As for so many organisations, autumn 2019 has been particularly busy.
1. Safe cladding and insulation — again!
As the Grenfell community and people round the country await the critically important Moore-Bick report on the fire, due this Wednesday, many remain in crisis about their own situations. In the words of Edward Daffarn of Grenfell United, “Thousands of people go to sleep at night in homes effectively covered with liquid paraffin. The fact is that this catastrophe was predictable. . . . Accidents do happen, but this wasn’t an accident.”
On 17 October we delivered to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) a second Open Letter on safe cladding and insulation — following the SCIN campaign’s first edition exactly one year before. This time, the letter had over 80 weighty signatures collected in just over a week, including six national unions, nine MPs from three parties and many other organisations furious that the commitments made on replacing flammable cladding have not been met. And furious, also, that programmes to install insulation have been cut by over 90%, while thousands die each year from the cold. Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad delivered the letter after MHCLG had refused to meet residents!
For a report, supporters, and the letter itself, see here; for more photos see below.
2. Heating, housing, and local authorities
In several London boroughs we’ve been feeding in residents’ experiences on housing and heating systems to local groups trying to get their local authorities to act on the climate emergency that many have declared. We’ve been working with Sustainable Hackney, XR Southwark, Friends of the Earth Lambeth, and various initiatives in Brent. We’ve also taken part in discussions on the potential local provisions of a Green New Deal. Many policies and projects can immediately help people keep warm, but they need to be planned and executed accountably. New heating systems must bring bills down — not up! — and insulation must avoid creating damp homes, toxic air, or, of course, fire risks.
3. Climate mobilisations
FPA has taken part in the mobilisations on climate being organised everywhere as the world increasingly wakes up to this critical moment in the earth’s history. On 20 September we took the SCIN banner — Safe Cladding and Insulation Now! — to the UK Student Climate Network strike in London — and had dozens of interested queries on the lines of, “what’s that got to do with it?” Insulation, a key weapon against carbon emissions — has yet to make it onto many mainstream climate organisers’ agenda.
We also gave out hundreds of our popular little pink “Pressing Questions” pamphlet, titled “Climate Justice — at home — and saw people studying them all over the park. And Ruth did a 3 minute interview as part of the “Solutions Zone”, with safe, non-toxic insulation figuring prominently..
Then, during Extinction Rebellion’s October uprising, we joined the Global Justice Rebellion at St James Park and then — when evicted — Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, to discuss different demands and battles for survival, especially in the Global South. We brought to these discussions our more UK-based demands for climate justice — here.– and our experience of battles over housing and heating and the thorny issue of subsidies, carbon taxes and the rising price of fossil fuels. Global Justice Rebellion signed our Open Letter and helped organise for the MHCLG event (above), and we are continuing to work with them.
4. Green New Deals and the Universal Energy Allowance
We’ve taken part in discussions about the Green New Deal in the UK, but have contributed most significantly to the Green New Deal for Europe. GNDE’s report, worked on intensively all over the continent and recently submitted to the EU’s Vice President, included FPA’s proposal for a universal free energy allowance (see 3.3.2) as well as detailed stipulations on housing construction practices and accountability to residents (see 2.4.1).
We’re setting up a working group on the universal energy allowance idea (the “warm floor” we have put forward in numerous places and received a good response) and have started consulting some experts.
5. Local battles
At the same time we are continuing to work with individuals and tenants and residents organisations fighting over bills, poor housing, and dysfunctional heating systems — like the Southwark Group of Tenants Organisations, Hillingdon’s Pembroke Park Residents Association, and residents of Pendleton, Salford.
6. Annual report
Almost forgot! Way back in history — in September! — we held our AGM and published our Annual Report . Please take a look if you’d like to see what we’ve been up to over the past year.
If there is any aspect of this work that you’d like to get involved in, please get in touch.
Our next monthly meeting will be on Wednesday 6 November.
We also welcome donations, affiliations, or help to raise money — FPA are still unfunded!