Council - Wednesday 6 March 2024, 7:30pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting
Council
Wednesday, 6th March 2024 at 7:30pm
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Good evening, Councillors.
and welcome to tonight's meeting before the commencement of business start the Council meeting alcohol lights, cope on, passed upright, my prosthetic say a word of prayer.
thank you very, shall we police then?
our heavily for that. We want to say we are grateful to you for the gift of life, with thank you for another day and another opportunity for us to get out together to deliberate upon issues facing our community, even as we have come together. Once again, we asked for wisdom and a stand-in to bring solution to the difficult and challenging problems that face our community, although we ask that of God, at the end of the day, the completions of the matter, so God will be what is favourable to your people what will bring change into their lives. We give you a parade this evening will give you all the glory. Thank you for the strength. Thank you for the wisdom. Thank you for the gift of life. Once again, have your way into our midst this evening, in Jesus' name, will pray and all shall say amen
apologies have been received from Councillor Rigby.
is?
such as Councillor Coupar and Obrist for lateness are therein.
all sorry.
and also Councillor Angela Graham in the last subject.
item 1, the minutes of the meeting held on 7th of February have been circulated, are there any objections or abstentions to me in signing the minutes as a correct record?
in the absence of any objection or abstentions.
I would like to take that as agreed
item 2, it's my announcement, esteemed colleagues, as my marrow to draw to a close.
in two months I am grateful for the privilege of serving our remarkable borrower were floating on the past months since our last Council meeting, I have cherished, meaningful experience from welcoming the royal visit to the Princess Royal to the borrow to engage in diverse communities, events like the Chinese New Year celebrations, black history, black culture functions,
shown and enlightening local primary schools about the world.
about the workings of the Mayor's Rule and Council debates by inviting them to them to home.
looking ahead, I'm eagerly anticipating, hosting the Ukrainian MP at our town hall as part of her borrowed hall this week, I would like to draw your attention to my upcoming fundraiser the university buds race tea party, scheduled for Saturday 28 of March on the patterning impediment book your tickets now to avoid any disappointment.
they are available on event Brite.
additionally macho calendar for my quiz night in a civil suit on Wednesday, 18th of April.
the Council's service in a civil service on 21 St of April irritation with this passion and all proceeds from these events will be will support my chosen charities,
thank you all.
continuing with the agenda.
on tonight's agenda can members please note that a number of supplementary items have been circulated and these are required to be considered as a matter of urgency?
the reasons are set out in full at the top of those item is that agreed
please call us speakers keep to time or wind up your speeches when the red light comes on. I will cut your microphone off if you go over a lot of time. This is to allow on as many as possible of councillors to participate members. As I noted in my previous Council meeting, I am still suffering from a bad back, so I may need to stand for a few minutes during the meeting to relieve pressure on my back. If I do stand, please continue our seizure if I need to stand to bring order to the chimneys our announce this before standing up. That is the end of my announcement.
item 3, are there any Members who have any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests?
Councillor White.
on a number of community renewable energy, Wandsworth, Crewe
but I don't draw any financial benefit from being involved with them. Councillor Cooper
thank you, Madam Mayor, and like Councillor White, I met a member of community renewable energy Wandsworth in fact I'm a director and but I'm just saying that for transparency purposes, there's no pecuniary gain from that, similarly just for transparency in case any matters comma relation to the Greater London Authority.
I just wish to place on record that I am the London Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth again, I don't believe there is any pecuniary element attached to any things that we may discuss, thank you, thank you item 4 relates to the Sillitoe document is this item we receive as information
ITEM 5 members, please raise your hand to indicate if you have any petition to hand in once I have called your name, please announced the subject title of the petition and who you are representing it on behalf of please, then come forward and hand your petition to Mr. Kelly, Councillor Buswell,
thank you, Madam Mayor, I have petition on from the residents of Lúthien Road in south-west 17, demanding traffic calming in their road following a near fatal accident.
thank you, Madam Mayor, I have a petition from residents of Chorlton Road in terms field who are concerned about the proposed introduction of the contraflow cycle measures in their already busy and congested road.
Councillor Paul
thank you Madonna, I've got a petition here for residents of Wandle ward, particularly around Swaffield Road, and the surrounding areas support plans to repurpose land there, for a children's playground, for family, for local families, to enjoy.
to
Councillor Harper, please kindly bring your petition here, point point of order, if petitions are finished point of order, if petitions are finished, I think they have all the police say point of order. Madam Mayor number Standing order number 11
thank you, Madam Mayor, I just noted that the questions and answers today were posted online after 5 pm, and I don't think we had hard copies available in the Chamber until after 7, it is really important that councillors have a chance to review the questions and answers if they're going to participate in the discussions later in the meeting so on behalf of all members could I please ask that we set ourselves the ambition to publish and to share the question and answers earlier, thank you.
thank you in the studio.
item 6, that is latest questions before we begin questions, may I remind all Members that overall PR for Members' question to the Leader and Cabinet Member is 45 minutes with 20 minutes for leader's questions.
in 25 minutes for communism and most Christians, however, if the leaders' questions overrun.
this time is taken of the Cabinet Member's questions.
question number 1.
use of once would thus be as meaningful Labour party publicity Councillor suit, question 1 to the Leader Councillor, OK, thank you for that question. It's a great opportunity to highlight highlight the way we are using communications as a way of developing a new partnership approach. As a Council, we believe the Council should be in a constant two-way conversation with the public and our communities. I'm delighted to say that more than 60,000 people in the last month have watched the video message that we are freezing your council tax. You will pay the lowest council tax in the country and delivering better services for all. Feedback has been very positive from the public. Our administration has put out almost 800 press releases, dozens of videos and obviously thousands of social media pieces of content. This is where we get the chance to promote good work that Council is doing, pursue campaigns as a proud campaigning Council and to inform residents of changes that are coming down the line, for instance the roll-out of a food waste collections this summer, so communications is a vital tool in delivering policy and, of course, finding out what people want in the first place. It is our responsibility, as an outward-facing council, to make sure our residents know where they can access, for instance, vital cost of living support and information, and we are now adding 5 million pounds more to that cost of living package and at 15 million pounds that is the most generous support package in London.
there are obviously occasions where human error has meant we've had to take down or to edit a post online, I think so far we've had four instances of this.
we have a really hard-working and effective communications team which is actually less than half the size of the average Council communications team in London, so it's very good value for money as well.
their output is impressive. We intend to invest in them further in the coming months, to back the brilliant work they do and to deliver on our ambition of being a resident, focused and outward-looking Council or Madam Mayor, if I could just take a moment to respond to Councillor Locker's point, which I thought was a reasonable one and well expressed, and I know officers have worked very hard on those questions and they can be technical and there can be rounds of amendments, but I would hope it's something that we could discuss as part of our democracy review. You'll be aware, many councils actually put the questions in a lot earlier, you get the answers back a lot earlier, you know, we don't have to be doing it on the day of full Council, so I just put that as a as a suggestion. It was as early as the next Council meeting. We, we can agree a different system
supplementary, Madam Mayor.
Northern Ireland.
thank you I, I find the leader's written answer absolutely astonishing, let's recap, this opposition group has had to raise instances of the Council breaching the Local government Act.
breaching the local government act in ways that relate to the use of taxpayer money, local authority resources to promote a particular political party, in this case the Labour party, any instance of that is wholly wrong, and yet in your answer United were admit it's wrong nor apologise, so will you Leader take the opportunity to admit it's wrong and apologise for this instance?
I I thank Councillor Sweet for the supplementary I mean yeah, I know, of course it's an area if someone has put material up there, but I I don't think there's any evidence of anything other than a inadvertent area, invert an error that was very quickly corrected or at no cost to the Council taxpayer and no impact on elections or anything else, I mean, I think this really isn't in the top 10 that voters are talking about at the bus stop, I mean residents are concerned about the cost of living NHS, waiting lists, anti-social behaviour while Wandsworth Tories this pedantic boys' club. We're talking about section 27 of the Local government Act 18 97. We are in office not to when some sixth form debate we are here to deliver, and I know they're fond of section 2 of the Local government Act 1989, but I think perhaps it's caused some confusion in their campaign headquarters because section 2 stops, for instance, councils from putting a Tory party logo on Council leaflets, but once with Tories don't want to take any chances these days, they don't even put the Tory party logo on their own political leaflets. I mean it's there in microscopic writing at the bottom, but what is it about the toxic Tory brand that makes you ashamed to put it on your material? Maybe it's the waste of public money and rock bottom standards of this walnut government. If you actually were interested about the misuse of public funds, you wouldn't be rifling. Through the council's press releases, you turn your attention to the national government, which has wasted 2.3 billion pounds so far on HS2, the government's flagship policy. The Rwanda deportation scheme has a built in 370 million pound payment to Rwanda, even if not a single person is transferred, and it's the same government that allowed Tory peer Michelle Monaghan to benefit from tens of millions of pounds of public money for 40 p p in a national crisis, this is an industrial scale waste of public money that the opposition seems happy to overlook
second, supplementary and Ireland.
thanks minima, when they ran the Council, they will remember dozens of posts featuring local Conservative MPs.
they had photographs their news articles yet local Labour MPs, not a single mention, not a single mention piped down Councillor Graham piped down, they even refused during COVID to do joint working with our local Labour MPs so paranoid were they that it wouldn't allow red Christmas lights on the streets of Tooting, and so does the Leader agree that good calms and joint working are crucial to delivering quality services and can he confirm that he has no problem we read Christmas lights.
Councillor
I thank Councillor Lawless for that question. Cooperation with our excellent local MPs is crucial. I'm looking forward to a drop-in session in Tooting with Dr Rosena on March 16th, and that follows similar successful sessions with Florence and Mosireen in Putney and Battersea and, as I say, we want the Council to be in a constant two-way conversation with the public in our communities, and that does mean a strong online presence, and I know that the previous administration agreed, investing in an online presence, was a good thing because it was revealed in the last Council meeting that you spent more in online pay dance in the final year of your administration just before the election than we have in either over the past two years since, so I hope residents will be pleased to have improved the council's presence
you asked for some examples, some recent examples are comments is critical to reaching residents with cost of living support 15,000 free gym and swim sessions over 19,000 warm packs, 3,000 free school meals
people find out about this stuff from the text messages from the leaflets from the social media ads.
on waste.
it's our online presence that enabled us to get the word out about how to deal with Christmas trees this year. Hugely successful residents get frequent flyers leaflets about where to find the mega skips and also this roll-out of food waste over the summer and into the autumn. Communications is gonna be crucial to getting that recycling rata and finally, we're bidding to be London borough of culture. We find out Madam Mayor who wins on Monday, and this bid is simply not possible without the creativity, the energy and the discipline of good communications Wandsworth would be at the centre of London's cultural map if we could win and it would transform our image locally and internationally. That year of culture would bring much-needed footfall, boost the local economy and help grow our local talent and skills. And I just like to finish by saying Councillor, Lawless examples of really good ones and at risk of delivering another history lesson to the Council that the new accounts and this opposite, I'm afraid you've picked another sticky wicket here, because Wandsworth under the Tories was renowned nationally over decades, for the close alignment of public resources with their ideological mission. I remember being on a bus with Councillor Belton 10 years ago, just a couple of weeks for the 2014 election.
and he was getting angrier and angrier on Fokine Road, because every bus that we were passing was having a massive PR leap poster, put up saying Wandsworth low council tax Wandsworth low council tax, like a very angry call to the then chief executive meant that by the time we got off the bus all lights there were dozens of posters around the borough those are all coming down but once again you are falsely accusing us of something that you have serious form for.
question 2 to the Leader,
I'd like to thank Councillor Sweet for his question on this important topic, I'm proud of this administration's record on financial management, as demonstrated again this year
by budget, where we were able to deliver a balanced budget and freeze council tax while protecting frontline services, investing in our priorities and increasing council tax support in a tough year for local government, Councillor Island and our finance officers have really delivered congratulations.
we haven't added to the Council does debts this year, indeed we've paid down the debts we inherited from the Tories, however it's worth saying it's perfectly reasonable to borrow to create or maintain assets it's a bit weird the leader of the opposition always discusses debt in such negative and naive terms he well knows almost every household and business in Wandsworth takes on some form of borrowing whether it was mortgage or is alone any borrowing we take on as a council in future will be affordable and focused like a laser on delivering benefits for local people.
the potential future borrowing he refers to is related to our ambitious housing plans, to build more affordable homes, and that borrowing is paid back by the rents on those homes.
as he knows, housing money is legally ring-fenced away from the general funds that the council tax goes into, so it would be misleading for him to imply that this potential future housing investment had any relation to day-to-day spending or levels of council tax Wandsworth Labour is delivering sound financial management the same low council tax with better services for all supplementary my Lord Mayor,
thank you, Councillor Hub for your answer, but I I'm sorry to say that it's Councillor Hogg who has a short memory when it comes to debt the debt he refers to in his answer to this question.
that he refers to inheriting from us is, in fact, from the housing revenue account by out he sat on the relevant committee in 2012 and what's more, he voted for it.
but the rest of his answer is equally wrong. His council's own papers show that he borrowed 6 million pounds last year, this Council borrowed 6 million pounds I should say, 15 million pounds this year and is set to borrow an additional 150 million pounds next year. It's on page 113 of tonight's papers. This is a frightening amount of money. Isn't the truth that he doesn't even know what this Council is borrowing, let alone what it will cost? Councillor Hunt know. I'd like to thank Councillor Sweet for the question issue that has the short memory to do with. Of course we voted for that HBO and you'll rue, you'll recall, we've received almost no freedom for rents as a result, it's been a debacle from your government, you're the one with the short memory. When it came to debt, we inherited external debt of 52 million pounds that's now 17 million pounds. It's heading downwards but I am more than happy to discuss what residents direction,
Councillor, possibly on police and home ties.
madam Mayor, we were all elected equally, we're here to represent the people of Wandsworth, one councillor has spoken on every topic so far, it's not acceptable.
police continue point of order, and will I be a point of order, Madam Mayor, a point of order, Madam Mayor.
as I understand it, the first two questions are asked by the leader of the opposition and answered by the Leader, and therefore inevitably, only two people will participate in that Q&A.
thank you, Councillor Howard, please continue. Thank you. I was going to explain what we are delivering for the people of Wandsworth, with no borrowing to fund day to day services guarantee weekly bin collections, free monthly mega skips, bringing in food waste to every street. By the end of the year we've doubled support for victims of domestic violence, opened two new libraries and distributed free school uniforms. We know London is in a terrible housing crisis, so we will commit significant investment from a dedicated housing account. The simple fact is we have to invest the old administration sold off over 24,000 council homes and entire estates, so on housing we're building 1,000 new homes, not 20%, not 50%, not 70%, 100% council homes guaranteed for local people and their families. Reintroducing lifetime tenancies, providing for year interest payment periods for council leaseholders for major works, investing in our in-house mould and damp teams. We've hired 24 officers to help stop homelessness, and we're introducing landlord licensing to drive out those rogue landlords once again, with their pedantic bully-boy nonsense, the opposition has proved they know the price of everything, but the value of nothing second suffering.
and second, supplement translators, thank you.
Will the Councillor Leader agree with me that, just as he has pointed out in his written answer and verbal answer to question number 2, the minority party tonight are in a complete muddle about which debt is which in this Council, and this comes to light on a day when it also comes to light that the Office of Budget responsibility is pointing out, they're predicting a public debt, not Bank of England debt, but public debt. This year of 91.7% of gross domestic product, predicting it rising next year to 92.8% of gross domestic product. Will the Council Leader agree with me? The people of Wandsworth need to be warned that the minority party in Wandsworth
as financially incompetent as their government.
Councillor Hall,
I thank Councillor Osborne for that tour de force. Certainly local people trust Wandsworth Labour to run our borrowers finances. It's extraordinary how far once those Tories have fallen to a party that don't even know the difference between revenue and capital, let alone the housing revenue account, and the General Fund. Councillor Island is doing a fantastic job, investing in our priorities, increasing our support for those who need it most, while protecting our precious frontline services. All I can say is it's a good job, the Wandsworth Tories on trying to run a scare story about our potential future debt. On the day, the UK government debt has reached the highest level in 60 years that that would be a slightly incompetent. The national debt has risen from 64% of GDP when they took over to 96%. Currently all while imposing on our residents devastating austerity and then a disastrous mini budget. So today is a day of two budgets. You've got the once with Labour budget or council tax freeze a decade of renewal for our roads and pavements, and a 15 million pound cost of living response. The biggest in London compare that with the Tories' budget today, the country in recession, the national credit card maxed out and the first parliament since records began to see living standards fall.
that's their record, today's budget was the last desperate act of a party that's failed, so I wonder if the Leader of the opposition is really concerned about the dangers of excessive debt, he should perhaps look at the party around.
question number 3, domestic abuse hose Councillor Edinburgh, question number 3 to the Leader.
thank you to Councillor Brice for the question and I I just like to take the opportunity to thank her for her amazing work as community safety champion, she's changed minds in the town hall, she's changed hearts in the Town Hall and she's done a huge ma good for a lot of people, so thank you very much.
or, as she says, keeping communities safe is a key priority for this administration and we're working to make sure that this is everyone's business, that the teams across the council are working together to keep our communities safe. I'll just give three examples. We've developed a night-time strategy which aims to make sure Wandsworth at night is a safe and welcoming environment for all to enjoy, and thanks to the hard work of Councillor Akinola and teams across the council from economic development to transport, that is an impressive piece of work. We are White Ribbon, accredited as a council, meaning we're committed to ending male violence against women by engaging with men and boys, changing cultures and raising awareness. And third, we've achieved the domestic abuse housing alliance accreditation for our housing department. We're improving access to support through a dedicated member of staff in housing who is responsible for improving the route from refuge to second stage. Safe accommodation
and as well as joining up across the Council, we're also reaching out to our excellent voluntary sector partners and looking forward to visiting local charity storm in Battersea on Friday, for their International Women's Day event.
Murray Hansen, director and founder of Stone family centre, said regarding tackling the issues surrounding domestic abuse, working together with the council has been a very reassuring and positive experience, great help and support has been administered with funding information and swift action to help individuals and families in urgent need of help such as relocation from homes and situations where hostility was faced, even moving individuals out of London, all this support is invaluable, and the true extent to how many lives have been saved is more than we can even say here and from City Hall.
london's nights are Amy LeMay, welcome their night-time strategy, saying it will make neighborhoods, feel more welcoming and streets safer for everyone, particularly women and girls, after dark and that cycle.
supplementary, yes, please go at it and can I ask the Leader to outline how our approach will have been different to the previous administration's around violence against women and girls?
so I'm really proud, since our administration has taken over the council, that we've doubled investment in domestic abuse support, and that's had a real impact. Again, I'll just give three examples of what we've achieved. So you'll know, we've created a of VAWG violence against women and girls, but I'll say Vogue from now on a community safety officer to lead on the outward-facing and proactive tackling of VAWG in the community. As part of our cost of living response, we funded a new independent domestic violence advocate who specialises in psychological and emotional abuse. And third, we've launched our own VAWG community forum, that's a platform for community organisations and police colleagues to come together, which has an independent community chair. How is it working? The Chair of the Forum said that it is an empowering, uplifting and great place to meet and network with other professionals in the VAWG sector. I have loved being part of this work to drive change collectively, even though the subject matter is difficult, being in a room with others, having the same vision helps make the mission believable,
and of course, we'd never be able to achieve what we have with our local partners and dedicated residents were very proud to work closely with police colleagues running projects such as the safe space in Clapham Junction, and I know this area is a particular focus for Chief Superintendent Clare Collins, whose,
local police chief, she's really focused on this, finally, I just think two other partners, our local businesses, they play a vital role in the night-time economy and our brilliant residents, who keep their local areas safe through Neighbourhood Watch.
second, supplementary, Madam Mayor.
we welcome the leader's answer and support the initiatives mentioned, will the Leader set out how he plans to interface with the Met police to further support safety in the borough thank you, Councillor Hall, thank you very much for that supplementary and for the support I think this is an agenda we can all get behind and one where real progress is being made.
so I meet regularly with the local police, often with the police based in the borough, but also, as I say, with the with A B C E commander as well Chief Superintendent Killen's Health held. I saw a very good and very well received evening on this topic in Balham, where the local MP attended one and I thought it was very good engagement there, so it's obviously Councillor Henderson will be able to talk about his direct engagement, but I just want to reassure you, as leader and meeting regularly with police leaders and we get real-time messages when, unfortunately, serious, violent incidents occur and as a Council that's why we've invested more in community safety officers as well as CCTV, because we want to prevent the crime, but sadly, when it does happen, we want to make sure that that support, even tragically, up to the point of bereavement support that wasn't in place before is there and we look for the help and support of all councillors as we move forward
at the time fully, this question has now finished.
Councillor Paul
madam Mayor, I would like to propose that an adjournment for five minutes to celebrate International Women's Day, do you have a seconder, yes, I second thank you for how long five minutes are, please do speak to your motion, thank you, Madam Mayor wants us has always been my home living in Balham and Tooting and on the Henry Princess Estate in Elsfield, I attended the late Wandle Primary School on Garrett Lane at the same time as London mayor Sadiq Khan
but with secondary school, like like a few of my Councillor colleagues and also the former Westminster College in Battersea, like Jamie Oliver, I come from a family of hard-working individuals, my parents who are from Ghana, settled here in the UK at the age of 20 my father started working for the Board of trade government department before setting up his own restaurant business and purchasing rental properties, my mother worked for the NHS and was the backbone of my family, she nurtured and instilled in me, and my siblings self-worth, self-belief and resilience, and that our life opportunities were boundless, even in the light of all the gender race, faith, inequalities and safety issues she had experienced as a black woman living in the UK.
whilst I am a part of my mother and her strength and it's easy to articulate these words today, I cannot stand here and not mention the pain that I'd always seen her carry when watching me and my sisters still having to navigate the gender, race and faith inequalities and fearing for our safety when all she wanted us to do was live laugh and love.
so this is me using the strength from my Guyanese heritage and the inspiration from my mother, I've achieved a successful career in the public sector.
I am a volunteer mentor for civil servants, I set up the first ethnicity and race network group in my organisation.
because of these and other life experiences, I wanted to become a Councillor.
personally witnessing in my community how decision-making was impacting and influencing the outcomes of marginalised women's lives. I knew I had to do something. I'm so proud proud to be representing one towards where I grew up, so as you know, I'm now part of the change wonderful meet, the ones we've needed to be included, sharing mine and one of the residents' personal experiences to be that other female voice in the room. When developing initiatives and policies for the advancement of women and girls and to improve our safety each year for International Women's Day, we all come together and whilst it is a celebration, it is also about highlighting gender inequality. I'm therefore so proud of what we, as the London Labour administration have achieved in this space and special thanks to Councillor Brett again
so we have doubled the investment in domestic abuse services to survivors and victims receive their best possible responses. We launched a brand new violence against women and girls strategy so we ensure we meet the needs of women from all communities and backgrounds, we set up the safe space in Clapham Junction, as mentioned before, where anyone can go on a Friday night if they feel unsafe, we also take an overall intersectional approach to our policymaking, but we must do more to ensure marginalised women are included and empowered so finally, International Women's Day
is also a reminder one been showing solidarity to women and girls in the frontline of conflict right across the world, and also that this week marks three years since the murder of Sarah Everard, this will be a painful reminder to service family, but also mean this moment the mother of Bieber, Henry and Nicole Nicholls's Smallman and other families who have tragically lost a wonderful women who are also method for their agenda when all they wanted to do was live laugh and love, thank you.
thank you so much Councillor Board, I was very emotional as a woman I do understand, Councillor, I wouldn't like to answer respond to that.
Councillor McKenna, thank you, Lord Mayor.
thank you, Denis, for your you're a German motion. I just want to echo everything that you said. It's very important that we do celebrate International Women's Day and we do think of it as as a time when we, when really we are calling, is a call to action for us, as individuals as as humans, as well as politicians as well, to really understand and embrace the value of inclusion for women and girls in every sphere of life, and also to raise awareness of the issues that we still face. Women still face. The theme this year is inspiring inclusion and, in the spirit of inclusion, I'm very thrilled to share with you the news about the black onboard programme that the Council has been part of. It's an initiative that OAHN supports
people of colour, black, Asian and minority ethnic staff, aiming to equip them with the skills and mental ship so that they can sit on boards and whilst addressing those de systemic barriers.
that has hindered the progress of underrepresented voices for many years within this, with this in mind, I'm also very happy to share with you that our Work match scheme has placed 123 women in various industries, such as business, administration, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and can you believe it construction?
and every placement really is a step towards gender equality and economic empowerment and we should be proud of that.
I want to say in a fortnight I don't know if any of you will be coming, but will also have women's enterprise day, where we're celebrating women in business and there will be some awards, but also Karen Millen will be there, giving some inspiring talks about how she got to where she was as a Council. We're really taking steps, proactive steps, steps to tackle inequality, so we'll be working with access, able shortly to launch an online guide to locally accessible buildings and ensuring that people with disabilities can get around shops and our high streets with confidence. But the guide isn't just about mobility. It's about inclusivity for all people. Catering to a large range of disabilities, learning disability, sensory neuro diversity, autism amongst amongst the other conditions that it will be serving, and we cannot forget the impact of the cost of living inequality, especially in most recent years, and our commitment to supporting those impact impacted remains steadfast. We've expanded our support fund to 15 million, which is the biggest and most generous scheme in London.
and we're working through the recommendations from the ones worth cost of living commission, and we really want to ease the burden on all of our residents and the children in our borough.
in a world where violence and persecution force many to flee their homes, we're also taking steps to become an accredited borrower sanctuary, and I heard today from our refugee champion that our draft strategy is so amazing, this City of Sanctuary said please submit it now, but we're still working on it.
and we continue to offer a refuge and support to those in need.
so as we mark International Women's Day, let us not just celebrate the achievements of women but recommit ourselves, and that's all of us to the ongoing work of building a more inclusive and equitable society for all, I urge you all to spend some time, maybe even the five minutes,
looking at the exhibition outside, which is about, which has been put together by women who have who have been affected by domestic violence in our very own borough.
also the cap that the council is offering bystander training, and I urge everybody to take up and take you up on that, because it will empower you as individuals to intervene and prevent harm in our communities, I think together we can inspire inclusion in every facet of our lives and thank you very much Councillor for your a gentleman.
Councillor Paul, are you satisfied with the explanation provided and would you like to withdraw your motion or would you like the motion be put to a vote, please can it go to a vote?
the motion before the Council is that the Council adjourned for five minutes to celebrate International Women's Day and acknowledge one switch contribution to improving women's lives in highlighting highlights the ongoing challenges faced by marginalised women.
all those in favour.
OK, everything is.
I said we got identical 5 minutes.
the we, the whips, have agreed that item 15, the motion on same low council tax better service for all, will be taking this, can I ask Councillor Hogg to move and Councillor Coupar to second the motion in their names?
Councillor Cooper.
Councillor Cooper, please can you second?
we have been waiting, for instance I can.
yes, I'd like to second that motion, thank you very much and I'd like to say thank you to everybody for waiting for me and I'm terribly sorry about that as well, because I was relieved to be slightly late.
an amendment to the motion has been circulated, can I ask Councillor Brooks and Owen to move in second the amendment, yet we move the motion, thank you, second, that yes.
many.
alright, we've got speakers for this kind of as Councillor Hull to speak to the motion.
thank you imagine Wandsworth. Labour is freezing your council tax to help in the cost of living crisis. Thanks to our freeze, you will now pay the lowest council tax in the country alongside freezing the main element of council tax for the second year. Running Labour is delivering better services for all, a greener borough, with safer streets and stronger communities, a greener borough guaranteed weekly bin collections, free monthly mega skips, and will bring in food waste collection for every street this year, Safer streets, that's more school streets than ever before, more CCTV cameras and doubled support for victims of domestic violence and stronger communities to brand new libraries, free school uniforms and that 15 million pound cost of living package. The most generous support response in London. We're creating a fairer, compassionate, more sustainable Wandsworth where people look out for each other with a council that guarantees brilliant basics, works in partnership and is ambitious for everyone. I'm proud of the experienced principal team we have here in the Town Hall and delighted to work closely with our excellent three local MPs, Marsha Flora and Rosina, and with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,
but there's so much more still to do through sound financial management, Labour will lead a decade of renewal for our borough, we will double investment in our roads and pavements, will build a thousand new council homes for local families and will be a carbon neutral council by 2030.
we are listening council, we focus on the people's priorities, in the coming months, we will launch a large online panel to listen to more residents than ever before, while completing a thorough review of our democracy to make it more open, modern and inclusive with residents at the heart of decision-making as they were with our citizens' assembly on air quality and our cost of living commission Wandsworth is an amazing place.
but not everyone in our community currently has the opportunity to lead a fulfilled life, we need to guarantee access for all free gym and swim now with free swimming lessons is just the first step we will make sure that everyone can join in by bringing in London's most generous concessions offer for low income residents.
now many of the things, maybe even most, of the things we want to achieve, can only be done in partnership with the NHS, with businesses, with the police, with charities, trade unions, faith groups and, of course, our residents, because together we have the resources to meet Wandsworth challenges.
Wandsworth Council could never have housed a thousand Ukrainian refugees at short notice
but the people of Wandsworth did and were incredibly grateful they could.
so we will bring people together to multiply their impact and tackle ambitious shared missions for the whole borough we will be a campaigning council, we're finding our voice on the London stage and on the national stage we saw this in our wonderful work to campaign to save children's cancer care at St George's hospital, we will always stand up for local people and stand up to powerful interests because looking after our most vulnerable residents is crucial, we will continue to provide excellent care for our older residents and to support our NHS. An increase of 2% on the adult social care levy this year will help to fund that vital work.
it's a privilege to be here, it is a privilege to serve Wandsworth is a fantastic place to live, its strong, diverse communities represent the best of modern Britain, Labour's plan will help keep one's worth special and make sure every resident can share in the exciting opportunities that our borough creates. Thank you met them.
Councillor Brooks can at least speak to the motion.
thank you very much, Madam Mayor, good evening, I must say I smiled when I read the motion from colleagues opposite on Monday nights, many of the goals it lists are, of course, laudable, and, apart from the plans we've already laid out our opposition to, there was little on its face to which to object, but that will always be the case when you throw your entire wish list of good things onto a grand buffet of emotion.
the problem is the gap between what the motion says, what has been done and what we were promised, the Labour manifesto promised to cut council tax, the council press release talks about freezing it, but the reality is that the that the administration share of council tax bills this April will be up nearly 20 pounds for a Band D property since they took over surely that's a broken promise won the residents didn't vote for and are now painful.
I am sure them, with that in mind, the old members will appreciate the factual assistance Councillor Owens and I have offered without amendments, it should be no surprise to anyone that we took that we too, welcome the celebration of low council tax.
in the motion, agreeing a borrower, sound financial management and, of course, pressingly support for victims of domestic violence and more CCTV with International Women's Day this Friday, and I also congratulate Councillor Paul on her maiden speech on that important issue.
what's disappointing, though, is how little effort was made to disguise this motion as true political purpose, which I'm which is, I'm afraid, a taunting denial of context, the context of the administration's inheritance from my Conservative colleagues and the context of how Labour councillors really feel about the actions that led to us being able to set low council tax and how we were able to build that reserves for a rainy day aka a Labour administration, my colleagues who ran the previous administration should be flattered because it appears that Labour have worked out the secret to running a thriving borough for a few years, follow 44 years of careful Conservative governance and then hope hope everyone forgets what you said in the meantime.
in Wandsworth they spent years attacking the low council tax which they now celebrate and they bemoaned, and indeed some in the room still do how much was kept in reserves, reserves which make them which allowed them to make a temporary bid to defy gravity we still hear complaints about money being kept and not used as they forget time and time again that reserves once gone are gone in many ways, albeit to the people who wanted ones with detriments. This administration serves as a warning premonition of saying that it doesn't yet need to come true.
Labour governments.
I, for one hold out hope for a minority report nationally, I don't believe Labour have made a good faith, economic criticism of the government in my adult lifetime they have criticised us when we made savings that criticise us for borrowing too much and too little the criticise of attacks' being too much and too little even stopped clocks get it right more often than the Labour party.
all the while in denial about the challenges the government has faced in dealing with three global shocks of historic magnitude and how well the UK has done compared to our European neighbours, just like the administration here nationally, Labour offer no plan and only confusion.
the Labour administration also gives us a preview of what happens when they're found out when they realised that their plans were opposed by residents.
or fear the quality of services might slip within the first year we saw a new CPZ on litter and it to avoid comparison with the Conservative record, so the administration can ask residents across the borough who tell us they see things getting getting worse.
whether they will believe Labour or their own lying eyes, and we're seeing with the estates infill confected outrage that anyone dare oppose them, we can only concludes that either no one's ever dare disagree with them before, or maybe this campaign by crocodile tears is what we're going to be seeing from now through to 2026, all of which leads us ahead of the general election and the rest of this Council term to ask how can anybody trust them? Thank you.
Councillor Ashley preacher, please kind of speak to the motion.
thank you, Madam Mayor.
this is the second Council Tax setting from this Labour administration, and it's the second time we've been able to keep council tax low by freezing the main element, this means Wandsworth residents will continue to pay the lowest council tax in the UK.
make no mistake, council tax is a regressive tax where the burden falls most heavily on those on low incomes. Those neighbours of ours who have already been hardest hit by this Government's cuts to local services and the party opposite inability to choose sensible leaders for the country, rather than those who make crazy fiscal promises that increase inflation. This Labour administration is determined to do our best for all our residents, to use the money that we have to improve the whole borough and make our residents proud to live. Here we have taken the 2% cow social care precept. The previous Wandsworth Conservative administrations have taken this since it started as adult social services are woefully underfunded. The current government has not introduced reforms to support the increased costs and extra welfare budget burden post COVID and miss this opportunity again today in the budget, this Labour administration cares about its older and more vulnerable residents and we will do our best to ensure they are well looked after in illness and old age.
Wandsworth Council is an organisation that works with a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds, this year's budget is nearly 250 million needed for schools, social services to collect the refuse for parks, to keep street lights on to run the libraries and every other service that you as residents expect from this well run and I say again well-run Labour Council.
that sort of money mainly funded through government grants, but one's worth also has huge financial reserves, the last administration haunted these reserves and guarded them like the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit who sat on his gold for 150 years.
in our case, it's been a slightly shorter time that money has sat idle while our borough has become tatty and our roads, parks and equipment are in need of urgent repair, this Labour administration believes we should use funds prudently and carefully to make this borough a better place to live where supporting children and families through new joined-up services family hubs so our youngsters get.
the best start in life were voting New Hope council homes to help all residents have a place of their own.
we're replacing the leaky refuse lorries with new state of the art ones and investing in our leisure centres. We're also helping our residents to help asset themselves. Our investment in the low income family tracker computer system has enabled residents to claim extra benefits, particularly pensioners, and we've introduced a new system to ensure all children entitled to free school meals. Get these once worth are investing staff time in a new money hub service to help residents manage their money better and avoid debt. My work with the South London relief in sickness charity has highlighted how difficult it is for some residents to manage their very limited resources. Failure to do so means moving into a potential downward spiral of debt.
for our assets, streets and parks, we've got plans to invest 18 million pound in this financial year.
with more to come.
we're using money from several sources, including the small reserve fund, as we believe our money should work for us.
my first personal favourite schemes are repairs to children's playgrounds, including the Lady Allen playground for children with special needs more pocket park, which you've already heard about to add extra green space twist rates and extra investment in Tooting town centre, the area I represent Wandsworth Labour Council is stepping up where this Conservative government is failing.
I urge you to reject the backwards facing amendment, the minority party are living in the past and support our motion to welcome the council tax freeze, being confident that Wandsworth is managing its money prudently and well for the benefit of all of us, thank you.
Councillor Owen, can you please speak to the motion, thank you, Madam Mayor, good evening everyone on a week that includes International Women's Day, I would like to pay tribute to my fellow female Councillors, and all the women of Wandsworth bring so much to our community and business sectors and also to Councillor Paul for her excellent maiden speech.
I was named after the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, who was initially refused membership of the Labour party despite her friendship with Keir Hardie, because she was a woman, yet she went on to help women win the right to vote in 1918 and 1928, including as the Conservative candidate for White Chapel and St George's.
we know that women in London feel less and less safe than they did two years ago yesterday Sadiq Khan's Met Policing Commissioner said that combating violence against women and girls would need the same level of funding as the fight against terrorism and organised crime there are so many aspects of our wonderful family borough not just the terrifying rise in crime including muggings of children that have changed for the worse since May 2022.
in my own ward Northcote awards, with seven schools and famous as the original nappy valley, thousands and thousands of residents signed a petition against the scrapping of our fantastic pedestrianisation scheme, a scheme that created or sustained over 100 jobs, it's astonishing that Labour scrapped, a scheme that was hugely popular with residents and businesses and comes at no additional cost to the Council taxpayer due to its funding through the community infrastructure levy, Labour still refused to consider it despite all the evidence to the contrary and at the same time we have received an overwhelming number of complaints about missed bin collections, filthy roads and pavements, the Commons and parks currently unusable by our voters, particularly our volunteer sports clubs.
and now a brand new library delivered by the previous Conservative administration in the Northcott ward not being considered for opening five days a week when others across the borough might be
the design of our new Northcote Library was deliberately chosen by the previous administration so that the opening hours could be extended beyond the hours offered in the old 19 60s building, which was expensive to heat and had limited commercial space to hire out even the ones with times led with a story of our ward petition on its front page last month I mentioned review is only now being carried out.
on delivering for ones with children, we also believe that the council leadership should be tracking the implementation of its policies, Labour ones were selection manifesto contains a commitment to make sure all children have the laptops and data that they need to learn, but at my children's Wandsworth state secondary school as parents we had to by us only last September.
there was also a commitment to create a thousand new apprenticeships by 2026 to ensure all primary school children eligible for free school meals will have a free council funded breakfast club.
and to develop a borough-wide no exclusions vision, yet exclusions are going up, breakfast clubs of only 20 schools, and the Council has not brought forward CPOs related to any of these policies, nor seems to report on them regularly during the duration of the council term.
we have heard from Councillor Brook some reserves, we know the cost of the new Paddick School site has risen from 15 to 20 million in September 2022 to 28 million, in March 2023, and now an extra 5 million since then to 34 million the council claimed it is not their fault.
maybe they should thank the Conservative administration for our 44 years of prudent of prudent financial management, which will allow Labour to double their budget for only one school.
we know exactly where the Council has been able to overspend, we also know why, when they do update us, for example, the digital strategy and change programme, for some reason they seem to have identical updates to Richmond, so my residents are left asking this question what exactly has been achieved over the past few years and why have things got worse?
Councillor Cooper, please speak to the motion. Thank you, Madam Mayor, I'll stay in the room this time rather than having a tour of other parts of the building. You know, it's not often that I'm lost for words lost for words, and I think it might be. It might be the first time that I've ever been lost for words in the Council Chamber. That's for sure. Do you know, I think the Chief Whip asked me to speak last in this debate because she thought there might be some points to answer and of course now my speech is going to have to be really really short, because what have we heard what we've heard from? I've actually listened to this debate on a number of occasions. It's the last Council meeting when we're setting our Council Tax, and it's just in front of the Greater London Authority elections and I've been in this Council Chamber in 2008 2012 2016, in 2021 in the lead-up to that election, and on all those previous occasions,
there are a number of Councillors here who will also remember from the other side that you have spent virtually the entire evening, if not the entire evening, making a series of speeches attacking either the Labour candidate for mayor or attacking the Labour man, well that's why I'm a bit lost for words really because how do I reply to a debate where no one has bothered to mention your mayoral candidate and the amazing things that your mayoral candidate is going to be doing, I'm obviously I'm amusing Councillor Macleod in some way or the other.
I mean, you know, she's a great candidate, she did a fantastic interview last week with Eddie Nestor he had to terminated in the end because she didn't really know what she was talking about. My favourite interview so far was the one where I think it was actually Nick Ferrari or so if she knew how much a bus fare was and she didn't it's 1 pound 75, just in case any of you don't ever get the bus, she didn't know how much a police officer would be, it's just over 36,000 pounds as the starting salary just in case you're confused by your candidate, suggesting it might be 60,000 pounds one or two pence higher than 36,000.
it is quite astonishing the level of ignorance that's being displayed by your candidate and talking about budgets, obviously we heard from the chancellor of the country today and we're setting our Budget this evening now, the City Hall budget, which is smaller than the national budget but is actually just over 21 billion so a tiny bit bigger than the Council's budget we set that on the 22 of February.
and the Conservative Group came forward with a budget amendment.
it was quite interesting, it proposed an extra 200 million for the police.
annex minus 2 20 million, because I think I've heard a rumour that apparently your candidate wants to cancel Ulisse, I know you're not putting it in the ones with version of the leaflet, it's only going into the Merton version of the leaflet I've seen them both, and now you're talking about the one way I mean you only had 44 years to fix the one-way and didn't bother, but you know I mean you know you have to put that into the leaflet.
but the the and the other thing is, 30 wants to spend an extra 30 million, restoring the 60 plus travel free travel before 9 o'clock, so it needs to find an extra 450 million pounds. Now. I should say that the budget does not propose just in case you thought this, that the mayoral increase in the precept shouldn't happen. Note, the Conservative mayoral candidate completely does not suggest that so we're all on the same page on having to increase it, and that's because of underfunding by the Home Office for things like the police, which is a disgrace. It's the Home Office, assesses how much money should be given to City Hall and then deliberately under funds on its own figures. But in fact, what did the budget amendments say? I've had to write it down because it was quite astonishing the way that the method of funding was going to be, and I'm very happy to circulate this around to all of you. I've got the entire budget amendment is quite sure what actually we recognise that using reserves and a financing facility to fund this amendment is unusual where you can say that again, it is very unusual for City Hall. That is why there is money in City Hall that allows us to have a financing facility that has allowed us to keep tearful going,
and this is completely unprecedented, but of course the Conservative candidate for City Hall is a big endorsing of Liz Truss, yes, City Hall, she wants to bring trouser, no mix and a Klarna style budget to City Hall where you borrow now and pay later. I can only endorse everything that Councillors, Hogg and Crichel have said about the management of our budgets here I urge you to reject this ridiculous amendment and to support the motion unamended. Thank you,
the matter now, before the Council is the amendment moved by Councillor Brooks and seconded by Councillor Owen all those in favour of the amendment.
those are games.
any abstentions.
so the amendment is lost to 18.
OK, so 18 voted against.
I then voted for and 32 voted against.
0gas stations.
all those in favour of the substantive substantive motion as amended those
all those in favour of the substantive motion.
OK.
against.
any abstentions.
so it's carried by 32 voted for it, and 18 voted against.
OK.
question to the Cabinet Members will now be taking.
order of I got this wrong, don't waste statutory, you have to have a vote on the Budget recorded, No I'm being corrected is that legislation changed.
we haven't got into that stage yet.
so question number 12.
penalising drivers who who tried to do the right thing, Councillor Hamilton.
questionnaire
they liaise.
yeah, thank you, my Lord Mayor, thank you, Councillor Hamilton, for the question.
so the costs of delivering our parking services in the borough is rising substantially, so of course we have to it's right that we review the related charges, the cost of a 12 month resident parking permit in Wandsworth is currently 187 pounds a year, that's the online price which basically everyone pays and it's gonna go up by 18 pounds a year which is an additional 35 p a week.
and we know there's cost of living crisis, and some people on low incomes do need their cars, but of course everyone on our housing estates, parks for free and everyone, with a disabled badge parks for free at the moment the discount for a green parking residential permit is 37 pounds a year.
so that's a discount of just 72 p per week, but we all know that buying on eBay is a big capital outlay.
for example, the cost of a new EV family car like golf is about 31,000 pounds, what's much more important in terms of incentivising EV use is availability of charging infrastructure, and I'd like to remind Councillor Hamilton that what we're doing on EV parking charging is in line with his own Government's policy.
Eves currently don't pay any vehicle excise duty.
that's the road tax that everyone else pays, who's got a car, so the country is facing a large and increasing reduction in revenues as usage of Eaves continues,
so from next year your chancellor has announced that you'll have to pay that vehicle excise duty if you have an EV, he said, and I quote, to make our motoring tax system fairer, I've decided that electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from vehicle excise duty and EPS do still contribute to pollution and we do need to bear that in mind. Clearly, they are a lot better air quality than petrol or diesel cars, but they're heavier due to their battery weight, which leads to pollution from tyre and road dust and because they're heavier. They take a higher toll on our road surface and contribute to the escalating costs of highway maintenance that we face. So we do need EV drivers to contribute to those costs and I'm very proud of our record on green policies. Under this administration we've been, we are being more ambitious than ever in tackling climate change, improving ones with their and meeting on net-zero commitments, and I'd like to thank Councillor Gasser for all her leadership on this agenda,
supplementary. Lord Mayor, thank you very much to Councillor Yeates for her thorough response to the question I registered in the written response she made reference to air quality. I wanted to ask a question in relation to the ongoing trial outside the borough, with all science that's going on and stress him at the moment, which is having a significant impact on both Balham and Tooting. If you look at buses, for example, we noticed that one of us has been snarled up to the extent that it took 120 1 minutes to travel to point 9 miles, leading to significant problems for public transport in the Tooting and Balham area. Could I just ask, given that you have focused on air quality in your answer, if you could, let us know the representations that you have made to Lambeth Council in relation to abandoning the Elsie N scheme because, as Councillor Cooper mentioned earlier, we hear a lot about Sadiq Khan in this Chamber, but Sadiq Khan has called for a Lambeth council to abandoned that scheme. Will you do the same? Thank you
Councillor Reid,
thank you, Councillor Hamilton, for that supplementary, and we are aware of concerns regarding bus times in Streatham to relating to the trial of the Stretton Wells, all t n, the ongoing roadworks by utilities and recent rail strikes and I am pleased to assure Councillor Hamilton that Lamberth Council is working closely with TfN to monitor the situation and discuss possible changes to the LTA and measures that will improve bus journey times, I would like to draw your attention to one important fact. A big contributor to traffic congestion in Lambeth is terms water. They have dug up stratum High Street an astonishing 70 times in three years, the last three years, 70 times when the Thatcher government privatised Thames Water in 1,009 89, it had no debts, it's now got 14 billion pounds in debts. Please can you please allow her to talk police and I'm sure eight Thames Water had concentrated on investing in our water supply rather than asset stripping and paying big dividends and salaries. We wouldn't see so much destruction in stratum and other parts of the borough nozzle so, rather than blaming what Labour in Wandsworth and tearful, how about you do something about Thames Water
second, supplementary Councillor Brett, thank you now, when I was having a read through these these papers, I was quite surprised to see this question from Councillor Hamilton because for those of us in the Transport Committee, Councillor Yeates gave a very comprehensive answer to this question and many others to Councillor Hamilton, but then he did remark at the end that actually he was just waiting for that bit to get his clip for social media, so maybe he forgot what Councillor Yeates told him in that, so I'm yet to see on social media, so maybe it's coming up
yeah, but he did say though, yes, so please could the Cabinet Member reiterate perhaps what Councillor Hamilton has forgotten how we are supporting EV users in tackling air pollution?
thank you very much. Councillor Fraser, as I mentioned, what's important in incentivising EV uptake is the availability of charging infrastructure survey after survey mentions lack of charging infrastructure in the top three barriers for EV uptake. That's why we've got one of the largest programmes of EV charger installations in the country with just coming to the end of a big expansion of lamp column charge points and we're planning to procure between 102 100 additional fast charges in 2024. Pollution in our town centres is going down. We ran a citizens' assembly on air quality, which shows how we're committed to listening to our residents. Then we published our ambitious air quality action plan last September, which sets out how we'll improve air policy in the borough and we've committed to w h stricter air quality standards. So once again, thanks to Councillor Gafsa for her leadership on this agenda,
points of order, Madam Mayor.
could we please try to curtail Beyoncé s the length of the answers that are being given their question and answers, not speeches
noted,
can a question on Woodhouse in Queenstown Road, Councillor Apps?
as I was saying, question 13 to the Cabinet Member for Transport, Councillor Reid.
yes, thank you, Councillor Apps, I'm very pleased. The plans for Queenstown Road were unanimously supported at the Transport Committee in February. Queenstown Road is a major cycling corridor in Wandsworth with over 1,000 cyclists using the northern stretch each, but it's also got a poor safety record, so it's really important we make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians. So I'm very pleased we've agreed major improvements to the road. We're going to be putting in a new step cycle track on each side of the road on the northern section, which will vastly improve the situation for cyclists. We're also going to be doing a lot of work at the junctions on the side where most of the accidents occur, and this will also improve safety for cyclists and for pedestrians as well. Improvements at the entrance to Battersea Park. On the west side, there will be de-cluttering and more greenery, which will also make the road better for pedestrians. Vision 08 was the mayor's bold plan to end fatalities on London roads, making it better and safer for all road users. The changes we're making on Queenstown Road directly contribute to the Mayor's vision Zero. We expect the scheme to reduce the risk of this collisions for both cyclists and pedestrians and to increase the number of cyclists using the route and, importantly, we hope it will encourage and enable less confident cyclists to feel able to use this road.
Councillor
thank you so much for that and all your work on this, I, for one am really looking forward to a safer cycle down that road, where I've had many a hairy experiences, unfortunately.
can I ask the Cabinet Member what other capital programmes are coming down the track so that you know other things that we can we can look forward to under this Labour administration?
thank you, Councillor apps, as the Labour administration we're correcting decades of underinvestment in our infrastructure and our communities, and I was delighted to announce earlier this month that we're putting in place a new 10 year programme of improvements for our roads and pavements, as you can see in the capital programme paper we're proposing to double our investment in roads and pavements.
so in 24 25 we did have 4.7 5 million allocated for roads and pavements, but that's going up to 8 million in the coming financial year and it'll go up again in 25 26 to 10.2 Fulham 5 billion pounds a year and will sustain that increase over the next 10 years, so that will invest 100 million in our roads and pavements. Our roads and pavements are deteriorating every year. At the moment, we're just not spending enough to stop them deteriorating, so each year the conditions of the 97% of roads and pavements in the borough that the Council is responsible for are actually getting worse. 36% of our A roads have such serious defects that they require resurfacing and 31% of our pavements, and this is an important safety issue. It doesn't make sense to let our roads and pavements deteriorate. This is bad for all road users. It makes the roads less safe for cyclists, motorists and our pavements less safe for pedestrians, and I'm delighted that we're going to be increasing.
investment in this vital area.
second supplemental.
thank you, Madam Mayor, I note the last Transport Committee approved a consultation on extending the existing cycle Quietways network across the borough, can the Cabinet Member please give us more details about how that consultation will be conducted?
and how residents can share their feedback, thank you,
yes, thank you very much, Councillor Locker, we were proud and pleased that the Transport Committee unanimously supported.
moving to a consultation on 13 quiet cycle routes. These are routes along quieter residential streets and designed to encourage less confident cyclists to feel comfortable cycling about the borough they exist in many other borrowers, for example in next door in Lambeth and we want to see them here in Wandsworth as well, so the consultation will be taking place using the commonplace tool which is an excellent tool for consultations. We used it for Totterdown Street improvements down in Tooting and for Abyssinia Close. I understand
it's a really good tool because you can really see easily how the changes would look, so it gives you visual imagery which you can look at and therefore it should help and encourage residents to be able to give informed.
comments and views on the quiet cycling routes so that consultation will be open for a long period of time, and it's once we've analyzed and what residents have told us that we will then draw up detailed plans for the quiet cycling ways, thank you.
question number 14.
question number 14 to the Cabinet Member for Housing.
well say thank you for this question, I think the premise of it is slightly flawed, though, because from what I can understand that there is a part here about, unfortunately, the plans are sketchy and conspicuously lacking in key details and as iconic contradiction now, because obviously the consultation was the second s second stage of the consultation and therefore we're not going to present an ultimatum at this stage plans change.
we've had schemes, you know different certain aspects and we take feedback from residents.
it was also the first meeting you attended, so in your supplementary, please, to talk us through how you thought it went. It was nice to see you that I had some issues with the fact that it seemed like residents would come round and they'd speak to the architects and the planners, and they'd say all this isn't as terrifying as the leaflets I've received. This actually doesn't look that bad read about a hundred residents come through and I think it was mixed. It wasn't the kind of the the kind of scenes that I think maybe possibly were hoping for, but there were residents who are genuinely thinking that this is. This is an OK scheme. There were some residents who were worried about the height of the building. What I did notice was that there was some political interference around the centre of the consultation where, around certain buildings, you'd see Conservative party members, God this is terrible, isn't it? This is terrible to a resident has just walked in
but luckily enough, I was there to guide them to more market of expertise in the room.
but genuinely it was, you know, we've we've had a back and forth in this Chamber multiple times on the thousand hands programme, it was good that you actually came to one of the consultations and saw the process, and I guess,
for me, I enter this space and and this decision-making process in good faith. We are trying to build Council housing, and it does seem frustrating if there is a political decision by your side, so just try and frustrate that process as much as possible, because even Conservative MPs are now aware that council housing must be built if we are to tackle the Temperer accommodation crisis and in once with we are pioneers in that we are getting national coverage for our work and the more we get leaflets. I know many residents came to this consultation and they left confused because they thought their estate was going to be demolished or they thought there was gonna be something that wasn't even in the plans, because there has been direct fearmongering now I don't know how closely you work with your parliamentary candidates, but your parliamentary candidate has been fearmongering on this estate. I think, learning from other estates thinking that they can go and cause trouble, and I hope that Councillors who have a civic duty to try and produce some actual good rather than try and get a seat in parliament, don't fall into that, don't fall into that.
kind of politics, because council housing is an absolutely essential public good that needs to be delivered in Wandsworth
supplementary mountain that, yes, this door has yeah, I mean, I'm sure will be extremely disappointing to the residents of the Ashburton and now the Lennox that Councillor victim is continuing with his campaign of misinformation about the integrity and validity of the consultation process and the council leader says that he is here to represent all
the Labour party is here to represent the people of Wandsworth, but when the people of Wandsworth say on mass, what they don't want to hear their responses to doubled down and say speak to the hand because a face ain't listening and quite frankly, that's rank hypocrisy as far as I'm concerned, so in order to help residents of the Lenox estate understand just how much their estate will be transformed against their will just like to ask two things.
firstly, what would be the the footprint, so the square metre of your footage on the ground of the new development, and can you give me a figure for the cost of the tower-block police?
Councillor sorry, Councillor Leese yeah, so obviously everything is still to be decided.
you'll be aware that since your programme started and our programme continues, the cost of things like steel have gone up, the cost of things have gone up, so I can't give you a confirmed figure on what it was going to cost, but the figures in my written answer suggests that 42 million is what we're gonna, invest overall in the estate, whether that will just be for the building. Probably not. That'll include improvements to the improvements to the public realm, the replacement of the green space, because there's no net loss of green space at all in the scheme. The you know you will remember, there were children that came to the consultation and talked about some of the amenities that they want. So the 42 million includes improvements, not just the build of the building and with all of the thousand homes programme schemes. We see them as opportunities to invest in renovate and improve estates, and we don't we go with an open mind, so residents feedback what they would actually like to see. Sometimes we think they'll want one thing, but they want something else. So that is the kind of ballpark figure. It's not just for the building is for the wider improvements and investment in the estates, which is one of the kind of more neglected parts of the thousand homes. But we see them as almost you know,
I, I don't say regeneration, because that involves the demolition of housing, but you know these kind of investments in our estates to make me make improvements and make things easier for residents and on the square footage, the wi again 10,000 square metres of of new housing, but that if you look at the actual outline footprint, it's gonna be a tower with no net loss of green space so that the aim is and you'll remember from the drawings, is that the main road that bends round we will move and go around the the blocks, outlines how to describe it, but so so the the footprint of the actual building shouldn't impact too much, and there'll be a movement of the MUGA. If things go to plan like, I don't want to predispose any planning decisions that take place
you know the way you frame, it is inherently kind of, like everybody hates this, nobody wants this, and also the way that you frame things is is that there should be a veto on any kind of building or planning planning works are happening in this borough where there's objections and that you know you sit next to Ravi Ravi built things in this borough which were huge, which were gigantic, which were mostly for private sale, and I had disagree.
welcome me to come back afterwards, but I I have disagreements on that in terms of the tenure type, but in terms of the decisions that have to be made, when your local authority about trying to change and improve things and build houses for people, you know if you give a veto to every single person that wants to stop something from changing, nothing will ever get done in this borough and you talk about the residents of Wandsworth. I think if you did do a mass referendum to the residents of Wandsworth, all residents of once, with an awesome, should this Council be building council, housing housing, they would say Yes, and I think you also have to take into account. I think you also have to take into account that currently we have thousands of residents who are placed outside of the borough who are desperately waiting for temporary accommodation, and their voices voices are often unheard at these consultation events. People often come, you know, because because I've received the letter and they're scared, or they're particularly agitated by this, but there are many people who don't come to these events, who are quietly sitting in overcrowded housing there on the waiting list, and these are the kinds of homes that are gonna make their lives and their children's lives much better. So we have to take into account everybody's views and we also have to make difficult decisions. That's what leaderships about and on building council. Housing has historically not happened in this country because it has not been good enough leadership and making sure making sure that it does
a point of personal explanation. Madam Mayor, I was named. Can I just make it very clear that I built no housing because I'm not a builder. What I did was to facilitate this Council's programme of providing housing for people in this borough, including the thousand homes programme which is inherited. What I did not say to the people of Lennox is that their estate will have an 18 storey tower block in the middle of it, when the overwhelming size of Lennox is kind of no more than six storeys say, taking the point about neighborhood heights, which the Leader said in his tweet, I hope the neighborhood heights will be something that will guide him in his ambitions of inflicting height on people whose neighborhood is largely sanctuaries.
my point of order, points of order I mean, I hope you visited Lennox estate, because there were three tower blocks named after sisters.
yeah, so I think saying that they're saying that it's a six storey estate is not true.
OK, Councillor Taylor, yeah a supplementary, Madam Mayor.
so.
as a lifelong resident of Roehampton as well as a councillor, I'm in touch with many people on the limps estate and yes, I can confirm what Councillor Liqun said, that there's generally positive response to this these proposals, and what I'm getting from friends on the letter says dismay at that relentless desperate misinformation that keeps coming through their doors from from Lee Roberts who appears to be the ones with Tories.
very own semi-literate version of Jeffrey Archer, but
to move on to the question I'd like to ask it's.
why are the Conservatives so keen to criticise, building at homes for Wandsworth sites that they themselves have selected?
yeah, I say I think that's a thank you, thank you for the your question you.
I, I think it's really important, so you know there were people who came to the consultation, who were really upset and genuinely worried.
one of the strongest deputations that came was from a group of young people who, because of the issue of the MUGA, but really worried about what that would mean, and they were very keen to find out what you know what adaptions could be made and make representations, and we talked to them about possibly having a 4G football pitch or something like that, and I think it's in those consultation spaces where you can talk to residents and be genuinely serious about the trade-offs that the most useful conversations are taking place. And that's why I think you're spot on where it's incredibly frustrating that on many sites, which were you know if if I if we hadn't won the election, these would be Bill being built out, the same campaigns would be happening or or or, and this would be for market housing. Wouldn't even have the same social or public benefits, and I actually don't know how we would be responding to your own programme like wow. I know I, I think, about it a lot, I think, would I be campaigning against this, or would I just be campaigning for it to be all turned into council housing, I'll probably be campaigning for it to be turned into council housing like I did you know, and I have you know I can be honest about this because it's what happens on Pattemore, you know the Pattemore site went forward when I was on committee and you know we didn't go and whip up anger on the Pattemore and say stopped listening from happening. We just wanted to flip the shared ownership to Council, so we have always engaged in the thousand housing programme in good faith. We just had a different view, we thought if you sold the land off
it had to be for public good because residents were going, gonna have to go through something and that if they were gonna have to go through it. It should be the public asset when they get out at the other end, as well as all the other improvements to so-called cancer. You haven't explained, I just want to wrap on it and that's that's at the heart of why the campaign against 1,000 homes programme it is is, so I think, is so morally wrong, because while we have to listen to those residents who are really frustrated, that is different and doing that in a calm and serious way about what bike countering measures we can have. That is really different from whipping up, like whipping up this huge amounts of fear and anxiety on what is a programme that is meant to deliver a lot of public good and will make one with a leading and a leading light. So I just think you know sometimes I gave really angry speeches back now. I'm kind of exasperated and tired with this.
conservatives that are just constantly campaigning against council housing, it's wrong, it's like it's totally morally wrong, I think you should reflect on it.
honour on Surrey, Sam is finished, please.
it's a point of order for the agenda.
under Standing order number 28, Madam Mayor, I move that the Council adjourned to note once with Labour's manifesto promise to put more law enforcement officers on the streets paid for by levies on property developers and the resulting need for a plan to deliver.
do you have as I can?
Councillor Booth.
I can only speak to the motion.
thank you, and just to note that I would like to Jennifer two seconds at 1.00 for each year the administration has remaining to deliver its promise for those of us who have come to London from other quieter parts of the country the safety of Wandsworth high streets, parks and open spaces, public transport estates and residential roads have given us reassurance to make this borough our home and it's an important reason why those who have always lived here have remained
Wandsworth is not immune from crime and anti-social behaviour by any means, but we have generally been able to avoid some of the more extreme problems we often see in other boroughs, this hasn't happened by chance, it's thanks to a carefully constructed environment built up over many years based on trust and co-operation between this Council, the Met police of schools, businesses, neighborhood groups and residents more generally.
clearly, the Met has primary responsibility for ensuring public safety and responding to crime, I'm sure we have all seen just how hardworking our Met PCs and PCSOs are in our own wards and be very grateful in Tenfield to PCSOs, Alexandra Cresci and her colleagues work dealing with this use on Putney High Street drug dealers, anti-social neighbours, the list goes on but their work is closely closely complimented by Council staff and again.
we are very lucky to have such dedicated officers working with the Met and local residents. Colleagues will, however, be aware of a recent increase in extremely concerning incidents across the Borough just last week and just over the borough boundary in Clapham, three people were injured during a shooting a suspect from Tooting has since been charged with firearms offences last month an individual was injured in another shooting in St Mary's Park Ward.
and over recent weeks we have seen the targeting of children on their way to school by mobs in Wandsworth, Common and Northcote.
residents are rightly concerned that these incidents appear to be part of a wider trend.
in the 12 months to January, 2024 robberies in the borough were up by 37.9% on the previous 12 months, knife crime up by 22.8% and burglary up by 19.1.
now, as Councillor Owens has already noted, with International Women's Day this week, we should also note the particular impact that crime can have on women.
clearly, no one organisation is going to be able to respond to these issues on their own, both the Met police and the council will have to continue to play their part.
and look at what more they can do to keep the public safe,
in its 2019 election manifesto, the Conservative government pledged to recruit 20,000 extra police officers, a pledge delivered in April last year.
in their 2022 election manifesto. Once with Labour committed to introducing more law enforcement officers funded by levies on property developers, the administration may refer in their response to the new community safety officers, but these are not the promised law enforcement officers that is a reshuffle, so could I ask the Cabinet Member for Community Safety as we reached the midpoint of the council term and with the clock ticking three very simple questions. How many property developers will pay these additional fees, how many new law enforcement officers can we expect and finally, if the administration does plan on keeping its promise when exactly it can we expect this additional resource to be deployed on our streets?
would anyone wish to respond to this happy to Madam Mayor and I thank the Councillor for?
raising this important issue. I think we have covered some of it earlier in the meeting, so just to know, we have got more law enforcement officers in town hall we've doubled those community safety officers, they're now cooperating better with partners, they're covering smaller patches, we've got more CCTV cameras, we've actually got people monitoring them. I can confidentially share some of the incredible stories of actually how that, as well as facial recognition and other digital technology has actually caught some very serious criminals.
we are making developers pay for much of our ambitious agenda,
Councillor Yeates has already outlined a 10 year plan to double investment in roads and pavements. We're gonna make developers pay for that. There won't be a penny on your council tax. We've already an ring-fenced 6 million pounds of neighborhoods CIL from Nine Elms to be used across a wider area. Very happy for first call on that to be community safety initiatives. For instance, we're looking at that awful underpass on Vulcan Road people feel very unsafe, particularly late at night walking under their you're gonna see investment there paid for by developers, and you're gonna see more progress on that. In the next committee cycle I mean the people
you know often criticised the mayor, Sadiq Khan, but you know people are less likely to be victims of crime in London than they are across the country as a whole. I believe we're still the safest in the London borough. I don't think we should exaggerate these things and I don't think you were remarking upon all of the crimes that happened. Well, when you were the majority party. London has one of the lowest levels of anti-social behaviour in the country, and you know, we've seen scare stories by Tory associations in London about, you know gun crime rising by two and a half thousand per cent. This is completely untrue and, based on a Daily Mail story that you know they had to apologise and withdraw. Gun crime actually fell in the first year, Sadiq Khan mayoralty, and it's fallen even further in the latest year of data, so this is an incredibly important topic that I've already said. I wish we can work very closely together on, particularly around violence against women and girls. We're talking on International Women's Day,
and we do live in a big city and there are major challenges, but outlined earlier I think, partnership working and particularly close working with the police, but also that town hall investment, much of which is underpinned by making sure that property developers don't just deliver affordable homes for local people but the money they contribute he's spending all 22 borrowers and he's also spent keeping our communities safe.
Councillor Geoffrey, I used to satisfy with the explanation provided and would you like to withdraw your motion or would you like the motion be put to a vote, could we put that to the vote please?
for how long do you want to agenda two seconds two seconds?
the motion before the Council is that the Council adjoined for two seconds.
so notes Labour's manifesto promise to put more laws enforcement officers on the streets paid for by levies on property developments and the resulting needs for a plan to deliver them.
all those in favour.
all those against.
any abstentions.
ask for against.
all those against.
so.
all represented, so those who voted for is 18 against this to 2 1 sorry for the madman, I admire the professionalism of our four offices, but I can't believe that in the few seconds they could have counted those who voted for against abstained and all of that and I just wonder where your numbers are coming from.
capital locks.
should we have?
you voted for one abstention, at the very least, and I can't understand how the four officers actually counted all of you eating that record time.
I believe this is their job and they know how to concerts as quick as possible, Madam Mayor, I accept that that you have to say these things about it, but frankly anyone watching this would be astonished at the speed with which, for Members of this Council's high paid staff counted all of us in three different votes, let's just be honest and say, let's have a vote again because it was not it was a messed-up vote.
okay, all those in favour, can you please lift up your hands.
he's still waiting still 18 others against.
again, the streets are very together, if you're going to do so again is to.
abstentions.
the motion is going to be carried Councillor Frenchies.
no, and neither is Councillor Lawrence.
29
the main issues.
so all those in favour for is 18 against 29.
really serious tensions are OK.
however, our readers again all those in favour for is 18 against two abstentions 29 so the motion is carried.
we are going to agenda for two seconds two seconds.
we now tend to report number 1 items for decision.
a more reception of their reports and will ask the Council whether they approved the recommendation in paragraph 1, proposed Pay Policy for 2024 2025 paper NOMA 24 to 74, the recommendations approved.
OK.
paragraph 2
one such community safety strategy 2024 to 2027 Pay Panama 24 to 64 the recommendations approved
paragraph 3, council tax requirement in Council Tax for 2024 2025 p per annum and 24 to 88 are the accommodations approved.
and then yes.
so there is going to be put to a recorded vote.
OK.
so there is going to be.
the motion will be put to a recorded vote, the Chief Executive will call each member's name and inform you of the results.
Good evening Councillors if, when I call your name, you can indicate whether you wish to vote for or against or abstain on the recommendations, and if I could just remind you to use your microphone so people viewing online can hear you so Councillor Akinola for Councillor and bash for Councillor Apps for
councillor as his absence Councillor Bolton, 4 Councillor Birchall,
against.
Councillor Boswell, for Councillor Brooks, against Councillor Caddy.
against Councillor Coakley for Councillor Cook.
absent Councillor Cooper 4.
Councillor Corner against Councillor Pritchard, for Councillor Calverley, against Councillor Davies for Councillor, delicious, you his absent Councillor dictum for Councillor Debrett's for Councillor French.
4 Councillor Fraser
for Councillor Gasser, for Councillor Hussain against Councillor Gilbert, his absence Councillor G of India
Mrs. Graham is absent, Councillor Peter Graham against Councillor.
Grimston has left the Chamber Councillor Hamilton against Councillor Hedges, against Councillor Henderson for Councillor Hogg, for Councillor Humphreys against Councillor Island Councillor Jeffery.
for Councillor GeForce, against Councillor Justin against Councillor Lawless.
4
Councillor Lee for Councillor Locker,
against Councillor Marshall for Councillor Mayorkas,
4 Councillor Macleod 4 Councillor Osborne.
for Councillor Owens against Councillor Paul
for Councillor Creedon against Councillor Richard Jones, against Rigby's absence, Councillor stock for Councillor, such as his absence Councillor Sweet against Councillor Tyler for Councillor Varatharajah,
4, Councillor White 4 and Councillor Warrell 4, Councillor Yeats, 4, thank you.
20
yeah
yeah
so 21 for eight in a game, so one abstention is 0, so it's carried.
thank you.
Emma 1, Part 2, paragraph 4, proposed addition to the General Fund capital programme paper number 24 to 89 are the recommendations approved.
we are going to take a vote, all those in favour.
show my hands.
against.
any abstentions.
31 31 form 16, again, so is carried.
paragraph 5, Council Tricia policy for 2024 2025 paper NOMA 24 to 90, are the recommendations approved.
are we going to get all those in favour?
against.
any abstentions.
0
31 4 16 again so is carried.
as agreed item 16 will be taking this item system, is the motion an annual statement on the Council's full borrowing plan, can I ask Councillor Peter Graham to move and Councillor Currie to second, the motion in their names formally moved seconded.
can I have Councillor Peter will be able to speak?
thank you, Lord Mayor.
I don't know how many Members read the Council's press releases or at least a good proportion of them more members and residents, I suspect we've already heard tonight that their accuracy can be somewhat suspect.
but we aren't quite talking Prophète, yet
however, having said that these days, Wandsworth at 6.00 could make a reasonably decent fist of challenging the East Vladivostok workers weekly,
wading through a new clenched fist.
having three points of order, Madam MD, is there any proof that the Member of the Council has ever read that publication or that, in fact it exists?
I am surprised that the Member is enough on her comrades reading material wading through, I find my interests more piqued by what isn't said than what is after seven press releases about the Wimbledon and Putney, Conservatives and Councillor Hobbs' abject pleading that it's more important than ever that residents' bills are kept as low as possible we wait in vain for one word, just one word about the Mayor of London's inflationary 8.6% increase forget the Conservatives rise of 3 pounds 19 pence, your rise a rise plus them as equals, a Labour tax increase of almost 50 pounds this April some freeze
and when it comes to quotes from the Cabinet, on behalf of the increasingly impecunious readership, can I beg them to freshen things up a bit, imagine the novelty where Councillor Henderson to tell us about his overspending.
or Councillor Akinola, to say something modest or Councillor Hulk somehow managing to land or take a joke we wait in vain, Madam Mayor, but it's clear that publicity for hell will freeze over before there's one mention of a council's plan to borrow,
and not just borrow modestly with sums repaid by residents.
Point of order Jazz on an international women's day a week, I think it is out of order for the Member opposite to make comments like that about female Members, thank you very much.
first, Councillor Grahame, please do is not a point of order, and certainly it's perfectly fair comment, Councillor Procter, please continue, but I, like you, agree with you. Hailing time is being added. Now what we are talking about is not just borrowing modestly with sums paid by receipts, but borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds on terms extended for the next 50 years, half a century of debt interest, and at this point I have to go off-script because after his written answer to question 2 I've got to respond to what the Leader had to say earlier.
forget proved in relation to his answers. The written answer is more like the clocks striking 13, he says that debt is falling, it's rising, he says the budget is balanced, it isn't he says that Labour hasn't borrowed, they have, he says it is all on the hr, there's 48 million pounds coming on the general fund, he says it's theoretical. There is for hundred and 50 million pounds of borrowing in the papers tonight, it's literally in front of you, it's not ferry, it's fact remarkably, there's just one thing he got right when it says that the costs and comes to cost, the figures are still being collated and will be reported in due course. The reality is that nobody knows the cost, not you not us not officers, not only if you fail to tell the public, you have failed to tell yourselves so much for pedantry
you claim the urgency of a housing crisis, perhaps that's why you don't know, but you're flipping a mere 560 homes to council rent over a decade, Wandsworth has a population of 330,000 people, there are over 3,700 households in temporary accommodation up more than 700 in just two years. When you promised down, your borrowing won't touch the sides, but on any reasonable assumptions. It will cost this borough over a billion pounds and it will be ordinary taxpayers and council tenants who pay. This motion requires a simple statement to members at the start of each financial year with information that should already exist. It doesn't even insist on a press release, you might never tell residents, but somebody ought to tell the leader
the truth.
is this your plans create nearly 3,000 pounds of debt for every single household in Wandsworth, which nothing defines funny you have, I find his cluelessness terror terrifying the fact of the matter is, this is a billion pounds on the never never time was the next borough bust by Labour.
hands in the matter.
let me take this in two halves.
what is this motion apparently about, and what does it really about, so on the surface, this seems like a deceptively reasonable request for transparency in council borrowing there is a very large sum of money involved.
3,000 pounds of debts per household as very, very scary, and something that sounds like internal bleeding, no internal borrowing, equally harmful, whatever that is, it all, sounds like a big problem.
we need clarity, but but but.
there is a great deal of information available to the public on these matters already in the comprehensive reports published by the Finance Department, they never come up short on comprehensiveness, the Finance Department.
are the opposition party really feeling that they are stumbling about in the dark here?
do we need to go to the landslip as set out in this motion, or could it allow you to please ask the Finance Department to bring that information to the next Finance Committee, perhaps, rather than going to these extraordinary lengths of grandstanding in the middle of Full Council?
is this really something to sound quite so worried about what we are taking out here is a very large mortgage now, everybody here, I think most people here will know what it felt like to take out a mortgage, the large sum of money it was and the way that it transformed your lives.
but that's what we're doing for once with we're transforming the life of Wandsworth, it is a large sum of money, it needs to be after 44 years of neglect.
as for this internal bleeding internal borrowing, which is also mentioned so prominently as if it's some kind of cancerous death threat to the body politic. This is just a perfectly well established piece of bog standard treasury management. If you've got some cash in your account, then bank and borrow some money at extra bank costs, use the money in your bank account first, and then, when you need to actually borrow the money borrowed the money, it's hallowed as simple common sense in ordinary household terms. It's about the same as paying for things on your credit card and just making sure that you pay in full when it's to say you don't pay end up paying any interest rates so viewers for this is what actually is going to be happening. This is actually going to be sort of clipped into some video somewhere viewers. There isn't so much to worry about here. This is like a big mortgage. It's like paying your credit card bill on time is just good housekeeping
but let's turn to what this is actually really really about.
what this actually is is a long drawn out primal, scream of pure terror, at the sight of a Labour administration managing the finances of the borough, not just with prudence and skill, but also with revision and compassion, and the terror on the other side is perfectly understandable, this is an existential threat to their credibility.
but it's not a threat to the residents of Wandsworth who could all sleep easy tonight.
Councillor Hanley, thank you very much, Madam Mayor.
of course that isn't a bad thing. Companies, governments and councils all borrow money and lots of us as Councillor Marshall has said have mortgages or credit cards of course, sensibly managed debt can be a responsible financial choice, but we've also seen the problems that can arise when organisations overstretched themselves and are unable to comfortably service and pay back the money they owe. The amount of debt that this Council is proposing taking on is unsustainable and irresponsible and it will leave the HRA and therefore our tenants crippled by debt repayments in order to fund their plans.
in particular, the switch to a thousand homes scheme from mixed tenure to all council labour is going to be borrowing, at least 270 million pounds more than the Conservatives would have done, that's an interest cost of at least 12 minute million a year that wouldn't have existed and I have four key concerns about this level of borrowing.
firstly, the overall affordability of the debt in terms of interest and repayments, there are enormous pressures on the housing revenue account inflation is running even higher than the average for costs like repairs and maintenance and pressures like the green agenda, and new safety requirements post Grenfell mean that to keep our tenants in safe, efficient, well-managed homes is going to be increasingly expensive, we all know that,
and despite Labour jacking up rents by over 15% since coming into power, that will continue to be the case.
when the cost of interest in capsule repayments is projected to be nearly 50 million pounds just in 24 25, the amount left to spend on our tenants. Of course it's going to be squeezed. Inevitably it will be, and that assumes the interest rates are held at 4.00 and a half percent, which currently would need me possible. Secondly, what about the Oulton and the Winstanley York? Road regeneration Labour of cancelled the Oulton regeneration? But we still need to improve those homes and regenerate the area. Labour won't bring in private sector investment, so improving the estate will be much more expensive than we'd planned. The economic outlook has significantly worsened since the Winstanley Road regeneration began and, despite not having a business plan from this Labour administration, we can only assume that the financial position is much more challenging and with borrowing at these levels, whereas the headroom in the model to allow these key projects to continue, my fear is that Labour are shaping up to let existing residents down
thirdly, the majority of the additional borrowing is to allow the switch to council rents in 1,000 homes scheme. Is this really value for money for Wandsworth tenants? Not only is the lifetime cost of these homes once the interest is taken into account, absolutely vast, but all of the programme risk is borne by the HRA and, by extension, our tenants and I think that risk is unacceptably high. And finally, no one can predict events with any certainty COVID, the war in Ukraine, situation in the Middle East. They've all shown us that, and that's why resilience in the face of unexpected events is a cornerstone of financial planning, particularly for an organisation which should be very risk averse because failure means not being able to look after our tenants. These levels of borrowing leave our HRA without the resilience to deal with known challenges, let alone the unexpected
this goes fundamentally to the heart of what the Council's job is. First and foremost, we need to make sure that we can look after our tenants and residents and to do that we need to have a strong resilient financial plan. Of course, councillors and residents need to be able to clearly see the costs and the effects of borrowing decisions over the lifetime of the borrowing, and I can't believe anyone in the room would disagree with that, which is why this motion is perfectly reasonable in its request to have the details laid out so that residents can understand clearly what debt this administration is incurring and the impact it will have on the Council's ability to support its residents in the future.
this isn't some knee-jerk opposition to borrowing. This is asking for the data to be laid out clearly, so we can have a grown-up debate on the Council's appetite for risk and on the level of borrowing, which is in the best interests for our residents. So I would urge you to support this motion.
Councillor Ireland.
thank you, Madam Mayor. Having a decent home is fundamental to health and wellbeing, but there is a housing emergency in this country with the highest levels of homelessness. Since records began, the number of children living in temporary accommodation has almost doubled in the past 10 years, with over 140,000 children currently homeless. The highest number ever in the past five years living in temporary accommodation was a contributing factor in the deaths of 55 children, including 42 infants. These deaths were preventable and happened because of the conditions they lived in. How and why has? This happened when introducing the Second Reading of the Housing Bill in 1,009 80, Michael Heseltine said of the right to buy policy that no single piece of legislation has enabled the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people 40 plus years later. Instead of a property owning utopia, we have concentrated a sizeable portion of state-funded assets into the ownership of private landlords. It has been one of the biggest transfers of wealth from public to private ownership. The purpose of right to buy was to enable residents to own the home they live in, but this has led to a staggering loss of social homes because those sold off under this policy are not being replaced. According to local government association analysis, just one new home is built for every five sold, and many of these properties sold have moved into the private rented sector. If trends continue in just two years' time, more than half of all form former council homes sold through this policy will be privately let now to meet the needs of homeless families. Councils, pay private landlords to rent back homes, they once owned at a cost of millions of pounds every year after years of underinvestment. Instead of investing in affordable social housing, this government is using public funds to prop up the private rented sector, which is riddled with poor quality housing.
private landlords will receive more than six times in housing support payments than the government is expected to spend on affordable housing. Now it once was or sold over 24,000 Council homes, and over 40% of these homes are now in the hands of private landlords, many of whom have portfolios of multiple properties, including at least one with scores of former council homes. Each year, this Council spends over 20 million pounds on temporary accommodation. This is not financially sustainable. Without the last Council meeting, I was very disappointed to hear council homes described as ghettos now, for someone like me, growing up here in Wandsworth in insecure, overcrowded and damp private rented accommodation, the idea of living in a council home was aspirational. It meant a secure home with hot water and heating, an inside lavatory or bathroom, and even a proper garden. I used to think all the change swept away in the 19 70s. This has all gone horribly wrong. This country seems to have gone backwards and I am saddened and appalled to see the number of our residents who enjoy similar or even worse, housing conditions than I experienced.
now there are over 14,000 households on the Council's waiting list. We cannot and should not tolerate this. We need to build more social rented homes. The secretary of state agrees this week, Michael Gove said, we absolutely need more homes for social rent by expanding the number of homes for social rent. You can reduce the housing benefit bill and you can give people a sense of stability and community. This administration is ambitious for our residents and is committed to delivering a fair, compassionate and more sustainable council, and the levels of future capital investment must support these ambitions to invest in the borough and invest in our residents, and this does include estate regeneration and new housing development. The thousand homes programme is supported by a fully costed business plan, which we will constantly review to ensure affordability. Borrowing is ring fenced to the housing revenue account and is separate from the General Fund and council tax. We are not loading unmanageable debt onto our tenants. The rent generated from these homes will help to repay the borrowing and we fully intend to publish the relevant financial information, which means that this motion is redundant. I've almost finished.
these homes will last for generations and will far outlive the period of borrowing a thousand families, will be guaranteed a decent, stable home, with numerous benefits to them and to wider society, we believe this is the right thing to do and that it makes sound financial sense, thank you.
Councillor P Williams,
thank you. Thank you very much, Madam, and given that I believe, is your last meeting of the Chair, I would like to thank you for all your work over the last year, as we on this site often point out, the Labour administration benefits greatly from the excellent financial position it inherited after four and a half decades of Conservative administration making Wandsworth very much the envy of councils across London and beyond. Now Members opposite often denigrate this achievement, but it is that consistent focus over several decades on controlling finances properly that allowed the administration to keep council tax low now Wandsworth Labour as we've had a lot tonight, has made much publicity of the decision to continue with the Conservative policy of low tax, often, of course, ignoring the charges that they've increased across. The board is also very interesting that the administration chose to make council tax the focus of their mission tonight
whilst I must admit it's very reassuring to see so many converts to low tax governments, it is worth examining the wider sustainability of the Council's finances now putting to one side their approach to taxation. The most concerning aspect here is the administration's fixation, with racking up vast amounts of debt. Now our residents aren't naive and they can see the problem. To only a few days ago, I received an e-mail from a resident in Lavender. Asking how exactly is all the Council spending being funded in the absence of higher council tax revenue? A good question, I think, and our motion tonight simply calls upon the Council to be transparent about their borrowing across both General Fund and the HRA and how much all of this will cost now. Since taking office, this administration has set out plans to accrue in total a vast 450 million pounds worth of debt and, as Councillor Councillor Graham set out earlier, this equates to nearly 3,000 pounds for each household in Wandsworth. Now, take it alongside the decision to extend low repayments, the the period for loan repayments up to 50 years. This means that the interest payments over the full course of the debt are going to be absolutely eye-watering. Now it's no surprise that the council has decided not to publish full estimates of how much this will all cost and, as is always the way, this is being presented as the Council being compassionate, but I really do struggle to see how burdening future generations of residents, specifically council tenants with the costs of paying back vast amounts of debt interest is compassionate to me. This is not only irresponsible and short-sighted, it's also cruel in decades to come, there will be people living across this borough in council accommodation, still paying the price for the decisions being made, whilst those who make those decisions will presumably be long gone from this Council Chamber now this approach to debt is very concerning in itself, but when set against the running down of reserves, the picture is, I think, even more worrying since taking control of the administration has put in place plans to run down reserves by hundreds of millions of pounds. Once again, we're seeing how the current administration is eroding the very robust foundations on which this Council has been run for many decades. So what we have is a series of decisions that will lead gradually to a situation where, if they remain in control long enough, they'll leave themselves no choice, not only to serve to increase rents and rack up every single charge they can find, but eventually to increase council tax. Now, when this inevitable squeeze happens, Councillor hug o, whoever it is who replaces him will blame everyone else. The previous Conservative administration, the Conservative governments in Westminster, Margaret Thatcher, and pretends that there's no alternative to doing so whilst failing to take responsibility for the decisions that they're making right now. Now our motion tonight simply calls upon the Council to be transparent and open with its borrowing. All we're doing is asking the administration to produce an annual statement on its borrowing, including internal borrowing with an estimate on debt in interest payments. The text of the motion includes absolutely no judgment on whether or not the Council should accrue this much debt. It simply asked them to be open and honest with residents about what the Council is doing with their money and how much this debts will cost anything but a vote for this motion will once again demonstrate this trend that we see from the leadership of this Council that they are scared of people scrutinising their decisions.
madam Mayor, under Standing order 21 feet, I'm just going to add performance in relation to what my colleague has very accurately said, Standing order 21 B, I have the right.
I stood up first, Councillor rats, I still count first, so I now have its own right.
are you going to we had an agreement before the meeting, so I'm sure you?
thank you, my Lord Mayor.
so I just wanted to say two things which always taken half the time it would have gone to do it, the first is that you can't say something is the result of sound Peter government, Councillor police police time is going, we've got a lot to do before we finish police matter now I have a right understanding of 21 but you know you have the right, but the last time I gave you the permission to do that you I don't need permission Madam, I have a right understanding.
I know you have a right.
I know I would have liked, but I want to finish by now, could I just make my speech sentences, thank you, so you can't say something matter ma, Madam Mayor, when you were in the meeting when we agreed that we the we that Councillor Graham would not use this device, is broken the agreement we wanted to have had, I don't know what we want to pay tribute to you as Mayor, which he is robbing us of, we will want to pay you tribute and Councillor Grahame is taking that opportunity to where the opportunity, as you are.
please sit down taking area abide by the agreements that we have made,
behave in an orderly well sit down. You don't even have a right to be talking, Councillor Les Splitsider, Councillor Peter Graham, please, you have had an agreement with them already, I haven't been part of any agreement, there has been a matter we've made already, I've just sat down about a minute ago if I'd just been allowed to save them
these people.
now.
you can't say some is the results, Madam Mayor created, you did tell me that you would not allow him to conduct himself in this way, you would not allow an extra speech, please let supplied by our agreement under the standing orders to respond to the motion to sit down.
Madonna can only order 24 I put, the earthquake motion should be put.
under standing order, Councillor Henderson, I would really just like to make the point that I am entitled to make, regardless of how much you don't want to hear it, and the fact that you are going to such lengths to try and shut me up just proves how weak your argument is.
you see, your own leader is not in support of this, madman.
your only that is not in support of what are you doing, Madam Mayor, it's actually only fair that we are all elected as individuals, although we belong to groups, we are elected as individuals and we must have rights as individuals to remain individual Councillors, although we are also part of our groups, I know there are agreements but actually if Councillor Graham has the right standing order, whether we like it or not, I think he must as an individual councillor be allowed to exercise his right.
okay, thank you, Lord Mayor. I am very aware that Councillor Apps will be eager to take this away from me in a democracy review if it ever meets which we hope at some stage, but nevertheless, for the time being, we are allowed to respond and we are particularly allowed to respond to the claim that it is sound financial management and affordable to vote through 450 million pounds of debt. When you literally do not know what it would cost, Councillor Marshall said it's like taking out a mortgage well if that mortgage was for 450 million pounds and if you voted it through as you have tonight, without knowing what it would cost to pay each year, then yes, it's right, the fact is, you don't know, it's not that you're not even telling us officers, don't know it is the height of irresponsibility to vote to borrow without knowing what it would cost. Madam Lord Mayor, can I move the order 24, and can I read out and in 24 years place standing order, 24 is
absolutely clear when a motion is under debate, no other motion may be moved, unless a whole number of things, one of them is the question be now put insofar as Councillor Peter Graham is right to do, is replying. That means the motion is currently on the debate and I therefore whisked wish to move Standing order 24, the question now be put. Thank you
yeah
please.
all right.
he's finished there's going to be a giveaway yeah.
less continuum, there was no, there was no amendment to this motion, so we can move straight to the vote on the substantive motion to these votes, all those in favour of the motion.
or those against.
any abstentions.
voted for its 18 against 80
obsession Zara, so it's not carried.
we now we now turn to executive report number 2, can this report to be taken for information?
I will ask Councillor Dicker in to move reception of paragraph 1 from the reports relating to Housing Committee.
paragraph 1 move for information.
environment, Environmental Committee, Councillor Dacre yeah, paragraph 2 on the ones with climate action plan for information.
children's committee, because I was told I got three to do as well actually paragraph 3, leisure service delivery and management offers options for information.
should its Committee Councillor Stoke, thank you paragraphs 4 to 9 for information.
Transport's Committee has laid.
transport committee paragraph 10 page 1 0 5 4, information Queenstown Road corridor scheme.
Health Committee Councillor Anderson,
the amount of the paragraph laf and for information on the eve of St Patrick's Day.
part of 12 on the carers and young carers charter and paragraph 13 on the social care outcomes framework, annual report for information,
ITEM 12
is for the planning application committee report number 3.
because I had been authorised to move the planning application report keep margin number 3 paragraphs 1 to 6 for information
item 13 is for is from the joint staffing committee reports number 4 Councillor Hub.
moves report number 4, paragraph 1 is for information.
Kara, as that Item 17 from the supplementary paper is taking list, this is the report of the Chief Executive on revisions to committee members membership are those recommendations agreed.
for item 14, can I ask the Council to appoint a chair for this item?
May I nominate Councillor Belton.
can I second that nomination?
yes, I agree.
is that our risk?
thank you, Lord Mayor, my big moment of the year, I'm in charge of Councillor Hogg and other people Councillor Hogg, can I ask you to move the motion in your name paper 1, on page 1 1 1,
happy to propose that motion moved and do I have a seconder moved by Councillor Hughes seconded by Councillor siege, any objections and even gained can I take that as agreed?
agreed, thank you, Madam Mayor, I relinquished my power so quickly.
thank you, Councillors, that concludes the business of this evening.
- Question Schedule FINAL, opens in new tab
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