putting Newham first! Newham Labour Party Local Government Manifesto 2014 www.newhamlabour.co.uk
Foreword by Sir Robin Wales The last four years have been tough ones for most people. Living standards have suffered massively as the Tory led Government has enforced its mean attack on hard working families and vulnerable people. In that period however, Newham s Labour Mayor and Council have introduced a wide range of initiatives which support people in tough times. 20,000 people helped into work, free school meals for all primary school children, a range of initiatives to support the development of skills in young people, the first Council in the country to introduce a licensing scheme covering all private rented properties to ensure tenants are not ripped off by criminal landlords and that anti-social behaviour is reduced for neighbours, a massive increase in enforcement to make our streets cleaner and safer and much, much more not least the largest local legacy ever achieved from the most successful Olympic and Paralympic Games in history. In Newham, cuts have been particularly savage. Over the next two years Newham s budget will be cut by 37m while well off places such as Wokingham will have an increase of 5m. When the Government say we are all in it together they really mean the poorer areas of the country are all in it together. However, despite these savage cuts, your Labour Mayor and Council are delivering the services residents say they want. We have not allowed the Tories to stop us doing the right things. And we have developed a number of initiatives to support our people in these tough times. We have achieved all of this while freezing Council Tax for 6 successive years. We also have the lowest council tax in outer London a significant achievement for a Borough which provides so many additional, valuable and free services to our residents. If you value what we do, vote for it by voting Labour on May 22nd. Sir Robin Wales Mayor of Newham putting Newham first!
Contents 4 Resilience 5 Crime and anti-social behaviour 6 Working for a cleaner, greener Newham 6-9 Making Newham better through investment 10 Standing up for Newham 11 Conclusion 3
Our Manifesto record 2014 things we have done PROMISE 1: Newham Labour has delivered the lowest Council Tax in Outer London and means to keep it. Resilience Labour Newham Council has developed a new approach based on the concept of resilience where the Council s task is to support people develop their abilities and skills. We have come to recognise that the Council cannot simply do things for people but that we can help by supporting people when they are trying to make a difference to their lives or to their community. Resilience means more than the ability to bounce back from challenging or damaging events. It is about developing the skills and having access to the resources that allow us to: 1 negotiate the challenges we all face 2 overcome the more difficult circumstances we may experience 3 take up opportunities which come our way Thriving and getting the most out of our lives requires a mix of economic, personal and community resilience. Work, personal skills and abilities and connections in the community are intertwined but add up to us taking more control of our environment and our lives. Policies and initiatives pursued by the Council will all aim to encourage this. Our aim will be that people take increasing control of their own lives that they no longer need the Council to help them. Of course, this does not mean that we will not help the most vulnerable in our community far from it. Inclusion has long been a fact in Newham s education system we demand and expect more from people we previously thought unable to contribute. We must apply this to all aspects of the Council s work but, where there really is a caring task we will develop new small-scale mutuals to offer a much better, person focussed offer through greater clarity of purpose. Many of Newham Labour policies are based on the concept of resilience and are hugely valued by our residents. PROMISE 2: Labour will protect the services residents value in the face of the most savage cuts ever to local government in general and Newham in particular. 4
Responding to concerns Our Labour Council consults residents frequently and in all our surveys residents say they want a cleaner, greener and safer Newham and even in a time of great austerity, we have increased spend on the things that matter most to our residents. Crime and Antisocial behaviour Most people care about our borough and follow the rules. They don t drop litter, or make a lot of noise, or commit crimes they work hard and bring up families in a difficult time. Your Labour Mayor and Councillors are committed to doing everything possible to tackle the small number of irresponsible people who don t care. We have funded 46 police officers who are tasked to do the things which matter to our residents. As an example of what they have achieved, 1/3 of all injunctions taken against gangs in London have been taken out by Newham Council and the police officers we pay for. We have over 140 people working on enforcement and insisting on better behaviour on our streets. For example, we issued more fines to discourage anti social behaviour than any other London Council, picked up more dangerous dogs than all the other London Councils put together and closed more brothels in the last year than in the rest of London. PROMISE 3: Labour will continue to fund police officers whom we can task in order that the priorities of residents are treated properly. In the end crime is a matter for the Metropolitan Police and the Council cannot substitute Council resources for failures by the London Mayor to adequately resource the Met. However, the Council will continue to work on initiatives with local police and other partners to support victims and reduce repeat crimes. For example, we will fully assess the effectiveness of the current approach to domestic and sexual violence to ensure that it is effective in reducing the level of sexual and domestic violence against women. PROMISE 4: Labour will continue to fully assess the effectiveness of all initiatives designed to reduce crime and will act appropriately to make them more effective. PROMISE 5: Labour will continue to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour and crack down on those who abuse our streets. We will also ensure we have a dedicated enforcement officer in each ward. We know residents feel safer when CCTV cameras are used in areas where there are safety risks. But it is expensive to put in static cameras and it s too easy for the lawbreakers to move a short distance away from the cameras and just continue what they are doing. Over a period of years we have invested in a network which can support mobile CCTV cameras so we can use them where they are needed. PROMISE 6: Labour will invest an extra 5 million in CCTV cameras and infrastructure 200 new cameras of which 90 are wireless cameras which can be deployed where they are needed. 5
Our promises Working for a cleaner greener Newham We invest 13.5 million each year to keep our streets clean, including removing litter, fly tipping, graffiti and fly posting. We provide a free bulky waste collection for up to 6 items to prevent fly-tipping one of the best offers in London. We continue to pick up rubbish every week (and additionally every second week for recyclables). However, we recognise that we need to do more to make our streets more pleasant and make our residents feel safer. PROMISE 7: Labour will invest an extra 4 million pounds in each of the next 4 years to improve our roads, pavements and lighting. Making Newham look better and feel safer. Making Newham better through investment We have invested heavily in Workplace the most successful jobs brokerage operation in the entire country. Investing over 6 million each year we have helped over 20,000 residents into work nearly 15,000 in the last 3 years alone. Helping residents who are trying to make a better life for themselves. The Government funds none of this work. Instead they pay for a largely discredited Work Programme. To put it in perspective, between 2011 and 2013 the Tory led Government s discredited work programme helped 300 Newham young people into work. In the same period Workplace helped over 3,500 Newham young people into work. Why does the government not simply back Workplace? PROMISE 8: Labour will continue to invest heavily in Workplace which has been massively successful getting over 20,000 Newham residents into work nearly 15,000 in the last three years alone. Our schools continue to improve and we support their aspirations to improve even further. They now achieve at the national average for GCSEs. Despite the Government s determined efforts to remove us from working with local schools we will continue to work with heads, staff and parents to drive up standards. 6
To assist our children our Labour Mayor and Councillors have launched the Newham s Every Child programme which helps all our kids achieve more. Working in partnership with our schools we provide a unique package including:: Free School Meals for all our primary children which is worth 566 per child to hard working families each year Every child in year 5 is given a free instrument and 3 years free tuition Every child is given the opportunity to try 20 sports in year 7 to see what they most enjoy Our every child a reader programme provides 1:1 tuition for children who are not getting to the right reading level. Last year, nearly ¾ of the children who were failing achieved, or even surpassed, their target as a result of our intervention Every child a chess player a major programme to encourage children to play chess which aids their concentration and analytical skills And we recently launched a programme to ensure all our kids get a chance to experience the world class theatre for which London is renowned. No other Council anywhere in the country provides anything like such a fundamental programme to ensure that our young people build up the skills they need for later life. PROMISE 9: Labour will work with our schools to continue the excellent improvements in exam results; continue free school meals for primary school children; continue with the Newham s Every Child a Musician programme giving 3 years free tuition, continue with the Newham s Every Child a Sports Person programme giving the opportunity to try 20 different sports and continue with the Newham Reading Guarantee programme providing 1:1 tuition to younger children struggling to read. We do a great deal but there is still more we can do to help our young people. While GCSE pass rates are excellent we do not provide sufficient choice in A Levels. This is why we have worked with our schools to establish a new 6th form college in East Ham opening in September this year. However, there is also a need to provide a better skills offer for those young people who do not wish to progress via an academic route. The offer throughout the country in skills is atrocious and one of the first decisions this Government made was to remove elements of skills funding from local areas stopping us from ensuring that the skills training provided met the needs of local employers. PROMISE 10: Labour will review the skills offer in Newham and ensure that our young people and adults are provided with greater and better choice. We do know that one skill which brings our community together, helps people access more of what London has to offer and is essential when seeking employment is the ability to speak English. We believe that any resident who wishes to speak English should be helped to do so free of charge. 7
Our promises PROMISE 11: Labour will provide free English language tuition for all residents who want to learn English. This will be provided in the most appropriate manner and could include any and all of access to a language lab, courses provided by volunteers, courses provided by tutors and community chatterbox sessions. This is a tough time with Tory Government austerity cuts reducing living standards for many hard working families. In Newham we recognise the challenges faced by ordinary people, particularly when some unexpected event happens. Increasingly we are seeing our citizens driven to seek credit from unscrupulous lenders, sometimes at huge rates of interest. The Council now has responsibility for public health. We also recognise the need to provide a better health offer to our residents. People in the East End die younger on average than people in the West End. It is essential that we address this problem. Much of what we do already helps. Getting a job is perhaps the best thing an individual can do to improve their long term health. Providing decent food to all our primary children through high quality free school meals also helps. And the truth is that by helping people build up their resilience it helps their health. A person who is in control of their life is much more likely to be healthy. And we are reviewing the spend on public health to make sure that the money is targeted effectively on programmes which actually make a difference to our residents. Of course, there are people who are vulnerable and need more care. We are at the forefront of developing personal budgets for individuals so they can have greater control of the services they consume. In addition, we are developing a payments scheme which will financially reward service providers where users show high satisfaction with their services. Labour believes that it is important that we provide some options for responsible, hard working residents and so we will take action to provide alternatives. PROMISE 12: Labour will set up a one stop shop Money Works which will provide a range of support to responsible residents including: Pay day loans at fair rates Access to loans for white goods at fair rates A life changing fund which provides loans when people have a realistic and sensible idea which could change their lives at fair rates Access to low cost home furnishings Crisis loans Access to credit to clear loans in certain instances Support, guidance and loans to help you with your energy bills. The basis of this one-stop shop will be that residents will only be able to access loans if they are responsible. Any failure to repay the money owed will mean they can never get any support again from Money Works. 8
PROMISE 13: Labour will continue to support the development of resilience and will develop a model where payment is linked to satisfaction for those who use our caring services. We also recognise that health is not just about living longer, we also need to work to extend the length of good quality living. An important contribution to this is the Freedom Pass which we believe significantly improves the health of many of our elderly residents. PROMISE 14: Labour will continue to fully fund the Freedom Pass providing free travel on public transport including buses, Tube, train and Docklands Light Railway. Newham Labour Mayor and Council continue to invest secure funding and help to deliver the physical infrastructure of the borough such as: Redeveloping Canning Town and Custom House In the last 4 years we have created nearly 9,000 new school places and invested 127 million into our schools Buying 35% of the Olympic Stadium to ensure that it works for local people in the future (and generates a profit) Assisted securing cycle superhighway extensions, Greenway investment and new quiet routes making Newham a much better place to cycle Rebuilding the Atherton Leisure Centre Created a brand new library and local service centre in East Ham Started on the development of a new 6th form college at East Ham in partnership with our schools Secure Westfield, the largest urban shopping centre in Western Europe And, of course, following the enormous local investment arising from the 2012 Games Newham fought to get more jobs and more people into events than any other Borough. And we invested heavily to encourage local celebration and activity from street parties to torch relay. It was our exceptional year. 9
Our promises Standing up for Newham We are under assault from a particularly heartless government with a contempt for the problems facing ordinary working people. However, Labour has fought hard for our residents. We have led the country in our opposition to betting shops. We are demanding the powers to limit the fixed odds betting terminals which have caused the explosion in betting shops. We are not opposed to gambling people should be free to pursue those pastimes which they enjoy but not at a cost to other people. These new betting shops attract crime and anti social behaviour. That is why we will fight to get them off our high streets. We know that there are lots of complaints about overflowing rubbish and anti social behaviour in rented properties where the landlord does not ensure they are properly run. That is why Newham Council is the first, and still only, Council to have implemented a borough wide scheme to license every private sector landlord. We will no longer tolerate bad behaviour from a small minority of property owners. To date we have licensed 31,000 premises but we believe there are around 8,000 landlords who are avoiding licensing so we are pursuing them actively. We have visited 3,000 unlicensed properties. The vast majority are now licensed but we have also prosecuted 250 landlords and arrested 260 people people who often cause great nuisance to their neighbours. PROMISE 16: Newham Labour will, within the next ten years, build 3,000 new homes and buy a further 500 which will be made available for local people to rent at a range of rents that suit their income. If people work they deserve to get something out of it. At the very least a decent rate of pay. In Newham we know that almost one in five working people are not paid the national minimum wage. We have long campaigned for the right for the Council to enforce the law. Of course the Tories don t want it enforced but we will continue to demand the right to ensure that our fellow citizens earn what is, after all, only a basic wage. The Labour Council also ensures that it pays all its directly employed staff the London Living Wage. As a Borough which has retained most of its services in-house this makes us a leader, if not the leader, in this battle. However, we will also review the situation with regard to contractors rates of pay. PROMISE 15: Labour will continue to reduce anti-social behaviour and improve accommodation in the private rented sector by licensing all privately rented property. We also know that there is a shortage of decent homes for people in the Borough. There is a crying need for places to live and the failure of the Government and the London Mayor is only too apparent. 10
PROMISE 17: We will continue to pay the London Living Wage and will review rates of pay offered by contractors. The Tories will not get away with cutting local NHS services without a fight, led by Newham Labour. We have already raised our concerns about the threats to Newham General and demanded that local Accident & Emergency and Maternity services are protected. A Labour Mayor and Labour Council will fight tooth and nail to ensure our hospital stays open and that the facilities there are the right ones for our people. We will also fight to ensure that the full range of quality health services are available to our residents and, in particular, that they have easy access to an effective and comprehensive screening programme. Conclusion Our Labour Mayor and Councillors have an extraordinary record on which we will fight this coming election, which is about real issues that matter to us all schools are improving with our support, more local people are now in work, crime is down, our rich diversity is a strength rather than a threat. The future for Newham is bright but is also under attack from Tory cuts. If you value it, vote for it. PROMISE 18: We will continue to stand up proudly for our residents against Tory attacks, fighting for the things that matter to them while also delivering services which make a difference. If you value what we have done and what we will do then vote for it. This is our opportunity to send a clear message to Whitehall that, in Newham, Labour is proud of its achievements and the community stands behind our record. And we don t do it by increasing council tax or by hitting the most vulnerable. 8 If you value it vote Labour 11
Newham Labour Delivering for Newham www.newhamlabour.co.uk Thursday 22nd May 2014 4 ways to get in touch Write to us: Newham Labour, Trinity Centre, East Avenue, E12 6SG Find us on the web: newhamlabour.co.uk email: newhamlabour@gmail.com Tele: 0208 133 7339 Promoted by Ken Clark on behalf of Sir Robin Wales both at Trinity Centre, East Avenue, E12 6SG. Printed by Karian and Box, 14 Clifford Street, York YO1 9RD putting Newham first!