Weekly Update – Friday 4 June 2021

Home Office Asylum Accommodation is inhumane

This week I wrote to the Home Secretary following the High Court ruling that the Home Office’s decision to house refugees in the squalid Napier Barracks in Folkestone was unlawful. Since 2020 the conditions and standards in Asylum accommodation have worsened drastically with refugees forced into room-sharing, overcrowded accommodation and housed without access to basic facilities and healthcare.

We have the resources to ensure that anybody who arrives in this country seeking safety is housed in humane conditions. Unfortunately, the Home Office has decided to push those who arrive here into awful conditions which are simply unfit for human habitation.

I’ve asked Priti Patel to end this practice immediately and shut down the barracks while also ending all plans to create similar so called ‘reception centres’.

Furthermore, I’ve asked the Home Secretary to restrict the use of hotels and acquire new accommodation that is fit for human habitation. All countries have a duty to treat refugees humanely and its time that this Government recognised that.

Development Cuts must be stopped

Since the Government announced drastic cuts to the aid budget, they have found it increasingly difficult to defend their position as the consequences of those cuts have become clearer. On the International Development Select Committee we have been working to draw out exactly what the cuts will look like and it’s clear that should the Government push ahead with their plans then lives will be lost.

It’s estimated, for example, that Aid to Yemen will be cut by at least 60%, aid to Syria by 50% and aid to Tanzania by at least 50%. Cuts to Educational funding meanwhile would result in 700,000 further girls getting an education and a 100% cut to projects in Uganda and Ethiopia will see 10,000 families left without support.

Those are just a few examples but there are sadly many, many more. That is partly the reason why, at the last election, every party pledged to at least maintain development spending moving forward. We spend just a fraction of our GDP on development spending but that spending is crucial and saves lives. That’s why there has been cross-party support for maintaining and developing it for such a long time.

Next week there is going to be a vote on restoring development spending in 2022. I’m hopeful that enough Conservative MPs will join Labour in voting against the cuts that the Government will be defeated. As one of the richest countries on earth we have a duty to help developing countries. It would be a significant victory for human-rights and our common humanity if Parliament voted against the Government next week and we restored our development spending in 2022.

Renters need rent relief

This week the Government made the reckless decision to end the eviction ban, despite the ongoing pandemic and the continued failure to provide renters with any solution to the rent debt crisis. Research by Shelter shows that as a result of the ban being lifted hundreds of thousands of private renters are now at risk of eviction with Ethnic minorities, the disabled and other marginalised groups being disproportionately impacted.

One consequences of the pandemic was that many private renters built up substantial rent arrears as the economy shut down and we experienced the worst recession in 300 years. As a result, there is now a rent debt crisis as many renters have substantial arrears without any ability to pay those areas of in the short-term.

The so called ‘eviction ban’ simply kicked the can down the road by making it harder for landlords to evict their tenants but did not thing to tackle the actual issue at hand – rent arrears. That’s why I’ve called for rent relief for tenants and an extension to the eviction ban. The decision now facing the Government is to either allow people to be evicted during a pandemic and as a result of the pandemic or protect those renters and their right to housing.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email  edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk. I’m always happy to help whenever possible.

Kind regards,

Kate Osamor MP