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The following article appeared in the London Evening Standard on 11th November:
Published: 11 November 2013
Updated: 13:34, 11 November 2013
Labour should “apologise” for its poor record of building social housing, the party’s own London housing spokesman has said.
Tom Copley said it galled him that Margaret Thatcher’s government built more council flats and houses in a single year than Tony Blair and Gordon Brown managed over 13 years in power.
His remarks were attacked as too “bleak” by one of Labour leader Ed Miliband’s top lieutenants. But the Coalition Government’s housing minister said Mr Copley was right and called on Mr Miliband to say sorry.
At a conference organised by think tank the Centre for Labour and Social Studies, Mr Copley spoke about his role as Labour’s housing spokesman on the London Assembly.
He said: “As a Labour politician one of the things that really galls me is that there’s this statistic that more council homes were built in the last year of Thatcher’s government than were built in the 13 years of Labour government, and that’s something I think as a Labour Party we need to apologise for.” Official figures show only 6,330 council houses were completed from 1998 to 2010, compared with 17,710 in 1990 alone, which was Baroness Thatcher’s final year as prime minister. In one Labour year, 2004, the number fell to just 130 council homes completed.
Mr Copley called on his party not to “repeat this mistake”. He said Labour should allow councils to borrow more for social housing without it counting as a rise in the national debt, to fund a mass house-building programme. But at the same event, Mr Miliband’s Commons aide Karen Buck, MP for Westminster North, said Labour’s record “wasn’t as bleak and hopeless as some critics would have us believe”.
Conservative housing minister Kris Hopkins, said: “Labour failed an entire generation by not building enough houses but Ed Miliband has been too weak to apologise.”
Waltham Forest Lib Dem Group Leader Councillor Bob Sullivan said:
“It is about time that the truth came out. We have heard a lot of Labour Party propaganda rubbishing the achievements of the Coalition Government maybe the Labour Party should now apologise for letting down the Country by not building enough homes in the 13 years of Labour Government.”
Lib Dems Condemn Labour Retreat on Fire Services – Councillor Mahmood Hussain
The Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats have a long standing campaign against the Mayor’s fire cuts and have been working with colleagues across London to try and stop the plans to axe our fire engines.
Last week the Labour council in Waltham Forest withdrew from the judicial review aimed at making the Mayor rethink his plans. Local Liberal Democrats believe that by backing down Labour have dealt a huge blow to the campaign to save our fire services.
Councillor Mahmood Hussain said:
“Labour clearly went ahead without thinking and then got cold feet.”
“Withdrawing now makes it seem as if we’re not confident the case can be won. We should be backing our fire fighters and standing with other Borough’s against the Mayor’s cuts.”
“It’s becoming clearer that when it comes to cuts to local services, Labour’s commitment to fairness is only words and not action. They are giving the tory Mayor a free pass to do what he wants with our fire services.”
Lib Dems back new appeal to stop London fire cuts – Councillor Mahmood Hussain
The Mayor of London decided earlier in August that 10 fire stations will be closed, together with the loss of 14 fire engines and over 500 jobs; and Waltham Forest will lose three fire engines under the cuts.
Now eight councils – including Waltham Forest – have written to the Secretary of State asking him to overrule the Mayor’s decision.
The councils argue that the Mayor’s decision ignores the fire risks posed by potential terrorist targets and the challenges of fighting fires in large high rise buildings. It also ignores other factors such as a concentration of tourist attractions or social and student housing in the affected boroughs.
Councillor Mahmood Hussain, Lib Dem, High Street ward said:
“This is a welcome move towards stopping the Mayor’s terrible cuts to our fire services. Waltham Forest Lib Dems have been campaigning against these cuts from the beginning and the fire fighters have our full backing on this issue.”
“If Eric Pickles won’t overturn the Mayor’s decision then the council should go for a full judicial review. We should do everything in our power to block these cuts for the safety of our Borough.”
Local Lib Dems welcome plans to curb Betting Shops – Councillor Bob Sullivan
Local Lib Dems have welcomed the announcement by Local Government Minister Don Foster that Liberal Democrats in government will bring forward plans to curb betting shops in Waltham Forest and elsewhere.
Waltham Forest Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on this since their motion to council in 2011, which gained cross-party support and called for these new powers from the government.
Lib Dem Leader Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“This is a significant step in our long running campaign to give councils more powers over betting shops.
“Our motion to council in 2011 called for these new powers and we have kept pushing at every possible level ever since.
“I raised this again with Don Foster just recently and it is good to see that hard work come to fruition in national policy.
“There is still a lot of work to do to get this into law and we will not stop campaigning until that happens.”
Cllr Mahmood Hussain, High Street ward said:
“Every time a new betting shop application comes up in High Street ward we campaign hard to stop it but without these powers there is only so much that can be done.
“If Liberal Democrats can deliver these proposals in government it could have a dramatic effect on the health of our local high streets.”
“UKBA checks are out of order” – Councillor Mahmood Hussain
Responding to the recent high profile spot checks by the UK Border Agency in Walthamstow, local Lib Dem councillor Mahmood Hussain said:
“It’s extremely disturbing to hear reports that local people are being targeted by UKBA because of their skin colour.”
“Whatever their rationale, this kind of high profile activity is extremely bad for community relations and follows hot on the heels of their divisive ad vans that have already outraged many local residents.”
“If they really want to tackle immigration then Conservative Ministers should stop slowing down plans to reintroduce proper exit checks at our borders instead of using these heavy handed tactics.
“In the meantime UKBA should think again about who they target and how they tackle this issue in Walthamstow and elsewhere.”
Following the debate on the coalition welfare reforms at last Thursday’s council meeting, it has emerged that 75% of council staff earn less than the £26,000 benefits cap.
The figures, which exclude those working for schools in the Borough, show that only 25% of council workers earn more than the £35,000 that someone would need to earn to take home £26,000.
At the meeting Labour claimed the cap was a ‘London living tax’ and was unfairly penalising London residents.
Lib Dem Deputy Group Leader Councillor Farooq Qureshi said:
“The welfare reforms are extremely difficult for some people in our Borough and as councillors we are on the front line of trying to help them.
“But Labour’s claim that this is a “London living tax” just aren’t credible when the majority of council workers take home less in their pay packets.”
“The Labour Party are quick to campaign against the welfare reforms but refuse to put forward any alternatives. Ed Miliband supports capping welfare spending, so where will Labour’s cuts come from?”
On Thursday the Liberal Democrat group voted against proposals that would mean more special responsibility allowances for councillors.
Lib Dems criticised the Labour group for using scrutiny politically to avoid any real scrutiny of council policies, whilst at the same time awarding themselves more money.
The Labour council are splitting the health and adults committee into two new committees that will focus separately on public health and adults services.
They are creating two additional paid positions for their members who will take the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee, who will get an extra £8,000 and £4,000 respectively on top of the £10,000 a year they earn as councillors.
Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“Labour are just creating more paid positions to reward their members. The current proposal could mean £12,000 in extra costs to Waltham Forest council tax payers.”
“There are a lot of ways Labour could ensure this doesn’t cost more money: Either by cutting these allowances across the council or by sharing the existing allowances for the old committee across the two new ones.
“Labour councillors should stop trying to hide their failures by stuffing committees full of their own members.
“They should be taking responsibility over their failures over jobs in this Borough and cutting their ‘special responsibility allowances’ rather than giving themselves more allowances.”
Since 2010, more than one million jobs have been created in the private sector. We are proud of the role that the Liberal Democrats have played in directing government investment into job creation and training.
We are now focusing our efforts on improving this record and delivering a million more new jobs as we continue to build a stronger economy for the future.
The coalition government has already delivered 1.2 million apprenticeships for young people since 2010. The Liberal Democrats are now campaigning to double the number of apprenticeships being offered.
Manufacturing is the key to a sustainable economic recovery in Britain. Under Vince Cable at the Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills, we have directed an extra investment of over £5.5 billion into high-tech manufacturing, science and renewable energy.
Liberal Democrats have long argued that we need to rebalance the economy away from our reliance on London and South East England. That is why we have also set up the £2.6 billion Regional Growth Fund initiative, to help create businesses, jobs and economic recovery in every part of the country.
The coalition is using £15.3 billion of investment into our infrastructure to build a stronger economy for the future and to create thousands of jobs in construction right now.
For more information on the Liberal Democrats’ record in creating one million new jobs, and to find out how many new jobs are being created near you, visit the Million Jobs website: http://www.amillionjobs.org
Over the last few years council phone bills have soared. According to figures released by the council mobile phone costs soared by over £110,000 last year costing taxpayers a total of £314,000 in one year alone, whilst landline costs also rose by £80,000.
Council tax payers are now forking out £860,000 every year for phone bills alone.
Cllr Bob Sullivan said:
“Labour need to get a grip on these soaring phone bills. Other council services are being cut whilst phone bills are going up and up.
“The council are putting more and more services online but clearly aren’t making any savings by doing it.
“This £190,000 could be helping us build a fairer society by investing in social services, it could help build a stronger local economy by investing in jobs or it could even protect local services like keeping open a library.
“Instead, Labour is proving time and time again that they can’t be trusted with our money.”