Earlier this year, when Brighton and Hove City Council discussed winter provision for rough sleepers, they stated that its night shelter would open from the 2nd November until the 20th March 2019.

In early October I was contacted by yet another constituent experiencing problems at Windsor Court.

It’s a seven storey building that Brighton and Hove City Council lease from a private landlord to provide emergency and temporary accommodation for people that it has a legal duty to house.

At the Conservative Party conference last week, aside from the distraction of Theresa May cracking jokes and dancing to Abba, she announced that the Government would be lifting the cap on the ability of councils to borrow money to build new homes.

The cap was introduced by the Tories, and along with other housing policies introduced by them decades ago, its role in the housing crisis is significant - effectively stifling local authorities from acting to address the shortage of affordable social housing, including council housing.

Earlier today I went along to St Peter’s Church in Preston Park.

It’s a wonderful 13^th century flint church which is re-opening after extensive restoration work, thanks to the hard work of the volunteer group, the Friends of St Peter’s.   

Earlier this week I was made aware of problems that passengers are having with the Brighton and Hove Buses mobile app.

I contacted Martin Harris, Managing Director at the bus company about the problems being reported to ask him what steps the company is taking to put things right.

On Friday I met with staff from two JD Wetherspoon pubs in my constituency, The Bright Helm and the Post and Telegraph. 

 

Staff at the pubs are balloting on strike action over pay and working conditions. It’s part of a growing campaign to draw attention to the many people working in the hospitality sector, who are undervalued and underpaid – a campaign being championed by the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU).

 

In April I contacted the Central Sussex and East Surrey Commissioning Alliance about Motor Neurone Disease (MND) respiratory care in the region, and the need for a non-invasive ventilation (NIV) service locally.

It already felt like it would be an exceptional Pride when it was announced in January that Britney Spears would be headlining. Britney fan or not, there was no denying that this was big news.

When tickets went on sale in February and systems crashed because of demand, it reinforced the fact that this year Pride was going to be huge.

With the promise of good weather, and the draw of brilliant Brighton on a sunny day, people from outside of Brighton were always going to come – in the thousands.

And it was an exceptional Pride.

In recent weeks a number of constituents have contacted me about changes the Government is making to the support it offers to people on low incomes to help maintain the interest element of their mortgage.

Since 2010, the Government has already more tightly targeted Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) on a number of occasions, for example by introducing an upper cap on the interest payable, and increasing the waiting time from 13 weeks to 39 weeks.

Earlier today I visited the University of Sussex to support University College Union (UCU) members taking strike action about proposed changes to their pensions.

All staff working in universities should have access to a secure and decent pension, and it’s wrong that their pensions are under attack.