Birmingham’s Cabinet member for Housing, Councillor John Lines has announced plans to build 34 new Council homes on the land on Pershore Road (Site of the John Lines homeless Village) as part of the Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust (BMHT).

Architects have produced initial plans for houses and flats on the site which will be fuel and water efficient and available to people applying for Council Housing or on the waiting list.

The plans are currently being distributed for consultation and it is anticipated a formal planning application will be submitted at the end of July 2009. This is 9 months after the initial land squat highlighted this area as a site that could be used for social housing and excellent news for Birmingham and the people waiting for homes. This is one of many schemes planned that will see hundreds of new COUNCIL  homes built in Birmingham.

WELL DONE JOHN LINES , and thank you, you are showing that you and the Conservative Liberal coalition are listening to the concerns of Birmingham Residents and are taking the steps to reduce the housing shortage.

News has reached Justice Not Crisis that Optima Community Association have failed in their bid for Social housing Grant to build the promised new homes on the site of the former Firebird public House.

Forward allocation Pool Applications submitted to the Governments Homes and Communities Agency(HCA) by Optima have received the reply  “It is considered that sufficient support for social housing has been made to the Attwood Green regeneration”

The agency which has a budget of £5 Billion per year was set up in December 2008 joining forces with the Tenants services Authority.

The remit of the new organisation was to create  “opportunities:

• for people to live in affordable homes in places that they want to live in, and
• for local authorities and communities to deliver the ambitions they have for their area”

Despite the support of Birmingham City Council it now seems that the new homes will not be built along with 47  homes for rent on the nearby Woodview Estate Edgbaston (Also managed by Optima)

This is another example of  Government promises to increase the number of Socially Rented Homes only for them to do nothing.  We have previously reported that the Government steals cash from Birmingham Council’s Housing revenue Account to subsidise other Cities.

After a 16 week occupation of the Firebird Pub this is a significant blow to the chances of increasing much needed rented homes in Birmingham. The Labour Government has failed Birmingham again!

The HCA have indicated to Optima that they may consider the Firebird site if the Socially rented houses are changed for shared ownership (Homebuy)  and then only if  Optima pay for them until the HCA have the money next year!

This is of no use whatsoever to people on benefits or low incomes in desperate need of a house as they will not get a mortgage even to buy half a house!

We will continue to monitor the situation and update as we know more …..

Some Good News

In March we highlighted the fact that there are thousands of empty properties in Birmingham and asked Birmingham Council to use its powers to bring them back into use. Birmingham City Council have just been praised for reducing the number of empty properties to 9,000 as reported on BBC’s Midlands Today on 25th June 2009.

This is a major step forward and we have to again congratulate Councillor John Lines and his Housing Department for this achievement. This is a significant start keep up the good work and ensure that powers available to you to force owners to give up properties empty for more than 6 months are used if necessary.

Inside housing today carried the story that Cllr John Lines’ housing department will bid for the entire £100 Million pot made available by the Government in last weeks budget.

Calling the amount “pathetic” John Lines stated that “The Government should be ashamed of themselves”  and added “we’ll go for the lot”

We agree with Cllr Lines the money will not meet the desire for Council’s to build and would emphasise there is no guarantee that Birmingham will get any money the £100M is a national allocation. Cornwall Council, for example are looking to fund a £120M project for 1000 new homes, and Broxtowe Council will bid for £1m.

We have often been at odds with John Lines and now find ourselves congratulating him on the services given to 7 of our homeless people (Friday 24th April) in Finding accommodation in a few hours and agreeing with him against the Government.

Well done Cllr Lines, our only other suggestion would be that you could still sell some of the land you have vacant to Housing Associations who have their own money and grants to build homes too.

Cllr Lines has obviously listened to the arguments for more housing and taken then on board, for that we applaud him. Finally the situation looks set to start improving.  The Government should now take note and afford more assistance to Local authorities to build the homes that are desperately needed.

Our readers we feel sure will keep watch and judge on results.

West Midlands Police categorically denied in their press statement that police officers were deployed with riot shields, at the Beechwood Hotel eviction.  The pictures and video on this site clearly show a police officer with a riot shield strapped to his arm. Also shown is a police line, presumably to prevent squatters from re-entering the building.

This is a blatant abuse of police powers: the Criminal Law Act, codes of conduct for police officers and bailiffs quite clearly state that a police officer’s role in civil evictions is purely and only to prevent a breach of the peace. They are not there to provide security to the building, they are not there to aggravate the sitaution in an intimidating manner, ie. walking around with riot shields, and they are certainly not there to “support” bailiffs.

Several witnesses clearly indicate that police officers were intimidating, formed a line across the car park to prevent re-entry to the building, were abusive to squatters inside the building, and, in the case of one girl, barged her down the stairs with a riot shield. In addition, witnesses state the police officers were walking around inside the hotel with truncheons drawn. That is not the behaviour of a body of people whose only function is to prevent a breach of the peace.

A letter of complaint has now been sent to the Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police, the Chair of the Police committee, and the Police Complaints Authority.

Our solicitors are currently considering legal action against the West Midlands Police force.

JNC STATEMENT

West Midlands Police have issued a statement with regard their involvement in the eviction at the Beechwood Hotel our response is as follows :
We have never stated that WMP forced entry into the building this was done by the bailiffs smashing through the rear fire escape doors.
 Officers did enter the building to assist bailiffs with  the eviction, they were present in bedrooms and we have video footage of Officers demanding people leave the building and or rooms.
WMP have stated that officers did not use riot Shields, we can confirm that the long full length shield were not used but officers were in possession of round riot shields we have at least one officer photographed with this type of shield, in addition Police Officers were walking around the building with batons drawn.
Police officers only role in this type of proceeding is to prevent a breach of the peace, no resistance whatsoever was given by any occupant. The occupants realised they were outnumbered and out flanked very quickly and left the building without any aggression or resistance. WMP stated they were there in a “Support Capacity” to the bailiffs” THIS IS NOT PART OF THEIR ROLE.
WMP stated they did not remove any person from the property – This is not the caset. They did order people out of the hotel and did push at least 1 person and barge a second with a shield.
If there only function was to prevent a breach of the peace why was there a need for so many officers, why was there a need for them to enter the building, why were officers equipped with shields and why did they form a line across the car park. Bailiffs are the only ones empowered to remove persons and they are normally supported by security staff who will prevent persons re-entering the building.
Following legal advise JNC will make a formal complaint to the Police Authority of abuse of power and abusive and threatening behaviour, together with an assault on one of the occupants. JNC will be taking further legal acton this week.
We would emphasise that not all police officers acted in this way and the local officers who had visited us many times during our occupation were courteous and efficient in their duties. In particular the duty Sgt kindly negotiated for occupants to re-enter the building to allow them to collect personal belongings.

We would like to sincerely thank Birmingham City Council’s Housing Department (Northfield Neighbourhood Office) for their assistance in rehousing 6 of our homeless people.

Staff there arranged taxis to the Northfield office where they assessed the needs of each individual, including getting a benefit adviser to help with housing benefit etc. They also made two visits to our squat on Pershore Road to complete forms and help as much as they could.

Two were housed immediately in the Etap Hotel in Lee Bank a further 2 were housed in the Ibis Hotel, City Centre and offers of accomodation have been made to two more.

We have been somewhat critical of the Housing Department in recent months but never of the dedication oif its staff and officers. We will forward this post to Cllr Lines with our sincere thanks and a request to look at some of the others who suffer similar problems.