On 30th November I attended NUS Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism conference at ULU, which I found to be a very interesting and useful event, with an overwhelming number of delegates.

Thursday 1st December was one stressful day. At 9am I went to London Met SU, where they are potentially facing the removal of their union welfare provisions, to help the officers plan a strategy to fight the closure. Then it was off to the NEC delegation meeting. It wasn’t the most pleasant of meetings for one reason or another. In the end we passed NEC motions for each zone including the motion I’d submitted for the welfare zone, elected Kat as delegation leader and had our annual NEC picture taken.

After that I attended a meeting at UUK about the Housing Act. The Act received royal assent at the end of last year and comes into force from 2006. It affords some great new rights to students- for example the licensing of houses of multiple occupancy, (HMOs), the introduction of a Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), and Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Universities have been exempted from licensing as theyre regarded as responsible landlords, but must comply to a code of manangment/standards. Currently 2 different codes have been up for consideration by rhe ODPM- One writtien by ANUK (Accrditation Netwrok UK) which NUS contributed to and favours, and one written by UUK. When the consultation was out out about the two codes, NUS responded with our reservations about the UUK code- the fact is does not offer an independent tribunal, and that the instiution would be both the landlord and the point of contact in case of a complaint, the lack of benchmarks and actual standards that it sets. In our response though, we did not outright reject it, we highlighted our issues and engaged in constructive criticism. The meeting was hosted by UUK but basically was little more than a face off between NUS and HERRG (Higher Education Regulation Review Group). HERRG are still questioning the need for a Housing Act, and are utterly opposed to the comprehensive ANUK code. We went into the meeting with a list of potential compromises, but our bottom line was that NUS would not endorse the UUK code unless they agreed to join the ANUK code’s independent tribunal- ANUK have offered this, and the codes need to be compatible, and this was our basic requirement. However, two and a half hours into the meeting, and despite our best efforts, HERRG remained unprepared to even acknowledge a single of our arguments, let alone engage with us and try and find any middle ground. As a result the meeting drew an absolute blank. UUK have since told me that from their point of view it was useful to get NUS and HERRG in a room battling it out- I’m glad someone got something out of the meeting- because I certainly didn’t.

Friday 2nd, and more Housing Act business- but this time we were amongst friends and comrades, at the ANUK (accreditation Network UK) conference in Manchester. Myself and a member of staff were presenting on accreditation of student accommodation to university accommodation offices, housing associations and private landlords and I was really happy with how the day went. I was particularly pleased to see Liverpool Student Homes hailed as an example of best practice as I used to sit on their management board when I was a sabb at Liverpool. If you’re a student (or even an officer) anywhere in Liverpool, it’s the only place to get your accommodation. It was also a chance to touch base with ODPM representatives who were present, about where we were going with the codes of management and our conflict with UUK- and all in all a much happier day than Thursday.

Monday 5th December, and the beginning of another week where it was all about accommodation! On Monday we had our much-anticipated presentation to the NEC and National Director on the future of the co-operative housing project. The officers from UMSU and Man Met came down, along with Urbed. I wont go into detail here, as the presentation from this and my recent report to the NEC are both on my blog already but the main things to say are thanks to all the NEC who came along and showed enthusiasm (special shout out to Dan C!), the steering group were delighted with how the meeting went- and I would urge anyone reading this blog to look at the report and presentation- its an amazing project which we need as much support from across the movement with as possible- any queries give me a shout.

Tuesday, and for our sins we were back at UUK for a meeting with the code steering group, but I have to say this meeting was much more constructive, and we were glad for a chance to have our say and win a few concessions, although there is still some distance in terms of what we want and how the code looks, this was a much better meeting than the previous weeks.

Wednesday, and up to Yorkshire for me (whoohoo) for Sheffield Union’s housing fair. Sheffield have been doing loads of work around housing this year, really trying to change things for their students and improve the way they find accommodation, all the while contending with a new PFI build and the privatisation of university halls. I think this housing fair was an excellent idea and I was delighted to get to go and talk to students about their housing rights. I gave out hundreds of house hunting checklists and as a result we’re now getting them printed up professionally and will be available late January for unions to order-look out for details

On Thursday I was delighted to attend the inaugural ANGUS (East Anglia Area NUS) convention. I think the resurgence of the areas we are currently seeing is really positive and something which can only benefit the national union. From my point of view the areas play a really helpful rolling in communicating about the welfare campaign and rallying supports for events, and hopefully ANGUS will be the same- I ran a welfare network session in the morning and stayed for the afternoon meeting- good luck to everyone involved.

Friday, and NUS played host to the Unipol Committee of Management- you guessed it, more discussion around the housing act. Generally a very productive meeting, with people who are on NUS’ side when it comes to ensuring decent accommodation and rights for students- and its nice that NUS is actually able to host meetings in our new offices!

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