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A historic milestone for Young Labour

June 21, 2012 5:30 pm

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This weekend will mark a milestone in Young Labour’s history.  Winning the right to decide our own policy means that Young Labour has the power to effect change both in our party and in our country.  As well as passing policy, which will go forward as our contribution to the next Labour Party manifesto, we will be choosing a priority campaign which young members around the country can take into their local communities.

On Monday night the Young Labour National Committee narrowed down a fantastic range of ideas submitted by young members to four areas, from which we will pick one campaign.  Two big issues that featured highly in the submissions were youth homelessness and youth unemployment.

I believe that the priority campaign should seek to tackle youth homelessness with a genuine ambition to improve the lives of homeless young people in Britain.  The last Labour government should have done so much more on housing and now this Tory-led government is only making things worse.  According to the charity Crisis, homelessness has increased dramatically since 2010 and it is set to continue rising as a result of Conservative austerity.  Young homeless people are some of the most vulnerable on our streets and the rising rate of youth unemployment only makes the situation worse.

With youth unemployment nationally now standing at over a million, the Labour Party has rightly made this a priority and this weekend I will be voting to support putting the fight against youth unemployment at the heart of the next manifesto.  Ed Miliband and the Labour Party have already made it clear that fighting youth unemployment will be a campaigning priority and Young Labour should work hand-in-hand with the wider party in this fight.

Youth homelessness is different.  It is not at the centre of the political agenda and it is not a priority for our politicians.  Young Labour must be bold.  We must not be afraid of tackling issues on which politicians are silent and that society shuns.

This May Labour was returned as the party of power in many of our big cities.  Provision for the homeless largely rests with local authorities, meaning a well-organised Young Labour campaign targeting local authorities has the potential to dramatically change the lives of young homeless people across the county.  Young, single homeless people can still be turned away by councils when they seek help, often leaving them with no option but to sleep rough.  Councils are in a position to help but too often they are not giving young homeless people the advice and assistance they need.

A priority campaign focused on getting local authorities to change their policy towards young homeless people is something that could really energise Young Labour groups.  The campaign would have clear purpose and huge potential. By providing information, resources and training to groups and individuals, Young Labour can empower young members around the country to go into their communities and help make things better for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

During the policy debates I’ll be voting to put tackling youth unemployment at the heart of the party’s next manifesto.  When it comes to choosing a campaign, I will be voting for the one which I believe could change Young Labour forever and has the potential to actually achieve real change in our communities; I’ll be voting to make fighting youth homelessness Young Labour’s first ever priority campaign.

Whichever campaign is chosen this weekend, this is an exciting time for Young Labour; it will be an historic moment as we make the most of our new policy-making powers by choosing a campaign and ideas for the manifesto that show it’s the Labour Party fighting today, not just tomorrow, for young people left out of work and stranded without a roof over their heads.

Bex Bailey is Vice Chair (Campaigns) of Young Labour

Related posts:

  1. Young Labour: Set free not held back
  2. A big step forward for Young Labour – and Scotland
  3. Young Labour calls for a party that embraces, not controls, the next generation
  4. Young Labour is an opportunity to diversify the Party
  5. Young Labour – no longer bottom of the priority list
  • treborc1

    Well said, well done, hope it goes right for you, youth  unemployment is a soul destroying problem, youth housing is the same.

    So good luck with it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/shellyasquith Shelly Asquith

    I would consider supporting Homelessness as our priority campaign if our key demand was for a national social housing building plan.

    • Bex Bailey

      I think we should be campaigning on two levels: locally to get local authorities to commit to giving advice and shelter to young homeless people and nationally to call for more social housing to be built.

      • Thomas_Stephens

        This is an excellent article and I’m very glad you’ve gotten this submitted as young Labour’s priority campaign, Bex – credit to you. Social housing is, I completely agree, a key part of this – but I’m wondering whether you consider an extension of legal rights to homeless people a part of this? 

        As you will know, legally, councils have since 1977 been obliged to give permanent housing to those it deems to be in “priority need”, which includes families with children, single persons aged up to about 18, people with mental health and (thanks to Labour post-1997) those deemed generally “vulnerable.” Although councils are required to give general assistance in finding housing to anyone who requests it, this obligation is very often not delivered on at a local level, and many homeless people are left to fend for themselves.

        Now you’re absolutely right: attacking councils and making young people more aware of their rights in this area will do a lot to tackle homelessness. However at the very least, I’d say “priority need” has to be extended to age 25 – NOT 18. Indeed, I’d argue that the system being implemented in Scotland – where priority need will be abolished, giving all homeless people a right to permanent housing – should be implemented in Britain. 

        What we need is a commitment to abolish “priority need” (or at least extend it to 25-year olds) within, say, 15 years. This will complement a committed and dedicated social housebuilding programme. As glad I am that this campaign has been submitted, I do want to know what’s happened to the legal aspect here? 
         
        Also if it’d not too much trouble I’d like to know how many submissions here were related to youth homelessness? It’s very heartening to find that so many people favoured this as an idea and I thought my submission on homelessness and poverty would be a lonely one!

  • Brumanuensis

    Good luck Bex, I think this is an excellent choice of priorities.

  • John Smith

    Isn’t homelessness caused on the most part by youth unemployment, and it’s short and long term effects. Short of young labour physically building social housing I don’t see how focusing on homelessness can achieve the intended aim of reducing it.

    It would be wrong for this conference to compartmentalise these issues and see them as opposites when one clearly affects another.

    I think if young labour are serious about homelessness they will make campaigning on youth unemployment the priority as it is only through winning that argument and effecting a policy change away from the current austerian status quo that we will ever tackle homelessness and youth unemployment.

    In short we need to tackle two birds with one stone vote for tackling youth unemployment absolutely as our priory campaign.

    • Thomas_Stephens

      Completely agree we shouldn’t “compartmentalise” here. However, you are completely wrong to imply youth unemployment is the main cause of homelessness. 

      The main cause amongst young people, numerous surveys reveal, is family and relationship breakdown. Young people find themselves on the street, and then – BECAUSE of their homelessness – are often unable to find permanent work. 

      Now there is no reason why relationship breakdown should cause homelessness – it does so only because they lack the money to live independently, and because housing supply is so low (and thus prices so high) they can’t afford housing. Unemployment is a key aspect in all this but it’s not the main reason people become homeless and, indeed, unemployment plays less of a role in why people REMAIN homeless. 

      If councils had in place a better system to help young homeless people into permanent housing, and helped them whilst they were on the waiting list with constant help and permanent accommodation, then these people would be able to get into houses whether or not they were in employment. Quite obviously: you don’t need a job to live in a house because of housing benefit. It’s getting onto the ladder once you’ve been shoved off it that’s the problem here. 

      I’d also point out another massive injustice here: homelessness is a vicious circle for some young people. You find a permanent house from the council and then enter into training. But once you’re in training you find you can’t get access to certain benefits and pretty soon you’re back on the streets again. Now EMA helped cover this, but now the Tories have abolished it. This, I would add, is not related to unemployment: it’s about the way the system works – quite simply it should change dramatically. 

  • Mark Scarborough

    Could I ask what the four areas for consideration are?

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