do about whether they’re the party of Rory Stewart or of Suella Braverman because it’s hard to be both. The latter’s vision of a colder, meaner Britain doesn’t seem to be chiming with most people’s fundamental sense of decency.

Finally, thanks to all of you for your help and support. Our efforts were rewarded.

Very best wishes

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Read the full statement

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The Green Party is calling for the big five energy suppliers to be brought into public ownership and the price of energy to be returned to where it was in October last year to protect households in Bexhill, Battle and Rye from accelerating energy costs.

Greens are calling for a powerful intervention in a market that is clearly failing, as energy regulator Ofgem continues to raise the price cap beyond affordability [1].

Green Party chair, Dominic Manning, says:

“We are seeing real anxiety amongst the people of Rother about the prospect of unpayable energy bills for this winter.

“Nationally, other parties have only offered to fix energy prices at current levels, but we know these are already unaffordable. We must return energy prices to an affordable level.

“The energy supply market is failing. Only the government can intervene at the scale required to avoid a catastrophe this winter.”

Rother Green Party is calling for the Big Five energy supply companies to be taken into public ownership, as proposed by the TUC [2], and to restore the energy price cap to the level of last October. This would reduce the cost to the average household by more than £2,000 [3].

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said:

“Everyone needs to use energy to survive, for basic needs like cooking and keeping warm. However, tackling the climate crisis requires that we improve our energy efficiency in this country.

“That’s why our differential tariff will cover basic energy needs but will include progressively rising prices for those who use more energy, with exceptions for those with disabilities and chronic health conditions, alongside support for those companies offering 100% renewable electricity, which is the cheapest form of electricity.

“Alongside an ambitious national home insulation scheme, this will help bring down energy use across the country.”

Rother Greens are renewing their call for home insulation to become the top priority for government and for Rother District Council. Reducing energy demand by increasing energy efficiency is the most important step the government can take to ensure the UK’s long-term energy security.

Dominic Manning said:

“Fixing the price of energy will put huge stress on energy supply companies, which is why we propose bringing the largest into public ownership and offering subsidies to smaller suppliers, especially the renewable energy specialists who have done so much to innovate in recent years.

“Bringing the big five energy retail companies into public ownership, setting the price of energy at an affordable level and absorbing global price rises, would make sure everybody gets through this cost of living crisis.

“It also means this essential public service runs in the public interest, not in the interest of profit making.”

The TUC estimates it will cost £2.8bn to bring the big five energy retail companies into public ownership. This is around the same as what the government has already spent to clean up the mess caused by the collapse of energy companies last autumn.

The Green Party has calculated it will cost £37bn to fix the price cap at the rate of last October. It says that closing the loopholes in the government’s windfall tax [5] and the higher VAT revenues resulting from higher prices across the rest of the economy could go a long way towards funding this vital policy. The party is also prepared to increase taxes on the super-rich for a policy that benefits them as well as those on the lowest incomes who need the most help.

1

Costings based on Cornwall Insight projections; note that they are projecting falls in energy prices by Q3 2023: https://www.cornwall-insight.com/price-cap-forecasts-for-january-rise-to-over-4200-as-wholesale-prices-surge-again-and-ofgem-revises-cap-methodology/

2

TUC plan for renationalisation of Big Five energy companies: https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-publishes-plan-cut-bills-through-public-ownership-energy-retail

3

The energy price cap in October 2021 was £1,277, compared to the predicted price cap rise in October 2022 of £3,582. By keeping the price cap at the October 2021 rate, households will save more than £2,000

4

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-is-the-energy-price-cap/

5 

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/oil-gas-windfall-tax-boost-b2088147.html

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If you are planning to go somewhere new this summer even for a weekend there are positive actions you can take to make your holiday a little kinder on the planet. They are not new ideas but good ones to remind ourselves of.

• Travel without flying if you can but certainly fly less
• Go somewhere near to home. There are lots of villages and towns in Sussex and Kent that are so different to Bexhill. Try one!
• Don’t take wet wipes. They could end up in landfill. Take a flannel. Do take  refillable water bottles for everybody. Take a bag ready for shopping.
• Travel light however you go places. It is costly on the environment moving heavy luggage around. Even catching a bus!
• Go prepared for walking and picnicking. Use a map or your phone to find routes to get around or explore the local area. Children enjoy looking out for things so invent a quiz.
• Make sure your sheets and towels don’t get changed unless needed
• Buffets are usually more wasteful than a set meal. If the menu is short, that’s good! If a dish has run out that’s excellent as there’s no food waste!
• In the countryside, keep to the paths to reduce erosion. Take all your rubbish home with you to recycle or throw away.
• Buy bamboo toothbrushes not plastic. If everybody did that think how much less plastic would be used.

We hope you find these tips useful. Have fun on your travels

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