Tom Warren

We only want the earth

[Philip Oldfield @SustainableTall]

Paris looking to increase social housing to 40% of the building stock by 2035 (up from 25% today…)

[Inside Housing @insidehousing]

MPs call for new definition of ‘affordable housing’ https://t.co/WMaPLPLpBg #ukhousing

[Rugby on TNT Sports @rugbyontnt]

🫶 Beautiful words from Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje and Jamie George; who pay tribute to Mark McCall ahead of his final home game in charge of @Saracens.

It's set to be an emotional occasion at a sold-out StoneX Stadium on Saturday.

[UNISON - UK's largest union @unisontheunion]

Social workers in Bath and North East Somerset are set to strike for three days this week over changes to pay gradings which put them on the same grade as some of the staff they manage. https://t.co/iNfJAuX4hm

[KWAJO- Social Issues Campaigner @Kwajotweneboa]

The discourse online about Social Housing over the last few days has highlighted the hugely misinformed and quite frankly rotten attitudes and stigma towards those living in social and in need of social housing.

A stigma highlighted throughout the Grenfell enquiry.

[Vicky Spratt @Victoria_Spratt]

A tweet by a prominent “YIMBY” argues against having social housing in some London boroughs because the homes could be lived in by more “economically productive” people…

FYI 41 per cent of lead tenants in social housing are in work

Others are carers or retired (and there are some who are out of work)

It is not correct to say social housing tenants are economically unproductive - many do vital jobs which the Capital couldn’t function without

[Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf_uk]

🚨 NEW!

Our report out today concludes rent controls can ease the pressure on renters, without jeopardising the private rented sector. A rent control could:

- Make renters nearly £1200 a year better off by 2030
- Reduce the housing benefit bill by £600m

Here's how 👇

[Vicky Spratt @Victoria_Spratt]

As speculation and political chaos continue to dominate the focus on Westminster, the Social Housing Bill, which made it into the King's Speech, won't get much attention...here's why it should:

- This will protect victims of domestic abuse in social housing and bring about major reforms (long-promised by Labour) to the Right to Buy by protecting newly built social homes from being sold off for 35 years

- As @rosegrayston, housing policy expert and former Labour government advisor, told me, “for the first time since Right to Buy was introduced in 1980, new council homes will be protected from sale. This will give councils the confidence to start building at scale again.”

- However, we still don't know a) how many of the 1.5 million homes Labour would like (but probably won't) build will be social homes

- And, arguably, they could be bolder right now. For instance, leading economists such as Dame Kate Barker have previously told me that it was a mistake not to build social homes in the early 2010s when interest rates were lower. So, given that the housing crisis we currently have as a nation is partly why our politics is so febrile (see research on housing and populism)...now is the time to act, if ever there was one...

- @Shelter have said the government should have gone further: “There’s only one solution to the housing emergency: a new generation of social homes. To get councils building, the govt must free them from mountains of unfair housing debt that is holding them back. This is the step change necessary to ramp up to the 90,000 social rent homes we need a year for 10 years," says Chief Exec Sarah Elliott

[Matthew Pennycook MP @mtpennycook]

Happy Renters’ Rights Day, England.

This Labour government is delivering for private renters.

[Karl Hansen @karl_fh]

Absolutely incredible. Steve Witherden, what a legend.

[Tom Warren @thomwarren]

What’s his name?

[GB News @GBNEWS]

‘It’s not just fair, I cannot see why he has done it!’

Landlord Paul Millions explains how the Labour’s Renters Rights Bill has forced him out of the rental market.

[Chris Hinchliff MP @CHinchliffMP]

I'm chairing the APPG for Council & Social Housing with @Shelter.

1.3M on waiting lists. 175K kids in temporary accommodation. Record homelessness.

This didn't happen by accident; governments stopped building council homes.

It's time to change that.

[Chris Hinchliff MP @CHinchliffMP]

We built just 7,384 social rent homes last year.

To hit @Shelter's targets, social rent delivery would need to increase more than 12-fold.

The problem isn’t simply total supply - it’s what we build.

Put councils back in the driving seat to deliver the homes we really need.

[British & Irish Lions @lionsofficial]

😮‍💨

[Tom Warren @thomwarren]

@Ryanair hi there, I’m trying to book some flights on your app and my card and Apple Pay keeps being rejected even though there’s nothing wrong with the card. Is there something wrong with the app?

[Bristol Transformed @BrizTransformed]

👏 FULL PROGRAMME RELEASE 👏

We are extremely excited to announce or full programme for this years festival, which will kick off in 2 weeks!!!

We'll have sessions covering a whole range of socialist topics, always with an aim of how can we organise to win. Covering party politics with the Greens and Your Party, fighting far right extremism locally & globally and looking at the state of Trade Union organising 100 years on from the General Strike. And be sure to make our closing session, where we will confront the biggest issue of our time, rising imperialism. We'll discuss how we can and must organise against it as socialists and how YOU can do it - for a liberated Palestine, Iran and and for the whole international working class ✊️ 🇵🇸 ⚒️

We'll be joined by a whole range of organisers - rank-and-file trade unionists, authors, academics, and leading activists in their fields - as well as organisations from up and down the country including: Palestine Youth Movement (@pymbritain), Greens Organise (@greensorganise), The Bristol Cable (@thebristolcable), Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone (@bristolafz), Workers For a Free Palestine (@workers4pal), Iskra Books (@read_iskrabooks), local union branches, and many more!

All of this comes with not only FREE CHILDCARE ALL DAY for the mini-Marxists out there (all ages welcome!), but for the first time this year a full youth programme aimed at 11-16 year olds interested in left wing and socialist politics. 16s and under all get in free for the festival (but still need to "buy" a ticket on headfirst!)

As well as hours of amazing educational content, we've got great evening entertainment lined up. We'll be kicking off on the Friday night with socialist Shark Tank (i.e. Marx Tank) and on Saturday we have a whole evening of entertainment lined up - a pub quiz, sea shanties workshop, bands, and DJ's late into the night.

Full details of the programming and sessions can be found on our website: https://t.co/MAmcuQVro0

Festival Tickets: https://t.co/Uh67lJq7P5

Afterparty Tickets (needed for Saturday evening entertainment): https://t.co/MqPIdhnIpY

Bristol Transformed is entirely volunteer run - all money goes back into socialist organising in our city and beyond. If you would like to get involved, sign up on the forms on our website.

[Bristol Transformed @BrizTransformed]

We are extremely excited to announce a collaboration with Watershed for a super special post-festival screening + panel Q&A of the film Everybody To Kenmure Street, an inspiring story of civil resistance when a community came together on a shared mission to stop their neighbours’ deportation. A surefire way to cure your post Bristol Transformed blues, be sure to get down to Watershed for this incredible Easter Monday treat! Joining us afterwards on the panel will be spokespeople from Bristol Anti-Raids (@brisantiraids), Bristol Anti-Racist Action (@bristol.antiracistaction) and Bristol Apartheid-Free Zone (@bristolafz)

Tickets for this screening are sold separately to the festival, purchase them on Watershed’s website here: https://t.co/68vZVVrzdG

Bristol Transformed, Bristol’s leading festival of radical politics, arts and culture, will return on Easter weekend (4-5 April) at the Trinity Centre. There’ll be workshops, panels and activities covering a whole range of left politics. Come along to learn about practice, theory, and how we can all get involved to transform ourselves, Bristol, and the world! Get tickets on Headfirst: https://t.co/Uh67lJq7P5

We will have a small allocation of free tickets for comrades unable to purchase tickets, please email [email protected] to request them.

[Gerry Adams @GerryAdamsSF]

Cmon England!!!

[Tom Warren @thomwarren]

Huge turnout outside Guildhall where Children Social Care workers are demanding the council reverse their proposed consultation. It’ll be bad for Bath residents, families and workers. @bathnes should reconsider ASAP

[Tom Warren @thomwarren]

Rain or shine, they hold the line! Second week out for @bathnes social work managers and deputy team managers demanding fair pay