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Campaigning in the local community
Dear Resident,
Welcome to the latest issue of my community campaign blog. It is published so that you can see what I have been doing on your behalf, representing Westbourne ward and the wider city of Brighton and Hove.
My blog tells you how to get in touch with any concerns you may have or support you may need. I’m elected to serve you, so please do get in touch.
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Only 2 per cent of rents are ‘affordable’ in Westbourne
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Recent research of the city’s housing market has found that young people and families are simply priced out of living here. Buying a three bedroom family house, in Westbourne, with a modest 5% deposit, for example, would require the occupants to earn 14 times the average salary to secure a mortgage. It’s why many young families – including two earner couples – struggle to get on the housing ladder.
For residents that means turning to the private rented sector – a type of housing tenure that has seen 15% rent increases in parts of the city in the last year. No wonder then, despite the economic recovery, many Westbourne households are simply not feeling the upturn in their pockets.
One estimate of the ratio of rents to disposable income has found, on average, that households can spend up to 48% of their hard earned incomes on lining the pockets of private landlords. At present, the local council has no powers to regulate private rents. Some people say rent controls would be counter-productive because they are against the principles of the free market. Yet, the government has no qualms in ordering councils to reduce social rents by 1% or telling private rail companies that they can only increase fares by a certain percentage above inflation. Why do we allow the private rented sector to be left completely unregulated?
It really is time the government acted to curb excessive rent increases. As the Bank of England has also warned, it’s time to reign in buy-to-let landlords as well. A new compact is needed that would include much better regulation of landlords and letting agents. The cost of securing a decent roof over peoples’ heads is currently spiralling out of control. The housing crisis will not be solved by continued inaction by central government. They need to give our local council the powers to act to ensure a decent living for everyone.
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Closing the education gap in the city
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There’s a lot to celebrate about education in the city. Not a single council run school is in special measures. Most are rated, according to the independent watchdog, Ofsted, either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’. The recent A-level and GCSE results show a city above the national average in most subjects, including English and maths.
A worrying trend, however, is the growing attainment gap between better off students and those from more disadvantaged backgrounds. I wrote an article about this issue for the Brighton & Hove Independent following the summer’s GCSE results. The issue attracted front-page coverage and a lot of mail, mainly supportive, in my email box and postbag!
On 12th October, at the council committee meeting that I chair, officials will present a report on the gap between pupil premium and non-pupil premium attainment. Crucially, the council will set out a new strategy, working with secondary schools, for closing the gap. It’s not right when additional resources that are earmarked for disadvantaged pupils are not then resulting in better educational outcomes. Some secondary schools are doing better than others. Our new approach will attempt to understand the wide variation in performance and take action by spreading best practice to every school.
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Employer skills task force meets to boost local apprenticeships
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Local firms and educators came together recently to kick off the first meeting of the employer skills task force. Zac Toumazi, chief executive of Sussex County Cricket club, chairs the independent group. One major aim of the task force is to address the issue of declining numbers of apprenticeship opportunities for young people.
Lively contributions during the discussions pointed to a lack of coordination of youth skills and employment opportunities in the city; a strong feeling by employers that secondary schools do not reach out enough to them; and a plea from educators in terms of some of the huge changes in government policy and funding which is increasingly making it more difficult for them to address local skills needs.
The group has until March 2016 to draw up an action plan. The plan, including employer pledges on increasing the number of apprenticeships, will be submitted to the Leader of the Council, Warren Morgan and the city’s three Members of Parliament. It is my job, and that of my officials, to work up proposals for a Greater Brighton apprenticeship company to take up some of the strain, particularly for small and micro companies that currently do not engage in taking on apprentices. The latest figures show just 980 apprenticeship starts in the last year – a five-year low. The plan is to double the number by 2019.
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Clearing up the budget mess created by the Tories and Greens
There’s no way of hiding the fact of the huge financial pressures on local government budgets. Since taking up office at city hall, I’ve heard several references to the ‘graph of doom’. Essentially, this is the perfect storm of the cumulative effect of Tory central government cuts of 40% to local government finances. At the same time the additional demand pressures for supporting vulnerable children, social care and the elderly result in the council’s finances falling off a cliff.
Brighton and Hove has a budget gap of £77 million by 2020. There’s absolutely no way this gap can be closed without some reduction in local services. I think it is really important residents understand that Labour takes no pleasure in implementing cuts that are solely the doing of George Osborne’s ideologically driven agenda to hammer local government. However, our administration is not going to repeat the same mistakes of the last Green-led council. They failed to take the responsible actions that could have made the current situation much less of a crisis than what is about to unfold.
Instead of fundamentally addressing the underlying structural weaknesses in the council’s finances, the Green Party chose to bury its head in the sand, dressed up in the language of protest. It falls to Labour to come forward with proposals that will protect the most vulnerable in the city, while finding new ways of delivering public services that will limit the impact on local residents. The Greens think the top-down state has all the answers. The Tories believe that privatisation is the solution. But the Labour Party has always believed that the community knows best: a dynamic mix of public, private and non-profit enterprises, working in support of ordinary people, to tackle the challenges of today and in the future.
Part of the answer is the co-operative council model, where we will look to push power and resources out to local neighbourhoods and communities. You will be hearing more about our detailed plans, many for formal consultation, as we approach the Budget council meetings starting in December. In the meantime, you voted us in to deal with the Tory cuts – in the fairest possible way – as well as set out some real ambition for your city. That’s precisely what Labour councillors have been working on and what we will show in the coming days. In our first 100 days we began the task of turning the mess around.
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Dealing with anti-social neighbours – what can the council do?
One of the top issues that I’m asked to deal with, as a ward councillor, is complaints about noisy and anti-social neighbours. The council has some powers it can use alone, and some powers in conjunction with police and the courts.
If your life is being made a misery by noise and anti-social behaviour then please do not hesitate to contact me. Westbourne is a great place to live. We need to keep it that way.
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Staying alert to Dutch elm disease
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Over the summer, council officers discovered Dutch elm disease in Westbourne. This is a devastating disease if it is not dealt with swiftly. A small number of Elm trees are being cut down in the local area to ensure it does not spread any further. You can read the article that appeared about the issue here.
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Surgery details
Second Friday every month (except August) between 4pm-6pm at Hove Museum, with Cllr. Denise Cobb (Conservative) member for Westbourne
If you need support or assistance outside surgery times, my contact details are below.
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