Council - Wednesday 7 February 2024, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting
Council
Wednesday, 7th February 2024 at 7:30pm
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good, even Councillors and welcome to tonight.
meeting before the commencement of business start, the Council meeting by calling on passed, afraid to say a prayer,
May I request up with police to 12 feet Ashway.
our heavily Fadell for truth, we are grateful for this day, this is a day you have made once again we rejoice and we are glad in it.
and even as we have got here tonight to share taught ideas and how to move this borough up forward, we asked that your very presence will be with us, Grant has the grace, the wisdom and a standard to unravel those difficult things that we are unable to and Grace asked also to move forward to assist all those who depend and leave in this borough for the challenging issues that they are facing once again today is the 7th of February as I live for at 4.00 months ago.
we had the news what has happened in Israel and as a result of that, a lot of lives.
being lost,
father, we ask that or you, God, of all peace, will bring peace in the Middle East, we ask that or God there will be peace so that loss of life will cease, we accept that everything will be done according to your purpose and your plan, thank you for this moment in Jesus' name I pray and I would say amen,
thank you.
apologies have been received from Councillor Aiken, roller cooks, scientists and French, any apologies for lateness from Councillor Coupar, are there any other apologies?
item 1 the many.
Councillor Anderson,
item 1, the minutes of the meeting held on 13th of December 2023 have been circulated, are there any objection or abstention, so means signing the minutes as a correct record?
I agree.
in the absence of any objection or abstention, I will take that as agreed.
item 2 is my announcement.
welcome everyone, including those in the gallery, you are very welcome to listen to our proceedings, but we do have a lot of business to get through, so please keep noise to a minimum. The fellow Councillors join my marrow team during my marrow. Tim have embraced the opportunity to serve our wonderful Burrow time has flown and as my tenner approaches,
it approaches its end in a few months, I reflect on the meaningful experiences since our last meeting, I have spread joy across the borough, attended the Rotary Christmas Day event.
which provide Christmas lunch and entertainment for our elderly residents, I have had a thank you reception for members of the youth parliamentary meeting in the Mirror's Palo, it was a pleasure connecting with young minds to understand their experiences and aspiration.
additionally, I have celebrated official opening of the once Wetton Library, a proud occasion I have mugged, I have mugged at 99 birthday of the Putney Rotary Club and engaged with primary school students to educate them about the male role while encouraging a sense of community.
thank you all.
please could all speakers keep to time and wind up your speeches when the red light comes on the amber light comes on 3 minutes, 30 seconds and the real lights are 4 minutes 30 seconds I will cut your microphone off if you go over a lot of time of 5 minutes this is to allow as many as possible of all councillors to participate.
members, as I noted in my previous Council meeting.
I am still suffering with a bad back, so I may need to stand for a few minutes joined the meeting to relieve pressure on my back if I do Stan, please continue as usual
if I need to stand to bring order to the Chamber, I will announce this before I stand up.
this is the end of my announcements.
on Item 3, are there any Members who have any declaration of disclosable pecuniary interests, other registrable interests or any non registrable interest relevant to any matter to be disclosed at the meeting?
Councillor Wright, thank you.
I am a member of community renewable energy Wandsworth which do have some dealings with the Council, word jaw, no pecuniary or financial benefit from being involved.
item 4 relates to the sealing of documents.
is this item received as information?
ITEM 5 members, please raise your hand to indicate if you have a politician to hand in once I have called your name, please announce the subject title of the petition and who you are presenting as an aide before on behalf of please then come forward and hand your petition to Ms Kelley.
COSLA is.
extreme.
thank you, thank you, we have had thank you and we have had what you have said.
I have asked I have asked you to stop and sit down, please, we need to conduct, we need to conduct the business of the meeting.
I have asked you to stop and sit down twice now, I am now asking you to leap.
the
we were.
hello members of the gallery, hello, please.
I'm asking you to sit down, we need to continue the business of this evening and I'll please ask you to be quiet and allow us to have our debates place if you do that again, I'll have no adaptation to as the security to move it out please.
that's what I said from the beginning, I said I have had you.
all right.
thank thank you very much, thank you very much, all the members, all of you in the gallery, thank you so much for coming out to speak out tonight, I do understand you and I do share, I do feel what you feel police I do understand I'm saying thank you can you please be quiet if you don't be quiet, I will have no other up shine to us the security to move you out.
and how many police?
thank you.
please kind of have your petition.
I have a petition about speeding on Merton Road, particularly by this.
I was in the air from East Putney, the Councillor for East Putney, thank you.
I will take it up.
the
I take it down to.
the
any other politician today.
items.
leader's questions before we begin questions, may I remind all Members that the overall period of Members' questions to the Leader and Cabinet Member is 45 minutes with 20 minutes for the leaders' questions and 25 minutes for the Cabinet Members' questions, however, if the Leader's questions overrun, this time is taken of the Cabinet Members' questions.
question number 1 to the question wants the Leader.
I thank Councillor Sweet for that question.
great topic. Wandsworth has more council leaseholders than any other borough and this administration is very mindful of their needs and we believe their voices have been ignored for too long, so we know we have to work doubly hard to try to regain their trust in Wandsworth. We're supporting our council leaseholders with a popular new policy of giving them four years interest, free to repay those major works bills over 3,000 pounds. This has been a really popular cost of living support measure. Your question asks about Councillor Island, who I'm very pleased to have sitting next to me this evening. I see no need to destroy associate myself from her comments, which are factually and legally correct. Cancer Island is a brilliant advocate for leaseholders. She's a longstanding resident a council leaseholder, and she brings that perspective every single day into this town hall, and it's hugely valuable, and I'd also like to pay tribute to Councillor island's work as our finance cabinet member. She is absolutely smashing it. She's delivering on this administration's priorities, sound financial management, to make resources available for the front line where they can truly deliver for residents, as we will hear more of later, Angela has balanced the budget while protecting frontline services and delivering London's biggest cost of living support package. Great job, Angela
supplementary Lord Mayor.
thank you supplementary, Madam Mayor, under the Conservative administration, this Council had a fantastic record of helping tenants on to the housing ladder, many leaseholders on our estates are incredibly proud of buying their own home, I know the Leader likes to give very long answers, but I have a very short question for him, which is do you believe that leaseholders are homeowners yes or no?
sorry, Councillor Hull, I'm told by Councillor either in the last days of their tenants, but I'm not going to get into freehold versus leasehold versus commonhold, we'll we'll we'll we'll let the many lawyers among us tackle that. I think we should get back to value for money, which is what a lot of leaseholders actually talked to me about and let's look at the data. The the average service charge that we're looking at this year is something under 1,200 pounds for our council leaseholders, and recent research confirms that if you look elsewhere around London, that figure can be twice as high and actually it's generally accepted that our Council service charges are probably around a third of what you're paying in private sector leaseholders as well. So I'd like to say thank you to our excellent housing officers who are working every single day as, as I know, Councillor D, academic Councillor, Les Island to deliver value for money for our leaseholders. You get a great service for a decent price, but don't take my word for it. Let's look at the results of the latest leaseholder satisfaction survey. So this is an independent survey of more than 500 Wandsworth leaseholders in the borough. This is the voice of residents' overall satisfaction of leaseholders was at 43% in the last year. You ran the Council,
it now stands at 64%. This is a great achievement and again we give credit to those incredibly hard-working staff teams who make it happen on the question. My landlords listened to leaseholder views and acts upon them. 25% of people agreed with that statement. When you ran the Council now fully 50% of our leaseholders agree with that statement. It's a real turnaround and we have doubled the number of leaseholders who believe we listened to them, how, through a new approach, by becoming a listening council and delivering on our ambitious agenda for housing, so you can pose as the leaseholders friend now you're out of power, but local people know the reality that it's ones with Labour that is listening to leaseholders
second, supplementary, Councillor Pope.
as a Council leaseholder, I felt largely ignored by the previous administration, I welcome the initiatives like what was mentioned earlier about the four years interest free loan, I would like to remind everyone that big the biggest increase in costs for leaseholders or leaseholders over the past year has been our mortgage does the neither agree?
so so I agree with probably three main areas we're talking about, which is your service charges. We've already talked about how we're keeping them low and now low relative to elsewhere those major works bills. You can be hit with 10,000 pounds for four windows or whatever it is. We've talked about that cost of living measure to spread them out. I think you're absolutely right to raise mortgages. Low lots of leaseholders are paying mortgages as well, and I'm afraid we've seen what happened nationally, with Liz Truss, in quasi quieting and so many residents now facing hundreds of extra pounds every month on their mortgage payments, and I know it's really worrying, and I know many of the trusts in quoting back as opposite want to blame other people, but fully three quarters of mortgage holders who've seen payments go up, blamed the Conservative Party's economic policies. It's been awful and people won't forget
Councillor Smith question to the Leader,
I'd like to thank Councillor Sweet for this question, which is about our rent levels.
it is always very difficult to make these decisions around rent, levels, around fees and charges for residents, and this is not a decision that we have taken lightly, but I do think it's important to see the whole picture of of why the decision was made what the actual impact on residents will be because the majority of our Council tenants will not have to pay the full rent increase 24% of our Council tenants.
have all of their rent paid through housing benefit, so they won't be impacted by the increase at all and a further on top of that, a further 48% of residents get some support from welfare benefits as well, so they won't feel the full impact, so it's really fewer than a third of residents who will have to pay the full amount and of course those will be the residents with the most stable sources of income and, of course, for anyone struggling, we offer a range of advice and support through the financial inclusion team, we can assist any tenants that are worried about paying their bills, and yet inflation does make setting rents and fees and charges very difficult, but I would say in real terms, our recent rent increases actually remain below inflation and of course council rents themselves remain very low compared to market rents and that allows ordinary income families to live affordably in the heart of our strong, diverse communities. Supplementary supplementary, Madam Mayor,
we often hear from the administration that they're a compassionate Council, but in your answer, both written and spoken, you've acknowledged that nearly a third of residents on our estates will be facing this rent rise of 15% rise in their rent since you took power, do you acknowledge that it's the opposite of compassionate to whack these residents with a 15% rent rise?
Councillor Hunt, so I I thank Councillor Sweet for that supplementary and I do acknowledge you know the these, these increases will be difficult for some residents, we we don't do this lightly, but you have to, as I say Lou look across the piece and it is a real challenge to get the right balance as a sealed knife in the past.
I think I think again it's just interesting, it's important to see the full picture and why this is happening. You know across every Council department the costs are increasing because of inflation. If you're trying to buy or build get good staff, transport things and inflation and the cost of living crisis haven't been gripped by this government and also we've effectively had our hands tied on rents by a government that promised us freedom and flexibility on rents and the Conservatives imposed. Capping of rent increases last year, for instance, effectively removed more than 40 million pounds from our housing business plan over about a 10 year horizon and I have to say I am not not to give another history lesson to you guys, but the Tory record on rent rises locally is pretty steep. You know, we have some of the highest council rents in the country, not because of the last two years, but because of decades decades, if your time in power as a deliberate policy as a deliberate act, alongside the sale of more than half our council housing. You try to maximise council rents again, he's concerned for council tenants was no evident when he ran the Council,
by the end of this financial year we'll have completed more than 250 social homes, part of our ambitious plan, he references to build a thousand new social homes in Wandsworth by the end of this decade and let's be clear, the Tories oppose this plan. The question confirms that they will reverse it if they can. If you let the Tories back in at the next election hundreds of council Bill affordable homes will be flipped back into full price private flats and sold off and, as Councillor Belton may recall, that's exactly what they did. Last time they took control of the Council
second, supplement by supplementary the Mayor.
thank you, my Lord Mayor.
yeah, he said.
as a Council tenant myself,
and, like many council tenants across the country I was taken aback by the increase in the Council rent, could the Leader tell us what Wandsworth council tenants will get in return for that increase?
I I'd like to thank Councillor Tiller for that question and one just to acknowledge again you know the the, this is difficult, I acknowledge seeing those rent increases and and you know seeing mortgage increases seeing private rent increases a very difficult, and I also want to thank Councillor Tiller for his excellent work as tenants champion.
we do all we can
no, no, it's brilliant.
we do all we can to support our tenants, we know there is more we can do on repairs on, damp and mould on delivering those new homes that we need so desperately for local families, but we have ambitious plans in all those areas and if we want to know what our tenants think let's just ask them so we'll return to this tenants and leaseholders satisfaction survey and more than 1,000.
of our tenants were actually pulled in this.
overall satisfaction of our Council tenants has increased from 59% in your last year in charge to 64% now, and you can see why they're so happy with Labour, we've reintroduced lifetime tenancies, giving peace of mind and providing security for our Council tenants we've got tough on damp and mould by forming a really effective in-house team we should just scaled up to six members of staff new, improved waste facilities on our estates, with investments in roads and pavements still to come.
and a new approach. That means property developers will deliver affordable homes and contribute to investment in every ward in the borough and importantly, we've also increased facility resources for homelessness prevention. So there's 24 new staff and very serious investment. The levels of homelessness are completely unacceptable in the wealthy and compassionate borough like ours, and we will continue to take robust action. So I want to thank Councillor Tyler again for his contribution across the board because we've had many excellent conversations in this area and I hope he'll continue to push us, and this Labour administration is serious about leading a decade of renewal in our borough and better housing will be at the heart of that.
question number 3.
Councillor that his colleague, question 3 to the Leader
I'd like to thank Councillor Leaf for that question, I, I think, make it skips or an absolutely fantastic initiative of free, universal initiative that helping our sustainability are very well received and popular with residents, they're accessible, they're convenient, they recycle all forms of waste and obviously I should.
thank and praise Councillor Gasser for her excellent work in this area.
mega skips are doing their job when we compare. The number of fly tips reports are year on year there's been an 11% decrease having collected 200 tonnes since launch and owing to its unimpressive popular unprecedented popularity, we expanded capacity by 50% last summer and I'm pleased to announce that, subject to the usual approvals, we intend to expand the mega skips programme further and that will provide, you know. Double skips at more sites, more waste will be recycled, less fly tipping on our streets and reducing fly tipping is a key priority for this administration because we want people in Wandsworth to be proud of where they live, a single fly tip is one too many, it blights our communities and it makes neighborhoods just feel dirty and unwelcome, and we can't have that. That's why we've installed more CCTV cameras and increased enforcement. We hand out more fly tipping fines than almost any other authority, and we've just increase the maximum fine to 1,000 pounds, so we'll continue to work hard in this area.
a supplementary UCLA year Councillor Lee, so I think we all will recognise that there are more important things than rubbish, but obviously as Councillor, there is one of one of the issues that affects every single one of our residents and it was a manifesto pledge for a reason. Does the Leader agree that a cleaner and greener borough also improves the overall quality of life for all of our residents? It makes it a safer and healthier environment for our kids to grow up in and reducing fly tipping in Wandsworth by 11% is very impressive, but I wanted to ask what other progress has been made in the last year towards our ambition of being a cleaner, greener borough?
Councillor Hunt, I'd like to thank Councillor Leaf for that rubbish question.
if I had to pick anything on our waste collection record, I think that I'm most proud of most recently, I'd say, Christmas tree collections, I thought was an amazing success this year I thought we slayed it.
obviously well done to all the staff who worked very hard, including through Christmas, to achieve that, we want residents to enjoy Christmas without the stress of wondering how they're gonna dispose of that tree and you know hands up, we got that wrong last year the service wasn't nearly good enough, but I hope residents will give us credit that we stopped we listened and and we've improved matters this year.
there were more collection rounds, there was more technology involved and I think, quite useful thing. We had three permanent drop off locations in Putney, Battersea and Tooting, I think that's something we'll look at again. In total, 177 tonnes of Christmas trees were recycled and turned into agricultural fertiliser, so that's a really positive result. I think, to take the broader point, our cleaner borough plan is an ambitious agenda. We're going to tackle the climate emergency, we're going to ensure you have cleaner streets and safer air for everyone in Wandsworth, and that's why we've launched a citizen citizen-led
equality action plan, that's going to inform and educate and support the people of Wandsworth in becoming more sustainable, and just just to finish by saying we will guarantee your weekly bin collection and also a very exciting plan, we will introduce a food waste collection to every part of the borough by the end of this year.
second, Councillor O'Connor supplementary, Madam Mayor, thank you LEP, it's nice to hear the Leader praise the mega skip.
offer. That was, of course, something that was introduced by the Conservative administration. I'm glad to see it's doing so well and and having a good effect. Now we can argue about the fly tipping statistics. Certainly, Members on this side have seen huge amounts of fly tipping hundreds of being reported, so it is still an issue on the mega skips themselves, though, for far too often they're not really mega-school days at all. They're fill up by the middle of the morning and residents
Councillor Parnell, please ask your question because the Leader
no time for speeches, please ask your question, will he commit to making sure that all the locations have mega skip day provision all day on the mega-school days?
I thank Councillor Corner for that question and yeah, I mean it will take good ideas from everywhere and many, many initiatives have carried across between different administrations. Yeah yeah, I, I think, as I I shed as much as I can earlier, which is I share his desire. You know, if people are bringing more material, that the you know the they think that we can hopefully recycle yeah, let's let's look at putting more skips there, I think he's perhaps being overly literal that it's a mega skip day from dawn till dusk. You know, we are now advertising it, you know from, you know, come early and it's it's full when it's full, you know, it's it's not you, you can come at 12.00 or 2 o'clock or any other time
I mean, you know, you talk about the opposite sides contribution to fly tipping.
I am afraid your main contribution in in the actual states was the last eight years you ran the Council, fly tipping, went up by 444%.
during the same time that you ran down our fleet of vehicles that we've inherited, not just a Serco contract with no proper, you know performance management but also vehicles that are broken down and at the end of their life so we our plan is comprehensive, it's long term it's better for our streets and it's better for our air as I say we will take tough action but we need to be honest, it was austerity that led to the breakdown of these public services and prevented councils and still presents councils from tackling those real quality of life issues like fly tipping and cleaner streets.
so our administration is left literally picking up your mess.
the time for Leader's question has now finished on a point of order, Madam Mayor, I wish to adjoin the Council for five minutes to allow all members to pledge by commitment to put in Council tenants and leaseholders at the heart of engagement when making decisions affecting the quality of their life and neighbourhood.
do you have a section?
how long do you wish to agenda cancelled five minutes minimum?
please speak to introduce your motion.
if a week is a long time in politics, 44 years is a very long time, indeed, 44 years in opposition should be time enough to develop an agenda for local government that is sensitive and sympathetic to the needs of residents, 44 years of losing the argument should have been time enough to inculcate in once with Labour a culture of active listening.
sincere willingness to engage with residents and an openness to acknowledging when it gets things wrong.
the question of an asset of governments is whether they've wasted their time in power, it seems this Labour Council has gone one better and wasted its time in opposition.
leaving it woefully unprepared for the great responsibility of governing this bark nowhere is this more evident than in the administration's calamitous handling of the homes for once with programme, the Cabinet Member for Housing likes to portray any criticism of the programme as proof of Conservative opposition to social housing, this is a transparent ruse to avoid answering for the myriad failings of his and the council's housing agenda.
this side of the Chamber has always acknowledged the importance of social housing. There are developments proposed for my ward, for example, that I'm happy to support as long as they have the backing of local people,
the proposed development in West, partly in Roehampton, however.
Councillor Burton, please.
please do not allow him to speak, please.
police Virginia, thank you, and could I have a time added, please, thank you.
nowhere is this more evident than in.
I've obviously touched a nerve, there are developments proposed for my ward, as I've said that I'm happy to support as long as they have the backing of local people, the proposed developments in West Putney and Roehampton, however specifically the Ashburton and Lennox estates, have met with universal opposition from local residents, who have repeatedly raised concerns about overcrowding.
loss of green space and parking, deprivation of sunlight and the erosion of the social fabric of their communities.
they have consistently pointed out shortcomings with the public consultation that undermine its validity, including insufficient notice of consultation events and inconsistent and error-strewn information about proposals, the response of the Cabinet Member and this Labour Council to these residents has consistently been one of high arrogance, condescension and irritation. Two weeks ago I watched in disbelief as all Labour members of the Housing Committee voted against, I repeat, against releasing information to residents about site locations for the proposed Lennox Estate redevelopment, even though this information is in their gift to give on this committee it's worth noting sits the council's so-called tenants champion a Roehampton Councillor himself.
his idea of championing tenants seems to involve them, seems to involve keeping them in the dark about crucial information affecting their communities.
it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
the Labour councillors of West Putney in Roehampton did not disagree with their grouped in order to actively engage with residents of these estates to find common ground and a way forward, residents are realistic enough to understand that some compromise is necessary but they feel abandoned and ignored by the democratic representatives in whom they placed their trust a potential risk of this as their growing frustration and with that disengagement with the consultation process, sadly one can't help suspecting if that's all part of the plan.
there would be a danger of this happening to, if not for the tenacity and steadfastness of residents who are more than a match for this Labour Council. No doubt will shortly be treated to the spectacle, if treated as the right word of the Cabinet Member insisting that public engagement has been spotless. I say to him there's a simple way of settling this debate. Why not ask the residents themselves? This Council is pursuing the homes for once with programme with such monomaniacal ideological zeal that has left little room for many of tenants and leaseholders priorities. In two years of sitting on the Housing Committee, I've yet to see a coherent agenda for tackling anti-social behavior
as I pointed out in this Chamber two months ago.
an agenda for leaseholders, it has been similarly lacking, it is telling and no coincidence that its one policy, the sum total of its vision for leaseholders extending the period for major works payments, is one which focuses on residents' indebtedness to government.
this Labour Councillors, nothing to say on leasehold ownership as a tool of wealth creation.
or enabling leaseholders to buy their freehold or take management of their building. It can't conceive of any relationship with tenants and leaseholders where it's not at the front and centre calling the shots where Wandsworth Conservative has only your time is up, no, no, no, no, no waves, I've timed it, I've time to said it's five minutes and we will pass the time for you. We pass the time for you, so your time is up
that is complete from Adam, now we know the time was possibly you, it wasn't persistence this time this and I know there's a considerable amount left, I've not been compensated for that time, give you 10 minutes to wind up with 10 seconds to where I'm sorry,
allow me to find my place, Madam Mayor.
okay, last paragraph.
as a short, what Labour is fun, Labour is fond of trumpeting its own compassion, but compassion without humility is self-righteousness and hubris in my day job as a clinical psychologist, I know the most important thing to my patients, even more important than the therapy itself is the feeling of being listened to and validated I'm sorry your time is up, thank you.
would I lead a lightbulb?
would the Leader like to respond to this?
consider getting.
yeah so.
thank you for raising this as a challenge, but I think this is what the third Adjournment debate on this issue, and I think look, it's an important issue and it's one that we take very seriously, but I just am furious at some of the hypocrisy that you bring to this Chamber every time we discuss this to talk to us about consultation when you had a master plan on the autumn that you refused to even do the basic minimum GLA ballot on is just absurd.
that is a scheme where to rake in millions and millions of pounds of public grant where the GLA specifies for good practice you give the residents affected a physical vote on it, this Council consistently refused to go through that basic vote process now you have then taken that awful history where you just refuse to engage with what people actually wanted and you've brought it to your own programme, your own programme that we inherited from you the 1,000 homes programme and see Councillor Govindia is walking out because it's his baby right.
not walking out, it's just going for a stroll, that's fine.
you know, we inherited this programme from you. There are sites currently being built out that the residents who come and are worried about the homes that we are trying to build, say look at this. It's going to be like this is going to be like this. Where were you where were you when that was happening? Where was this outrage? What you've done is you've latched onto it, you have latched onto this for political point-scoring. I'm going to take the Lennox has a really good example, because the Lennox is a is like a classic example of you. It's just just despicable behavior, so what you do, that Lennox hasn't even seen plans, yet all we've had is the first consultation which you didn't come to you haven't been to a single one of these. If you at least came to these consultations
if I was a backbencher and I was going to bring three for a German motion to this Council, I will at least turn up to the consultation right, so you don't even attend the consultations to see how they're run, then on the Lennox we have your parliamentary candidate, this Lee Roberts character, sending the MSC terrifying residents saying that they were going to do these things that haven't even been discussed yet with residents. You bring these motions to committee. Of course we're not going to share it with you publicly before we've done the proper consultation with residents. That'd be completely backed away front. We want to do it in a proper reasonable
like structured statutory way with residents, so that we do this by the book. This isn't politics. For us, this is serious now, the reason why building council houses we have over the last 13 years of Conservative rule, we have less council homes than when we started, we have less from demolition and from sale that is appalling. The housing crisis is overwhelming. Conservative councillors are queuing up in parliament right because they're going bust because of the cost of TPO is just mind-bending that you have latched on to something that is a national outlier. You should be proud of the once. A thousand homes programme is an infill programme that is it's building beautiful, it's carefully it's carefully constructed. We're not building monolith blocks everywhere, we have a design review panel that goes through the process. Now every single site, we do every single site we do, we have people who come and they are genuinely terrified about the prospect of what's going to happen because look and it gets said over and over again I support council housing, I believe in the agenda, but this isn't the right place for it, but that is the reason why council housing doesn't get built because there is it's always seen it's always seen that there isn't a right place for it
if your council had taken that approach, if you had boiled down to resident pressure when people were saying things shouldn't be built, Gadian Road wouldn't exist. You know that to calculate gravely given your knows how much correspondence he will have got, he knows how many people wrote in, he knows what it was like on the estate when it was getting when it was getting built out. We are a listening council, we take this incredibly seriously, but we also take absolutely seriously that there are 3,600 families in Wandsworth who are in temporary accommodation. That's before. I even touch the residents who live on the estates where we're building these homes that are overcrowded, who are going to get first priority on this right. This is the serious work of governance we have made compromises. We have reduced unit sizes when we get feedback. When our architects, when the planning authority says, Look, you know what this is too dense, this is too high. This tree needs protecting. You need to think about the heritage implications we factor all of that in, but you're fundamentally latching on to something which is about incredibly socially important and socially progressive policy, and I think the politics you play with this is terrifying. Our residents needlessly, and I think it's just frankly appalling
OK.
madman,
med med point of personal explanation on basis that Councillor decorative named me twice in his speech, can I just make it very clear that, as far as engagement with residents were concerned, whether it Gideon or elsewhere, I and my Cabinet Cabinet colleagues members were always assiduous in engaging with the residents,
madam Mayor, a point of personal explanation.
since I was mentioned just now.
sorry, your name wasn't mentioned now, yes.
please, yes, I set out, I'll keep this brief, since the Cabinet Member has already explained the absurdity of the motion that the Conservative party brought to the last Housing Committee.
yes, this notion that residents should have and be able to look at plans that simply don't exist yet, and and this and yeah,
and this is why I voted down this absurd motion, not because of any opposition to restaurants being informed and I'm glad to say that the Lennox
Councillor uplifts that.
if I may continue, I'm glad to say that the Lennox Estate will be consulted on the 20th of February, and I look forward to seeing residents at that consultation.
Councillor Golton, are you satisfied with the explanation provided and would you like to withdraw your motion or would you like your motion be put to a vote, no, I'm not satisfied in the slightest I'd like it to be put to a vote please.
the motion to the vote on this Adjournment.
the motion to the vote on this urging the Council for five minutes
is to adjoin the Council, to allow all members to pledge their commitment to put in Council tenants and leaseholders at the heart of engagement when making decisions affecting the quality of their lives in the neighbourhood.
all those in favour.
others are games.
any abstentions.
all those in favour is 20 against 30.
abstention is one,
so is lost.
madam Mayor, a point of order.
madman, I had failed to see that in the answers to question 7 there is a reference to London, Civ, of which I am a non-exec member, and therefore have a prejudicial interest in as far as a question is concerned.
covenants Members' questions.
question number 12
library opening.
libraries, opening of new libraries in ones with home Councillor Boswell, question 12 to the Cabinet Member for Environment
yeah. Thank you very much for the question and just a few people that haven't read it, it's all about the opening of Wandsworth Town library and do I think it's worth spending good money on libraries and yes, of course I think of Wandsworth Town library, it's fabulous if you haven't seen it in its new incarnation, is wonderful, go and say it's beautiful is well designed. It's colourful, it's child-friendly, it's adult friendly, it's got thousands and hundreds of books, it all sorts of other activities on offer. It is just wonderful, so go and see it, and the next part of the question was Councillors. Expenditure on new and existing libraries is money well spent yesterday absolutely, they do so much more than just lend out books so absolutely
supplementary magma, yeah, please go ahead.
I thank the Cabinet member for her answer and I couldn't agree more as someone who was very involved in the campaign to save our libraries back in 2011 from the Tory austerity on great short-sightedness in in in this borough.
I am very pleased that this administration is committed to expanding and investing in them, could the Cabinet Member give a list of a few of the numerous uses York Gardens library has been put to since it was saved from closure and especially during the cost of living crisis,
yes, thank you, I mean, obviously I'm delighted that Councillor Boswell was part of that huge campaign to save that library, thank God, because it has really been needed and it has been a great source of support for residents and particularly in the cost of living crisis, because it's been a warm hub, we've had a homework and various clubs run by our very own Ma agency, supports parents, she supports children, we've got room hire for local residents at low rates, we have a business hub, we have support for parents and adults need reading, there is so much going on there and it most of it is free, and that's what our services should be and I must thank God for your gardens library, thank God, it was saved and watch out, we've gone. We brought writing a whole new library strategy. We're going to be looking at what else our libraries can offer to our residents so that everybody can access everything they need in our libraries. Thank you. Second, supplementary
yes, thank you, I welcome the Cabinet Member's description of a newborn to a town libraries fabulous that was, of course a library that was planned conceived and funded under Conservative administration, I also welcome the saying that expenditure on new libraries is money well spent, given that can she explain why Hop her party voted repeatedly against a new library at Northcote.
Councillor Dawson.
I have to say I wasn't on that committee at that time, so I'm going to have to take advice on that from my colleagues, well we can, I can get your written answer later on, I don't know, but now we have it it is very beautiful.
number 13 to the Cabinet Member, please.
revealed yeah, Councillor Hodgkinson,
up.
if I can step into Councillor Henderson, you can't be here this evening due to illness. I'd like to thank Councillor Connelly for the question and obviously begin by saying that adult social care is one of the most important things that we do and the money being discussed here you know the extra money we've had to put in during the year is all being spent on the frontline supporting the residents in our borough who are most in need. I know Councillor Cofely is aware of the increased demand for adult social care across the country. You know by by no means is this. A Wandsworth effect has been big increase in demand across all groups
the that we support through our adult social care teams and on top of that we're seeing more complex needs coming through, which means obviously more intensive services are needed, and obviously we are still aware of the huge impact that the pandemic had and still has, we're seeing increased frailty in our most vulnerable residents, more residents with disabilities and a growing older population. This means that adult social care department remains under immense pressure, but despite this brilliant professionals in our services, keep working hard day in day out year round to support our most vulnerable residents. So we are really proud of the work that this Department does and that our sound financial management makes it possible to fund this crucial work.
supplementary minute minute supplement. Does the Leader accept that any pledge made by the Cabinet Member to reduce expenditure manage demand in achieving an overspend of 2 million pounds for Adult Services? It counts for nothing if, five months later, we're presented with an overspend, where the figure is more than 3 million pounds higher than the last overspend figure he gave to council members
Councillor Hull, thank you well, look, I mean I'd say I think Councillor Henllan is a brilliant cabinet member and he's been doing a fantastic job in this space. You'll be aware, figures like this are being presented to Cabinet members across the country. You know the this need is escalating. We we really are in a serious place as a country and as explained in the written answer, the proposed budget for 24 25 is realistic and it recognises these complex needs and and the pressures that I have outlined, takes into account provider market pressures and additional demand through hospital discharge, which we know is a difficult issue that we continue to work on with partners. Please do read the written answer for more details
Councillor World.
thank you, many Chair feedback from local residents on the doorstep, whenever I'm canvassing has actually been very positive around the work that's been done by the Council, and the support provided as Councillor Henderson is not here at this moment in time I wonder if the Leader would like to highlight any particular successes in the area of Councillor Anderson's work, Councillor Hall, thank you for the question I'm always happy to take credit for other people's hard work that's one of the burdens of leadership but year J due to the immense pressures that departments and the you know, I think it's even more remarkable what they've achieved, there's a sort of set of results which will be coming to committee. There are already public that sort of adult social care outcomes framework scores, so the these are the best we've seen for many years, so I'll just highlight a few key achievements which, as I say, are all those of the staff one and the politicians responsible
it says fewer older residents are going into care homes, we're focusing on care technology and supporting older residents with their skills and confidence to help them live independently at home wherever possible. We it also says we're enabling more adults with learning disabilities to keep living in their own homes. More people say they feel they have a good amount of social contact, which we know is vital for maintaining independence and wellbeing, and the results show that Wandsworth has performed strongly in comparison with the rest of London. On 15 of the 19 indicators were in the top two core tiles and for none of the indicators are we in the bottom quartile, so this is really encouraging progress. The Department is making
but I know we have another question on this later in the agenda, so I'll leave it there for now.
question number 14, Councillor Lamb to the Cabinet Member, please.
Councillor Eleanor,
thank you for your question. No, it's the sixth year that we've had a one year, funding settlement and it makes it very, very difficult to plan now we know we've got increased demand for our services. The cost of providing those services is increasing. The government is not funding us adequately to provide those services and it makes things all very difficult. We are fortunate that we are managing the finances and lots of local council are facing what they call bankruptcy. Section 1 1 4, notices we are very careful in our management, management of the finances and it would be a lot easier if the government gives us more information
and give us longer term settlements. Thank you, can I thank the Cabinet Member for her answer, I see from the press that Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the Labour party, agrees with me that local government settlements should be for more than one year and I'm sure the next Labour government will make sure that happens, so will the Cabinet Member make representations to this government to improve forward planning for longer term periods but also to improve the current year's inadequate budget settlement?
thank you for your for your question, yes, I do agree with everything you're saying that we are making representations along with London Councils and the Local government Association. I mean the uncertainty over the future of the household support fund. It's really intolerable. You know, our residents rely on that money and we still don't know whether it's going to be extended beyond March, it is just cruel to our residents and it's unfair to us in trying to plan. So yes, we will be lobbying the government. Thank you
second, supplementary, Madam Mayor.
Elizabeth Wandsworth local government settlement figure is actually 9.9%.
Will the Labour administration welcome the fact that the government has gone beyond the 6.5% councillor and bash mentions? Thank you,
thank you, I welcome any money from the government, but it's really not enough, no, it really is not enough, you know this, I mean the we've had hyperinflation, which has increased our cost now, although inflation has come down still double the government's target.
that doesn't mean that prices have come down and following COVID.
the demand for our services is increasing. So yes, we are very grateful for the money, but it would be nice if they would fund the services that we have to provide, we've got the opportunity to really make a difference in people's lives and but we need to have adequate funding for it, funding does not follow, need any more, the system is broken, we need to do something about it, but Mike Hussey a two three or four year settlement with the much better in helping us plan.
question number 15 to consider amended red, may I ask question 15 of the Cabinet Member for Housing?
yeah
elephant gotta normally get on quite well with Councillor, given the
I think this is a really kind of cruel and pretty unfair question that you'll be aware that the way, scrutiny and pre-decision making works in this Council is not always at the kind of conflict or part of the committee right, Matthew does hours and hours of work with me going through the papers checking over really important decisions that we have to make, particularly on decisions like the autumn, where he lives, where he's grown up, which he knows at the back of his hands, more than many of the people in this Chamber, he's one of our council tenants, he brings in him really important, really important I to a lot of the decision-making that we have, and I think it's important if we want to get people from different backgrounds into this Chamber, but kind of yah-boo public schoolboy debate, and part of it is not for everyone. There is an issue of confidence in the Committee Chamber
you know, and I I think I just have to say I am really disappointed in this, in this line of questioning.
if you want to have a conversation about the tenants champion, you could have come and talk to me about it if you had a serious one and I feel like to target someone like this is just kind of cruel and mean-spirited, so that'd be my response to it, I don't know they'll never really Western much tournaments.
supplementary Milkman Mac.
I have to say that in fact the tone of what this Chamber had this Chamber should behave was set by his leader at the last meeting, so I won't take any lectures from you on this if I may say so the question supplementary question really is that when 4,688 tenants who have no recourse to any form of benefit face a 7.7% increase in their rents who was there to champion their corner and that's my concern that you're having a champion for tenants and the most vulnerable in this situation have no voice when in fact we are paying nearly 3,000 pounds to give those people a voice,
Councillor McKenna. That's a political point. I mean if you watch the committee meeting and if you watch the committee meeting and you watch the actually you watch the debate between main Councillor Cowdery, on this question and you watch the intervention from the officers on the rents we systematically went through that now, as you know, in the in the way that this Council operates, the conversations around rents around the policy are happening often with me before it gets to the committee. So if, if what you want from the tenants champion is someone who is going to be performative and put in tricky little silly motions and play the game that you guys love to play, that is a different thing, because we we, I mean the voice of the tenants, is it is, is in the actual policymaking is in the bin, at the be off, is in the doorknocking as being a kind of consultation. Events like that which you guys don't even attend, so I'm just I find this really is a targeting thing I I think it's
it's beneath you, and I think your own record on your own champions is something that you should, I'm not going to go there, but your own record and your own champions speaks for itself that disappear quietly without anyone noticing.
a second supplementary. Madam Mayor, would the Cabinet Leader agree with me that there's a danger we're falling into a trap of thinking that high rents are necessarily bad for tenants? The previous question made clear that, and indeed it was the policy of the previous administration to charge rents as high as possible, partly ideological because they didn't like the we didn't like the idea of a dual subsidy in both benefits and mixed mortar, but largely because this was a way of challenging land, channelling large amounts of money into our estates, with half of it being paid by central government, and we did that until central government tweaked and let us do it anymore.
and the idea that we should really stress that every penny from rent goes into housing revenue account, not a revenue account, can only be used to improve life of residents, but particularly tenants on the housing estate, and I would actually suggest to the administration maybe there could be a bit more up front on this point and rather than being defensive on this point, just make that point that if we want life to get better on our estates, then it has to come through the housing revenue account, and this is quite a good way of Councillor Wilson, a policy question.
has advocated.
kind of
classically welcome and articulate intervention, I have to say my speech that will be coming up when we talk about the HR that is going to go into detail, have a lot of that you're spot on that the reason.
I didn't come at like I said I said this last year I didn't come into politics to be put in big rent rises on people but given inflation given the crisis in social housing, the money that is paid in rents and if people fall behind we have an incredible team set up now we discussed this at the committee Councillor Caddy knows about the changes that have been made to try and support people who are going through that and the and the statistical changes.
you know the money is going back into making sure that the properties aren't mould and damp that the the the the that people have a proper, decent home to live in, and I'm making sure that our tenants have a good satisfaction rates and so there's I think you're right, we're defensive because we understand how politically charged this is and we know that that will be exploited by the opposition, but you're right the reason why we're doing this is because we're serious about making sure that the homes in ones with our quality homes are invested in and looked after properly.
a supplementary Madame last 16.
question question on assisting the Council, Lord Mayor supplementary.
mentioned in the
had to supplementary already, so we would want it in this way question, I must say, on a point of personal explanation.
since I have been mentioned several times place, not a speech.
OK.
right, I'll try and keep this brief in that case, yes.
well, I start with a confession.
year, as well as being a council tenant, I have several other residencies, all of them rent-free, and all of them within the heads of Conservative Councillors.
and
please see your question, please.
I don't wish to delayed too much, I have got a list here of things I have done as tenants champion, but I appreciate we need to move on.
so yes, I'd just like to say that I've been.
fighting for council tenants long before we even thought of becoming a councillor, as many, many other councillors, longstanding Tory councillors, wellbeing.
up against me I see Councillor Thatcher, thank you, so let's take things away, OK, thank you very much.
so question number 16 2 Councillor Fraser, thank you, I'm not sure I can be that one and just to say Bravo, Councillor Taylor, for that one question 16 to the Cabinet Member.
yes, thank you very much, Councillor Fraser, so the Council has implemented, we've implemented 26 school s school streets so far, and we've got another eight in development. The primary purpose of the school streets is to improve road safety and air quality around schools and support those arriving and leaving using sustainable travel modes. You've asked about how much money has gone into the scheme to date, it's 815,000 pounds has been invested or committed to the scores of each programme and we've got a further 523,000 pounds allocated in future years. Thank you
supplementary Councillor Florizel, thank you, could the Cabinet Member, please tell me how she thinks the school streets programme is progressing overall and perhaps indicate a bit about what we've got to come constantly.
thank you again, Councillor Brazeau yeah, I'm pleased with the good progress of our school Street scheme, I've been really enjoying carrying out a review of the programme together with Councillor, the orcas are fantastic active travel champion and are excellent and committed officers who implement the scheme.
we've been looking at which school streets are working well and where we need additional measures to help skills, keep them going and ensure they operate successfully, we know that due to the Tory Government's failure to invest in education and reducing its funding during its period in office, many schools are struggling and find it difficult to operate any kind of additional support for those pupils.
but officers have been trialling. Innovative methods to ensure compliance with school streets, such as large signs with flashing lights as an alternative to A and P are cameras to ensure that drivers do comply with the scheme. The evidence so far suggests that these work well, there's some school streets we've concluded, we do need to put in CCTV A and P or camera enforcement and we're gonna be putting in cameras soon at Tooting Primary School because a review of the scheme there indicated that that is necessary. However, other schools. The review suggests that clearer signage and measures such as widening pavements outside the school should be sufficient. So in short, I'm proud of our innovative unsuccessful school sweets programme and we're doing everything we can to ensure that all our school streets work well and enable children to feel safe as they travel to school.
Councillor Hamilton, second supplementary Edinburgh, I thank you very much to the Cabinet Member for those those comments. The Conservative Group is, of course, broadly supportive of the principle of school streets, but it is, of course, also important that we ensure that there is widespread support in the community that proper consultation is carried out before they are implemented. Could the Cabinet Member give a statement about how that consultation will work going forward to ensure that they really are welcoming communities and don't cause undue stress in the areas where they are implemented constantly?
yeah, thank you, Councillor Hamilton, so obviously we we consult very very carefully, with schools often requests come to us from the schools, we have initial discussions with them to look at whether or not you know the school location would be appropriate for a school St and how the school would like to see that school Street implemented.
we do that before we move to any kind of further consultation than we have in formal consultations with local parents and with local residents, with parents from the school to to gauge their level of support, because, of course, this is a scheme that needs to have the support of the schools and of local residents and of the parent body because generally the school streets always start with the parents and putting up the barriers Manning those to enforce the school street now if that indicates that,
you know there isn't really sufficient support, which did happen in one instance, then we won't continue with the scheme because there's no point in doing this. This is to help schools. It's to help children will do everything we can to support from the side of the council, but it needs the support from the school and the parents, provided that you know, this initial consultation demonstrates the requisite support from the school from the parents. Then we will move to a more formal consultation with parents, and it's and the school and it we will make modifications as required. There's a school near here where
we did one whole round of consultation.
local residents weren't comfortable with some of the measures that that would have required, so we withdrew the scheme. We are now consulting on it again in a modified format where we think it could be more practical and we'll see whether that you know concludes that it is viable to take that School Street forward. So this is a flexible approach. It depends on the level of engagement from the the school itself. Crucially, it depends what the parents want. It depends what the local residents think. We will never just charge on with consultations when you know that support, isn't there, there would be no point in doing that, but from the side of the Council, of course, we're absolutely committed to putting in place the measures, all the measures that we can to support the school to have a school street
time for Cabinet Members Christian, has now finished.
we now intend to report number 1 items for decision.
and more reception to that report and will ask the Council whether they approve the recommendation in paragraph 1,
agreed.
sorry, I think we have a debate before the vote.
so, Councillor Mrs. Graham,
could you please speak?
thank you, thank you, imagine.
as I look at the way this Labour administration is going forward, especially
with our Council reserves, it brings my mind back to the broken Wandsworth before Conservatives came into power 44 years ago,
it just called once us was called weary Wandsworth and it certainly most certainly with this industry certainly had a very unpleasant smell.
the Town Hall was strangled by the unions, there was blight.
boards boarded up homes from being bought by the Council, St Ann's Hill 10 years and squatted Hayward Gardens Ashburton all bought by this Labour Council with direct labour, and by compulsory purchase, which was spend spend, spend,
on this are council estates where ghettos residents did not want to live in them.
broken windows. Doors leaking Henry Prince was one for a start, you did didn't want to go, you may laugh, but this is fact and I very surprised, so we will learn that we were in power, so please ask them not to interfere. Ms McGarry, please do not intervene, it's not emptied as direct labour were either on strike or go slow, council tax was so high, 44 years ago, a resident had had enough and Wandsworth was financially broken, so no more money in the till it might ring a bell for you guys in the future, a mountain to climb for the incoming Conservative council and challenges that there were.
in our administration, as Conservatives, we are proud of what we have delivered and you're lucky to have that in our housing, a strong HR account, we had residents proud of their estates, thinking about the Ashburton and the disgrace of the consultation with chicken gel plantings.
were wanted on those estates with a proud of our home owners from rented tenants, part part by right to buy aspiration structures in place which is managerial for leaseholders and for tenants, strong, worse working Essex, and we initiated and and led on the arch in Wandsworth and the country best sheltered housing, good residents associations, 90% of residents supporting Wandsworth Housing,
to manage their properties, hidden homes, regeneration of the Winstanley.
CPIH as quality housing all done with assurance.
assurance, quality, assurance and transparency, and it was the brighter Borough then.
so was the amount of money that your borrowing on the never-never and with the internal lending from the Council reserves, all housing residents will be paying this forever and ever and ever in their rents, and you don't have KPI as now, you don't know to do quality assurance so tonight.
it will impact on tenants if the actual rent is agreed.
a year on, the rent is going to be 7.7%, which will seriously impact on those the most vulnerable who you pertain to protect in your compassion, vulnerable aging youth, so I actually urge you to abandon this rise and freeze rent as it will impact on the people with the lowest income. A rainy day will come. We need our reserves, we need a strong HR, A
and with the millions of borrowed with the interest over the years, history, if you're not careful, will repeat itself and Wandsworth will be broken again, so you're very lucky to have such a strong housing.
led by very good director, thank you.
Councillor White.
thank you Ma actually the HR support residents of council estates present and future building socially rented homes and maintaining our stock, it should never be a piggy bank to sit on as homelessness grows, and I'll stop declines when we took over the Council in May 2022 we've found decent revenues but the housing departments were under-resourced underfunded and overworked with too many thin decent homes.
cut your public spending and the private sector will fill the space, the philosophy of the public school chums, that stood aloof from the austerity carnage they unleashed 14 years ago, but austerity bought disillusionment in politics, ability to resolve modern day problems as homelessness house prices, private rents grew while council house standards declined in Wandsworth as this Council and their government failed to use their resources to counteract 21 st century capitals over indulgence and the March of time.
so what does a political philosophy do when it is clear to all that is failed, it follows the rightwing populist around the world, and then there's the world of post-truth post-truth takes the form of leaflets, ignoring context and complaining of Council borrowings when apparently forgetting that under their own care HRA debt would have peaked.
at over half a billion pounds with only 20 years to pay back, not 50 years, which is how hard it is now sensibly scheduled, avoiding crazy Liz Truss style financial may him post-truth always comply, also, complaints are putting our Whip back at the same room we remuneration as their own whip was paid a recapping council's meagre remuneration and pegging it to our officers, yearly rises, to ensure those who could ill afford to become local representatives might now consider it so widening the councillor pool and bringing fresh thinking and experiences avoiding the group think of that 2010 Cabinet.
the same post-truth bogus Brexit, which resulted in difficulties for us resourcing, are depleted departments and uncovered our domestic underinvestment in quality training and apprenticeships that leaves us bereft of tradespeople in a post-World in a post-truth world lies are your currency.
under-invested, under-resourced and underfunded this on its knees, government continues on the path of its busted flush philosophy. Beseeching councils to sell, sell, sell, to pay for desperately needed services, leaving food banks and voluntary sector to catch those that fall, thus forcing some councils to gamble on schemes that lead to bankruptcy and to a loss of faith in our local authorities and democracies. If you don't respect democracy, it's no surprise that people lose respect for you. I'm proud that when we said we will use council land for council. Housing, not sell it off. We are doing precisely that when we said we will hold a ballot on the Roehampton regeneration because residents democracy is vital. We will not just railroad through a scheme that will bring decades long uncertainty, upheaval and carnage, and when we said getting to net 0 is the mission of our generation is because we recognise our residents are looking to us to provide long term leadership, not short term populism harbouring post-truth, scepticism of the imminent threat of climate change. When we fly to Ukraine, new flag on the top of our town hall is because they are frightened by an unrestrained regime well versed in post-truth, and we believe people as a right to self determination and decision, even where not in Europe but living in the shadow of utter extremist governments that embrace wholeheartedly the post-truth philosophy allied to unnecessary bloodshed, seeking to curb their judiciary to ensure their post-truth will flourish and democratic institutions will lie. Mute truth, fairness and consistency is the bulwark that keeps the flame of democracy alive. That is why we use our hurray to support our community, keeping our manifesto promises. So our residents know that their democratic decisions will bring positive consequences. I would hope that everyone in this Chamber will reflect on their elected terms here, using it to askew post-truth ensuring that their utterances on a distant relation to the truth, but the truth is your close partner at your side at all times, thank you
Councillor Hamilton, I thank you very much, Madam Mayor, it is a pleasure to be called to speak in the debate this evening as somebody who moved to this borough and was a private renter, and now somebody who's bought their home for the first time I know what a material impact housing has on someone's health on their wellbeing and on their general sense of happiness and for that reason the Conservative party in this borough and nationally has always believed in high quality social housing.
in April 2022, a Conservative administration looking at exactly what went on across the whole country, April 21, my apologies decided that they would freeze social rents for our social housing tenants, they decided they would freeze hot water charges that was the right thing to do faced with the economic picture across the country only a year later when Labour took control of the Council we sat here in this Chamber and listened to the proposal.
already for them to increase rents by 7% in this year's budget. As Councillor Mrs. Graham has already said, there will be a further proposed increase of 7.7% or 2. Bedroom flats in this borough will now cost to rent each month, around 40 pounds a month. More by the rest, by the administration's own admission, the largest percentage rent increases will fall on cheaper and smaller properties. Now there are a number of concerns. The Conservative Group has about the proposal when it comes to housing this evening, but I wanted to just touch on something that the Leader said in his remarks. He was seen to have presented as some kind of a dodger, but not everyone who lives in social housing pays the full rent, or indeed isn't paying rents at all, but when you look at the numbers that even the Leader presented roughly a third of those living in social housing. It by my calculations that's about 5,000 people in this borough will pay that 7.7% rent increase and I would urge the Labour Group, who often talk about fairness and often talk about values, to revisit their values and drop that rents increase tonight. It would be the right thing to do for vulnerable residents in this borough. We also have concerns, as the Conservative Group, about, the depletion of the major repairs reserve, which will, by the report's own admission, be fully exhausted by the end of 23 24. The interest charge is similarly when you look at them in the period leading up to 28 29 on the when peak, HRA borrowing will be reached, will show a repayment of 20 million pounds on getting debt interest, but interest of 27 million pounds that's not sustainable and we haven't seen enough evidence in the papers presented to us tonight, of actual savings being sought, to make that money, work better for residents and for renters. I also wants to touch upon the administration's proposed landlord licensing scheme. Now we've seen plenty of talk about it and plenty of residents have come to us extremely concerned as a conservative group that if you look at other boroughs around London, you look at Waltham Forest, who are charging roughly 700 pounds and Enfield who are also charging around 650 pounds a year now. That's obviously being put forward for consultation at the moment and will eventually get there, but we are concerned, of course, that that will trigger down trickled down further into the charges that actually reach our residents' pockets in the same way as the increases proposed tonight to social housing rents will hit the poorest in the pocket. Now all of us try and do the right things for residents as Councillors but as occasionally things I think in this Chamber, will you? Read in Council papers that make us angry and that we need to challenge. One of those things is the comments that were made about leaseholders. I'm extremely proud and balanced to represent the Lock in Borough estates and Bellamy East and Bellshill West, and I can always think of one of our great leaders in terms of the residents' movements in Balham, who is a nurse who's been active in the community for 35 years, and I know the a Northern at Pride that she has been able to purchase her leasehold property her home. Are we truly to believe that we should not rely on the comments from the Leader tonight to refuse to row back on Councillor Ireland's comments that you own nothing when it comes to a leasehold, because I think when it comes to this administration or we see tonight from this paper, is the administration giving leaseholders the finger and social renters a rent increase? This is no way to behave and it's no way for any administration that likes to lecture us about being, sinful or talking about values or talking about representing what's best, in this borough, we will vote against this paper this evening. We urge the administration to drop this unfair rent increase,
Councillor McKenna,
as an explanation, please.
I don't think I did say that you are nothing, I said that you own the right to occupy exclusive right to occupy space, so that's not what I said and actually you know the landlord and tenant at is very clear on this. Leaseholders are tenants that comes as a surprise and a shock to many leaseholders, but those are the facts and I regret to say, Madam Mayor, that the comments, as are summarised on the first question, the Council questions to the Leader do in fact say you don't own anything, I'm afraid it was said, Councillor Island, you made misspoken, but it's there in black and white
Councillor Gillian yeah so yeah, you can try and mansplain through her actual leaseholder, about what she knows about one of the most experts on leasehold, and you can call estates that there are Councillors who grew up on them and you're calling them ghettos in this debate, so you've started really well appalling, absolutely appalling, so I think it's really important that we set some context here because, as my colleague Councillor White pointed out, there's a lot of post-truth going on as the opposition. No one's with was a pioneer in the self-financing agreement whereby our rents and what they were spent on could be managed directly by us that agreement that you signed up to was based on rental increases at the consumer price index plus 1%, to maintain our stock to current standards. Nothing fancy or flash. You also took on a huge amount of debt to buy ourselves out of the subsidy system to get that control, which I support, which given the alarmism on debt tonight is very confusing to me and you seem to have forgotten so Councillor Illingworth seemingly unreleased allow him to speak, yeah pause when he speaks up,
what happened in the interim political game, playing with rents is what happens. George Osborne implemented a 4 year rent reduction, which sounds good until you realise it was a cheap ploy to make the Treasury savings on housing benefit, taking money from local authorities, there were also electoral rent freezes we had it mentioned just here just before the election and below inflation caps, So when you add up all the impact that this has taken on our HR re, it's just under 1 billion, out of the ones with housing revenue account over 30 year period, that is 1 billion less than what we signed up to what the self financing agreement was based on and a freeze that was proposed today would cost an additional 124 million to that right. And now the government has given us a whole new host of costly responsibilities from fire safety, the green agenda, new regulatory framework, all new burdens, but no new funding. Thus, before we even mention inflationary pressures, jacked-up labour and repairs costs because of Brexit, the entire state of the market and industry, thanks to 13 years of Tory mismanagement, so it's in this context, in this context, after another below inflation cap last year, that added to this deficit that we as responsible stewards of the housing revenue account are asked to do what is in the best long-term interests of our housing stock and our residents, and that is why we are implementing the national standard CPI plus 1% which every other social landlord that we are aware of is making that tough decision because they are serious about their residents. Now, frankly, hypocrisy knows no bounds because for 40 years your rent policy was never based on what was good for tenants, but what was politically expedient for your party, we've studied your numbers, I mentioned it last year. Your own Members had to admit at a Housing Committee that the history that came before them over the last few decades, on average, the year before an election, once with Tories charged less than half the guidelines after each election, the rent sleeps more than double the guidelines above what you are actually mandated to do. It is astounding there has never been a sound rent policy from you, so this context, possibly the worst challenging context for social housing. Since the tenure type was introduced, we are seen as a national leader just two years into this new Labour administration, and our policy platform is being used as a model for others in the national press, be our frontline investment in estate managers, the first investment of its kind for 25 years, there are pioneering in-house mould removal team which this paper shows to expand. He didn't even mention any of that. There are in-house green housing expertise now spreading to our major works department. They are joined up cost of living support, team and rent collection support. There are temporary accommodation for him directly, listening to those on the sharp end of the housing crisis or simply our capital programme of 142 million pounds on refurbishing our estates right. Our residents can be safe in the knowledge that they have financially sound viable housing revenue account that was forward-looking and secure and on a financial footing that protects their long term interests of their homes, and I'll finish by addressing the attacks on 1,000 Council 1,000 Council homes programme
because this seems to be the basis of most of your attacks at these meetings. This is the envy up and down the country country, this policy and yet the source of so much misinformation from the Conservatives locally. It's a microcosm of national politics, be it the Post Office, the water companies, the railways, our NHS, our council, housing, our land, the only answer you have is sell it off, don't think ahead, don't invest now to protect the future, sell it all off to plug the gap. Well, that's the problem with Thatcherism, with neoliberalism, with the future that you were painting is eventually you run out of public assets to sell, while not in Wandsworth. We're building public housing that will protect our residents for a hundred years for generations to come, and we couldn't be more proud of it
amendments, housing, revenue account budgets in reign sentence, paper number 20 4 2.
two for 12.
are the recommendation approve?
no.
all right were taken into a vault.
all those in favour.
all the thinking.
abstentions.
the motion is carried.
madam Mayor, I'd like to a joy and request that we adjoined the Council for 30 seconds.
to call on the government to improve the school funding settlement.
do you have a second?
that can do it.
how long do you wish to agenda?
30 seconds, please speak to introduce a motion.
thank you, so I'm requesting that we as a Council
vote to call on the government to improve the school funding settlement.
in the Government's manifesto, one of our many recent MPs, I think it was Boris Johnson said that there would be more money for every child to receive a world-class education, but seriously no one paying attention to this disaster of a government will be surprised that this has been yet another broken promise but this one isn't just about politics, it's about the future of our children, our businesses and our ambitions as a global economy. The Institute for fiscal Studies shows that school funding is just about getting back to 2010 levels in real terms, our schools now have harder challenges on their budgets, increases in energy bills and the overdue and very necessary teacher and support staff pay increase, which is not fully funded with this limited increase. Here's the workings out
national funding formula rates have increased in fiscal year 24 25 by 1.4% for basic entitlement and 1.6% for deprivation elements, equally equalling an increase that is below inflation and represents a cut in funding in real terms. It's simple mass inflation is running higher than the budget increase and a more advanced GCSE maths formula is to factor in falling falling rolls Wandsworth is losing pupils' because of Brexit and people leaving the city during and post pandemic, there are some savings a school can make as pupil numbers reduce, but the fixed costs in case staffing requirements remain schools. Primary expenditure is staffing, making up 80% of their costs. Every class needs a teacher, irrespective of its size and ones with those lost 2.6% of primary and 1.8 of secondary pupils. Between October 22 and October 23. Over the past five years, school funding has increased by 14.87%, while inflation has been 26.8 7, and before this government hands over a job it is struggling with to Labour, there is still time for it to commit to an increase in school budgets in the government's manifesto. 14 million pound of additional funding was promised to our schools that same amount has been pledged to Ukraine in the past two years alone, over half of which will be used on weapons.
to kill people that investment in this country's future over five years is measured as equitable to overseas funding for just one country in two years, and let's look at the impact of this decline in school funding on one sector and that's the creative industries that contribute 115 billion pounds to the UK economy. We will invest in arts a headline from the government's manifesto, but it's been the first area to be slashed in this crisis of trying to make things add up. Just a couple of months ago, a group of creative industry leaders penned an open letter to Jeremy Hunt. They urge the government to invest in arts and design subjects which are becoming viable only for students, from wealthier families, and it's impacting business hard, because there's now a skill shortage and issue access to baited by the reduced candidate pool following Brexit. The talent lie
the talent pipeline isn't a quick fix, partly because of where it begins at school.
the Conservative government wants every parent's be confident that their children are getting the best start in life, this school funding settlement doesn't give our education team confidence, it doesn't give our business leaders confidence and it doesn't give our borough parents confidence. There are some people in this Chamber who wants to leave it to go on and make bigger decisions for our schools in Parliament. Will they join us in calling for the government to improve the schools funding settlement for children in Wandsworth?
I will call on Councillor Stock to respond, thank you, Madam Mayor.
yeah, thank you, Councillor Rigby, I agree with you, this year's school funding settlement is wholly inadequate and I hope Rishi Sunak will be pleased to hear that parents, teachers, Councillor Rigby and myself can clearly all do the basic maths here that the sums are clear this is not a real terms increase for schools,
schools are now facing a perfect storm, financial stability is already a pressing issue for school leaders as they try to manage increased fuel and energy costs, as inflation still remains high at 4% pay rise for teachers and support staff that are not fully funded, Councillor Rigby mentioned and supporting a growing number of children with more complex needs but in Wandsworth as with most boroughs across London these issues are really being compounded by the serious issue of declining pupil numbers, unfortunately falling birth rates, Brexit, the pandemic as well as affordable housing crisis and cost of living, have meant that since 2018 in early years and primary school numbers have decreased by over 7% and that's approximately now 2000 fewer peoples that we have in schools in Wandsworth compared to 2018,
the Government's 1.4% increase in per pupil funding does not go far enough to address the numerous funding challenges that schools are currently facing. The timing of this woeful in Greece could not be worse and really, unfortunately, financial pressures for children with special educational needs will be worse off 3.4% increase in the high needs funding is not sufficient for us to support all children and young people with SEND without further growing the dedicated schools Grant deficit. This is really not the time to be reducing funding for HPS as plans continue to increase at over 5%
it's really a disgrace that children are paying the price for the out of touch Conservative government's incompetence.
education is at the heart of what we stand for and Labour, making it a fairer society, good education drives equality in communities, it boots opportunities for all, every child deserves the best possible start in life, and that includes a great education, so they have the opportunity to succeed in life and that's why I'm not willing to settle for an education system that's only excellent for the privilege for you, those who can be educated in the best schools and universities.
every school needs to be funded and empowered to deliver high quality teaching and learning so that no young person is left behind.
I'm really proud that herein ones, with over 96% of our schools have been judged by Ofsted as good as outstanding, but we need to acknowledge that budget shortfalls now risk opportunity shortfalls for peoples in the future.
that's why we really need a funding settlement from government that doesn't jeopardise the phenomenal phenomenal work that's happening in our schools.
together with ones with head teachers, we will continue to lobby government to increase school funding, but our action to support schools won't stop there, we're committed to delivering high quality and an unwavering support to schools to help them weather this storm, our work so far includes investing in a school's financial advisory service and dedicated roles to support financial stability across our family of schools.
working with schools to cap pupil admission numbers to manage school capacity and our brand new business schools, business manager, Academy training, school business managers, so they have the best skills tools and technical understanding to support schools day to day.
schools are where teachers go to teach, they shouldn't have to constantly worry about balancing the books, that's why we've also rolled out innovative initiatives which directly support schools, budgets.
such as being the first council in London to introduce auto-enrolment for free school meals, that's brought in extra pupil premium, funding for schools, as well as breadth, financial support for disadvantaged children.
I have also used the 5 million climate change fund to install LED lights in schools, helping them to reduce their carbon footprint, but also save up to 75% of schools, spiralling electricity bills, these changes, alongside the dedicated work of our head teachers, which I pay tribute to mean that only 2% of ones with maintained mainstream schools are in deficit.
opposition members say they support social mobility, but to improve social mobility, we need all children to baby, be able to access a great education, and I'm not willing to settle for anything less the education of children in what Councillor Stoke. Your time is up. I will wrap up at the hands of a prime minister who appears incapable of time taking place, so I hope we will all unite and send a message to government to say. School funding must enable every child to have a great education. Thank you
Councillor Murray I used satisfy with explanation, provided I would you like to withdraw your motion, or would you like your motion should be put to a vote, have a vote.
all those in favour.
sorry, the motion to vote on is to adjoin the Council for 30 seconds to call on the government to improve the school funding settlement, because the funding funding shortfall place, pressure on the schools budget and create challenges in providing as one provision for children education for children educated in the borough educated in the borough.
all those in favour.
all those against.
any abstentions.
the motion is carried.
so we are going to adjourn for 30 seconds.
so all those in favour we had 31.
those against is 20 abstention is 0.
and manifest Adjournment debates we had 30 voted for 20 voted against system was the previous month after stumps the motion, OK, that was the motion.
for the Agyeman motion.
on this Agyeman motion, we had 31 voted for 20 voted against and 0 abstentions it was carried.
and reports number 1, we had 30 voted for 20 voted against and 0 of session, which was carried as one.
we now intend to Executive reports number 2, and I will ask Councillor Ireland to move reception of paragraph 1 for the report relating to the Finance Committee thank you, Madam Mayor, paragraph 1 on page 63 is for information council general revenue budget 2023 to 2027.
Councillor Bradshaw,
can it was thank you, Madam Mayor.
I would like to thank Ms Pop of each year and her team and the children's services for the work they have done for our children, families and community.
it is heartening to see that the cost of agency staff has dropped by 30% in the year 21 22 and is still going down. I'm sure this is because Wandsworth Council is a well regarded employer, along with the successful implementation of the family safeguarding the new way of children's social work teams working which was instigated by Councillor Suit when he was Cabinet Member for Children's Services.
but the Department is still vying with adults to have the highest budget spend, and that is why, with our children's needs paramount, a close eye needs to be kept on expenditure, there is still a shortfall in the deficit reduction plan, and I find it hard to believe that the Department will be able to stick to keeping spending at the same level over the next three years.
children's services are looking after a very small number of children who have extreme needs, it's just a handful of cases these children are being cared for by out outside agencies, where the expertise is a bit of
accommodation is available to meet their needs, this has often been the correct course of action, but when these agencies start to take the Mickey by charging extortionate fees, they should be taken to task.
children's Services are paying 1.2 million pounds for one placement, and three quarters of a million pounds for another young person, this is not tenable, obviously I don't know the details of these young people and I can't deny that it is a total tragedy that anyone should require such high levels of care and supervision, but we must find a more sustainable object option.
presumably these young people's circumstances will not change significantly, so in time we'll move on to the care of the adult services.
if a way of bringing costs under control is not found, it will be passed on to a department who is having greater financial trend linkages.
as a Tooting councillor, I am excited about the relocation of Paddox School to Broadwater site, being a more central for a lot of the students, it's a welcome move with extra capacity it will provide for our special children.
I do have a problem, though, with a 70% increase in cost.
the original estimation was 14 to 20 million pounds to convert the school, accepting that 14 million was unready or realistically low, the increase from 20 million to 34 million is excessive, yes, building costs have gone up, but most of this increase is either due to poor planning or a desire to achieve beam excellence which have driven up costs this extra 14 million pounds is not our money to spend it is not your money to spend.
is the taxpayers' money, it is already residents' money that is being spent, you cannot blame the government for not giving the council extra money, it is the increase in specification, that's driven up costs, some sensible decisions need to be taken, it is not a vanity project,
if it were your money that you were spending, you would rethink specification and get the cost to a reasonable level, the Council should remember they need to act responsibly here, it is their job to keep costs under control.
Councillor Fraser,
thank you, Madam Mayor, I want to begin by thanking Councillor Ireland and Council officers for their time and work on the budget. It's not an easy process and it deserves all our thanks with the many complexities facing local authorities across the country. We have a Budget, we can be proud of this evening. This Budget invest in the lives of once with residents and the challenges many are facing in the ongoing cost of living crisis. We are stepping in to plug the gaps where the government has failed to the pressures facing Wandsworth in councils around the country are well documented. However, that doesn't make the task of meeting financial pressures in areas such as Sen travel or adult social care any easier
in advance of the national budget, the government had been lobbied, not just by local authorities but by a number of backbench MPs to better fund council services, the Tory Government's solutions include a one year settlement which doesn't allow councils to plan are the sticking plaster solution which they hope will see them through the next general election and will avoid rebellion in their own backbenchers.
we all know, though, with plasters when they lost the temporarily cover an issue, eventually they peel off or toe enough, often causing pain in the process, the systematic underfunding of local authorities over many years cannot be fixed or healed by a short term solution.
whilst the extra funding announced recently by the government is welcome, Councillor leaders from across the political divide have said that the extra money will not be enough to prevent further cuts in the coming years.
herring, once with our cost of living support scheme, is the most generous.
in the country, providing help on areas from bills to food, but it shouldn't be our job to plug these gaps, nor should it be the job of local food and baby banks to do that either. But that is the reality of a Conservative government whose leader finds it easier to prioritise callous and bad-faith financial bets with rightwing journalists than he does funny local government. A Labour Council here in Wandsworth, supported by a Labour mayor in City Hall, is helping ease the financial pressure of Wandsworth residents with an extension of free school meals for primary schoolchildren. A freeze, Llanferres and offbeat Friday's Labour. London is delivering. Whilst the opposition in Solihull can't even tell you how much the bus fare is looking specifically at once with the household support fund, which totalled 4.1 million in the last year, was fully utilised, supporting our most financially vulnerable residents. We currently have no clarity on its future, which makes it incredibly difficult to make concrete plans to support our residents. In the face of a challenging economic backdrop, the government should be looking to plan ahead for the future and providing local authorities with as much clarity and certainty as possible and not giving them patchwork settlements, which makes it difficult to plan for the months ahead, let alone the year
in adult care, whilst welcoming the improved, better Care Fund allocation and social care support grant when the impact of inflation and cost pressures being assumed in the year ahead are taken into consideration, this falls short of the amount required, the LGA has noted that following a decade of underfunding and unmet need and no extra money announced for adult social care at the autumn statement councils will struggle to keep up with demographic changes, pay and inflationary pressures in adult curve.
in Children's Services. There are considerable public budget pressures with increases in complex needs cases for looked after children, increasing placement costs and increased numbers of HP's. This all means that the costs associated with Étienne travel looks set to continue to rise. Despite these challenges here in Wandsworth, we are investing in our services and I commend the work of my colleague Councillor stock, working with a talented team of officers at every level who are managing financial pressures whilst at the same time taking steps to improve the service. The teamwork in this area is commendable and can be seen in the most recent Ofsted visit in November 2023. This courtesy of staff are saying that they work in a positive environment and in the face of ongoing financial pressures, staff are valued by the leadership and have a relentless focus on improvement. Imagine Mayor, whilst economic and government pressures make the cost associated with running councils the most challenging they've ever been, today's budget prioritises those in Wandsworth who most need our help in the year ahead
Councillor O'Connor,
thank you, Madam Mayor, Israel are privileged to be addressing the Council on this important matter this evening, I wanted to just really use my remarks to cover a number of issues, the first is that we need to be honest about our future low medium term plans for the finances of this Council and we need to use imagination and creativity to run this Council rather than just simply spending more and more money which is unfunded and we need to also get a grip on that.
on controlling the costs in the largest departments in this town hall, but I wanted to start first by just addressing some of Councillor Fraser's, in my view, misguided comments. Firstly, she referenced the fact that some council leaders in other parts of the country have been asking the government for more money and I don't deny the tricky financial situation that many councils find themselves in, but we are the here to talk about this council and the Labour administration, which left a golden legacy by the Conservative administration which ran this Council for 44 years, delivering outstanding services, the lowest council tax in the country and leaving hundreds of millions of pounds in reserves which can be used to run this Council. So it's a really fantastic legacy and we should not be allowed
to deflect to other councils in other parts of the country we need to focus on running this Council, excuse me, you've had your time to speak and so Mansell officer, please allow him to speak, please and Adam Adam on some time so I can talk about it.
she also spoke about the Mayor of London.
but I don't think that he can take any credit for addressing the cost of living crisis, and they should certainly shouldn't be supporting him. He puts up council tax by almost 10% last year and residents in this borough are now paying more money to City Hall in their monthly council tax bill than they are to the Town Hall, which is just shows how badly Labour mistreat residents in London and in Wandsworth specifically by charging them too much intact. She also went on to speak about the adult social care budget, which I will address in my remarks. I did start off by saying that we need to be more imaginative and honest about our future plans. This administration seems to think they can get away in the medium term and presumably long term as well, with simply spending more money and using increases in charges to plug the gap and what they presented today in this report doesn't
set out a sustainable plan for how they will use council tax to to plug the gap on them over the next few years, they've got a budget hole in the year that is coming up 2.7 million the year after that 22 million and the year after that, around 40 million. Now it's really fantastic that the government has provided grants of 11 million pounds to help a bloodbath, but we're not seeing any creativity from the administration in how they can actually run this Council in a sustainable way. Now let's have a look at the adults, social care budget, the biggest in this town hall, the costs you're out of control. This year there are 6.1 million pound overspending just compared to what they said, they would be just a few months ago and the costs are increasing in later years, despite children's, which is a similar service in terms of providing care being able to control their costs effectively. But the administration is not being honest about its use of the social care precept to fund, that it just seems to be willing to present to us and to residents a black hole of funding
but there is an opportunity to be imaginative in how we deliver these services by showing leadership in integrated care, working with other agencies to effectively improve and provide those services without necessarily spending huge amounts of more money and placing the bill on local residents, so I really want to see them go back to the drawing board reflect on the golden legacy that they've been left with and come back to this Council with a more sustainable budget which shows creativity, imagination and delivering public services and will continue the good work that this Conservative administration did in the run-up to 2022 and that they are now squandering. Thank you very much,
I know it will come Councillor Lawler's to make your maiden speech.
thank you.
madam Mayor, it is an honour and a privilege to be elected as the Councillor for my home area of Tooting Broadway, and can I extend a warm thanks to everybody, including many in this room who campaign for me, I am proud to continue the legacy of some grades the late Andy Gibbons and his dedication to beating Lib Dems is something I promised to uphold Stuart King who gave me my first job in politics Sidique Khan, who still texts me every election making sure we've one teaching before he goes elsewhere.
in serving Tooting Broadway, I promised to stand true to my values, which is why I've been on the picket line with striking workers, sorry at St George's hospital, their union, my union, the GIMB will always have my backing and I wanted to thank them for endorsing my candidacy and ones were born and bred getting involved in politics was not meant to be for kids like me, I'm a proud council estate boy my parents' first council flat was on the Winstanley.
before moving to another and frightening way on Wilton estate, where I grew up, my primary school HFA suffered as a result of the Tories I remember the cold dark winter sat in classrooms, often broken single glazed windows, faulty school heating many a day spent in our hats and coats school should be a place that warms the mind not freezes the body it's why when given the chance I became a governor there and fought for double glazing to be installed.
underinvestment in our poorest areas was commonplace throughout 40 years of the last Tory administration, not least in my patch, where for every 5 pounds spent on town and other town centres just 1 pound was spent on Tooting. We must right this wrong and I'm proud to see the Council committed to correcting this chronic underinvestment, our local councillors, the local MP and a Labour Council team Labour working hard for Tooting fly tipping, reduced phoneboxes, removed more police officers. Our work is not done by any stretch, but the Tooting Labour team won't stop until Tooting is safer, cleaner and greener.
over here a party of values running a council in the interests of the many over there, the Tories out of luck and out of ideas, so what did they do they copy us we pledged to make Tooting safer and then made it we promised to make teaching cleaner and greener and then they said the same and for the first and probably last time I want to thank once of conservatives Rosetta and Sidique are by far the most popular politicians in Tooting by a country mile our leaflets carried their endorsements of me, so you can imagine my shock when the Tory leaflets also said I was backed by Sadiq Arizona.
I don't want to give a special shout-out to Arizona a supportive throughout, always had my back, she's taught me to remain true to your values, even when the going gets tough.
it's been an honour to work with our navigating votes on Brexit through military checkpoints in Ukraine and recently, and rightly in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
we often ask what drives us forward, who inspires us, and for me that's my granddad said a kind selfless man who always put family first a World War II veteran a great lesson of solid politics who celebrated the differences we all have. He would have been so proud of me being elected and I would have loved him to be here, but it's his passing that gives me the fire my belly to fight our injustices, his children, including my dad, who is probably watching online now, never got the chance to say goodbye to him. He died alone in hospital at the peak of the first COVID lockdown. No visitors allowed my nan his partner of 70 years never able to give him that final hug
the heartache in Jaws and the anger does not fade as it doesn't for many in this country, anger that people who set the rules so flagrantly broke them, we need people in politics who want to help those in need, not serve their own interests, and that's why I stood to finish, Madam Mayor, I must heap praise and send my love to my predecessor Kate here today for all the work she did and for her support.
I hope I get some more seconds for that.
the Tories thought they blown our cover when they revealed I was her boyfriend.
ignoring the fact that we're engaged and she is seven months pregnant.
we're looking forward to bringing up our baby girl in the safest Labour ward in Wandsworth, it's been quite a journey from council estate to council chamber for me.
where you are born should not determine where you end up because talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not with a Labour Council supported by Labour MPs, a Labour Mayor and, hopefully soon a Labour government, every child in Wandsworth including mine when she's born can enjoy better days and grow tall. Thank you
thank you so much Councillor learners.
and congratulations,
you really touch very sensitive part of your speech, which is really which really means a lot to me, thank you, shall we move on to Councillor Peter Graham?
thank you, Lord Mayor, I congratulate Councillor Lawson on his entertaining maiden speech, we finally approach at the end of the evening and it's been a meeting where, looking along the Labour benches and registering the expressions on their faces, I think there has been one recurring question, why are we here and for this special meeting it's justified, neither side thinks it makes sense to debate a budget without setting council tax, yet your leadership insists on dragging us all here tonight, so on a convention that we support you change it
so why are we here this bypass the existential aspect of that and turn instead to the administration's pitch they claim, and we've heard it tonight, that every problem facing the Council is down to not being handed enough money, it's all on the government, so let's look at what that government has actually done an extra 10 million for health and social care.
six and a half million in new homes, bonus for homes that you mostly a post or two and a half million boost from the leg uprating, and we see the deficit on page 64, but that doesn't include another two and a half million that arrived from the government after you put these figures together.
in fact, government grants and decisions now account for well over 200 million pounds so much for the inadequate it's enough to make one wonder, given that increase, why projected government funding for the next three years is marked as flat
I know Members opposite are convinced there'll be a Labour government, but that wasn't the contrast in funding. They'd lead us to believe I guess that missing 28 billion has to come from somewhere.
for now, at least funding from the government is up and inflation is going down, yet the Council is still assuming an internal rate of 4.9%, despite the Bank of England's prediction of 3% inflation this year.
so that means, and we know it, that the costs in this report tonight are likely to be raised down as not so fees and charges. You've already announced over 6% with more to follow. None of that additional revenue is included in tonight's figures and when you add in other loose ends, particularly around business rates, we hit upon a rather embarrassing truth on this budget. In a month's time you could probably cut council tax, you could actually let hard-pressed residents keep more of their own money. Now I say that's an embarrassing truth, but it's only embarrassing to the ideologically tortured mind of a socialist. Strictly speaking, I mean definitely definitely look at it, strictly speaking, blame information, blaming a brain inflammation, can lead to headaches nausea and agitated speech. Just think of those symptoms, Well, this this matter math this is a new variant, it's known as decoder mitres
given the given the limits of my state's state education, I did try to check the full Latin term, but it just said ask his mother and I didn't know whether she can help not now anyway.
not unless she slipped something into his dinners.
but your real embarrassment, your real embarrassment that I have to say should be raising the rents of low income tenants, that is not what I thought you went into politics for you're really embarrassment should be hiking the fees and charges that you're making residents pay and it should be the more of an 11 million pounds in overspending Councillor Henderson and I wish him a speedy recovery, but his budget alone has a 5.3 million pound overspend he cut his Department's budget by 5 million last year
and now he's doubled his overspend, since allegedly taking action to prevent it and the extra 10 million pounds so that he's got from the government, it's being used to set a budget that's cut over three years, that is the Wandsworth Labour model, take government cash, reduce the local contribution,
no extra resources and next month, if you take the social care precept without an offsetting cut in council tax, you'll do it again, that's what your own budget assumes, you'll hit the poorest hardest without adding a penny for social care, you'll add 2% to council tax bills and provide no extra support.
whatsoever
it shows a void where there should be a leader, no wonder no wonder that residents are starting to ask the question that you are even asking ourselves, why are you here?
OK, Councillor Fiona,
thank you, Madam Mayor, we are creating a fairer, more compassionate, more sustainable borough where people look out for each other.
we do have the largest cost of living fund of TW 10 million pounds which has helped support our residents through the crisis directly and through funding voluntary and community groups who provide essential services and support the cost of living crisis is far from over, with demand for support remaining at unprecedented high levels, the basic rate of universal credit is below destitution thresholds that's disgraceful and millions are going without essentials inflation may have fallen but the prices are remi remain high.
my colleague has spoken about the uncertainty of the future of the household support fund, not extending it past March will have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable people in our borough.
the uplifting of benefits and state pensions and the increase in the local housing allowance rates will provide some additional support from April but will only benefit specific groups of people we've used the household support fund to provide support to a much wider group of residents in need.
the withdrawal of government support, such as the any energy bill support scheme means that many households are far less resilient this winter and have used up savings or face mounting debts and prices continue to rise, but we will not stand back and allow residents to suffer. We intend to help them as much as we can by long-term interventions to build resilience supported by data analytics. We have successfully run campaigns to enable residents to claim their benefit entitlements, including free school meals and pension credits, and this has given the over 101.2 million pound to our residents. The increases in taxes of this government is is making life difficult for all residents. Despite the 2% points cut in national insurance and plough for employees last month, the planned freeze on income tax and national insurance contributions threshold thresholds and allowances in April means that there is actually a tax increase for most people, and this is during a period of much bigger tax rises of over 40 billion pounds as tax allowances and thresholds are set to be frozen all the way, from 2021 to 2028,
now, I believe in local government and in its potential and power to improve lives, but structural underfunding by this government is at crisis point. We play a pivotal role in supporting our residents through the cost of living crisis, but we are being hindered by inadequate funding and lack of long-term planning by the government, Government's support is simply not keeping pace with surplus pressures many councils are facing bankruptcy.
austerity has shrunk and town hall spending by approximately 40% over the past 12 years now the system is broken, funding no longer follows demand,
a decade of funding cuts has reduced many councils abilities to deal with key long-term issues, from child protection to an ageing society, and there is a national crisis in homelessness hearing Wandsworth, we spend 20 20 million pounds a year on temporary accommodation. Now Wandsworth council has made over 160 million pounds of savings since 2010 and we've lost 100 million pound in government funding while demand for our services and the costs of providing these services has increased and continues to increase now, even with the additional 600 million uplift announced two weeks ago, according to the Institute for government council, spending power will still be 10% lower than in 2010. Now we do welcome this additional funding, but it's simply not enough to compensate us for the additional costs of inflation. Now you talk about the golden legacy. Hyperinflation has added 46 million pounds to our budget this year and we forecast that will add another 19 billion for 24 25. These are checked figures. Now
I would like to thank Co officers and my Cabinet colleagues for all their hard work and commitment on the budget for 24 25, and particularly Mrs. Mary and her team, who have worked tirelessly to coordinate, manage and support the process. I am dialogue delighted with the results, but the work continues, including the corporate change programme, to reshape the delivery of the Council services to be as effective and efficient as possible while protecting frontline services for our residents. We are proud of this budget, we know that many other councils are facing difficult decisions, but once again we have proved that your scaremongering about Labour spending all the money is untrue. The government is underfunding services, but we are stepping in to bridge the gap to support our residents. We continue to invest to improve their lives and we are correcting historic underinvestment and building a fairer, more sustainable borough, while ensuring that our finances remains sustainable. Our Council, cost-of-living support is the most generous in the country. Councillor Ireland, police your time is nearly finished and we are investing in our services to make Wandsworth the best borough to live in. I hope you will support this budget. Thank you.
paragraph 1 on page 63 of information is for information councils' general revenue budget to 2000, and between 2023 to 2027 page number 24 to 2023 the motion will be put to a vote by show of hands.
all those in favour.
all those against.
any abstentions.
those in favour is 29, those against is 20 abstention is 1, so the motion is carried.
thank you.
item number 10 is for reports on the Tooting Broadway ward by election P Panama 23 2 42.
and this report be received for information.
item 11 is the report of the Chief Executive on revision to Committee membership and outside bodies page number 24 to 43 all those
thank you, Councillors, that concludes the business of this evening, thank you.
we have to finish my time.
there's going to be 51 next time.
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