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Morning Briefing: Labour pressure over Universal Credit impact report
Labour will today try to force the government to publish a report into the impact of Universal Credit on incomes.
In the news
ITV News reports that the party will use an opposition day debate in parliament to push ministers into releasing the document, using the same tactic which saw the government’s Brexit impact papers published last year.
It comes after the BBC reported yesterday that ministers are planning further delays to the national roll-out of the new welfare system.
The Guardian runs a helpful explainer on the current politics of Universal Credit, as well as a piece from former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown warning that the reforms will leave millions worse off.
The same paper also reports that chancellor Philip Hammond is likely to include a clutch of measures to assuage Tory backbenchers’ concerns about Universal Credit in the Autumn Budget later this month.
Elsewhere, the Manchester Evening News publishes a good feature about people still living in blocks of flats covered in dangerous cladding, 15 months on from the Grenfell Tower fire.
Meanwhile, survivors of the disaster are urging Public Health England to carry out a study into the toxicity of soil around Grenfell, according to The Guardian.
Seraphima Kennedy, who used to work for Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation, has written a piece questioning why locals were not made aware sooner of concerns about toxins in the soil around Grenfell.
In other news, house builder Crest Nicholson has issued a profit warning due to disappointing sales in London and the South East, per Construction Enquirer.
In the North West, First Choice Homes Oldham has unveiled plans to knock down two tower blocks and replace them with more than 100 new homes.
From the Midlands, plans for 60 new social homes have been deferred by Solihull council following opposition from local residents.
And finally, a grim legal battle rages in the South West, where Bristol City Council is accused of failing survivors of domestic violence as a number of refuges are closed down by a safe-house provider.
On social media
Veteran housing commentator Tom Murtha has called for a sector-led investigation into bullying, harassment and discrimination in the housing sector, following a piece by Inside Housing:
Given the shocking report by @jester in @insidehousing and the evidence coming from the charitable sector isn’t it time @NatFed and @CIHhousing led an investigation into extent of harassment bullying and discrimination in the #ukhousing sector?
— Tom Murtha (@tomemurtha)Given the shocking report by @jester in @insidehousing and the evidence coming from the charitable sector isn’t it time @NatFed and @CIHhousing led an investigation into extent of harassment bullying and discrimination in the #ukhousing sector?
— Tom Murtha (@tomemurtha) October 17, 2018
What’s on
- Prime minister’s questions will take place in the House of Commons at 12pm, while MPs will also hold a debate on Universal Credit this afternoon
- It is the first day of the MIPIM UK property conference in London
- The annual conference of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) also kicks off today in Brighton
- The Grenfell Inquiry continues, with further evidence from people who escaped the fire, lived nearby or have been left bereaved by the disaster
