BHT and partner QED get the go-ahead for our container housing scheme

At BHT we are very excited to have secured planning permission for the proposal to provide temporary homes in converted shipping container at Richardson’s Yard, Brighton. The scheme is a joint venture between BHT and our development partner, QED. What was particularly gratifying was the unanimous support received from members of the Brighton and Hove Planning Committee.

Planning officers recommended approval, saying that the containers were an “imaginative and appropriate” way to meet a very real need for affordable accommodation.

To find out more you can read various post from the last few months:

How BHT hopes to use shipping containers for temporary accommodation for homeless men and women

Reaction to BHT’s plans to provide temporary accommodation in converted shipping containers

Support for our container housing application from the local action team

Some concern on the BBC website this morning focused on a report that the land is ‘contaminated’ and that it would not be suitable for permanent housing.

Richardson’s Yard has been used as a scrap metal yard, and there is, inevitably, some contamination, including from oil. However, a full environmental assessment has been made and was considered by the Council before permission was granted. The plan is to place a membrane on the contaminated land before a concrete base in put in place. All planting areas will be in raised beds and there will be no risk to future residents. If there was the slightest risk, BHT would not risk the health and wellbeing of our residents.

This is an exciting development and I look forward to seeing the first residents move in at the end of the summer (assuming we have a summer!).

Calling on Sussex Members of Parliament to ensure letting agents are required by law to belong to an ombudsman scheme

On Tuesday, the House of Commons is discussing an amendment to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (ERR) Bill.  If approved, the changes would see letting agents required by law to belong to an ombudsman scheme. I have written to the six Members of Parliament in the areas in which BHT works, to encourage them to support the amendment.  The MP’s are Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye), Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne), Norman Baker (Lewes), Simon Kirby (Brighton Kemptown), Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion), and Mike Weatherley (Hove).

Since 2008 estate agents have been required by law to be part of an approved redress scheme, but letting agents are not.

The Property Ombudsman received more than 8,000 complaints about letting agents from landlords and tenants in 2012 – an increase of 9% on the previous year.  Yet only 12 prosecutions were carried out last year by trading standards teams in 20 of the biggest councils in England, Scotland and Wales.

Baroness Hayter has said: “Legislation already requires estate agents to be part of an ombudsman scheme. What this amendment would do is extend that so that letting agents would also have to be members of an ombudsman scheme.  At the moment anybody could set up as a letting agent. They don’t have to promise to give minimum standards to the tenants or to the landlords.”

A spokesman from the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “People living in private rented homes should be treated fairly and honestly, but we want to avoid excessive red tape that would push up the cost of rents and reduce choice for tenants.  The first priority must be to make sure that landlords and tenants are well informed and empowered to exercise their rights. Agents are subject to consumer protection laws and dissatisfied customers can report bad practice to local trading standards officers.”

My concern is that with changes to Legal Aid, specifically the reduction in what we can do under legal help, as well as a reduction in the numbers we can assist, it is unlikely that tenants will have the necessary power to exercise their rights.

Landlords, too, do not get a fair deal from letting agents.  The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), the leading trade body, has said it was disappointed by the low numbers being prosecuted and that if there was seen to be a robust procedure then that in itself would be a deterrent.

The Housing Minister has said he is not keen on new regulations, but I understand that he has said he is open to debate.  I have urged the six MP’s to support the amendment on Tuesday.

Supermarkets, including the Co-op, must show more responsibility when selling alcohol

Following news that the Co-op is seeking permission to sell alcohol from 6am in various stores in Brighton and Hove, I have called for supermarkets to take a more responsible approach to the sale of alcohol.

While alcohol has an important part to play in the night time economy of Brighton and Hove, we have a major problem with alcohol in the City.

Alcohol abuse in Brighton and Hove is reported to cost taxpayers more than £100 million each year. The City’s Director of Public Health, Tom Scanlon, reports that two people die each week in the city due to alcohol, 66 attend hospital per week, and each day a young person under the age of 18 is admitted to A&E. City youngsters are twice as likely to have been drunk nearly once a week than their counterparts nationally. Alcohol specific stays in hospital are at a much higher rate in Brighton and Hove compared to the rest of England.

News that the Co-op is seeking permission to sell alcohol from 6am is shocking. Such sales cannot be important to the night time economy, and can only be needed to supply alcohol to those with serious problems.

It highlights the need for responsibility by our largest supermarkets. It is all well and good for the Co-op to boast about its ethical policies, but its alcohol retail practices fall well short of acceptable standards. It currently has deals for cheap alcohol on its website. In fact almost a third of its special deals are for cheap alcohol, a further third relate to chocolates for Easter.

It is not just the Co-op. Increasingly supermarkets are placing alcohol in chiller cabinets, at checkouts, and throughout their stores. I am aware that complaints have been made by customers at the London Road Co-op about their decision to site alcohol in the main body of the shop close to food, sweets and even flowers.

I would call on supermarkets to introduce an ethical policy relating to alcohol sales, including restricting displays to one discreet area in the store, away from children, and to do away with special deals. In the sad absence of government legislation, a voluntary minimum 50p unit pricing agreement between the main outlets would demonstrate that supermarkets signing up to this are worth supporting.

Alongside the Pink Pound and the Ethical Pound, a Social Responsibility Pound might help change the practices of these alcohol bucket shops.

Social media, online support and traditional giving all help BHT deliver services to our clients

Earlier today, as Sussex ground to a halt because of overnight snow, I tweeted about the Amazon wish list for First Base Day Centre.  The most surprising item on the wish list is for sun protection lotion, probably the thing furthest from most people’s thoughts as they slipped and slid into work this morning.

The serious point, of course, is that homeless people are at far greater risk of getting skin cancer than the rest of the population given their exposure to the elements.

The wish list, which can be found here, has a load more items that are very relevant during periods of severe cold.  I spent a few minutes this morning looking at what has already been bought by our supporters from the wish list in the last few weeks:

• 21 fleece jackets
• 4 pairs of thermal long johns
• 7 thermal vests
• 54 pairs of thermal socks
• 2 sleeping bags
• 5 waterproof jackets
• 21 toothbrushes
• 12 tubes of toothpaste
• as well as a whole range of other one off items essential for the work of First Based Day Centre.

Thank you to all those who have helped people keep dry, warm and clean.

I also this morning read a report, published in Digital Donor Review, that showed that only 5% of charitable donations are made through sites such as Facebook and Twitter, even though 30% of respondents said they were inspired to give by social media.

The First Base wish list shows that people like giving in different ways.  At BHT we are fortunate to have some extremely generous benefactors who support our work year on year, those who leave a bequest to BHT in their Wills, and those who support us on the ad hoc basis, although many do so on a regular basis in response to appeals, not least at Christmas time.

BHT is extremely fortunate to have secured a large number of contracts from national and local government, and we are successful in bidding of charitable funds, such as those from the Big Lottery.  However, it is the support of ordinary men and women that makes a real difference in the work we tend to.

From the list above, there are many items that we take for granted.  But for somebody sleeping on the streets of our towns and cities, having dry and warm clothes is important as is their ability to wash their face and clean their teeth.

The Independent Drug Commission for Brighton is missing the opportunity to help turn the City from being the “drug death capital” to the “recovery capital” of the UK

The preliminary conclusions of the Independent Drug Commission for Brighton and Hove raise some interesting issues, worthy of debate, but overall the report is an opportunity missed.  This post is basically my personal response to the Commission’s consultation.

The Commission addressed four issues:

• Are the current strategies to prevent drug related deaths sufficient to achieve a significant reduction in the coming years?
• Are the policing, prosecution and sentencing strategies currently pursued, effective in reducing drug related harm?
• Are we doing enough to protect young people and to enable them to make informed decisions around drug use and involvement in drug markets?
• To what extent does the treatment system meet the treatment and recovery needs of the citizens of Brighton & Hove?

Unfortunately, the report is presented in a vacuum, giving no acknowledgement of the most radical change in national drug strategy for a generation which has called for a treatment revolution and the championing of abstinence. The words “abstinence”, “abstain”, even “drug free” do not appear in the report once. By ignoring the national context, the report is immediately undermined, and is, at best, of academic interest.

My disappointment with the preliminary conclusions focuses on the first and fourth points above and can be summarised by two points: it lacks ambition, and the presentation of the issues does not create the right platform for a proper debate on how to enhance progress in drug treatment.

Just 12% of those entering treatment services in Brighton “left the treatment system in a planned way, having overcome their dependency”. This compares to a national figure of 15%. The report is correct to say that “For the system to remain sustainable, the number of successful exits from the treatment system must keep pace with the number of new clients registered. If too many clients are retained in the system for too long, the system will become log-jammed. The Health and Well Being Board needs to find ways to increase the numbers successfully treated each year and support their recovery in order to prevent relapses and a return to dependence, both on drugs and on the treatment system”.

Sadly, this conclusion is not supported by a formal recommendation. It is almost an afterthought, appearing on page 22 of the 23 page report. It illustrates a lack of ambition. This issue should be upfront and should set the tone for the rest of the report, creating the climate where the more sensationalist issues, such as consumption rooms, could have been dealt with in the context of recovery and abstinence.

A bold ambition, of say 30% or 40% leaving treatment drug free, would have been a defining contribution to the debate and the development of services in Brighton. Such an approach would be right for clients, it would help them achieve their aspirations, and would better prepare them to cope with the fundamental changes we are experiencing in welfare reform. A failure to address the addiction of a sizeable cohort will result in them finding themselves further outside the structures of society with all the predictable consequences for them, their families and society at large.

The presentation of the report attracted predictable, yet avoidable, headlines. The media led on consumption rooms. How different it could have been had the report recommended a treatment revolution locally, with the ambition that Brighton will replace the unwanted headline of “drug death capital” to the “recovery capital” of the UK.

That would have created a climate where more controversial steps could have been introduced as part of a process aimed at getting people into recovery and abstinence.

I hope that the Commission will look again at its report, delay the final report if necessary so that it can strengthen its recommendations and thereby becoming a defining point in the evolution of drug policy locally and the start of a real treatment revolution.

Confessions of a secret email hoarder

This is a very scary day.  Yesterday, following on from my recent blog about emails, The curse of the humble email, I spent a couple of hours with my PA looking at the psychology of emails.  She had been on a course on Tuesday that is destined to change forever my email life!

I mentioned in an early post that the top tip regarding emails from Valerie Pearce at Brighton and Hove City Council is to “prioritise and delete”.

Some people are hoarders of emails, with tens of thousands of emails festering in their inbox.  They do not have a hope in hell of having anything other than a nightmare relationship with emails.  How can anyone keep track of even 100 emails let alone 18,000?

I thought I was quite good at ordering my emails.  As soon as they had been dealt with they were dragged into one of twenty to thirty sub-folders in my ‘Received’ folder.  The theory was that this makes for easy retrieval.

All well and good, except when my inbox begins to groan under 100, 200, even 500 emails.  The psychology is that emails equate to anxiety.  I had developed a need to check my emails at every possible opportunities, and I began to prioritise quick wins at the expense of, perhaps, more important emails.  It gave me the allusion that I was coping.  Yet all that was happening was that important emails were backing up, sadly neglected.

Like the classic alcoholic, I began to hoard emails in folders called ‘Pending’, then ‘Pending November’, Pending December’ and ‘Pending January’, along with ‘Pending Nikki’, Pending Wendy’ and a good two dozen or so of the email equivalent to hiding a bottle of alcohol behind the books.  It gave the illusion I was coping.

The irony is that when I looked at these emails, several hundred in total, most were unimportant, that I had been copied in for information, or the issue was long gone and forgotten. Once again I reflected how easy it is to be copied in to things that are not central to my job.

So why is today so scary.  Gone are the various ‘Pending’ folders.  They have been replaced by just four. I have been introduced to the four D’s – ‘Do’, ‘Delete’, ‘Defer’ and ‘Delegate’.

Then there is ’Email Death Row’.  I must admit I am really not at all sure about this last one, having had a lifelong aversion to the death penalty having read Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country as a young boy.

‘Email Death Row’ relates to are for those emails you don’t know whether you want to deal with, or have time to deal with.  You know that at some point you will kill them off.  These emails could be the overwhelming majority that don’t necessarily need attention, the circulars, the group emails, the ‘cc’ for information emails.

I’ll blog again at a later date about whether this approach has improved my well being.  In the meantime, if you want to find out more about Think Productive’s excellent email training workshops (it is far more thought-provoking than that sounds) contact http://www.thinkproductive.co.uk or email Graham Allcott at hello@thinkproductive.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @grahamallcott or @thinkproductive.  Graham is also the author of the book “How to be a Productivity Ninja”.

The Curse of the Humble Email

This is the text of an article published in today’s (19 February) Brighton Argus Business section:

One of the more interesting Brighton people on Twitter, Richard Denyer-Bewick (@RichDB_Brighton), recently asked for people’s top tips on handling too many work emails. A curse of the modern era is the ever growing avalanche of emails. I receive up to 100 each day. If I were to spend an average of 5 minutes on each, reading and responding, I would spend more than a full working day, each day, merely feeding the Email Beast.

BHT’s Finance Director, Nick Childs, often bemoans the fact that by mid afternoon he hasn’t been able to start work on a particular project, distracted as he often is by emails and other disturbances. He has now introduced a new discipline, only responding to emails on a Friday. I read somewhere recently that this approach results in people sending far fewer emails and taking greater responsibility themselves.

Valerie Pearce at Brighton and Hove City Council says she receives between 200 and 300 emails each day. Her tip is to “prioritise and delete”.

It is so easy for people to delegate upwards via email. I sometimes get copied in to emails that I really don’t need to see. What infuriates me is when copied into a long email, there is a request for action or a response requested buried deep towards the end of the email.

I tell colleagues not to assume I read emails where I am just copied in. They cannot rely on me acting on them unless the request is made explicit. If the sender wants a response they need to keep it short and to the point. I refer some emails back asking the sender to summarise their message and to make it clear what they want. It is amazing how this can concentrate the mind and all of a sudden my input is no longer required.

I often refer emails back when colleagues, often well-meaning, forward an email to me with several attachments and a simple message along the lines of “some really interesting things here…”.

I try to clear all outstanding emails weekly.  This can consume two or three hours on a Sunday, something I, at times, resent.

I survive the plague of emails mainly by the incredible support I get from my PA who screens, deletes and responds to around half of all incoming emails. She often will prepare a two line synopsis of what is needed or suggesting an action she can take.

I realise how lucky I am to have the support of a first rate PA. Without her, I would be crushed by the weight of emails, something originally designed to make our lives simpler!

Twitter, who I am following, emails, and some shameless self-promotion

Do you, like me, sometimes pretend to know what people are saying when in fact you don’t?  I find this happens often on social media which can be fast moving and I find myself running just to stand still.

I don’t really get LinkedIn, I keep up with my daughter and nieces (I have no nephews) through Facebook, and feel out of my depth with most other social media. But I love Twitter. Some people liken Twitter to another email inbox. It is nothing like that. While emails demand and consume, Twitter feeds and inspires. While emails are a burden, Twitter is an inspiration.

I used to read two or three newspapers a day, now the only daily I read is the wonderful Brighton Argus. People criticise the Argus, but we would sorely miss it if it was not there. The cause for turning my back on daly papers is Twitter. I get far more information through Twitter, access to good writing, and most of all, I am entertained.

I follow too many people. It is said that it is possible to effectively follow a maximum of 150 people. I know I skim read my Twitter feed but there are those Brighton folk whose posts I always read including @Tony_Mernagh @huxley06 @robert_nemeth @ridgwaytim @brightonargus @BHcitynews @ChSuptBartlett @LisaSaysThis @ValeriePearce @RichDB_Brighton @IanChisnall @MelitaRadio @OurDaughtersUK @AMOQI @bonettpa @ArgusBizness and, in the interest of political balance, @chrishawtree @CoxGraham and @ThePennyDrops as well as my 45 or so @bht_sussex colleagues who are on Twitter. An absolute delight is @davemarthur who invariably makes me laugh or otherwise reminds me of my political roots. Apologies to those I have not mentioned – the list was getting rather long.

Being followed by famous people can be very flattering until you realise that three of the ‘big names’ who follow me follow thousands, even tens of thousands of people. I was thrilled when Desmond Tutu followed me. It wasn’t a fake account, it was actually the Tutu Foundation, sadly not the great man himself.

But back to my main point, not keeping up with the jargon. I have sympathy for David Cameron. I too thought LOL was “lots of love” although it is something I have never tweeted, and certainly never to Rebekah Brooks! I regularly RT but I hadn’t realised that I also MT. Apparently I have been MT-ing for months. I learned today that one should insert MT if you have modified a tweet, MT standing for ‘Modified Tweet’.

When I first joined Twitter I didn’t realise that to RT did not imply endorsement although, as was pointed out to me last year, a pattern of RT-ing can convey a message, such as the number of Tweets I re-Tweeted on the impact of welfare reform.

I had hoped that to MT was to offer some kind of endorsement, as in ‘meaningful tweet’. Alas, no. There are some tweets I would like to endorse. I would suggest ET but that acronym has already been taken.

I will continue to RT and try to remember to MT. When I do, it usually implies, but not always, endorsement from me, for what that is worth, which is probably not a lot! If you have yet to join Twitter, delay no more. A good starting place is to follow @AndyWinterBHT. How is that for a shameless bit of self-promotion!

Tackling Fuel Poverty in Brighton and Hove

BHT Advice Centre has recently secured funding to deliver advice to promote the reduction of fuel poverty in Brighton and Hove.  Fuel poverty is defined as any household which spends more than 10% of its income on fuel to keep the home in a ‘satisfactory’ condition.  In order to maximise income and reduce outgoings, our adviser, Rachel Butt, will be providing:

- help and advice on energy tariffs (including trust fund applications)

- benefits checks and applications

- low level debt advice and negotiation to reduce outgoings

Who we can help …

The eligibility criteria is quite simple: people will be eligible if they are in fuel-poverty (have problems in paying their energy bills and need our advice and assistance) AND live in Brighton and Hove.

The referral process could not be simpler: either phone Rachel on 01273 234752 or email her rachel.butt@bht.org.uk who will send you a referral form.

When we can help … 

Rachel will do home visits between now and the end of March 2013, with a view to making at least five visits a week.

 

Investing is local services means that ‘sticky money’ stays in town

I am sure that I was not alone in being shocked by the news that Derby City Council is cutting its Supporting People budget by 83%. Gillian Sewell, Chief Executive of YMCA Derbyshire, which will lose 84% of its funding from the council in April, said: “The effects of the proposed cuts will be measured in a potentially disastrous rise in homelessness, rough sleeping, crime, anti-social behaviour, ruined lives and human suffering in Derby. Furthermore, many of those facing housing crisis will have to be housed in unsafe, inappropriate B&B or similar accommodation at an increased cost to the Council.”

In Brighton and Hove we have been most fortunate in having successive administrations, of all political colours, who have recognised the importance of protecting services for the most vulnerable members of our society.  This has to be commended, particularly in such challenging economic times.

Some councils have gone down the road of combining all contracts into one and inviting national providers to bid in the misguided belief that the council will get better value for money.  There may be some savings but the long-term cost to the community, and very often other parts of the same council, can be huge.

There is great value in services being provided by a number of agencies including client choice, different approaches that might be more effective with different clients, diverse skills, and the sustainability of organisations who are local employers.

Local providers often bring additional charitable funding to services and service development, and they often have local infrastructure that adds value that outside organisations will not have.  An example is the Support for Housing service that we run in partnership with Southdown Housing Association.  Because we own our head office in Brighton, we were able to convert the ground floor to a drop in at a modest cost that we were able to bear.  An outside agency would not have the same commitment nor the local infrastructure to do something similar.

There is also value in investing in local providers given the local multiplier which sees money spent by local commissioner staying within the local economy.  Some refer to this as “sticky money”.  By investing in local services provided by local agencies, money is recycled within the local economy.

The future looks bleak for our colleagues in Derby.  My thoughts are with them at this incredibly difficult time.