Gary Bland
Working in Bermondsey & Old Southwark to Make a Difference
Caring doesn't cost yet the rewards can be invaluable. Be selfish, say yes to helping others.
A GOOD POINT WELL EARNED
We all know there are good tenants and bad tenants. There are tenants who pay their rent and rates on time, and ask for nothing. They care for and clean their flat or house, including the front of the property. And then there are the tenants who pay little or nothing in rent and rates, or who are career benefit claimers and still expect the world to owe them something.
There are people who are great neighbours and good for the community, and then there are the noisy, anti-social element who are bad for the community and often make your life hell.
I would like to see a complete change in the way councils care for the good tenants, and reward them, and, how they handle the bad tenants. This includes the behaviour of children of bad tenants.
I believe there should be a points system put in place where good tenants earn points; for example:
by making contributions to the communitybeing a member of a tenants association and attendingpaying rent and rates on timecaring for their propertykeeping to the terms of their housing agreement
Points could be used towards buying your council property
Conversely, people who are disruptive to community harmony should lose points; for example:
anti-social behaviour persistent rent/rates arrearsbeing arrestednot looking after the propertynot complying with the housing agreement
As a community we need to take stand against the bullies and trouble makers. We must also take the council to task so that they meet there duty of care. If I was representing the community I would not let the anti-social element in our community win, when the good members of the community suffer.
Social & Affordable Housing
Investments in affordable and social housing, and within community development, represent an engine of economic and social wealth.
I am eager to see the following happen:
develop the social housing stock and build new stock toobuild larger homes for families, where possible with gardensstop garden grab developers from purchasing gardens to build flatsgiving residents the opportunity to purchase their council homeprotect those who have purchased their home from unfair service chargesmoney earned by the council through a sale should be put into a social housing building fund in order to build more social housing, and not used for other purposes.
The Conservative Party's plan for rates Matched Funding is a superb boost for social and affordable housing programmes. Therefore there is a huge incentive to build more social housing by the council.
Justice for Everyone
“If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around”
Charles F. Kettering
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.”
Dwight David Eisenhower
“There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us”
Orison Swett Marden
“In seperateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength.”
Buddha
LOOKING AFTER YOUR OWN
Previously on this website I stated that young adults who have been brought up in Southwark should be given priority over social housing, but I was advised that this would likely be the cause of legal action because it would not be seen as fair to other people who come into the borough; therefore, I reluctantly removed the view.
However, I have had second thoughts. Just because there are rules doesn't mean those rules are correct and that they shouldn't be challenged.
Therefore, I will reiterate that I believe it is likely to be beneficial to the community to consider local residents earning the right to social housing over and above those who have made little or no contributions to the area, because they moved into the area rather than being born here. It is unfair to local residents who often have generations of their family living in the area to have their children overlooked.
Given weighted consideration to local residents fits well into my view of localism, which I want to see on many subjects. Young adults could earn points based on being brought up locally, and this could be combined with the points earned by their parents who prove to be model citizens, as written on this page.
We must be a ward, a borough and a nation of fairness, and get away from an often overbearing land of political correctness. PC is a terrible term, but there are things in this country that are blatantly unfair and should be held to account, and there are those things which is PC gone mad.
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