Dear Londoner,

Welcome to my second annual report as a city-wide

London Assembly Member.
Im delighted to have been re-elected as the London
Assembly Labour Groups Housing Spokesperson for
a second year. In the coming year I shall be serving
on the Housing, Planning and Transport committees.
Housing is undoubtedly the biggest crisis facing
London today and continues to be the main focus
of my work at City Hall. Whilst the Mayor continues
to be complacent, I am pleased that nationally the
Labour Party has adopted some major proposals to
get to grips with the crisis.
I have also continued to campaign on pub protection,
LGBT rights and for Londons small theatre sector.
Best wishes,
Tom Copley AM
Labour London Assembly Member
City Hall Labour Housing Spokesperson
Fighting for private tenants: Rent
regulation and better conditions
I have repeatedly challenged Boris Johnson to ask the
Government for more powers to intervene to protect
tenants from poor conditions and sky high rent infation.
He has consistently refused to do so, preferring instead
to rely on inefective voluntary regulation. His recently
published London Rental Standard is a meaningless
gimmick which will do nothing to help the vast majority of
the 800,000 London households that rent privately.
The Mayor has refused to implement proposals put to him
by me to set up a Bad Landlords Register and a private
tenants Know Your Rights website. He also rejected a
Labour amendment to his budget which would have
provided funding for groups which provide support and
legal advice for private tenants.
Ed Miliband has announced that the next Labour
government will introduce the biggest shake up of the
private rented sector since 1989. Tearing up the Thatcherite
model of private renting, Miliband has announced three
year tenancies as standard with capped annual rent
increases and a ban on lettings agencies charging tenants
fees. These are measures that I and many others have been
calling for for some time.
facebook.com/copleyt
@tomcopley youtube.com/copleyt
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About me
I was elected to the London Assembly as a city-wide list
member in May 2012. Prior to my election I worked for the
Searchlight Educational Trust - an anti-fascist, anti-racist
charity which works with communities to fght racism and
hatred. I am a patron of LGBT Labour, an elected trustee of the
British Humanist Association and am on the board of the New
Diorama Theatre in Regents Place. I live in Kentish Town and
am an active member of Holborn & St Pancras CLP.
Keep up with my work at City Hall on my website at
tomcopley.com
TOM COPLEY
LABOUR LONDON ASSEMBLY MEMBER
ANNUAL REPORT 2013 - 14
Meeting with Imperial College Union to
discuss concerns about private rented housing
In January I published a report, From Right to Buy to Buy to
Let, which revealed the shocking extent to which former
council properties sold under Right to Buy are now rented
out by private landlords.
My research, based on Freedom of Information requests
to London boroughs, found that more than a third of ex-
local authority properties are now in the hands of private
landlords. To add insult to injury, many local authorities are
being forced to rent back their former properties at market
rents in order to fulfl their statutory homelessness duties.
I have called for urgent action to reform Right to Buy to
alleviate some of the worst excesses caused by the policy
in its current form. The reports recommendations include:
Abolishing discounts, which were recently increased to
up to 100,000 by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles
Giving local authorities a right not to sell if it is not
in the community interest to do so or if they believe it
would harm their housing operations
Mandatory covenants on any property sold so that
they cannot be let through the private sector
Replacement homes built with Right to Buy receipts
should mirror the rent, size and tenure specifcations
of the home sold.
Right to build: How Labour can
get councils building new homes
Thanks to reforms made by the last Labour Government
some local authorities are building new council homes for
the frst time in decades. In June I held a meeting to discuss
why council housing is so important, what local authorities
are doing to deliver more homes and what the next Labour
government needs to do to get more homes built. The
panel included myself, Frank Dobson MP, Sarah Hayward
(Leader of Camden Council) and Andrew Heywood (Smith
Institute). Whats absolutely clear is that the next Labour
government must lift the borrowing cap so that councils
can borrow responsibly in order to build new homes.
Time for City Hall to intervene
and start building homes directly
Pub protection: stepping in to help
the Golden Lion in Camden Town
Ive joined the campaign to save the Golden Lion pub
in Camden Town from redevelopment into ofces. I was
delighted when Camden Council issued an Article 4
direction to prevent developers from converting the pub
without planning permission.
We urgently need a change in the law to close loopholes
that allow pubs to be converted without planning
permission. The Mayor could have provided much tougher
guidance on pub protection in the upcoming revisions to
his London Plan, but he has failed to do so.
From Right to Buy to Buy to Let
Behind the bar at the Golden Lion with
landlord Dave Murphy and CAMRAmembers
Highlighting pedestrian safety with
members of the Transport Committee
Campaigning in Highgate ward during the 2014 local elections
Joining the trade union campaign against UKIP
Hosting a roundtable discussion at City Hall about the
efect of overseas buyers on the London property market
On a Transport Committee site visit
to the Crossrail tunnels at Farringdon
I have called on the Mayor to intervene directly to expand
housing supply in London by setting up a London Housing
Corporation to build new homes.
The Corporation would be owned by the Greater London
Authority and be able to borrow against the GLAs revenue
stream to commission new homes, as well as attracting
institutional investment from pension funds. It would work
with councils, housing associations and private developers
to build truly mixed communities.
I presented the idea of a London Housing Corporation to
the Mayor as part of a report, Fair Housing, which made a
number of other recommendations including:
Creating a Decent Homes Fund to provide low cost
loans for landlords to bring Londons stock of privately
rented housing up to a decent standard
Establishing a Bad Landlords Register and a private
tenants Know Your Rights website
Have your say at City Hall
I want to hear from you about the issues you think I should
be raising with the Mayor at City Hall.
You can suggest a question for me to put to the Mayor
by flling out the form on my website at
tomcopley.com/questions
Do you have a petition that youd like me to present to
the Assembly? If so please visit
tomcopley.com/petitions
Contact me
Write to me: Tom Copley AM
City Hall
The Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA
Email: tom.copley@london.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7983 5545
Website: tomcopley.com
Residents set for eviction
by Mayor petition City Hall
Residents facing eviction from their Met Police owned
homes handed me a petition against their eviction at City
Hall which I have passed on to the Mayor.
The residents, most of them nurses and other key workers,
are being evicted because MOPAC (Mayors Ofce for
Policing and Crime) is selling of properties to plug a hole
in its budget. Some of the residents have been there for
twenty years. Their homes will most likely be bought by
a developer and turned into fats far beyond their means.
They are afraid that they will not be able to aford to stay in
the area, where many have children in local schools.
I believe that the Mayor has a duty of care to these
residents and must act, either by allowing them to buy
the fats on a shared ownership basis or by fnding them
suitable alternative accommodation in the area.
Assembly rejects Mayors housing
strategy - but he fails to listen
Challenging the
Mayors fre cuts
In January Boris Johnsons
cuts to the London Fire
Brigade came into efect. This
means that across London
there are now 10 fewer fre
stations, 14 fewer fre engines
and 552 fewer frefghters.
Labour made a fully costed proposal to the Mayor to
maintain the current level of provision, but this was
ignored. The Mayor instead chose to make his cuts in order
to fund his penny a day cut to the share of council tax for
each London household.
Protesting outside Belsize
Fire Station, now closed by
the Mayor, with Andrew
Dismore AM
Receiving a petition at City Hall from Wimbledon
residents being evicted from their Met Police owned homes
Name:
Home address:
Email:
Telephone:
Get in touch
Postcode:
When Boris Johnsons woefully
inadequate Housing Strategy came
before the Assembly I led the opposition
to it. Although a majority of Assembly
Members voted to reject the strategy,
we did not reach the two thirds
supermajority required to formally reject
it because the Conservative Group, who
voted for it, hold a third of the seats.
In the new strategy the Mayor proposed an annual house
building target of 42,000 homes, despite his own research
saying that London needs up to 62,000 new homes per year.
Speaking against the
Mayors inadequate
Housing Strategy
Please ask the Mayor the following question:
Promoted by and on behalf of Tom Copley,
c/o 110 Gloucester Avenue, London, NW1 8HX
Tom Copley AM may contact you using the details you provide.
If you do not wish to be contacted please write to the address above.
Please return this form to: Tom Copley AM,
City Hall, The Queens Walk, London, SE1 2AA
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