Cllr Douglas Johnson was on Channel 4 News last night, explaining the severe impact of the Housing Crisis.
Refugees aren’t to blame for the Housing Crisis. The Government need to put far more money into social housing to match the scale of the crisis we are experiencing from decades of underfunding. The Right to Buy, the Right to Acquire and any other policies for the large-scale sell-off of social housing should be abolished.
You can read more about Green Party Housing Policy here.
Click on the image to download a pdf
Green Party councillors have submitted a raft of proposals to the full meeting of Sheffield City Council in February, including:
Cllr Douglas Johnson said,
“It’s one year since the council formally declared there was a “Climate Emergency” but it doesn’t include climate change as a priority for its housing service.
That’s a big omission and wipes out any suggestion that the council is serious about climate change. Domestic heating is one of the big issues for CO2 emissions and another is the huge amount of carbon released in traditional construction.
It’s absolutely critical for the service-wide plan to have climate change as a priority as it takes time to face up to the serious challenge ahead of us.
Our range of other proposals will offer protection to older and disabled tenants from new charges for gardening. We want to support local businesses that face constant problems with business rates. We want to see real action on preserving and maintaining open spaces that are so much under threat at present.”
The amendments come after Green councillors submitted a motion calling for a cross-party Climate Emergency Committee and more green jobs.
Cllr Alison Teal added,
“Our Green Group motion urges the Council to act on the Climate Emergency, which we declared a year ago, yet no changes have been made. Our amendments show we want to work with the residents of Sheffield and we want to bring not just our own ideas into reality but theirs too. We need a more co-operative, less tribal structure in Council, which is why we support the need to change to a committee system.
“Too much power in the hands of one councillor leaves most people in Sheffield without representation.”
Housing Revenue Account – item 5
Amendment proposed by Cllr Douglas Johnson and seconded by Cllr Alison Teal
Approve with the following modifications, the recommendations made by Cabinet:
Governance – Item 6
Motion proposed by Cllr Douglas Johnson and seconded by Cllr Angela Argenzio
To Propose the full council resolves to adopt the recommendations set out in the report with the modification of paragraph 3.3 in that Full Council should be the body that takes the strategic decisions with substantial implications for the city and its communities.
Business Rates – Item 7
Amendment proposed by Cllr Paul Turpin and seconded by Cllr Martin Phipps
Inserts the following after (k) and before (l), relettering accordingly,
l) Notes that business rates reliefs are set by Government and this Council cannot claim credit for granting mandatory awards;
m) believes that far too many small businesses, independents and not-for-profits in Sheffield experience real difficulties in obtaining even the mandatory reliefs they are entitled to;
n) Regrets the lack of support offered to independent businesses on Chapel Walk facing poor trading conditions for years under the scaffolding;
o) Notes that businesses currently pay for business rates instead of the land owners, who have enough money to own the land;
p) Calls for the outdated and unfair system of business rates to be scrapped and replaced by a land value tax on the owners of land and buildings rather than the occupiers;
Inserts in the original motion’s paragraph (l), after the words “reform the rates system” the words, “by replacing it with a land value tax,”
Parks – Item 8
Amendment proposed by Cllr Alison Teal and seconded by Cllr Paul Turpin
Delete (e) and replace with –
(e) with an ambitious programme of planting we could become the greenest city. Sheffield has rural land within its boundary which provides opportunities to achieve net zero carbon targets, through rewilding and planting the right species of trees. In urban areas we must preserve our existing green spaces and increase green coverage in every ward.
(f) believes that reassessing some decisions to fulfil the council’s ambition to be the greenest city could help, such as:
“People and Power” – item 9
Amendment proposed by Cllr Douglas Johnson and seconded by Cllr Angela Argenzio
Add at end,
(m) and therefore supports a change to the committee system of governance.
Climate Emergency – Item 10
Amendment proposed by Cllr Peter Garbutt and seconded by Cllr Alison Teal
Add at end,
(f) notes the increasing public concern about the Climate Emergency and acknowledges the hard work of the community groups lobbying the Council and demanding we respond urgently to the crisis we are facing.