Minutes:
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 investment in the building schools for the future programme. Another programme that the coalition government has brought to an abrupt halt through a series of botched, inaccurate announcements in the House of Commons. No consultation, no negotiation, the programme scrapped and with it the belief that our young people deserve to be taught in the very best facilities we can provide. Even a high court judge deemed the decision, and I quote, ‘so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power’.
Thankfully we have been spared these abuses of power. We had managed to get our schools into an earlier wave of the programme. Our work was completed. In September we opened Heartlands, a new co-ed community school in the heart of our borough. It may be one of the last of its kind following the government’s recent pronouncement that all new schools will have to be either academies or faith schools.
I’ve spoken about pupil attainment. Another considerable success of recent years has been the massive reduction we’ve achieved in young people not in education, employment or training. A key aspect of this success was the Educational Maintenance Allowance, a payment of £30 a week to young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who committed to staying on in education.
The decision to axe the EMA has not received as much attention as the massive hike in tuition fees but don’t think for a moment that it won’t have a devastating effect in our borough. At the college of north east London 3,300 learners received the EMA; 2,800 qualified for the full £30 a week.
The majority of students spend this money on food, or often to help out their families, and travel. But from September that money is gone. Axed. £3.5 million pounds from the pockets of young people in low income families. And if that was not bad enough the government has also slashed the colleges welfare fund by 80 per cent – from £2 million to just £400,000.
Mr Mayor, as I believe these examples demonstrate, we face some of the toughest times ever seen in our borough. Health, the police, the fire service and the voluntary sector all face swingeing cuts.
The response from the government is the rhetoric of the big society – that charities and volunteers will step in to fill the breach left by the state. But this neglects the fact that the funders of the voluntary sector are the very organisations – local councils, health authorities and police services – that are facing huge cuts to their budgets.
And on top of this we are seeing draconian changes to our benefits system – over £18 billion pounds of the deficit reduction strategy is based on reducing benefits to those on low incomes. It is the case that the poor and the vulnerable of our country are paying the price for failure in the global financial markets. How can anyone claim that we are all in this together?
The cumulative effect on the borough is difficult to gauge but I am sure will be nothing short of devastating. In cash terms we know it’s over a third of a billion pounds. This though will not capture the profound and disastrous social impact on communities across Haringey.
Let me be clear:
Not my words but the words of 90 Liberal Democrat group leaders in a letter to the Times earlier this month. The letter was signed by a number of group leaders in London including the Lib Dem leaders in Islington, Waltham Forest, Barnet and Lewisham. But not the leader in Haringey.
Instead, at council meeting after council meeting, all we’ve heard from the benches opposite is a defence of the speed and depth of the government’s cuts.
Eric Pickles little helpers.
Only too happy to support the dogmatic ideology which lies at the heart of this coalition government’s attempt to dismantle public provision.
And the MP for Hornsey and Wood Green, who is busy designing petitions against service closures when she isn’t voting in the Tory lobby for the obliteration of public provision, has shared with us her words of wisdom.
She’s currently circulating an email to local people telling us that the Liberal Democrats in Haringey are extremely concerned about some of the cuts. Well not concerned enough to vote against them, or sign up to a letter in the Times against them.
Her email goes on to justify the speed of the government’s spending cuts, repeats the lie that our funding has been reduced by 7.9 per cent when independent observers accept its 13 per cent. She even trumpets the freedoms that we’ve been given with funding ringfences having been removed. It beggars belief.
But our local MP has underestimated the public she serves. Scores of people in Hornsey and Wood Green are aghast at this gross hypocrisy being attempted in their name. Let us be absolutely clear, to the Minister for Equalities and members opposite - this is your government, these are your cuts.
Mr Mayor I would like to make clear I am incredibly proud of the successes of the Council in recent years, reductions in poverty, improvements in educational attainment, and a rise in employment. Within the economic constraints I have outlined, my aspirations and ambitions as Leader of this Council are undeterred. I remain committed to One Borough One Future, our ambition for tackling inequality and developing a better society for our residents to live, thrive and work.
The Leader of the Opposition spoke in response.
RESOLVED:
That the Leader of the Council’s “State of the Borough” report be received and agreed.