Weekly Update – Friday 5th February 2021

Across Enfield all of the latest COVID-19 statistics show that we are heading in the right direction. The infection rate is down to 351 per 100,000 people and cases in the last week of January were down to 1,013. Upper Edmonton had 74 cases and Ponders End had 70 cases. Meanwhile, the rate of vaccination across Enfield is continuing at a fast pace. 70% of people, including everybody over 80 years old, had received their vaccine by the end of January with almost a third of those in the high-risk categories between 16 and 64 years old also having had the jab. Every eligible care home resident or staff member has now been offered the jab in Enfield. This is all very good news and point the way towards the end of this pandemic.

For the foreseeable future however, the lockdown will need to stay in place to prevent another wave of infections and that means it is as important as it ever was that we all follow the rules and only leave our homes when necessary. More information about what advice and support is available can be found here on Enfield Council’s website.

Let’s end the Rent Debt Crisis

This week I wrote to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, backing Generation Rent’s campaign calling on the Government to act now to end the Rent Debt Crisis. 1 in 8 renters are in debt to their landlords with millions at risk of losing their homes unless something is done. Through this crisis, the Government has failed to support private renters. While the Treasury has offered mortgage relief to home owners, the huge problem facing private renters has been ignored with a delay to evictions being the help so far offered. But delaying evictions only kicks the can down the road. We need to tackle the problem head on by reducing the now unsustainable level of rent arrears which many renters simply cannot afford to pay back.

Even before the pandemic many private renters were already in a difficult position. Rents have increased to unsustainable levels; the rights of tenants have been slashed and the support available to renters on low incomes have been aggressively cut away over the last 10 years. It is therefore no surprise that so many people renting in the private sector are facing rent arrears which they incurred through no fault of their own and cannot realistically afford to pay back.

That’s why I’ve backed Generation Rent’s campaign to end the rent debt crisis by raising Local Housing Allowance Rates in line with average rents, suspending evictions for arrears caused by the pandemic and clearing rent debt with a Coronavirus Home Retention Scheme. If you agree that the Government should act now to help protect renters then I’d encourage you to sign the petition here.

Government must outlaw ‘Fire and Rehire’ practice.

Workers at Heathrow are preparing to strike again following attempts by the airport to fire and rehire its entire workforce on vastly inferior wages and conditions. They have my full support as do the workers at British Gas who remain out on strike as they take a stand against similar attempts by British Gas to sidestep employment law by firing and rehiring their staff on worst conditions.

It is a disgrace that big and highly profitable companies like British Gas have decided to use the pandemic as an opportunity to increase their profits at the expense of the very workers who make those profits possible. Instead of standing by their workers during an extraordinary difficult time, they’ve decided that this is their best chance of cutting pay and conditions. The workers who are going out on strike are doing so at great hardship to themselves but their fight to protect working conditions will benefit us all.

The Government has so far done nothing to protect workers and when I asked the Business Secretary this week what steps he would take to end the practice of fire and rehire he confirmed his support for companies that use the practice to protect their bottom line. That leaves me with little hope that this government will do anything to end the practice, so we should do everything we can to support the unions who are taking the fight to employers and defending all our rights.

How I voted this week

This week I voted for two opposition day motions put forward by the Labour party. The first was a motion calling on the Government to fully fund the removal of all unsafe cladding across the country. Three years after the Grenfell fire, 200,000 high-rise homes remain wrapped in flammable material. It is a national emergency that another Grenfell could happen tonight. The Government should treat it as one and act accordingly. The motion was passed by 263 votes to 0 but the Government decided to ignore it as it is non-binding and so told Tory MPs not to turn up and vote.

I also voted on another opposition day motion put forward by Labour calling for the Government to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals into the UK. It is a measure backed by scientific evidence and which we know has worked in other countries like New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam. We know from bitter experience that the virus doesn’t have to take a direct flight from country to country. The South African variant of COVID-19 will not just arrive from flights directly from that country but by other routes across the world. That is the nature of a globalised world. The Government needs to act now to protect us. The motion was again passed, this time by 262 votes to 0 but like the other vote, the Government decided to ignore it and ordered Conservative MPs not to turn up to do their jobs and vote.

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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