The full City of Edinburgh Council met today and agreed to sack their third Housing Convener in as many years and replace her with a councillor who already had a huge job as Chair of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board.
These two areas of work are possibly the two which make most impact on people’s lives. The Edinburgh Integration Joint Board under the chairmanship of Labour councillor Tim Pogson (now himself replaced by Councillor Conor Savage) deals with social care, has a precarious financial footing with huge gaps in funding, and the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee deals with the council’s answer to the Housing Emergency declared some two years ago.
Cllr Lezley Marion Cameron was suspended by the Labour Party for three weeks at their group meeting earlier in the week for comments made about the council’s affordable housing policy and for apparently breaking the whip on votes related to a new appointment for Labour colleague Cllr Cammy Day.
Cllr Day resigned as Council Leader in December last year following accusations of inappropriate behaviour. His reinstatement to the Labour Group came after an administrative suspension by Scottish Labour for investigations ended. The group proposed making him a member of the Policy and Sustainability Committee. The Labour Group has nine councillors and runs the council as a minority administration and so members of committees including Conveners are thin on the ground.
At this morning’s meeting the administration proposed a raft of replacements for the Liberton/Gilmerton Ward councillor, Cllr Cameron, on the various committees she currently sat including the Housing Committee on which she was Convener. This motion was passed by 32 votes to 24 despite an amendment tabled by the SNP and Green groups who eventually joined forces. The administration also proposed in their suggestions that Cllr Day becomes a member of two council boards, which was approved.
Two Conservative councillors abstained from the vote – Cllr Joanna Mowat and Cllr Phil Doggart. They would not comment after the meeting on their action as it would be an infringement of standing orders.
Administration position
The council leader, Jane Meagher, has made it clear that she felt the party was left with no choice but to suspend Cllr Cameron following the alleged comments which amounted to a departure from Labour Party policy on affordable housing. Currently any developer asking for planning permission has to provide 35% as affordable housing (except in certain cases). Cllr Meagher said that the Labour group had acted to ensure “clarity and consistency” on housing policy and that developers and housing associations must “know where the council stands on affordable housing allocation”.
Ms Meagher had already confirmed ahead of today’s meeting that Cllr Cameron’s refusal to step down led to disciplinary action. Cllr Cameron is now listed as an independent councillor on the council website.
Cllr Cameron
Cllr Cameron is now in an unusual position of being suspended by her political party, and having lost all her committee positions, but she remains as Depute Lord Provost.
Cllr Cameron read out to the meeting a statement she had made on 2 October in response to allegations against her for which she has now been sanctioned. She said: “Colleagues, we are fast approaching it being two years since The City of Edinburgh Council declared that Edinburgh has a housing emergency. Given the size, scale and complexity of factors affecting housing need and barriers to increasing housing supply in Edinburgh, the Council must not only monitor the impact of our housing emergency action plan and current suspension of housing allocation policy, but also review our housing allocation and acquisition policies, the impact of our 35 per cent affordable housing policy, and explore potential adjustments to these and other policies, assess new policy delivery models and funding solutions, and engage with all parties in a position to contribute to meaningfully accelerating the provision of the much needed new housing for Edinburgh people and families.
“I also believe we should consider through a City of Edinburgh lens the initiative proposed in Professor Maclennan’s recently published report, which is titled “Disruptions to improve Scotland’s housing system” and the implications of the new housing bill, whilst our efforts today already include funding an ambitious house building programme, acquiring new homes directly from providers, implementing innovative retrofit schemes, investing in preventing people and families from becoming homeless and bringing empty homes back into use, working closely with housing providers, we still need to do so much more and significantly need more resources to resolve the housing housing crisis, because the costs of and demands for housing in Edinburgh continue to rise.”
During the debate on the matter, Cllr Euan Hyslop (SNP) asked the largest group on the council, the Liberal Democrats, to stop sitting on their hands. He said: “I want to take the opportunity to make a plea to my liberal Democrat colleagues, many of whom I know, are listening on. They are notably not contributing to this discussion, but will have quiet concerns about the appointment of the former council leader because of the allegations that Cllr Nols-McVey has just rightly highlighted. This situation that then is an absolute burrach, and it’s a direct result of the fact that liberal Democrats, time and again, are choosing to sit on their hands and not take responsibility for now being the largest group in part of this administration – or non administration. There is an opportunity here for you to take a bit more responsibility and to provide a bit of stability for the people of Edinburgh. It’s a shame you’re not wanting to contribute to this discussion.”
Cllr Nols-McVey was unusually afforded time to expand on matters relating to the Dunion report which examined Cllr Day’s behaviour and the way the council investigated that. He was eventually stopped at 2 minutes 30 seconds by the Lord Provost who said it was inappropriate. He accused Cllr Nols-McVey, a former SNP council leader, of veering off course. He said: “We are talking about appointments here and whether there is to be action or no action, rather than a very long explanation of the history. As you know, you only have three minutes to make the case, and you have already, according to my calculations, had about two and a half minutes of those three.”
Cllr Ross McKenzie offered Cllr Cameron his support saying that at the Scotland Demands Better protest last weekend there were many trade unionists speaking to him about their disappointment over Lezley Marion Cameron’s proposed sacking. He said: “I am sure that, like me, the people I was speaking to, have other political disagreements with Cllr Cameron. But the common theme in the conversations I was having at Scotland Demands Better were that Cllr Cameron had reached out and engaged with people and organisations relevant to her brief in a way that other administration conveners have not in committee, as well as being able to competently chair a meeting, which is something else that marks her out from some other Labour conveners.”
Cllr Chas Booth also supported Cllr Cameron saying that she is “a rare thing” among Labour conveners as somebody who listens to views and who listens to views across the chamber, not just from the “not a coalition”.
This list of switches includes the following:
Replace Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron with Councillor Tim Pogson as Convener of
the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Committee
Replace Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron with Councillor Tim Pogson as Chair of the
Homelessness Task Force
Replace Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron with Councillor Tim Pogson on the Housing
Management – LLP Corporate Body
Confirm Councillor Lezley Marion Cameron receives the relevant SRA as Depute Lord
Provost
Replace Councillor Tim Pogson with Councillor Conor Savage as Chair of the Edinburgh
Integration Joint Board.
Replace Councillor Joan Griffiths with Councillor Cammy Day on the NHS Lothian Board
Replace Councillor Jane Meagher with Councillor Joan Griffiths on Personnel Appeals
Replace Councillor Margaret Graham with Councillor Cammy Day on the Edinburgh
International Jazz and Blues Festival Board
Replace Councillor Margaret Graham with Councillor Cammy Day on the Licensing
Board.
