Issue - meetings

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Claire Kober, gave the following “State of the Borough” address:

Mr Mayor, the state of the borough is typically an occasion to reflect on the successes of the past year, and consider the opportunities for the one ahead and how together as ‘one borough’ we will grow.

But I approach this year’s address lacking the positivity that typically marks the occasion. That is not to say that we have lost our way or forgotten our vision but rather that the scale of the challenges before us clouds almost everything we are striving for.

Earlier this week I was thinking about my speech this evening and pulled out the previous two state of the borough addresses I have made. What struck me was the things that I’d trumpeted on previous occasions, things that we could rightly be proud of:

The Decent Homes programme - £200 million pounds of investment in our housing stock, giving tenants the dignity that comes from a refurbished home. More than new kitchens, bathrooms, windows and roofs, the programme gave families a renewed sense of optimism in the circumstances and futures.

And what of the Decent Homes programme today? Before Christmas the Tory led coalition government announced at 75 per cent reduction in the programme. Nothing short of decimation. And despite the hard work of our officers, which has seen Haringey receive the highest allocation in London, our allocation is reduced by £50 million pounds – 25 per cent of the value of the entire Haringey programme – in the next two years alone. As ward councillors we all know how vital these works are, and our tenants have been promised that they will go ahead. They have been badly let down by this government.

Last year I spoke with pride of the Future Jobs Fund bringing 221 real jobs to the borough – for young people struggling to get a foothold on the employment ladder and those who had been unemployed for more than six months. Over the last year I’ve met tens of Future Jobs Fund workers – in the council, and in the community. Each of them has been doing valuable work, making a real contribution while in many cases gaining back the self confidence that can be badly knocked when you’re out of the job market.

But in a move that echoes previous Tory administrations, the government has deemed the programme to be unaffordable. They believe, as they always have done, that unemployment is a price worth paying.

The result? One million young people out of work. The utter waste of human talent. And the economic bankruptcy of an approach that says it’s preferable to have young people on the dole queue than in work, paying taxes. Nothing short of a national scandal.

I also spoke about the brilliant success of our schools in driving up pupil achievement, closing the national attainment gap and doing so in buildings that were being transformed as part of £212 million  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81