26 Apr 2017

Labour have announced their candidate to fight the East Renfrewshire seat in the upcoming Westminster election – even though members there don’t have any faith in their leader.

Blair McDougall will contest the seat in June’s vote.

However, he will have to convince voters to back Labour despite the fact the party’s own branch doesn’t endorse Jeremy Corbyn.

In an open letter, 14 members across Eastwood said Corbyn “cannot provide the leadership” to form a government.

They added: “We need a credible, competent opposition, but Jeremy Corbyn is currently unable to fill all positions on his front bench. Jeremy Corbyn wants to captain a ship for which he has no crew. For the good of the party and, more importantly, the country, he must step aside.”

And McDougall himself has been a regular critic of Corbyn.

During the leadership election he backed Owen Smith on the basis “we cannot win with Jeremy”.

He also described as “fantasy” a remark by Corbyn that Labour were ahead in the polls last year.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader and MSP for Eastwood Jackson Carlaw said:

“How can the Labour candidate in East Renfrewshire expect people’s votes, when members themselves won’t back Jeremy Corbyn?

“It demonstrates the chaotic state the Labour party finds itself in.

“Even Blair McDougall thinks Jeremy Corbyn can’t win, which tells voters across East Renfrewshire everything they need to know.

“Only our candidate, Paul Masterton, can beat the SNP here, as we did at last year’s election.”

The open letter from Labour members is available here: http://labourhame.com/scottish-labour-members-call-for-corbyn-to-go/

The Scottish Conservative candidate for East Renfrewshire is Paul Masterton.

To see a list of critical tweets and retweets by Blair McDougall about Jeremy Corbyn, visit:

https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/status/767111872025878529 https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/status/763811597554941952 https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/status/759477962714513408 https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/status/766772372955357184 https://twitter.com/blairmcdougall/status/768759041514405888

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The majority of homes purchased through Help to Buy Wales were to first time buyers, accounting for 75 per cent of total completions.

Communities and Children’s Secretary Carl Sargeant has welcomed the figures, saying the Welsh Government’s ambitious housing programme is about providing people with affordable, safe, warm and secure homes in sustainable communities.  

Carl Sargeant said:

“I am pleased that our Help to Buy Wales investment has given many first time buyers the help they need to get their foot on the property ladder.

“The scheme has also helped provide the Welsh housing market with essential momentum and created valuable jobs.

“Last year we announced we would invest up to £290m in a second phase of the scheme to support the construction of more than 6,000 homes which will be part of our target of an additional 20,000 homes during this term of government. This reflects the success of the scheme in providing a route into more affordable home ownership, especially for first-time buyers. It has played a huge role in generating confidence within the housing sector and supporting private housing development.”

Co-operative housing is a model where groups of people collectively own and manage their accommodation, often with support from a registered social landlord. The approach offers affordable housing in a climate where mortgages are difficult to get and house prices too high for many buyers. Co-operative Housing provides another choice of housing and contributes to the Welsh Government’s target of providing 20,000 affordable homes during this term of government. 

The funding will help to scale up the project which has already helped to deliver 99 homes across Wales and is supporting the delivery of a further 75 by developing expertise in different co-operative models and providing advice to developers and co-operative groups. 

The Cabinet Secretary said:

“This funding will allow the Wales Co-operative Centre to build on the progress they have already made in supporting the development of housing co-operatives in Wales. It is just one of the innovative models of housing the Welsh Government is supporting that will contribute to our ambitious target to deliver 20,000 additional affordable homes in Wales over this term of government.” 

Derek Walker, Chief Executive of the Wales Co-operative Centre, said:

“The funding from the Welsh Government is critical to building on the excellent progress that has already been made with co-operative housing here in Wales. It is clear to see that the people and communities across Wales have grasped with enthusiasm the opportunity for co-operative housing.

“The Wales Co-operative Centre will use this funding from the Welsh Government to pay for experts to work with local co-operative housing projects and help them with the range of support they need.”

During this week’s annual TAI Conference held in Cardiff, the Wales Co-operative Centre has also launched a Co-operative Housing Pilot Toolkit, developed with funding from the Welsh Government during the last financial year. It is aimed at helping community groups, housing associations, co-ops, local authorities and others in the initial stages of considering how to develop new co-operative & community-led homes (CCLH). You can download this pilot toolkit by visiting: http://wales.coop/a-guide-to-developing-housing-co-ops/ (external link).

The Co-operative Housing in Wales project has also published its new strategy this month ‘Building homes, creating communities, changing lives’, which outlines how the programme will continue to promote and support an increasing role for co-operative housing in meeting housing need in Wales. The strategy can be viewed at: http://wales.coop/helping-people-set-up-housing-coops/ (external link).