Council - Wednesday 13 December 2023, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Council
Wednesday, 13th December 2023 at 7:30pm

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I will heavily follow once again and we are grateful for the gift of life we thank you for what you've done, what you are doing and what you are about to do with our lives, even as we have got to tonight of God to discuss and find solutions to the complex problems now we face in our society and our community today we ask for wisdom, understanding and knowledge to unravel that difficult things and also to come to an agreement of how to tackle them.

give us understanding, let us agree to do what you God will have asked to with thank you in Jesus' name, with breakdowns given, and I shall say, amen.

apologies have been received from Councillor G with are there any other apologies?

ITEM 1 minutes, so the minutes of the meeting held on 18th of October have been circulated, are there any objections or abstentions to me signing the minutes as a correct record?

I agree, thank you.

in the absence of any objection or abstention, I will take that as agreed.

I intend to is my announcement.

fellow Councillors, my marrow years continue to provide me with an opportunity to surely be of service to our wonderful borrower I have been out across the borough spreading good, she is turning on Christmas light and encouraging everyone to remember to be nibbling.

since we last met, I've had opportunity to recognise Interfaith Week with councillors and faith leaders, I have had Christmas concerts.

wonderfully my chaplain and supported by a Pattani Academy students?

thank you to the Councillors who attended, I also want to acknowledge the wonderful feedback from Councillor Richard Jones, it means a lot to me, thank you.

what has been truly special has been my first visit to the Youth parliamentary to share with the leadership team I was inspired and felt very proud of our young people, I am looking forward to launching my Young Mayor initiative in the new year, please look out for more information.

as well as plans for the Holocaust Memorial Day in January.

thank you all.

on tonight's agenda can members please note that a member of a number of supplementary items have been circulated and these are required to be considered as a matter of urgency, the reasons are set out in full at the top of those item.

is that agreed

please who all speak or speak to time, and when up species, when the red light comes on, I will cut off your microphone if you go over your allotted time, this is to allow as many as possible of all councillors to participate members, as I noted in my in previous Council meeting I am still suffering.

with a backpack bad, but so I may need to stand for a few minutes joined the meeting to relieve pressure on my bath, if I do stand, please do continue as usual.

if I need to stand to bring order to the chambers, I will announce this before standing up, this is the end of my announcement.

on Item 3, are there any Members who have any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest, other registrable interests or any non registrable interests relevant to any matter to be considered at this meeting?

Leonie Cooper.

thanks very much, Madam Mayor, and it's good to see you, I would just like to make a declaration which I don't consider to be a pecuniary matter but just for transparency that I am the London Assembly member for Merton and Wandsworth, so any matters pertaining to Metropolitan police the Fire Brigade or Transport for London, as those are all services provided by the Greater London Authority, and just in case there's any issues relating to community energy also that I am a director of Crewe energy, thank you madam.

Councillor White, thank you Mayor, I'm.

a member of her community, renewable energy, once we've crew, and we do have a business with the council, but I don't derive any pecuniary of financial benefit from that involvement.

an item for relates to sealing of documents is this item received as information.

item number 5 members please raise your hand to indicate if you have a petition to run in once I have called your name, please announce the subject title of the petition and who you are presenting it on behalf of please then come forward and hand your petition to Mr. Kelly, are there any petitions?

Councillor Mrs. Graham,

thank you, Madam Mayor, out a petition from resident Road, I am asking the Council to please extend its pavement, was servicing and re resurfacing of Riseden Road because there are 70 trip hazards.

Councillor Ferguson,

thank you about a matter of go to petitions, the first is to say no to the proposal to build new flats on the Lennox estate, on behalf of the residents, without a state and the surrounding area.

the second petition is saying yes to a zebra crossing on Prince's Way.

just outside Southmead Primary School, which is the only primary school in my ward without either a zebra crossing or school street, so as to ensure that the children who go to that school have the same level of safety as other children.

Councillor Owen, thank you, Lord Mayor, and just a petition on behalf of Councillor Allard Richard Jones and I am from the Northcote ward, one petition about resurfacing part of the pavement on route and road that has not been recently resurfaced and another from the Lithwick Road residents about resurfacing part of the carriageway where part of it hasn't been recently resurfaced, thank you.

I am as aware, we'd be grateful if you reminded them its subject only rather than a full description of the petition, thank you.

Councillor Mitchell,

thank you, my Lord Mayor, I have a petition from the residents of Shepperton Square, asking for them the planned pavement resurfacing to be done for the in Shepperton Square.

Councillor premium, thank you very much, Madam Mayor, I've got a petition from the residents on Elland Road to address speeding and congestion.

Councillor resurgence.

thank you, Madam Mayor, I've got a petition on behalf of me and Councillor Emmeline Owens from Northcote residents, asking for extended opening hours in Northcote Library.

Councillor Lakin, on that, thank you, Lord Mayor, I have a petition signed by 106 residents of Wandsworth Common to rectify buildings, 3 1 2 2 3 20 am on Oldfield Road and reinstate them.

thank you.

each of the petition will be referred to the Executive or the appropriate Committee or Sub Committees.

HMCS, latest questions before we begin questions, may I remind all Members that overall PR for Members' question.

to the Leader and Cabinet Member is 45 minutes with 20 minutes for the leader's questions and 25 minutes for Cabinet Members' questions, however, if the leader's questions overrun, this time is taken of the Cabinet Member's questions.

question number 1 on disclosed assets, management strategy and risks to key borrow assets Councillor suite, question 1 to the Leader

I'd like to thank him for this question on the Council's use of its property assets.

the next Labour government will invest, like we always do, to address Tory neglect and underinvestment. We will build one here in Wandsworth will lead a decade of renewal when it comes to our roads, our estates, our leisure centres, our vehicles and depots, public services and our fantastic charity sector. We will make the long-term investment decisions that you dodged will use all of the Council's assets to improve life in Wandsworth in partnership with the community, a dynamic business sector and our fantastic charities, which brings us to libraries. Why? We're here why we're having a debate and four separate questions tonight because Conservative Councillors want to spread a scare story about Battersea library, let's be clear, we are not selling Battersea Library, not now, nor ever. We love libraries

we've opened up two great new libraries this year in Northcote and in Wandsworth Town we've extended the hours of other libraries and libraries will again be a central part of our community hubs offer this winter you tried to close the library and sports centre in my ward, it is embarrassing that you are trying to use a library to spread this scare story that you know is made up using one line from an unpublished internal officer document which you know is not council policy Wandsworth Tories have a shameful record on selling off public assets Wandsworth Labour will continue to put every public asset to use in supporting our community.

supplementary, Madam Mayor.

please go ahead and supplementary, I'm disappointed that the Leader has chosen not to answer the question at all and even more disappointed that you've said it's not a council paper, it's right here, it's written Wandsworth Council July 2023

Wandsworth residents are really worried about some really important, much loved community assets and there's a document right here that says that those assets may be sold, it's not unreasonable for me to ask this question and by treating the question with complete contempt you're treating residents with complete contempt, so I want to ask you to take this chance to make clear what your plans are for all of these assets, not just Battersea Library,

I thank the Councillor for that supplementary.

as I have already explained, our asset strategy is available. You can look it up on the website. It's been published, it's been through Finance Committee approved by the Executive. This internal officer document you're waving around is simply staff looking at options, as they always do, in the usual way, as they did under your administration and as they do in every local authority in the land. I'm pretty surprised by the gaps in knowledge of some of the younger Councillors opposite, they appear unaware of their reputation in this area. What an awful awful topic this is for you to raise. The previous administration oversaw the sale of 24,000 affordable homes, including entire council estates in the 1980 s, once worth was selling off housing assets at 10.00 times the rate of neighbouring boroughs. You try to sell off Battersea Arts Centre three separate times. It is unbelievable. You are clearly in thrall to an ideology that sees selling off the maximum amounts of public assets as its main goal, and far too many public assets were sold far too cheap in this fire sale, and if you doubt that this was a deliberate political project, let me quote former Councillor, Peter Bingle, now a property lobbyist who was very open about his plans. My aim is to reduce the number of council properties in Battersea within Wandsworth from 35,000 to 20,000 and to make Battersea a Conservative constituency and we get lectures from new people. Labour will rebuild, we're creating a thousand new council homes ourselves, we've halted the sale of Council Street properties and we're getting tough with developers to deliver more affordable homes because here's the thing Labour creates public assets and the Tories sell them off and that's the problem with Wandsworth Tories' Thatcherism sooner or later you run out of other people's things to sell off.

Councillor Osman, can I ask the Leader of the Council, is he as appalled as I am that the opposition in this Council have used a non-profit policy internal document to deceive the people of Wandsworth and indeed embarrassed the entire minority group on this Council?

Councillor Hunt,

I thank Councillor Osman for that supplementary. I think it will become clear over the evening. It was not the strategic masterstroke that the bully boys might have dreamt up and thought it was at the start, but I mean hopefully I've been as clear as I can, but I think there is a wider point here I mean you can be part of grown-up discussions or you can just make up things to mislead and upset people, and that goes for asset discussions, but it goes for everything else as well. With we're reviewing our democracy, we will open up the Council and we will listen to local people

it's up to you whether Conservative Councillors are part of that or not.

shouting people down, twisting the truth, bullying people lying and intimidating are not things that residents expect to see from you, you can have proper scrutiny where we explore the big issues together that face local residents, and that's what I think we should do or you can just throw mud or you can be part of a party that just throws mud.

and pretend your hands are still clean.

I saw a former Tory councillor recently and the first thing he said was I'd like to apologise for how appalling Wandsworth Conservatives have been since they lost the election, this is your reputation on the line and I've gotta be honest, being unpleasant, doesn't work, local people are smart,

they've rejected your values, you're going to lose the forthcoming by-election, you're gonna lose the mayoral election, you're gonna lose the general election and you're gonna lose the next local elections and behaving like this you deserve to.

question number 2

undisclosed assets management strategy, and why the Council will try to keep you to the secrets of Councillor, Sweet and Councillor Hughes answer is just used, the words bully-boy bullying he's called us you people. I think the contempt that you're treating us with is actually an example of exactly the behaviour that you've said that we are showing you should be ashamed of, Madam Mayor conventionally saying question 2 to the question 2 to the Leader

will vary. Guys again, I mean, look, as I say, if you want to know about our asset strategy, look it up on the website, if you want to play the straight play it straight, if you want to go back to leaked documents, innuendos, intimidation, you know it's up to you, but this is an internal officer document which I hadn't even seen until you leaked it. This is not some sort of secret plan that's going on, it is not council policy and it's particularly unfortunate that he's decided to target parents with scare stories and since he's asked I will demolish the rest of his scare story in detail

it is absurd to imply. We are closing the Roehampton youth club, which you closed. Improved community facilities will form part of the new Roehampton Community Hub on its way soon. He knows very well. The council plans to invest millions of pounds in improving youth facilities in Roehampton. It is equally silly to say that we're going to sell off York Gardens children's centre which, as he knows perfectly well, forms part of the Winstanley regeneration site and has done for more than a decade, and he is perfectly well aware of the plans to improve youth facilities there as well, and the commitment of the previous administration which this administration will play in the

honour that any replacement children's facility there, which will be better, will be delivered before the initial before the existing one is removed. So we got cast-iron guarantees there as well. Councillor Stock, Councillor Bolton and Councillor them will have more to say on the other issues later, but just while we're talking about children's facilities, a reminder of the extraordinary records of the party opposite in closing schools and nurseries, and you didn't just close five schools and nurseries, you can just close 10 schools or nurseries, you didn't as close 15, you close more than 20 schools and nurseries, while you are running this Council, and many of which were just sold off to the highest bidder, and I hope he will reflect reflect on his brand of politics, which is just trying to upset and mislead local parents with flimsy scare stories.

supplementary.

this parliamentary national minimum, thank you, I think you'll agree Ruby is worried as I am that you claim not to have seen such an important document about the future of the borough.

as we go ahead, we now buy seems to be saying that this document is not worth the paper it's written on.

how much did he pay CIPFA to help officers write this document that he hasn't seen?

Councillor Hogg,

I'm not aware of what fees are paid to sit for. I'm sure it's contained within existing budgets. It's like sharing sort of speculative early documents, with people like sharing invoices from CIPFA or are not things that go across my desk. The central thing here is that we could have had a much better discussion about this. The this Asset Strategy sets out. We have more than 1 billion pounds of property assets in our trust that belong to the public, and it's really important. I managed well. This is a broad portfolio. Some of these are absolutely crucial properties that used every single day by local residents. Others are completely derelict that that that's absolutely natural, when you have a billion pounds that you're you're managing. One of the objectives as we set out in the Asset Strategy or as agreed by the Executive, is a property estate which is efficient, sustainable and fit for current and future service delivery requirements. So there is a much better discussion we could be having how do we use those billion pounds in assets, how do we welcome more of our residents and community groups into the people's town hall, which is half empty most days?

the future of our Frogmore depot soon you'll see our new libraries and our new leisure strategies not just improvement, not just investment in our fantastic facilities but London's most generous concessionary offer as well to make sure that everyone who lives in Wandsworth has the opportunity to access those fantastic assets were after access for all and their property assets are crucial, as we will hear later, they are central to our new commitment to deliver services closer to residents and community hubs and to our goal of real partnership working with residents with the voluntary sector with police and with our NHS.

as I appreciate thank you.

I'm just going to say I am genuinely perplexed by the minority party response to our answers on the Asset Strategy in the Finance Committee on the 30th November, the officers, the Cabinet Member and I, as chair, all clearly told police, cardiovascular priorities, please excuse me, raise your question, let me get there, it's so difficult when you're always interrupted to mayor come on, let's have a question, there were no plans, Councillor Carter, please

on your answer your question, please

in the latest view, are the minority party wilfully trying to mislead residents, or are they suffering from an inability to listen and do you think detention with thousands of lines, each to say I must listen in committee would help?

Councillor hug, while I thank Councillor Pritchard for that question and the suggestion of

of strict punishment for for the opposite. I think they might enjoy it. That's probably why we wouldn't get get the cane out, but I suppose that you forget the police to administer it actually, and I suppose one thing we could talk about productively while we are supposed to be talking about assets is partnership with the police, and I think that's been one area. We really really keen to strengthen to make our streets safer, and you know we're in this for borough BCU, this unit, but actually the majority of the crime happens in Wandsworth across the BCU, but the police didn't actually have basis for their officers or their vehicles, so we've looked across our assets and we've actually now created spaces where the police can touch down in the borough. So thanks to our creative use of assets, police are spending longer on the beat in Wandsworth and another example is our CCTV room just around the corner, absolutely fantastic asset, but I'm afraid, when we opened it up and we went in there, it just the technology wasn't right, the staffing wasn't right, the processes weren't right, but we've worked very hard, and now you know that it's absolutely at the forefront of helping to clear up some very high-profile crimes

question number 3.

question number 3 on voluntary sector needs analysis to the Leader.

thank you for the question. Yeah, we're incredibly proud of our fantastic voluntary sector, from rackets cubed in Roehampton to chaos in Battersea, to the community kitchen down in Tooting. You know absolutely incredible that people are putting in hours and hours to make people's lives better, so we are pioneering a new, more cooperative approach to the voluntary sector. It's about sharing data, it's about listening, opening up decision-making, bringing people together and providing more grants and support, and councillor economies and inspirational leader in this space, and we're very grateful and fortunate to have her

the impressive report that Councillor ambush references provides, I think, a really strong foundation for identifying ways the Council can work better with the voluntary sector and hands up. We have to do that, so the next stage is to co-design strategy with partners provide support for capacity building. We know we've gotta do that and finally to reflect as a Council which which I think we can all do on what we can do better to support sector, but you know it's exciting together, the council and the voluntary sector can do so much more together than we can do alone.

can I thank the Leader for his answer, and you mentioned the doubling of the small grants fund, and all members of the Grants Committee across this Chamber have worked together with officers to make sure that we have allocated the additional money in the voluntary sector has come forward, responding to the cost of living and officers. I'd like to thank officers have reached out to help new voluntary sector organisations put in the grant. So the rocket Science report on voluntary sector needs says the GLA recently recognised that the borough is a comparative cold spot in terms of sufficiency of its infrastructure. How can we strengthen the voluntary sector further in Wandsworth and move from being a cold spot to a more active for more of our vibrant hotspot? Thank you. Councillor Hogg

I'd like to thank Councillor Ian Rush for that question. As I say, I think it's true, I think it's fair to accept that one, so it hasn't always had the best reputation face to face with the voluntary sector. I know charities that had just stopped engaging with the previous administration because you know the there just wasn't that sort of cooperation, and I think their approach to partnership working of all kinds was a bit like the sort of Millwall FC Cham. You know, no one likes us, we don't care, you know they only mentioned other borrowers to ridicule them, they refuse to engage with the Mayor of London, they aren't kind to the charity sector, so I think we want this to be the start. Councillor Locker, please allow him to nice money

we want to take this from being one of the worst borrowers at dealing with the voluntary sector, as it was under your administration to being the best in London.

where the listening exercise that we've taken part on is just the start, we will help to bring people together to share experience, expertise and make affordable space available. Last year we distributed more than double the value of grants to the sector than the previous administration used to and I echo Councillor Embassy's thanks to officers who worked very hard on that because too often you hear of charities that have started up in Wandsworth but then had to move elsewhere and I think we want to make this the best place to start a charity but also be able to grow a charity and run it for the whole of its lifecycle.

second, sir supplementary, Madam Mayor.

yes, so what's the long-term view for supporting the voluntary sector in respect of funding and, bearing in mind the Council now already has three pots of funding for grants, the Wandsworth grants fund, the Borough of Sanctuary Community Fund and also now the cost of living fund, thank you.

Councillor

like to thank the Councillor for that question.

I think as a as I noted earlier, we've already greatly increased from where we were and of course, noting it's not just about funding, we've talked about capacity building that help with HR IT form filling and everything else, but I think what we're looking to do is,

in a move towards long term partnerships with trusted partners, and I think in this space that does mean you know, multi-year deals, it does mean looking at accommodation, I would like to see it meaning welcoming some of our voluntary sector into the space we have here at the Town Hall as well, but I think if the only problem we have is confusion over just how many schemes we have giving money to the voluntary sector that's a problem we can deal with now but I I agree we can continue to work together on that in future.

the time for Leader's question has now finished.

I'd like to adjourn the Council for 30 seconds and order 23 to draw attention to the need to save St George's cancer centre, do you have a seconder?

please can you speak to your motion, thank you.

madam Mayor, I want to start by sharing a quote from one of the local parents who has contacted us about their distress that the children's cancer centre, at St George's may close as a parent of a child who underwent 3.5 years of chemotherapy for leukaemia, please can I ask your support in keeping George's hospital open for children's cancer services. Madam Mayor is absolutely vital to provide the highest quality and timely healthcare services for the people of Wandsworth. In fact it's a priority of this Labour administration. There are around 250 cancelled deaths in by children in the UK every year that's around five every week

children and people are on endless waiting lists up and down the country, including here in Wandsworth there are proposals, there are proposals on the table to move our fantastic children's cancer care centre to a site miles away from Wandsworth or Evelina, that doesn't have the expertise or track record that our centre does.

St George's hospital in Tooting has been delivery, delivering exceptional cancer care for over 25 years, the hospital has significant expertise, delivering children's cancer care, it delivers groundbreaking treatments like immunotherapy, which has saved many people's lives.

the expertise at St George's is unparalleled in the local area, the trust alone has three paediatric surgeons compared to there being 20 in the whole country.

aside from this being the right thing to do, it's likely it would save the NHS money. NHS waiting lists are an unprecedented and the highest we've seen in years, people struggling to get a GP appointment and have to wait years for routine surgery thanks to this Tory government. At a time like this, is it not more important than ever to save money and keep quality high keeping the children's cancer centre at St George's would likely be the cheaper option and the batter option for our children. The service already exists and could be delivered at the hospital instead of investing funding and to move to a new site. Why would we make the decision that could risk further harm for children during one of the most traumatic times of their and their families' lives?

the team at St George's have worked hard on a plan to keep the centre open, it's backed by frontline expertise, the new centre would have a state of the art research facility and would incorporate recreational, educational and therapeutic spaces to help children play and relax during one of the most difficult times of their and their families' lives simply put the same site just doesn't have the same level of experience or track record.

they don't have paediatric oncology surgeons, in fact, Madam Mayor, it's likely that St George's own surgeons might be asked to go and work at Evelina to support or to create they'd have to create a brand new team that could create a significant amount of time resource drain and to develop that new team from scratch at a time when the NHS and its staff under more pressure than ever and don't have the support they need at a national level that seems completely counterproductive to me.

I want to finish by sharing with you some more feedback from families and parents that that's been shared with us caring for someone with cancer is a 24 7 job, and the slightest thing means that you need to be in hospital very quickly, a raised temperature could mean sepsis and that could be life-threatening.

another parent said it was such a blessing to have it so close as travelling into town miles away would have been incredibly difficult for me and my family, we must always be driven by the voice of experience, no one understands the care that's needed better than people who have experienced that themselves and frontline clinicians and appears in this case we risk disregarding both madman with Tory government has let down the NHS and I hope local Conservative Councillors will join us in campaigning to keep the centre open, please join me in supporting our calls.

would the Leader wish to respond?

thank you, thank you.

responsible Cabinet Member for

social care and health first of all, can I take this opportunity to congratulate Councillor openness on her speech and the importance of the topics she raises cows and congratulate her on the nomination.

the Health Scrutiny Committee, which I am sure she will, a shot extremely well.

I also take this opportunity to thank the former Councillor, Kate Forbes, for the tremendous work in chairing the Health Scrutiny Committee and also have a sub-committee established by the Joint Health Scrutiny Committee of the South West London and Surrey.

scrutiny Committee in order to actually look into in some detail the proposals from NHS England to create a principal treatment centre we have f come down in their recommend in favour of Lima, let me make it absolutely clear this Labour administration fully supports and George is to become the principal treatment centre for paediatric cancer care, St George's has had 25 years' experience in delivering children's cancer care and already

there were significant parts of the PTC. St George's has three paediatric oncology surgeons out of 20 nationally, all of whom attended East and Joint Health Scrutiny Committee meeting, and spoke passionately about our work and future commitment to St George's. They emphasised a close cooperation and working relationship. They have formed with a wide range of clinical staff experienced in cancer care, which would take a long time to replicate elsewhere, St George's as the only hospital in south London with this kind of expertise. St George's also provides the key service of neurosurgery and is engaging groundbreaking treatments and immunotherapy, and it is about to start live in court, in contrast that the evidence, ignored or have experience in cancer care for children and does not have any on college be searched. Who would almost certainly have to come from St George's. If St George's is chosen, it will lose a significant part of its existing service delivery, resulting in the loss of

of a less attractive place for other clinicians to come to. It would also result in St George is facing serious financial implications. In contrast, Evelina lose any of its provision. One of the key concerns of the public is issue of transport and, of course, children. If cancer are suppressed, such as travelling by car, is much preferred public transport. Currently, 81% of patients arrive by car and only 11% are public transport. St George is far easier to reach by car and will provide a dedicated facility

accommodation for parents. It's also important as most the children's cancer treatment is on an inpatient basis. St George's has ambitious plans. If St George's becomes the principal treatment centre, it will turn an existing non clinical space into a state of art. New cancer centre with delegating parking and accommodation for parents. This would include had recreational educational and therapeutic spaces to enable children to play, relax and learn. Finally choosing St George's is cheaper and simpler option for all of NHS. I am pleased this aim evident there. The campaign in service and George is is certainly very strong indeed. There is almost near unanimity across the seven local authorities that make up the itself as London and Surrey. Joint Scrutiny Committee 3 Liberal Democrat Councillors, 2 Labour 2 Conservative, including Surrey County Council, all of whom are opposed, NHS England's preference for Ali Evelina, and are actually in favour of St George's becoming repeat TBC. It is therefore very disappointing. We've heard nothing from Wandsworth services who are Patrick of this issue is unemployment

important, I mean that the science is absolutely definitely, however, it is not too late, the consultation ends on December 18th, so there is still time for you to make a submission, and I would urge them to do so and take a leaf out of book of Surrey County Council, let's go for it, let's have a United campaign save children's cancer care at St George's.

Councillor Debrett's, are you satisfied with the explanation provided, and would you like to withdraw your motion, or would you like the motion be put to a vote put to a vote please?

the motion is to adjoin the Council for 30 seconds to draw attention to the need to save St George's cancer care centre.

as a government to do the boot.

so all those in favour.

all right, so, are we going to adjourn for 30 seconds?

achieve helped achieve the whips have agreed that item 16, the motion on the Council's secret plan to sell off community assets, will be taking this, can I ask Councillor Peter Graham to move?

in Councillor freedom to second the motion in their names before we moved seconded.

an amendment to the motion has been circulated, can I ask Councillor Hall one bit and Councillor Burton to move and second Indian names moved.

can I cook?

concept.

Councillor Peter Graham, please come to speak.

thank you, my Lord Mayor, tonight we have seen what happens when the Labour party gets caught out, denial accusations and am fittingly enough the hogwash.

let's look at the evidence, this document is exactly what it says on the cover, the London Borough of Wandsworth asset management strategy 2023 to 2028 replete with the Council's own official logo, it wasn't unexpected, it wasn't supposed to be internal, it's designed up for print,

it's the result of a year long process which began with a series of SOS workshops in 2022 just after you all took control, the document tells us it was led by property services and a whole steering group of service representatives and under this Labour Council the process produced the following proposals to sell off a school sell off a Children's Centre set off a youth club and sell off an activity centre astonishingly they were to carefully consider selling off Battersea Library.

Councillor Ireland has admitted she's seen this document, unlike the leader she's admitted she'd seen it, Councillor Hogg says he didn't well, let's let's just think about that for a moment, he's saying he was so incompetent that this cross departmental process went on for over a year behind his back, he's apparently saying that officers wasted hundreds of hours of their time and the Council paid

taxpayers' money or consultant thousands of pounds to produce proposals. You seem to clearly outline to speak place behind your back. That is the nonsense that is a denial here. It is ridiculous. This is a result of a lot of work and it is your document, you can't get out of it. Officers admitted that it formed the basis of the committee report. The thing you do a bit to the report was in there was to summarise the strategy, so you voted for a summary of this, and now you claim this is nothing to do with you, we're still by failing to disclose it as a background paper, the Council broke the law, the strategy itself says on page 5 that it should be published

so that residents and others can see and understand this Council's intentions, the council's intentions, not officers' intentions, but it wasn't published the same paragraph, says this MSC's brought to life through some early project proposals, note proposals, not Councillor hogs, options and having been brought to life. I'm sure that most of you would like nothing more than to see the document put to death, but that's not what you did, you didn't kill it, you just wanted it buried, Madam Mayor. The residents of this borough deserve better.

Councillor Golton, will you take an intervention I will give way?

I've heard what you've just said, and I thought it would be helpful to this Council to just share my experience of asset review having been involved for the best part of 40 years in doing these things.

well well, you may say that, but you see what happens is that you, the leader, says what is not for sale before instructing officers to do the review, the Leader then receives a per paper which he then shares with his Cabinet colleagues and discusses it before going anywhere further, if the Leader is in the darkness, then he is not in charge. My predecessors, nor I would ever have got into a situation where officers drove the strategy without giving them a very clear instruction as to what was on for discussion and what was off the agenda, and it seems to me, Councillor Graham, from what research you've done that this is not a leader in charge

I completely agree with Councillor give India and, as he will note, this administration is now on its third defence. The first committee was that no decisions have been taken yet not that it wasn't your document, just no decisions have been taken, the second which didn't last very long because it wasn't a real plan when it literally says what it is on the front page and across the top of every other page in the document the third tonight without we enter the realms of absurdism, the asset management strategy isn't the asset management strategy.

the only more ludicrous contrast. Madam Mayor is between Councillor Dick Adam pledging to reopen the Dodington activity centre in opposition him, seizing control of the relevant Department last year and then our discovering, though no name, is it marked for sale, but in his own Department's words, his pledge hasn't been mentioned recently. No wonder they want a cover up, no wonder they won't publish because there's more, there's more in here. A leisure needs review is underway alongside a new library strategy and guess what page 22 suggests not replacing facilities coming to the end of life, edgy, leisure centres and libraries. It goes on page after page after page your plan until you got rumbled. Most of the point apart from Battersea Library

it's a parent plan that you have yet to publish and yet to do so we've got 10 second Leader of the Council might be able to hogwash his colleagues, but this opposition won't let him hogwash the public, you might not own up, but you can still be found out.

Councillor Hunt, thank you, Madam Mayor, I'm grateful for another chance tonight to discuss how we can best use the Council's assets to serve local people. We've set out several times already tonight the facts around this. As usual, the opposition are being totally disingenuous with comments that are untrue designed to scaremonger and mislead. They couldn't even rewrite their speeches since the sends a letter tells them please, so let me set this out for them again, we are not closing or selling Betsey Library, not now, nor ever, because we love libraries, and we've just opened up two new libraries and extended opening hours in others I see one of the many policy changes that you're looking for in opposition is to extend the opening hours at your favourite libraries remind Councillor Richard Jones, who cut those hours at Northcote Library in the first place. It is absurd to say we are gonna sell off the Roehampton Youth Club, which you closed

when we opened the HRA, Roehampton Community Club blockade, we will have invested millions of pounds in improving youth facilities in Roehampton, and we are not going to sell York Gardens Children's Centre, because all councillors already know, because I just told them because it was your policy, because it was a concession that I, as a local councillor, had got from you in opposition, and I have promised in majority to carry out that that facility will not only be re provided it will continue until it is re-provided, I am very much looking forward to Councillor Belton speech tonight and I'm in the history lesson that will come with it from what we've heard tonight. They need one, and this is a specialist subject, particularly good to hear from Councillor, give India

for first the Tories bring their weakest single policy area, then Councillor K of India has a question defending property developers as a Labour councillor this is like Christmas coming, so if we're feeling Christmas, well of course you're going to bother to answer the question.

we were thinking of good Christmas songs, I don't know like Bingle Bells Bingle Bells.

Bingle all the way that was your planning policy. Wasn't it Bingle all the way, but it's fantastic to have Councillor, give India back out at this time a year, you know a point of personal explanation, madman, since I've been mentioned, and all I can say the protocol is a former leader should know is that that's the thing I like until the end of this no, no, it's not if we hadn't stopped in deliberate leisure on two

intervene.

is a person that has managed the hazelnuts.

well. Yes, yes, Madam Mayor, Madam Mayor, don't need to be extra time allocated if you allow this, thank you. It's been posted on. Thank you, my Lord Mayor. I think I think all I'd say is that Councillor Hogg makes mention of all microbes of involvement in planning. I look forward to the time when he says to his colleagues who have lunches and dinners with the same person he mentioned several times that they would be honest in saying that they have that engagement.

so that was worth waiting for, Madam Mayor.

if you like, I can name on them the Tideway bomber and the cancelling of India backroom to use rampant asset sell-offs and flats around mass mountain Mar unmanned lawmaker, more transparent, sacrosanct.

and affordable homes for local people. Can I they said, Minister man willing first like Labour romance stairs to address his underinvestment? We don't mad, I'm asking your thank you met a man, could you take advice from the monitoring officer about the availability of any privileges in making the kind of comments? Councillor Hogg is making here suggesting that there are backroom deals, implying corruption? I do think that the Monitoring Officer should advise Councillor Hogg on what privileges he has if any

well, I've been told you have every right to explain yourself because your name was mentioned, so I think it sounds a question of privilege whether we were they, a Member, can make allegations of that nature here.

madam Mayor, with we're hearing about the track record of the last administration, this is fair points, they're making unfair points against ours, so we need to move forward and agree it's going to be a robust debate.

please can you please allow Councillor Hook. To finish, please sorry, Councillor Cook of India, asks for evidence happy to former council leader, Sir Edward Lister, when in number 10 approved 187 million pounds in taxpayer-backed loans to a luxury property developer which was paying him on the side. He was trusted by the British government to broker a deal for the new China rang me to say nothing paid and available by the Mayor, but also advised that not allowed to do with he received gifts and hospitality from the emir of Qatar, the president of Azerbaijan and the Saudi prince who was detained on corruption charges and to think these people have the cheek to lecture us about use of assets Mavin Ma

Madelyn Mousinho, please can you make it clear that it was in Councillor given that you're talking about police?

I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, on a point of order on a point of order, I can't remember which Standing order it is, but the mantra officer will know it on top of his head, but you have the power in this Chamber. Is it any utterance you think is scandalous or vexatious or is otherwise liable to bring the Council into disrepute? You can call the Member to order and you can ask them to sit down. Can I I'm just finishing my point of order. Can I make a serious plea that the kind of language we've heard just now really does bring the Council into disrepute? It goes way beyond the subject of this debate, and that's the means, all of us. You have the power to call the Member to order. I would implore you to take some advice from the Monitoring Officer and take a view on that matter. This is exactly the sort of for public school intimidation that we talk about. I am the only representative that has not been allowed to finish their speech today, you have only asked representatives from one side to wind up quicker, you've allowed barracking and interruptions from the other side. May I please be allowed, as Leader of the Council, to finish addressing the Council

Councillor Adam Mack, where you were referencing Councillor Gavin D in your speech.

pardon me, Councillor Gavin, Gavin D

because you mentioned his name, so what I said was bingo bells, bingo bells Bingle, or by the way, which is a reference to his former flatmate, who in the press has admitted to wanting to sell off council properties in Wandsworth and also is on the public record as trying to influence planning officers in Wandsworth to try and get decisions from the previous administration which was headed by Councillor, give India his former flatmate. I can make the correspondence available both before and after the planning application Committees, meetings where they communicate with each other in that manner. What I've said about backroom deals is factual. It's a matter of public record in the national press and to be shouted down in Wandsworth Town Hall for saying backroom deals existed in this or any other Council is unacceptable. Madam Mayor,

thank you, Lord Mayor.

please continue to quartet portable about a minute, please can I ask you please.

please sit down and let him continue police police, actually, Councillor Councillor Gardiner, please I appreciate, has a supplementary, please can you sit down and let him continue playing madman, I'm sure he's going to hide it. I appreciate it's a difficult meeting for you and I don't wish to make it difficult, but the suggestions about the various things that Councillor former Councillor Lifta may have done, the implication was that I was in any way involved. I want to be absolutely clear that I have no responsibility and no influence on Watkins. Former Councillor Lister may or may not have done to suggest that there is any link between me and him is both wrong and actually near libellous. So I just wanted to make it absolutely clear that in this Council its record should not show that I have that association

that has been happening on Malmö.

please, please take a seat, let him finish, and very happy to clarify that I mean, apart from their 19 year working relationship, I wasn't I wasn't suggesting I was asked for evidence of issues with this Council and I gave evidence of a former Leader of this Council. I wasn't seeking to say it was that former Leader of this Council, I wasn't the these I said during these activities at number 10, meaning in central government, but you know I was

I am not making this up. There's a very well worn reputation that this Council had, but to get back to the matter in hand, which was the opportunity to talk about assets. I was just drawing a contrast between the two different approaches, and my point is we value our assets, we're not the quote unquote cradle of privatisation over there, so our ambition is much greater. Our plans for regeneration will be far more ambitious, and this Council has seen before the reason we paused their Olsson Master Plan was because the net gain of council homes was too low. I'm really excited to announce our plans in the new year. You'll see the scale of our ambition there. It's about using our council assets differently. We're also creating a new place-making approach to the borough, not silos cross cutting projects. This would be much better value much better for residents, but also better value for money to we're going to have Transport linked up with education planning linked up with housing, health and sustainability in all policies, and we'll be seeing the council assets in a better way, not selling them off to private property developers to build luxury flats, instead working with the voluntary sector. The police are brilliant local businesses to get the borough working better, more joined up and ready for the future. We will lead a decade of renewal in time is how Councillor Blake's. Thank you, the one person you're asking to stop talking. Please tell me that I'm thinking of OK, Councillor Freedom.

madam

and that might have made a point point of order, and I could request a ruling through from you, potentially, via the monitoring officer as to whether comments made in this Chamber are entirely add-on to remember, is that when you have to make a plea Los Angeles to Balanda police,

thank you very much, Madam Mayor. As as Councillor Hogg knows, I wish try to pay very close attention to what he says in this Chamber, and I have to say I was rather taken aback when a couple of Council meetings ago he accused us on this site of being sinful. Now I have to admit I'm I'm certainly no experts on scripture but saying to voters that they will not do something before then, making secret plans to do it sounds pretty simple to me, as for that matter, does sauntering his predecessor, Councillor K of India. I know that a number of Councillors opposite, including members of the current cabinet, have made quite a lot of their desire to protect the Durrington activity centre and the York Gardens. Children's centre. Indeed, ones with Labour were so protective of these sites that they ran a campaign to save them, opposing a reorganisation where they were not even under threat now that they are indeed under threats in black and white. In this document, I imagine the people that supported that campaign will be very interested in how they vote tonight. Turning to Battersea Library, following the cabinet member for finance, is reluctance to safeguard its future at Committee. I'm of course, very grateful to the Leader for making clear earlier in his responses that Battersea library is safe.

as you'll understand, it is a key feature of the wards I represents with Councillor Cook and a very important focal points for the local community, but the fact is, if we had not exposed this strategy and tabled this motion, they would, they would still be considering whether to sell off the library they had to be compelled to do the right thing. As asked for the issue of transparency, the the the position as set out in the administration's frankly Orwellian amendments appears to be that the documents labelled assets management strategy is not a strategy and that isn't, and it is an internal documents that we shouldn't take seriously. But the document was very clearly intended for publication. In fact, as Councillor Graham pointed out earlier, it states that it should be published so that residents and wider stakeholders can see and understands the council's intentions. If this Council is as committed to transparency as they made out in opposition, then they would wither. Why not follow through and do what the strategy says? If this was intended as merely a starting points for discussion, then why not prioritise residents' engagement, as he said in his written answer to question 5 and share it with residents, so as to ensure that views are incorporated into the decision making process now I should, of course say that it is perfectly reasonable to keep the Council's assets on the review. We, as Councillors, should always consider how best to look after the resources that we manage on behalf of the people we represent and, of course, pay our allowances and think about how we can run the borough more efficiently. However, I think it's fair to be slightly alarmed by the proposals within this strategy when they are set against the backdrop of the Council's total disregard for the basic principles of fiscal responsibility.

two years into this administration we've already seen them take millions from the reserves rack up hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debts raised, the rent allowances, spend a million pounds on the leader's office and make a host of other reckless decisions with everyone else's money.

in that context, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine a scenario where, because of these irresponsible decisions, they are compelled to sell off community assets in that events we know from this strategy which sites are going to be first for the chop now the administration's amendment tonight implies without guaranteeing, of course that this is not actually the case.

but the the this is the the they have no intention of selling off these assets. If that is actually the case, then why not vote for our motion unamended, as it commits the Council to do what they seem to be implying they want to do anyway? The only reason I can see for choosing not to do so is to keep their options open and cover up the plans they were making to sell off the assets. Labour Council has still have a chance to avoid this by voting for our motion. If, of course, they choose not not to vote for this motion in its entirety and unamended, then I think residents will have to draw their own conclusions.

Councillor Les Gibson,

thank you, my Lord Mayor, as the amused by the reference to Orwell since I'm increasingly feeling like a creature outside looking from pig to man and mental pig and having great difficulty seeing the difference, Madam Mayor, I have a piece of paper here, it was a paper given to the Conservative Group in June 2040 interesting date a month after an election with a string of things that we were that were to come forward to the next Committee, the major committee cycle was going to have closure of the Gwynedd Morgan, or the Randall Close day centres and the cyst the and cease the graffiti service the next cycle would have closure Tooting backtrack.

closure of Battersea Leisure Centre and consideration of closure of non town centre libraries, now this document wasn't published, it's not forward to your pages, I admit that it's a summary of work there and it may be.

perhaps those who I was a mere backbencher at the time, but I don't know if this was just thought up in the month after the election or whether it was a set of plans which had been proposed, but it wasn't thought right to share them with the electorate at the time.

murder, murder, I'm not doing this in any sense to suggest that there is hypocrisy from the opposition group, that's that's what I would like to do, though, is just make a couple of points based on my own time.

at education. Firstly, I'm a bit nervous and I think I disagree with the leader at the implication that closures are always shameful. I take always at my example when we close to Chatfield and the Vince special schools. These were two half empty schools which, basically were from one from a previous age Chatfield was designated delicate. It just sort of things that the Vince was looking for, youngsters, with my learning difficulties, and parents were choosing mainstream, and so we close them we sold off the vines and with the proceeds we were able to build the unit for profound and multiple learning difficulty. Youngsters at Linden Lodge. We were able to expand the paddock for serious learning difficulties and we put a lot of money into the mainstream school units looking after the youngsters that would otherwise have been at those school. Now. I don't think that was shameful. I don't think those closures and the selling of two pro that I think it's very important that we always remember that to imagine that public services are set in aspic, and that a set of schools that were set up, many of them, in the 50 s and 60 s, were automatically still appropriate. Is something that I think we should be careful with, but more important. I think it's the recognition that sometimes we do need and gruelling

administrations do need space to discuss things in private

we cut the Labour Government's at the time when I was have the portfolio mandated local authorities to publish a list every year of schools that were more than 25% vacant places, and I think I was rather a sensible idea. The authorities have to justify keeping them open. Of course, most of them stayed open, but you had to go through the discipline of looking at it now when we were looking at 1.00 point, there were 10 schools of this in the borough and it was quite clear in the North Battersea area that just weren't enough youngsters to go round, so a lot of money was being spelt and spent on keeping school buildings warm and maintained on senior management staff and on maintenance staff, rather than that money going into the classroom for books and for computers, and for teaching assistants and the like. And so we did a lot of work behind closed doors and eventually decided that John Milton, the smallest of the schools and the least well attended, was the one that should be should be closed,

now I would suggest that it would have been absolutely and completely irresponsible of us at day one to go out and saying We're looking at closure or possibly closing 10 schools, and what actually happened was the Labour Group got hold of it, and that's exactly what they went out and told the parents Tories trying to close 10 schools, and it was really frustrating not politically because we suddenly have 10 schools going out to their parents saying you can't trust the Labour party politically, it worked very well for us, but what it did do was risk blighting those 10 schools and landing us, leaving us with a problem bigger than we faced in the first place, where many parents withdraw their children from schools because they think there's a danger of closure, and I just hope I hope that the Labour, like the Conservatives before them, will not be ashamed of taking decisions in closed doors because absolutely right. The public has a right once a decision comes forward at open and discussion

leading group that will listen and change the view if better ideas come forward, but the public also has a right not needlessly to be concerned about things that are very, very unlikely to happen. Going back to this note that went to the Conservative Group, most of those things didn't happen and this got from Councillor Gavin years, explanation earlier, this had already got his approval, otherwise it wouldn't have gone to Conservative Group, and yet they didn't all happen, because it was of its nature of a discussion. 10 seconds me, thank you with that. I hope the Labour Group won't be afraid of standing up for taking decisions. Tony Blair said his single biggest mistake, was the freedom of information act, and I think he was probably right in that, because the public deserves yes to have proper discussion, but also not to be scared needlessly.

Councillor Witham

can I congratulate Councillor Grimston on bringing some sense to this debate, which I think was very necessary and and stealing half my lines.

he always does, as my year is Christmas, so I thought at the time for a bit of a farming games, don't you think, but actually I started in November as far as I was concerned, I went to a committee and I'm not going to name any names I went to a committee and four Tory members spoke one after the other on poverty condition and one said I see with alarm that you've dropped meals on wheels as a service.

now funny thing, because this Council dropped meals on wheels as a service. Goodness knows how, many decades ago, even I have found it difficult to remember, but it was a Tory councillor that did it, and this was a Tory councillor. I feel almost like a sign. Sorry, Councillor Hogg, who was perhaps a little patronisingly said there was some younger Members on the opposite side, I'm not as patronising as him, I was not so mature in years, I think that's an absurd statement, or at least I did until I heard this Councillor saying, meals on wheels, I thought it was bad enough and then the next Councillor said one of the problems the poverty Commission faces is the decline of the welfare state

and I thought wow, I thought the welfare state in 1,009 51 was a proud emblem, that everyone around the world envied and no doubt has a little bit of Labour mismanagement here or there, but mainly decades and decades of Tory cuts and this members of the welfare state the problem and then the next one said,

the problem is rent controls, it's the Labour party's explanation to bring in rent controls, which is the real problem here, and this person seemed to be unaware that this Council had sold 21 22,000 council properties, rent and jostled in unnatural kind of way, and he thought that was the problem.

and then the last one said.

welfare state meals on wheels, rent, controls over the last one actually said The trouble is there's not enough affordable property now?

now this is, this is a party which these four people I find it difficult to believe sold off.

to run through this for hours, while being as quick as I can be J Court Battersea Village, Falcon, Estate, York, Road estate, how many more do you want a couple of tower blocks, easiest house, most people have forgotten Egypt's house sold of masses and masses and they talk about Labour being doing things, I want to tell a fairy story actually if it is Christmas sort of before the fairy story but you take an intervention.

now, if you can, no one was mentioned, no, I won't actually thanks until I've mentioned, but as an alternative.

celebrity John's police, can you allow him to speak, I want to tell the fairy story because that's appropriate for Christmas, isn't it once a bit I love Tooting as my second most favourite birthplace.

Councillor Osborne knows what I mean by that, Surrey, Putney friends.

but I don't think many people would think it's Tooting with all its glorious people and zone has many iconic buildings, the thing of Tooting now now that maybe there may be the old.

Grenada

maybe, but but I want to refer you to a Victorian, classic a Victorian classic that none of you will remember, except possibly the Council of India, I know Councillor Ireland, does, where are you, Councillor Ireland, what did you think of the Tooting bars?

wonderful building, do you know it was about the first thing that the Tories do sorry the Tories the majority party did when they took over in 78 quite a gates, the mood of place they destroyed this building which stood and it is quite a respectable building, stood opposite Edward the 7th.

now we have a completely nondescript, Halifax branch and a pub and it is a very it's the destruction of place almost total, and that was your idea of asset stripping, I see the red light already but it is appropriate for Christmas because I do bring an epiphany that's the thing that's right now I'm not very religious, that's about bringing presences to mark something that's I Burton inhabitants of Kings Place I have 30 seconds and what I've present rather like Tony Blair, Mrs Thatcher said, was her greatest inheritance I want to present to you, however many of them reformed.

there are gate sales, there, gates cuts there again, Thomas alleged that the several Tory leaders by dance, I imagine, place, thank you.

Councillor O'Connor,

well, thank you, Madam Mayor, it's a real privilege to be able to address the Council on this important topic without being guillotine by the other side.

decided decided to get in a bit earlier today.

I'd like to thank colleagues for the really good natured debate so far to the season, after all, and wish everyone a happy Christmas and when it comes.

I did want to stick to the motion and address the motion in detail, but I can't let a few points that have been made by those on the other side of the Chamber go without comment, Councillor Hogan in his numerous numerous mentions of the subject, the Hemming claims to have set out the facts, but I think there's a real risk here that he's actually just not aware of the facts or even certainly not in command of the facts because he admitted that he has not read the document and that should give Members behind him and indeed across the Council a pause for thought before they cast their vote on party lines later and actually consider should they back and put their name to a position that the Leader of the Council holds which,

he accepts is not, it's not something he's in full awareness of, or should they actually put their name to our motion, which is saying that the council should be open, transparent and that the Council administration should simply make a public statement about the contents of this report and put everyone's mind to rest across the bar actually is almost a source of regret that this has been such a partisan debate so far because actually it seems that both sides,

in favour of making it clear to residents that they want to that, we that we as a Council want to protect these assets and make commitments that they weren't be sold off, so why weren't the Council Leader just say, thank you for bringing this topic will make a full public statement instead he put forward.

with the support of of colleagues behind him, a and amendment.

which actually is just a complete.

complete whitewash effectively of what of what is actually the case, so turning to the amendment, they are saying things like.

the other point, one of their amendment.

notes that the Council's only asset management strategy is the document presented to Finance Committee and agreed by Executive, I'm surprised that it's allowed to stand as a statement and it hasn't been challenged more because actually we've seen Councillor Sweet and Councillor Graham

show this document the physical document to members tonight, and it clearly has Wandsworth Council asset management strategy written on the front, it's got the Council's logo as well, and that was not within published for the sites of the Finance Committee, and I know that that because I was on at that kind of Finance Committee meeting so it's clearly not the case but,

the Labour amendment today is has any kind of factual basis on that point.

the amend point 3 in a similar vein, it says that notes that the Council the Asset Management Strategy, does not propose for sale of specific Council assets now I suppose by this they are referring to the brief summary document that was published for the Finance Committee and was always part of that official.

meeting pack, but actually that really didn't go into any detail at all. Instead, the asset management strategy is, we've seen what Councillor Graham and sweets have brandished today and shown to everyone, and that emphatically does propose the sale of specific council assets and says that in some cases, that it should be strongly considered and in many cases, that the Council should should sell off these assets. So actually the Labour amendment just doesn't make sense on its own terms. The motion that we put forward is actually one that will allow for an element of cross-party cooperation and allow us as a Council to commit to protecting these assets. Now the Leader of the Council has already committed

Battersea library will not be sold off, but I forgive me for saying this, but I'm not so sure that many residents are watching these meetings live as much as I wish that more than as much as I would recommend that more of them did, so why doesn't he just put out a formal statement to the press committing that instead he turned it into a really

after nine seconds, police accused former council leader of made slanderous comments and has really poisoned the well of public debate, so I would urge Members opposite to consider the arguments, consider the motion that's being put and just vote for common sense, and for this Council to be a listening council which transparent publish the document and make a formal statement in public Councillor O'Connor is determined to protect these assets, thank you.

madam Mayor, under Standing order 21 B, I just want to briefly exercise my writers to move the motion to reply to the debate.

absolutely.

absolutely not, this is completely out of normal conventions, Madam Mayor, and I know that you want to make a start in the mince pies later, so, along with the rest of us, got into the constitution and the standing orders he is entitled to.

thank you about it, but I want to take the full five minutes.

because I want them inspired as well.

however, I did want to briefly respond to the substance of what has been said, not introducing any new materials, because I do think it is quite remarkable that outside of the Conservative deficit in benches we had three speeches and not one of them focused on the substance, not one of them focused on what's in this document, imagine a memorandum sorry, Councillor Graham Councillor Graham, we actually I mean I probably don't want to hear you, but I can't hear you, Councillor Graham, because you keep moving away from your microphone. It may be really important that I hear what you're saying they may not be, of course, as well. I want to give him where she stood up, but that's fine

I will try to stick close to the microphone because I know she's so keen to hear that that's fine, so they didn't stick to the substance now, Councillor Grímsson made some interesting points and also Councillor Grimston doesn't have access to this document, so in that sense it wasn't unreasonable for him to do so I agree with him.

councils and administrations of governments do need space to develop proposals in private, they do need time to look at options and then reject those options and not have those seen by the public. That's not what this is. This is the write-up after that process of concluded this document says it should be published, it says it should be published and so

Councillor liquidy, please can you allow him to speak what you haven't seen it, Councillor Dickie them, but we know, Councillor Ireland, did she admitted it so if Councillor Grahame, I think we've had quite enough, you try and get Labour in order already we have had enough of your turn.

rights have a right.

it's a waste of our time and I was trying no, I say, Councillor Graham, please can you continue, please, thank you.

my arguments, validated employees cannot allow him to speak, please should be published and you should do what you said you brought to committee. It was a summary, it was based on the underlying document, in the words of officers themselves, and you are not letting the public see what was going on when that was the plan. That is the point now we had Councillor Bellson as well. Councillor Belsen is a very wily Member of this Council. He chose not to talk about anything to do with this at all, and that was very sensible of him. Although I did enjoy his extended misremembering of the events of the final Councillor of the police and now, finally I turn to what Councillor Hogg had to say

I will give way shortly.

I didn't I didn't intend you to give way, but all right.

what I was going to say is, I consider it a personal triumph after 44 years to persuade so many Tory councillors in one night to be voting against disposing anything against any cuts.

this seems, I've delivered 24 Tory councillors as converts. I think that makes Mrs Thatcher's achievement rather minor, but seriously seriously, Madam Mayor, can we just be remotely these areas? I've tried to camp this up as much as possible. Councillor Grahame, please can you finish your garage, would you just sit down and get on with it? Thank you well, yes, I've got, I think that's more of the same, but I enjoyed it nonetheless Ciani. This is proposed on to you. This is PANs developed under your administration and of which you're claiming no knowledge, and what we had instead from the Leader of the Council was a series of desperate and tawdry personal attacks that, frankly, well, this is the thing you make activism as its mayor, can we please move to the vote and never had we please move to the vote? I think it entitlement weekdays,

could we please move to the vote now, Graham Rice kind of opportunities, please can I contribute with your speech, please I would be happy to, if I would allow me to finish.

you should come clean with the public, you should publish these proposals, you should actually state what you're going to do on, for example, the Roehampton youth club or on the Broxtowe Étienne school. We have no knowledge and you have made no commitments, it's almost as though you want to carry on with this process while pretending you're not because that frankly, is how people will see it, you are trying to cover it up, you have nothing but bluster and accusations, enough of the hogwash come clean with the public

the matter the matter now, before the Council is the amendment moved by by Councillor Hall and seconded by Councillor Burton all those in favour of the amendment.

although those against.

any abstentions.

the amendment is carried.

for 33 against 21 0 obsessions, all those in favour of the substantive motion as amended as amended, those against.

sorry.

now all those for.

motion.

those against.

any abstentions any abstentions.

the substantive, substantive motion as amended is carried for 33 against 21.

30 53 4 33 for the motion and then 21 against and 0 abstentions.

finish.

question to the Cabinet Members will not be taken.

question number 11.

nine times strategy.

Councillor Lamb Mayor, Chris.

can we cabinet member just explain how the night-time strategy will support our existing work to support women safety?

thank you, Councillor Councillor Kenneth, and take the first part of the question, is about how we drew up the strategy.

yeah long answer that at first anyway, because I'm really pleased, I am really pleased that we have launched the strategy this week last week, even with Amy Lonmay and the GLA was a really there was a really amazing event that we had here because we are trailblazers that's all of us, we are told by places in this process and across London, so that's something that we should all be proud of it's it's created the strategies created as a response to a very meticulously crafted

this response through extensive data collection, and you can see some of the outside on the billboards, so I hope you'll all use those QR codes and hear what some of our residents have been saying about how they have experienced the night-time and the need for the night-time strategy to exist.

bearing in mind its for people that work between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am so that's all of us in this room right now and we all are going to benefit from it, and on that point I just want to say

it was very nice to see Councillor stutters here earlier and we all hoping for her speedy recovery.

I think listening to and diverse voices in enhances the safety of Wandsworth and the night-time economy and, crucially, support for vulnerable groups such as women and the LGBTQ plus community are in the heart of this policy, are all hope you will get a chance to read it.

it's only a couple of pages, there's lots of recommendations, but there will come too, probably they'll touch on all of your committees at some point, so it's worth having a read, we do need safe spaces and we do need dedicated venues that create inclusive and secure environment for all of our residents.

as you can read simple things or as you will read anyway, simple things like increasing the amount of accessible USB points so that young people can charge their phones when they're on their way home and they're able to call their parents, and they're able to feel in contact with their families is very important other things,

such as clean toilets, also help people when they are navigating their way through the night-time, and let's be very clear, night-time, doesn't mean just people going out to clubs and drinking, but these are people that work in the night-time from cleaners to the people that deliver your mail in the morning.

yes and councillors, as I said, as Councillors as well.

so the high streets team, what will happen now moving forward is the high streets team will develop a working group with police Transport for London, licensing our business improvement districts, youth clubs, community groups and others to develop specific recommendations tailored to each town centre, so you will see that each Town centre has specific recommendations and you should read them because it's your ward. Some aspects may involve further exploration,

but we are exploring funding to cover that and to see our vision, thank you.

supplementary Member.

Councillor McGimpsey

he said all right, Councillor Dobson.

thank you, could I just picking up on something cabinet members say I just made the point that, like many gay people, I do not in any sense field of myself, part of a vulnerable community, and I'm increasingly worried about being painted as someone in that in that view.

many of my girlfriends just regard ourselves, as simply members of our society, who have no special needs and actually do not wish to be continually othered and made to feel in some way almost pathetic because of that, I am not a part of a vulnerable group and I rather resent that I'm continually being told that I am,

thank you, Councillor, for your point of view. Unfortunately, that's not how a lot of people from that community do experience the night-time and we are we absolutely, we absolutely spoke while we spoke to, we spoke to a lot of different groups and that is not what they told us, so we have to be based the strategy on what our residents across the borough have said. I'm really happy that you have a really good experience of the night-time, but we hope that we can make through the strategy and you know through our working we can make it safe for everybody. I hope that answers your question.

question again.

question number 12 joins from ballroom to gothic Councillor Peedom.

thank you thinking about it, as currently seven straight Southern trains stopping services to Gatwick Airport pass through Balham, without stopping at presence residents of teaching in Balham must travel all the way back to Clapham to board these services, could the Cabinet Member for Transport confirm if she will support the Conservative Group's campaign for an additional stop at Balham?

yes, thank you for the question, and I think you actually mean that Tooting unbalanced residents must travel back to Clapham Junction, just to be clear about that.

the council wants Gatwick trains to stop at Farnham and give greater convenience and choice to local residents that would be a very good thing, unfortunately, the message from Network Rail and the Department for Transport has been consistent that there is inadequate capacity to stop services at Balham without weakening resilience within the whole schedule to unacceptable levels the Council will continue to press for services to stop.

at Balham, when opportunities arise, such as timetable consultations and through the Council's passenger transport liaison group.

I thank the Cabinet Member for their answer, I am turning to another part of the borough, can she give us an update on the Council's progress in delivering the Wandsworth one-way system?

constrained.

Councillor Mowat,

madam Mayor, that's a different topic.

yes, we continue to work hard to progress the

the changes to the one-way system, as we discussed in the last Transport Committee, and we are in a detailed discussions with Transport for London again. This is a slightly surprising topic for the minority party to raise, as I find your raising the asset management strategy equally extraordinary, given your appalling record in selling off so many council homes and failing to replace them with other council homes. Only this morning in Roehampton I was talking to residents in terrible, overcrowded accommodation because of the shortage of council homes in this borough and on the one-way system. I think Councillor Belton gave us a lovely history lesson in the last Transport Committee about your abject failure to deliver on your plans for changing the one-way system, so I do find it absolutely extraordinary

question number Tatton, child poverty, Councillor Davis.

Councillor Stockholm, thank you, I thank Councillor, Madam Mayor, we forgot the second supplementary, which was for one of the Councillor 0 sorry about that, Councillor Fraser.

thank you, yeah, and thank you for the cabinet member for that, for the answer and just bringing it back to the subject, can the Cabinet Member tell us what the administration is doing to make connections across the borough easier for our residents to travel?

yes, thank you, Councillor Prater, we are passionate about connecting our residents to community services, jobs and major transport hubs, just to give a few examples of what we've been doing, we've published our ambitious walking and cycling strategy and we're getting on with implementing it we're delighted to have installed a cycle lane across once with Bridge following the major repairs to the bridge which we delivered on time and on budget were investigating.

we're investigating extending Northern Line services to Clapham Junction as part of a master plan for the area we're supporting the use of E bikes and taking steps to ensure they are parked considered considerably and regulated properly, we've ensured that bus services across the borough will be maintained or extended and that ticket offices will be kept open at our stations, we're looking forward to taking forward many more ambitious measures in the coming year.

Councillor Davies,

13 to the Cabinet Member, please, Councillor Stone.

thank you, Councillor Davies, for the question and no wonder, Madam Mayor, you are keen to move on to it because I know this is an issue that is very close to your heart, so you'll listen carefully. I'm sure I share Councillor Davies concerns that UK poverty, child poverty is rising and it has consistently done so from 2010 onwards, 2021 2022, data from the GWP now puts us at 29% of all children in the UK are living in child poverty. Quite frankly, that is a shocking statistic, and that is a result of DEC decades of austerity, and these stark figures really do suggest that the Conservative government placed no care on poverty and it's a political choice that they have made to see those figures rising. In contrast, as is the new Labour administration here in Wandsworth were very clear that we want every child to have a great start and like them, and we recognise that this investment in child poverty and reducing it is the best investment that we can make as a Council to improve the life chances of those children. So I'm really sad that currently in our Wandsworth schools we see 28% of our children receiving free school meals despite the very low threshold, and that's up from 17% in 2019. And so we really welcome the Mayor of London's free school meals for all children in key stage 2 and our work is really built on this and we launched, as you know, a new school food strategy that really does have food inclusion at its heart, and so that strategy, along with the investment by the Mayor of London, has meant that we now have the highest number of children who are taking up those healthy school meals in the middle of their school day.

but our work hasn't hasn't stopped there, we've really identified a concern in terms of take-up of those free school meals, and so we have been going out finding those people's are making sure that where they are eligible they take up a and they don't miss out so we're really proud that we've been the first Council in London to introduce auto-enrolment for free school meals and that has directly supported both peoples and schools across the borough. We've also introduced our breakfast club pilot project in partnership with breakfast with Magic breakfast in 20 schools and that initiative is now feeding 3,000 hungry children each day across the borough and feedback from parents and teachers is really incredibly positive about that initiative.

we've also looked directly at the financial support that we can provide for low income families during the school holidays, as we know that can be hard, and in the past year we've issued over 2.3 million of school vouchers during the holiday and that's equated to over 116,000 vouchers supporting over 9,000 children and we did increase the rate to 20 pounds per week recognising that food inflation has really spiralled out of control.

alongside that in terms of uniforms, we've also recognised that that's an additional burden for families, so we've issued just over 1,000 vouchers to support families and children on free school meals as they transition to a new school to make sure that they can be smart and start the school year with a new uniform, I'm really pleased that we've also been part of the council wide initiative in relation to warmer hubs and we and children's launched our warmer welcome initiative.

last year, looking at our children's centres in the heart of our communities, and I'm really pleased that last year, between November and April, we provided over 26,000 meals to families within their local communities, alongside our activities to help them connect and socialise within their neighborhoods. So we've relaunched that initiative this year and we're really looking forward to families coming into our children's centres and other voluntary sector partners to get the support they need through the winter. Just finally, I also want to make sure that all councillors, particularly as corporate parents, are aware of the work that we're doing with our care leavers. We know that they can be disproportionately impacted in terms of the cost of living and having to be independent much earlier in their lives. So I'm really proud of our

New Hub at Falcon Grove, and I know some of the opposition councillors as well as the majority councillors and cabinet itself, have all visited and seen the offer is available there to work at care experienced young people, hot food showers laundries if you're lucky somebody will be there and making dinner when you arrive and that's alongside an emotional support and we've really seen a positive impact that that's had on some of our most vulnerable young people.

supplementary Madonna

thank you.

so for a supplementary Councillor Davies, thank you, so it was great to hear this. After 13 years of austerity, a whole range of support has been implemented in about one and a half years, really supporting our families, with this situation looked down to change soon. What opportunities do you take for the whole Council, from the cost of living report to boost living conditions further for school age, children and more other groups t

I suppose that thank you, thank you, Councillor Davies, for the supplemental say I really welcome the cost of living commission. Thank you to Councillor Akinola for all her work as an officer supported in leading that I think it's been a really helpful piece of work for us as a Council to see what actions we need to take at a strategic level to really reduce poverty and support children and families. I think what the report really identified is that perhaps fundamentally we lack joined-up thinking and a burrow ride strategy for addressing and the cost of living, and we have really lucky ones where we have a really diverse and resilient range of institutions that are working really hard to tackle the cost of living crisis, but unfortunately they so don't always have shared channels of communications and structures that allow them to achieve the common goal. And I think this is a hangover from the policies of the previous administration and alleged ideological opposition to working in partnership with other organisations or perhaps a paternalistic approach to do two rather than two to do with our local communities. So here in once with, we've got an estimated 17,200 children living in low income, for whom the cost of living crisis has really been the most

acute and the opposition should really hang their head in shame, knowing that there are children that would have had better support if they'd have built stronger relationships across the borough as we face this crisis and the pandemic before that, so the report recommends as building on a stronger,

approach in several areas, including creating a stronger network with Wandsworth wide institutions working for a shared objective, some of the specific recommendations around piloting auto-enrolment for pension credits, disability benefits, healthy start vouchers and other benefits to make sure residents aren't missing out, I think that really builds on what we've already been doing in children's services, as I mentioned earlier about our auto-enrolment scheme for free school meals.

I'm really proud, as I said, to be the first London Barrett, to implement that, so I think there are really important recommendations in the report around maximising household income and equally I'm really clear that that also includes a recommendation around making sure that we pay in our contracts at London living wage as a minimum again as part of our school food strategy we are with our new contractor are now paying the London living wage to everybody in schools who serves meals at lunchtime and that'll also have positive impacts in terms of recruitment and retention.

so I think Councillor Davies goes to the heart of the question around the need for us when we reduce child poverty, to not just for me and children's services, to look at the policies that we have we have we implement for us to take or so are a whole council approach and with exactly committed to doing that as this administration.

thank you second, supplementary to the Cabinet Member.

one thing she didn't mention in that very long, winded our reply, which was more like a speech than an answer to a question was leave school should go to your question here, sorry, she she just spoke for probably longer than most of us have the chance to speak in you wanted to ask a question.

to Laconia. You want to tell us about construction, and it's actually a really important one, about a serious subject that we should all be concerned about questions on the cost of living crisis. There is an issue with this administration, raising rents for council tenants, and that is exacerbating the cost of living crisis. If they had not done that, then they would be putting more money into the pockets of the families. You have to look after children, who are sadly being plunged deeper into poverty because of that decision

and child poverty also.

just keep hold on hold on, but there was no issue with the consent at the time, because how can I please ask your question please, one of the sad consequences of child poverty is child homelessness, and at the children's committee we heard we received a paper that detailed that I think 38 children,

16 to 17 year olds have been identified as homeless in the past year and period covered by that report when they were in opposition,

is an astronomical number long-standing, because they were very old.

supposed to be a question, not a statement, let me say, please can you see them, so my question is what if you haven't remember doing, to make sure that no children wake up homeless in this borough on Christmas Day this year?

Councillor, let's talk.

thank thank you, Councillor Cordner, for the question, and I am so sorry you didn't enjoy me talking about the policies that Vindman implemented to reduce child poverty, perhaps that really.

because the fact that you are very comfortable with moving away from the issue of child poverty because, quite frankly, there is no denying that the data from the Unicef report that really falls at the door of this Conservative government, they are not just bad, we are horrific this we are now the highest rate of increase in child poverty of every country in the EU or the OECD, the UK is actually considerably an outlier, an increase of 19.7% in terms of child poverty, the next country was 11% this government, this Conservative government, has put the UK into a league of its own and that's the legacy of this Conservative government's 13 years in power.

and we've had a lot tonight about all of the council homes that have been sold off by the previous administration, that policy is a direct, or the numbers of children in temporary accommodation are a direct result of that policy over many, many years.

and if you want to see those figures come down, I would like you please, to support our policies in terms of building 1,000 council homes to make sure that all of those children and families are housed in council homes in the future.

question number 14 trekked through your gardens, children's centre and adventure playground, Councillor Rachel.

question 14 to the Cabinet Member

book.

thank you, Councillor virtual.

for the question it totally disingenuous, I think we've covered this ground on a number of occasions tonight in this whole narrative around.

assets, it is designed to sadly mislead once with residents and are the real children, there are real families behind this scaremongering, and I really don't think you.

should pursue it in scaring them in in this way, so I think, as has been said by the Leader, this

I will answer the question. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Graham. This document is an internal officer paper. It's not council policy or our council policy went to Finance Committee on the 30th of November, it was subsequently approved by the Executive. It's already available online and there's a link in my written answer. Turning into specifically to York Gardens Children's Centre, it is indeed a much-needed facility for local families. I myself was at the Stay and Play session with my son this morning, and I'd like to take this opportunity to recognise the fantastic work of our children's centre staff across the borough and pay particular. Thank you to stuff like Sally and Crystal for their work at children at York, Gardens with the families in my own ward

that all Councillors are aware that the existing children's centre at York Gardens will be replaced by a brand new facility, offering a wider range of facilities and family services, as well as increased play facilities for children and young people. As part of the Council's regeneration plans for the Winstanley and York Road estates, Councillor Birchall you'll also be well aware that the regeneration scheme will provide that much-needed new and improved Children's Centre before the old children's centre is demolished, as that has been a long-standing commitment achieved by Councillor Hogg Councillor Belton and my predecessor, Councillor Wendy Spec

as part of the regeneration plans when they were first born and that sort of commitment that this administration will continue. So really, once the Conservatives have a shameful record that we've heard about tonight, selling off homes, schools and public land, in contrast we as the new Labour administration we will lead, are leading a decade of renewal in Wandsworth and will achieve that by using our council assets to benefit local people and correct the historic Tory underinvestment in our borough

supplementary.

very sorry and time for covenants, questions has finished on a point of order, Madam standing, order 28, I wish to adjoin the Council for 2 minutes to consider the following in respect to the Government's leasehold and freehold reform Bill.

this Council will pioneered the granting of the new rights outlined in the legislation to all its leaseholders of residential properties commits to bringing a paper to the next Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee, outlining its strategy in response to the legislation.

do you have a seconder?

please speak to your motion.

thank you, my Lord Mayor on Monday, the leasehold and freehold reform Bill pass its Second Reading in Parliament.

this legislation will make it easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or buy their freehold so that they can enjoy secure ownership without the hassle and expensive future lease extensions, it will empower them, should they wish to take over management of their building so that they have greater influence over day to day issues affecting them it will promote fairness and transparency, ensuring leaseholders are protected from abuse and poor service.

it will give them greater clarity over their service charges by making bills easier to scrutinise and challenge. It is overdue recognition of the importance of leaseholders to our society and economy and welcome news for the millions of people in this country who own or a spur to own their home. By contrast, anything approaching a policy in leaseholders from this Labour Council has been conspicuous by its absence as a member of the Housing Committee I've debated and voted on numerous policy initiatives for council tenants and private renters. Whilst I may disagree with the policies often vigorously so

we've been left in no doubt that matters affecting tenants have been uppermost in this council's priorities, as they should be.

nearing the halfway point of this administration's term, however, we've yet to see one initiative that reassures Councillor leaseholders that they are equally valued and their concerns equally acknowledged, despite the fact that 52% of Council properties around the leasehold

leaseholders champion was mooted, but has yet to materialise, while a tenants champion has been in post for the last six months, I know from my conversations with her that my fellow ward councillor, a cabinet member for finance, like myself, a Councillor leaseholder, is sincere in her desire to stand up for the interests of leaseholders, but we cannot escape the stark reality 18 months in that nothing has happened. The message to leaseholders from this Labour Council is crystal clear. We're just not that into the government's efforts to bring greater transparency to service charge, bills could not be timelier.

this year, once with Councillor leaseholders have seen an unprecedented average rise in their service charge, bills of 11.8% more than double the current inflation rate and higher than peak inflation in 2022.

this is only half the story, however, as many are also being hit by readjustments to last year's Bill which dramatically increase their liabilities, my service charge liability for this year has seen a near 100% increase and I am far from alone a large number are also facing a double whammy with major works bills that have seen similar drastic above-inflation increases once with Council leaseholders have been left in shock bewilderment and anger at the sheer magnitude of these rises, the likes of which I've not seen in 25 years of owning my leasehold,

for all its hand-wringing about the cost of living. Socialist Wandsworth seems to be channelling the spirit of the Wilson Callaghan years by burdening thousands of its leaseholders with wildly exorbitant rises. We've had of Corbynomics, we've heard of tracing comics now appear to be academics a compassionate and fair approach to helping people with their living costs by increasing them wherever it's possible to do so, fighting disease with disease and economic version of homeopathy, but with less of an evidence base

it is no coincidence that when the mask slips and the socialist statistics of this administration begin to rear their head, that leaseholders are the first to feel the pinch, the aspirational the people who want to take charge of their lives, who want to stand on their own two feet and not have to depend on the largesse of others if they can avoid it Winston Churchill's description of socialism as the gospel of envy inevitably springs to mind people's desire to be free of government is an affront to socialism.

and I can't help but suspect this is why this administration's natural instinct has been to turn a blind eye to homeowners because they're an inconvenient reminder of the ultimate redundancy of socialist ideas,

as Conservatives, we have this message to leaseholders, unlike this Labour Council, we have your back, we haven't forgotten you and we will fight your corner, the leasehold reform bill, provides a perfect opportunity for this administration to change course and send a clear, unambiguous message to leaseholders that they are on their side.

on the subject of home ownership, as are many others, the leader of the Labour party has conceded that the Conservatives got there first, I welcome this administration, showing the same good grace, do the right thing and back this motion.

Will the Leader lights, Brisbane Councillor liquidy?

yeah, so I mean always a pleasure to listen to their kind of Thatcherite ideological rants of Councillor Hussain, I liked that someone who has real politics always always say that whenever whenever I come in debate, Vienna, Town Hall, Eisenberg, politics,

we live in the reality of the real politics that

this Council for decades, enacted on the older people of Wandsworth, and one of those transformations was right to buy and what right-to-buy did to house housing stock, and that has thrown up many.

no, no, you just said it transformed people's lives, but you know that 50% of the leasehold stock that we have now is rented out by absentee landlords, so there is a balance here between the people you're talking about, which are those who own their own homes and the leaseholders who are the residential leaseholders, and those are the leaseholders that I care about and the two leaseholders I meet regularly and its leaseholders who invite me to their major works programmes and it's the leaseholders who, when you speak to them, think of this as a council that actually invites us into the town hall whenever there are disputes. This is a Council that has a Cabinet Member attend major works events, even when it's not inside their ward. This is this, the Cabinet Member, we can speak to, so I completely disrepute your claims about how we respond to leaseholders. It's also just factually incorrect that we've done nothing for leaseholders. We gave four years interest free or major works. You were offering to it's why leaseholders voted for Labour, and they kicked you out, these holders were your base and they abandoned you at the last election, and they'll stick with us again because on the difficult decisions, what is the reason that leaseholders are feeling the pinch because of massive inflation because of an awful Tory government that crashed our economy, it's because of the incredible increase in repair costs and the huge costs on councils when we're trying to do works to the estates that leaseholders live in because of disastrous Brexit because of squeeze on supply chains because of the fact that your government has completely mismanaged things and when you look at those who are trying to get access to homeownership, you think they're going to be scared of the Labour party when interest interest rates mean that mortgages are the hardest they've ever been to get hold of, you know, I remind my focus is on council housing. Everyone knows my focus, on council housing

because we spend as local authorities, 60 million pounds a month on on temporary accommodation is absolutely absurd. Use of money. You know you talk about your Thatcherite economics that is the most insane use of public money. I've ever heard of it, so it's an outcome of the politics that you want, but when it comes to actually trying to make sure that people can have affordable within their heads, we have to make sure that all tenure types, it's it's that squeezed middle that squeezed middle that's trying to get access to home ownership that has been most let down by the party that used to represent them, so I think it's just

it's absurd. I know what my politics are, but the politics that you're trying to sell is a politics that is completely broken. Now let's get to the actual issue of what we're doing to try and help me soldiers, so on some of their schemes are coming forward and I know I probably shouldn't say this were being recorded, but there are schemes are coming forward, whether leaseholders are going to be facing massive bills because the stock has been run down for a very long time, and so the works need to get done. They need to get done so we can support our tenants. Our tenants live in good properties, but the leaseholders get good properties and that means that they're sometimes frontloaded. So you might get three different pieces of work that are essential, and that means the bill to the leaseholder was really big. We have to deal with that political challenge. You have to deal with that political problem because the last thing we want is leaseholders to not be able to afford to stay in their home. We are actively grappling with that. We are actively setting up focus groups of leaseholders. We are actively going and meeting with them, we are actively trying to work out solutions because these are ones of presence at the end of the day and they live on our council estates, and they are vital to our communities. If you just look at the participation when you go to a resident association meeting,

be off.

we all know this is often dominated by leaseholders, because these holdings are really active in this, so it's something that we can't hide away from so factually incorrect on policy terms. You know we have given a better offer to leaseholders, and the Conservatives did, and that's why they voted for us. Many of them wrote to me, I remember announcing it at the other resident participation conference. Should we do again a resident participation conference, that is about letting leaseholders tenants sit down and talk to us about our service, so I

I refute all of the things that you're saying. I think that the reason that most of our leaseholders and most of us who are trying to get access to home ownership are struggling so much is, because of 13 years of absolute carnage, failed economic policy, but also the legacy of Thatcherism that led to this thing in the first place, and the thing I want to finish on is your leasehold Bill, which you seem to think is some kind of magic thing. I mean the commonhold now, which is the main campaign around, making sure that leasehold is fair, called the insultingly modest the government hasn't come forward, it's not, it's not applying it's not applying to flats, so it's often only new-build houses, so I actually want something more robust. I can't vote for this because I don't think it's going for further enough to help for leaseholders, and I think that this is just

you've decided to latch onto leaseholders as your main political attack horse because of the difficult things that are happening in the mainstream economy, but I don't think it's going to wash, and I'm afraid I can't support this because I think the leasehold bill isn't the magical bullet we need to do much more for leaseholders and that's what we're going to be doing.

Councillor Grayshon, are you satisfied with the explanation provided and it would you like to withdraw your motion, or would you like your motion to be put to a vote no, no, I'm not satisfied, so I'd like it to be put to a vote but saying that you do have all these wonderful ideas, police holders can you present a paper at the next Committee because we've had numerous committees that we've been pulled together and I haven't seen one

I just want to correct the record that we literally brought the policy that changed the way that major works bills are paid in order to allow leasehold if people have have had vastly inflated major works, yet we move into it, not least increasing bills because contractors need to get their money back and if you're extending the amount of to think people left a councillor they're going to raise costs.

I'd like to vote police.

I was named in that previous debate, can I say something, please.

Olive is a personal explanation, yes, well, the previous administration took Councillor leaseholders to court instead of talking to us about the plans to retrofit sprinklers and we laughed, and as the owning your property as anybody knows, a leaseholder owns the exclusive right to occupy the space but you don't own anything.

the motion now before the Council is that the Council do now adjourn for five minutes to draw attention to the kung.

to consider the government so 2 minutes, OK, 0 sorry.

OK, so we adjourned for two minutes to draw attention to consider the Government's leaseholders and freeholders reform bill, this Council will pioneer the grant theme of the new rights outline in the legislation to all its leaseholders of residue of residential properties, commit to bringing a paper to the nest Housing Overview Scrutiny Committee aligning each strategy to respond to this legislation.

all those in favour.

others against.

any abstentions.

abstentions 1

miscarriages.

the adjournment motion is lost to.

20 4 and 32 against and 1 abstention.

we now tend to report number 1 items for decision.

I'm over reception of the report and will ask the Council whether they approve the recommendation in paragraph 1, council tax reductions came paper number 23 2 411.

are the recommendations approved?

OK.

so are we going to take a road, those fall?

others against.

abstentions.

so.

Ted 2 1 4 0 against one, abstention, 18.

so paragraph 2, maybe its treasury management review 2023 2024 paper, NOMA 23 to 412 other recommendations approved.

gate.

if?

as agreed item 17 will be taken next, item 17 is a motion on cost of living crisis support, can I ask Councillor Taylor to move and Councillor Aiken, and lots of second the motion in their names, yes moved.

seconded.

can I ask Councillor Bosworth to speak?

madam Mayor, as chair of the children's committee on I'm delighted to open this debate this evening and I hope that it will be less bad tempered considering the topic.

on following 18 years of Conservative government back in 1997 there were over 4 million children living in poverty in the UK, now, following 13 years of Tory-led governments, here we are again over 4 million children are growing up in poverty in one of the richest countries on earth.

still one of the richest countries on earth, despite the Conservatives best efforts to destroy the economy last year, the substantial reductions in child poverty achieved by a Labour government in the early years of this century, bringing nearly a million children up over the poverty line have been reversed and the most recent Unicef report as we heard in Cabinet questions, actually places the UK in the bottom of the table on child poverty in developed nations as someone who used to work for Save the children.

I just find that appalling, so reflecting this inequality here in Wandsworth, we all know we have pockets of deep poverty amongst tremendous wealth.

thousands of our children, though, live in families, where the income is below 60% of the median level, that's the measure of relative child poverty.

the prime minister in PMQs was today in answer to a question from Mata takeover on child poverty, said that actually it had lessened under the Conservative government are he used the measure of absolute child poverty, not relative?

but child poverty is much more than income. A new, Madam Mayor will know this. I know it's an area you could take. Take particular interest in the full human cost is impossible to estimate. Nobody can measure adequately the cost and physical or emotional suffering of growing up in a cold, damp or overcrowded home or having a parent who has to rely on food banks to put a meal on the table or to go to school in a shabby second-hand uniform, which is why the new administration has put in place measures to mitigate the risks to families of these hardships are 10 million pound cost of living fund launched in response to the cost of living crisis, has provided a living wage for workers, food support, free school uniforms and enabled incredible work by the voluntary sector. We set up the cost of living commission last year to listen to our residents and our families and to find out what was needed. Madam Mayor, the Commission found long term no overall vision and leadership on how to tackle structural failings of policies or lack of policies, including from central government, to address issues like food poverty that have been exposed by the crisis, in a borough that had starved its voluntary sector of resources, investment and support as it struggled to fill the gap left by national and local government as hands off lacy for policies of which we've had a lot this evening eroded and hollowed out our public services. The commission found that the situation was urgent and short term policies needed immediately on food poverty and fuel poverty relief,

and here actually I'd like to pay tribute to officers and staff to responding to the crisis with such urgency and scaling up at pace to meet the new proactive go, find them catch them before they fall approach of this new administration, and this actually epitomised in investing in the low income family tracker, which we heard about earlier. That has enabled enabled, for example, children's services to identify children in Wandsworth who are eligible for free school meals but not claiming them. It's an ongoing piece of work, but 70 children have been found and they are now taking up the offer of free school meals. All of this is aimed at meeting immediate need. I can see the red light is on, so I would just like to say that I, for one, believe a society only moves forward when we all move forward together with no one left behind and for far too long, too many have been left behind in this borough and we intend to change that. I commend this motion to the Chamber

Councillor Hardy.

thank you very much, Madam Mayor, somewhat going against the grain of this slightly bad-tempered Council meeting.

I agree with much of this motion, almost none of Councillor Boswell speech, but much of the motion.

we've all seen how the cost of living crisis has affected. Someone's with families. The cost of living Commission report identifies the key drivers of the crisis, not as 13 years of Tory government but as the economic fallout from COVID, the impacts from the war in Ukraine on feed, food, food and fuel costs, the impact of Brexit and changes in the international energy market, and I agree with that analysis. This Council's support for those impacted most by the increased cost of living has been comprehensive and has been largely supported by both parties, albeit with some caveats around how outcomes of the spend are measured and reported, and perhaps some differences in how we might have focus the spat, and I think the report raises some really interesting points and makes some excellent proposals. There are several which I think won't work and there are some, such as support for rent controls, which I think would have a really detrimental effect

in the spirit of collaboration, I'll set out a few thoughts on how I think the Council might best progress, the cost of living work, to really focus any further resources on where we can make the difference for the long term.

overall, my biggest concern is that our policy approach be sustainable, the report highlights that these problems are not going to be temporary and they're not going to be short term issues, and we all know the immense financial challenges that the Council is facing, so we simply cannot afford to consistently pay what are essentially benefit top-ups, it isn't part of local government's remit and it will squeeze other critical services so we do need to find other levers to pull.

some of these are in the report, for example, making sure that people get the benefits that they are entitled to, but I think we should be focusing our cost of living response on the areas where we can get significant and sustainable improvements for residents which concentrate on prevention, preventing the need to access the kind of emergency support which we have been providing.

for me, the biggest thing missing in the report is the idea that getting a well-paid job is the best, most sustainable way out of poverty, and our spending and efforts should focus on this, and this should deal with the supply of jobs, save, for example, stimulating economic growth in the borough as we have in Nine Elms and as we were doing with our regeneration schemes but also consider existing barriers to getting jobs.

some of which again are addressed in the report, such as child cab, be more affordable, but also making sure that skills and training are delivered for our residents, this essential focus on helping our residents get better jobs and getting off benefits feels missing from the document, in my view.

but it is the single most important thing that we can help with, because it doesn't only just put money in people's pockets, it also helps with mental and physical health outcomes.

I'd also suggest that we focus on areas where the Council can add unique value by bringing different agencies and stakeholders together, so I'm hugely supportive of the suggestions building a joined-up response and improving data sharing across the system, I guess my plea would be that we look at utilising innovative ways of harnessing, maybe data analytics and the latest technology to try and bring benefits to our residents and also to improve efficiency in the system.

because we also have a responsibility to residents, to keep the costs of these proposals down, and use the assets that we already have to focus on prevention rather than a sticking plaster approach. The report also leans pretty heavily on lobbying others as a solution, and this influence is critical, but I'd suggest that we work hardest lobbying on infrastructure structure, projects where successful, create jobs and transform our residents' abilities to get around and of course Roehampton is a key gap, given that the administration has cancelled the regeneration, but I would also offer a plea for the once with one-way system, the final point is that one of the ways that we can best help residents with cost of living is by keeping our own charges low council tax rent, service charges and other charges such as parking are a huge chunk of the expenses that people face, but it's to keep our costs down and our charges low rather than take with one hand and give it back with the other.

as the motion suggests, we do need to improve people's life chances across the borough, but sadly I don't think that, following all the recommendations in this cost of living, Commission report will do that, so I will reluctantly vote the motion down.

Councillor Taylor,

thank you, my Lord Mayor, I would like to echo what Councillor possible has said and also to make some further points about the cost of living crisis for many people, the largest expense is rent, private sector rents are, frankly, alarming and landlords are taking advantage of the gap in the market left by the decline in council housing for far too long the council housing stock has been allowed to dwindle and fall into disrepair.

one of my reasons for entering politics is to do something about the drastic need for council homes, and I will always push for this to be a priority. We've made a great start by turning the 1,000 homes programme from an exercise in gentrification aims something that it is entirely for the benefit of social housing tenants. On my streets, Bessborough, Road, we now have planning permission for a building that will house tenants with learning difficulties.

and any selfish concern, I imagine, about temporary disruption like noise or

disruption to buses is more than outweighed by pride at what we are achieving many organisations across the borough are doing great work to counteract the effects of the cost of living crisis, to mention just a few that's operating my ward Roehampton Sean, tells Community Kitchen little village estate art,

the Wandsworth food bank rackets, cubed and Roehampton rocks, but there's a danger here admitting wider points in the same way that Jacob Rees-Mogg did when he said that the existence of food banks was rather uplifting and shows what a good compassionate country we are in a limited way whose statement was correct,

the UK would indeed be in an even worse state if there weren't food banks.

and those who run through barracks are absolutely commendable, but he was disingenuously avoiding the issue of how we reached the stage of so many people struggling to survive, we need a government that will take action at a national level to reduce inequality, so rather than trying to individualised a collective problem by focusing on individuals' failure to find jobs that generally aren't there we'd need further equality.

to bring the focus back to one's worth, this motion shows how our borough can lead the way and set a good example for the whole country, I strongly urge all councillors to vote for it, thank you.

Councillor Ankers, thank you, Madam Mayor, it's been a tough few years for many residents and businesses in Wandsworth for residents up and down the country. Indeed, many across the world, many people have suffered financial loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was exacerbated by the knock-on impacts of global inflation and other geopolitical events. Following this, I would like to show my gratitude to the previous and the current administration for their efforts in tackling the cost of living challenges, which many have experienced first-hand. I welcomed the spirit of the cost of living commission and took a keen interest in the project, especially the evidence gathering session in my own ward Balham, in Labour's cost of living support motion laid here before us this evening they mentioned their 10 million fund to support residents

might I remind everyone that this fund was only possible because of the careful and prudent financial management of the previous Conservative administration, who, who made sure there was a substantial amount of the council's own reserves when situations like the cost of living crisis arise, it was the forward thinking, skill and expertise of the previous administration to fix the roof while the sun is still shining philosophy that enabled the current administration to use 5 million from the reserves to set up the current cost of living fund.

and then add another 5 million from reserves when that wasn't enough to top up to top up the fund,

whilst the UK economy has made a much stronger recovery from the pandemic than predicted and annual inflation rates have fallen, along with energy prices, mortgages haven't yet mortgages.

Surrey mortgages, haven't peaked and food inflation remains high. Madam Mayor, I asked the question in the last Finance Committee meeting, when the Labour administration, when does the limp Labour administration envisage taking more from the reserves to top up the fund when the remaining 3 million is is allocated, surely rather than dipping into the reserves, the focus would be better placed looking into how the Council can reduce rents and charges on residents.

it wasn't so long ago, Labour increased council rents by 7% the maximum statutory limit.

up to their energy charges. By contrast, the previous Conservative administration froze both rents and heating charges. Can we expect more increases in rents charges and council tax next year as well? We have cut. We, of course all want the set to make sure that those who are struggling are supported, but we also owe a duty of care to its residents, whom we serve to ensure long-term financial resilience and to be confident, we are getting value for our funding. Madam Mayor, whilst we welcome many of the proposals set out in the cost of living Commission final report referred to in this motion and there is a lot of support, I'm afraid we cannot back this motion because

the second recommendation contains a resolution to back all of the commission's recommendations

we cannot support this for a number of reasons, first, we acknowledge that the Commission has undertaken a large amount of work and come to its own conclusions, the Council must take a fresh look at each recommendation, investigate further as necessary and then come to its own view as to whether those recommendations are in the interests of residents.

it cannot subtract its own duties and judgement to the Commission. Second, many of its recommendations are sweeping and uncosted, for example, its suggestion that paying residents heating bills could be prescribed on the NHS. Third, some of its recommendations are either vehicle actually damaging. This has been mentioned by my my colleague Councillor Khan, as well. An example of this is rent controls. The Commission recommended target targeted rent controls, although it never explained what targeted means in this context. This is despite the fact that the commission's own report records evidence that suggests that rents are currently inflated by lack of supply in the private rental markets, so rent controls could further reduce this supply, leaving private renters in an even worse position.

once, whilst conservatives stand ready to work with the administration to see what we can take from the cost of living commission that would genuinely benefit our residents, but we cannot support an uncritical acceptance of all of these recommendations, particularly in light of the further evidence from the Finance Committee.

to end on a happy note, as we approach the year end, I'd like to wish everyone peace and goodwill, thank you.

Councillor Kennett,

thank you, Madam Mayor.

well, I think we can all agree that this is a very pressing issue, the stark reality really of a wage stagnation, as you mentioned, Councillor Caddy has left workers gripping, read the repercussions of inflation, not only in general life, but goods and services and the consequences are profound the data as my colleagues and as many of you have already stated in the various conversations we've had conversations, the various debates and arguments we have had in this Chamber today really speak volumes.

regarding wages, the GLA actually reported that there has been a 30 plus 7% loss in wages in London, and we should all be earning 11,000 pounds more than we are right now, and yet house prices in London have soared by 18% Wandsworth remains the most expensive place to live.

despite that, I've been informed that actually, before we took over, council rents were the highest in London.

so and under your administration, of course, so anyway, as I will continue over the past three years, rent has risen by 50% and can to risen sorry to consume 50% of our wages, mortgages have risen by over 50%, child poverty has risen by 19.7%, food bank use in Wandsworth has risen by almost 500%, and this means the struggle, isn't just real, it's a reality and is a reality for all of our residents, and probably many of us in this Chamber now well, maybe some of us anyway. This is a deepening crisis and we all face it as policymakers and, to be honest, it's heartbreaking that some of the things that are some of the case studies I read today from

citizens advice were really really dreadful, I read about a young disabled man who was about to loses his home, but with the use of the work from KBI they were actually able to generate an extra 19,000 pounds in benefits for him, and this is the kind of

this is the kind of net that we give people that really need our support, despite this somehow. Thank you, Councillor Dickie Lamb, we are the only borough to actually have reduced rough sleeping

working with our VCFS partners like CIB and using Lift, which is a good use of data, if you haven't noticed, that's the way that that's something else that we've brought in, we've been able to prevent many others from becoming homeless and to navigate the very complex welfare system.

and I also want to bring up, despite the fact that the Commission didn't mention politics, because it was non political, despite what some of the opposition in the Finance Committee tried to imply, it is without any mistake, this is a Conservative created cost of living crisis.

back to data, so for every 1 pound that every 1 pound that we've invested in NCB, we gain 2 pounds 57 in in public benefits we gain 10 pounds 57 for each individual member but into each individual resident that uses it and 18 pounds in a wider socio-economic benefits which I think is a really good investment actually our pension credit campaign has brought in a whopping almost three-quarters of a million pounds to our residents.

and the thing is, we're transforming people's lives right at the core, not just addressing the symptoms, and this really was the premise of the Commission in the first place.

so the findings and the 35 recommendations really underscore the need for strategic thinking to tackle the cost of living crisis, like what many of my colleagues have said, it really is your negligence that has left our community vulnerable vulnerable and our dedication is really reversing that trend.

strategic thinking, collaborative efforts and compassionate intentions are the key ingredients to how we will support our residents moving forward so that they not only are here and able to weather the storm, but we're actually building a community that can stand together, so I urge you to actually support the motion instead of abstaining or whatever you are going to do.

we will go straight to the vote.

all those in favour of the substantive motion.

all those against.

abstentions.

the substantive motion is carried 2032 for 20 against one abstention.

we now think to executive report number 2.

and now.

I will ask Councillor Yeadon to move reception on paragraph 1 from the report relating to Transport Committee.

yes, paragraph 1, page 55 for information,

I agree.

Health Committee Councillor Anderson,

thank you.

paragraphs 2 3 and 4 for information

agreed.

PA children's committee

paragraph 5 6 and 7 for information

okay ever remains a coming Environment Committee, Councillor Johnson.

yes, thank you, paragraphs 8 9 and 10 for information,

I agree.

finance Committee, Councillor Ingham,

12th, 11 12, and 13 for information

ITEM 12 assume the Planning coming Planning application Committee reports number 3, Councillor Bootham.

agree item touting is from the Health and Wellbeing Board report to number 4 Councillor Anderson, thank you, paragraphs 1 to 6 for information.

and we.

item 14 is from the joint staffing committee reports number 5, Councillor Hogg, paragraph 1 is for information.

item 15 is the report of the Chief Executive on revision to Committee membership paper number 23 to 435.

those recommendations agreed.

thank you, Councillors, I conclude the business of this evening.

can you please join me and the marble officer made by Aleem, thank you.

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Council - Wednesday 13 December 2023, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

CouncilWednesday, 13th December 2023 at 7:30pm

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Wednesday, 13th December 2023 at 7:30pm