Mayor's Fun Day with health checks and much more, Saturday 16th September 11am-4.30pm Century Bowls Club, Wembley

 

Cllr Tariq Dar is to be Brent Council's next Deputy Mayor

Cllr Tariq Dar was elected Deputy Mayor for 2023-24 at yesterday's Brent Labour Group Annual General Meeting. He had 29 votes, to Tony Ethapemi's 14. There was 1 abstention. This means as far as can be forseen that Cllr Dar will be Mayor in 2024-25. 

Cllr Orleen Hylton will be appointed Mayor for 2023-24 at the Brent Council AGM.

Brent's new Mayor and a contest for Deputy

Deputy Mayor, Cllr Orleen Hylton, carrying out her civic duties

 

Residents may encounter the Mayor of Brent at various events as well as seeing them chair meetings of Full Council (often with whispered instructions from the Brent CEO who sits beside them) but may not be aware of the full 'job description'. This is taken from Brent Council's website:

The Mayor has many civic and ceremonial responsibilities and has an ambassadorial role as first citizen of the borough.

This means the Mayor will promote Brent and participate in, and help initiate, activities that help the economic, social, cultural and environmental wellbeing of Brent and its residents.

Mayoral duties carried out by the mayor include:

·       chairing Council meetings

·       signing documents under seal

·       conducting citizenship ceremonies

·       hosting civic events

·       attending local events.

During their period of office, the mayor will receive numerous invitations to events/functions in the borough and across London. The role played at these events varies, depending on their nature and the expectations of the organiser.

At the beginning of each municipal year, it is traditional for the mayor to select one or more local charities to support. The mayor’s office will organise a number of events to raise money for these charities and at the end of the mayoral year the proceeds of these events and any donations received will be evenly distributed to the chosen charities. The mayor may choose to establish a Charity Committee with representatives of the charity(ies) to assist and promote the fundraising efforts.

Although the Mayor and Deputy are officially installed at the Council's Annual General Meeting they are effectively elected at the Labour Group Annual General Meeting. At this meeting the current Deputy Mayor is rubber stamped as 'Mayor designate' and there may be an election for Deputy Mayor if more than one candidate comes forward. 

At the Labour Group AGM at Brent Civic Centre next Tuesday, May 9th, Cllr Orleen Hylton, (Preston ward)  current Deputy Mayor, will be put forward as Mayor for 2023-2024.  There will be an election for the Deputy Mayor, which in effect because the Deputy normally goes on to become Mayor the next year, will be an election for the 2024-2025 Mayor.

The candidates  are Cllr Tariq Dar, Cricklewood and Mapesbury Ward, and Cllr Tony Ethapemi, Stonebridge Ward. Both have been councillors since 2018. Their applications, forwarded to Labour councillors ahead of the AGM, include several sections that together have a total limit of 1,000 words, so this is just a summary. Unfortunately the full applications are not publicly available.

Cllr Tariq Dar MBE, emphasises his support for voluntary and community organisations. He is a charismatic leader and stresses his loyalty, resilience and social intelligence. He says that as Mayor he will be fair, consistent and respectful of others.

 

Cllr Tony Ethapemi claims that his professional background in local government and as a lawyer gives him the necessary leadership qualities for the role. These skills will enable him to ensure disciple and decorum in the Council Chamber.

The Brent Council Annual General meeting is on Wednesday May 17th.

Councillors are appointed to different Committees by the Leader of the Council and their attendance is recorded. These are the candidates' records taken from the Brent Council website.

 

Build support for a London Car Free Day

Over 50 organisations across the capital sent an open letter to the Mayor of London this week requesting he direct TfL to implement an ambitious plan for Car Free Day 2018. The letter asks Sadiq Khan to publicly commit to an ambitious Car Free Day plan for London next September. The groups believe that Car Free Day could be an important catalyst for London to address the public health scourge of air pollution, and to test out car-free zones in the city that can then be made permanently car-free as envisioned in the Mayor’s transport plan. 

The opportunity to both reduce air pollution and bolster local businesses by going car-free has already motivated Oslo to commit to permanently removing private cars from the city center by 2019. In Madrid, private cars will be removed from over 500 acres of the city by 2020 in a bid to boost local commerce and improve air quality. 

Endorsers of the London Car Free Day vision include a host of charities, think-tanks, research groups, businesses, and neighbourhood forums across 15 London Boroughs. According to the letter “World Car Free Day 2018 is a tremendous opportunity to catalyse long-term reductions in air pollution [and] improve London’s transport system.” 

Car Free Day is an annual global event held in cities each 22^nd September which encourages citizens to walk, cycle or use public transport for one day. While individual boroughs like Hackney, Lambeth, Islington, and Greenwich have all hosted modest Car Free Day celebrations in the past, it has never been a city-wide celebration of walking and cycling like it is in Vancouver, Paris, or Brussels. The letter points out that there is even a weekly Car Free Day in Jakarta, Indonesia, a city of over 10 million. 

The Mayor’s new Transport Strategy means that the world is now looking for London’s to lead the global transition to city centres free from private cars. The letter writers consider Car Free Day 2018 as the perfect opportunity to test new models for car-free urban mobility across London. The Day would provide an opportunity to test the air quality improvements of taking private cars out of the city centre. Small businesses across London would benefit from a day with streets full of customers on foot. 

Community supporters flagged the many benefits of hosting a Car Free Day. According to Marco Picardi at Green Westway, a community group working to improve the air quality and mobility options around the A40 flyover: 

“Car Free Day is an opportunity to test the transformative potential of car-free streets. New approaches are needed to address congestion, pollution, safety, and the public health. Car Free Day is a catalyst to make safe walking and cycling part of a daily routine for Londoners.”

Caroline Russell AM, Green Party Member of the London Assembly emphasised:

“No one should be left out of having streets that are safe and pleasant to use – a car-free day would give Londoners the space to breathe.”

“Paris has a monthly car-free day so it is possible for big cities to do this. I want Londoners to have a taste of fresher air and to see that streets can be for people, not just vehicles.”

“It would be great to see London open for walking and cycling to give people the freedom to choose how they want to travel without being intimidated by hostile streets.”

According to Rosalind Readhead, Chair of the London Campaign for Better Transport: 

“There is a huge opportunity to go car-free in central London and convert road spaces to higher-value activities. We already have 6.8 million parking spaces taking up almost 80km sq. across a city where space is at a huge premium. Could we remove parking spaces and build affordable housing or expand public green space? London Car Free Day is an opportunity to ask these questions and to showcase an ambitious vision for more car-free city centres around the world.”

Other supporters think Car Free Day could make London a more liveable city for all residents: “I grew up in Brussels where there has been an annual Car Free Day for many years. The day is a pleasant opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends, re-discover the city from a different perspective and get some exercise. There is something liberating and empowering about pedestrians and cyclists reclaiming the streets.” says Helena O’Rourke-Potocki, one the co-founders of Our Air Our Health, a clean air campaign in Tower Hamlets. 

A version of the letter (See below) sent to the Mayor’s office this morning is also on the online petition platform Change.org so that individual citizens from across London can express their support. 

The online petition is accessible here: http://bit.ly/LCFD_petition .

More information

Twitter: @carfreedayLDN #LondonCarFreeDay2018 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carfreedayLDN/

LETTER OF SUPPORT

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Brent CEO's advice to Mayor over John Duffy Special Council Meeting request published

A supplementary report has been published for Thursday's Standards Committee meeting which contains the correspondence between the Mayor and Carolyn Downs (Brent CEO) about John Duffy's request for a Special Council Meeting about fire risk in Brent buildings post Grenfell:

Greens hail their 'biggest and best campaign in London to date'

The Green Party has recorded its best ever election results in London where Sian Berry, the Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate, came third and the Party retained its two London Assembly seats.

On the Assembly, councillors Sian Berry and Caroline Russell replace Baroness Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson, who have both stepped down after 16 years of outstanding service.

The Scottish Greens enjoyed a superb night, growing their representation from two MSPs to six. In winning election, 21-year-old rising star Ross Greer became the youngest-ever MSP .

Reacting to the outstanding results in the capital, Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader, said:

The Greens standout results in London demonstrate how a positive campaign with good ideas for London can resonate widely with voters. We thank all our candidates, activists and supporters for delivering our biggest and best campaign in London to date.

Sian Berry said:

Today is a victory for the politics of bringing Londoners together not dividing them. I’m proud that Londoners have voted for good, positive ideas in such numbers. In every vote Greens have cemented our position as the number three party in London, coming third in the vote for mayor, on the Londonwide list and in a majority of constituencies. The immediate priority for Greens on the London Assembly now will be to push the new mayor to make the right decisions on road-building and estate demolitions and to clean up our city’s filthy air.

In the local elections, the Green Party saw strong results in the West Midlands and the South West. In Stroud, where Natalie visited on the eve of the poll, the Party retained five councillors and added three gains. The party retained all its councillors in Solihull and made two gains. The party now have 27 Green Party councillors on 11 councils in its growing West Midlands powerbase (including making a breakthrough in Cannock Chase and winning a hard-fought seat in Worcester that led to the Tories losing control of the council). The party also won a first-ever seat on Weymouth and Portland council.

Reacting to the local election results, Natalie said:

My thanks to everyone who voted Green yesterday, particularly those who voted Green for the first time, of whom I know there were many.

I also want to thank all of the candidates, members and supporters who helped us to stand in the largest-ever number of council seats, 54% in these elections compared to 25% in 2012.

That reflects the growth and development of the Green Party since then, with membership five times larger, and we’re looking forward to the county elections next year to further increase our representation.

The new Green councillors will join a team who are dedicated to standing up for the most disadvantaged, to taking real steps to alleviate the ever-worsening housing crisis, and to helping communities live within the environmental limits of our one fragile planet.

The breakthroughs we have made mean more councils will now have Green voices, voices that scrutinise, challenge, and ask tough questions. Sadly, we have lost some long-term, dedicated, valued councillors in Norwich, Oxford and other places. I thank them for their years of service to their communities and the Green Party and am sure that the parties there will be bouncing back in coming years, with strong representation still on both councils.

The final Green tally of English council seats will not be known until Sunday when the Bristol City council count is completed. Bristol is the Greens’ stronghold in the South-West and the party is poised to increase it representation from 14 councillors.

The Scottish Greens increased the presence in Parliament threefold and achieved almost a 14% increase on their best-ever total in the regional vote across Scotland.

Turning her attention to Scotland, Natalie said:

This was a great night for the Scottish Green Party and they are taking a great team into Holyrood. As well as the much respected Alison Johnstone and Patrick Harvie, Ross Greer will be the youngest MSP and land reform campaigner Andy Wightman will be a formidable force.

Breakdown of Mayoral votes in Brent and Harrow constituency

These are the first and second preferences for the London Mayoral vote recorded in the Brent and Harrow GLA constituency

Candidate	Party	1st pref	2nd Pref	Total	Order
Sian Berry	Green Party	7432	24333	31765	3
David Furness	Britsih National Party	1113	2208	3321
George Galloway	Respect	3787	9980	13767
Paul Golding	Britain First	2206	4789	6995
Zac Goldsmith	Conservative	67131	21125	88256	2
Lee Harris	Canabis Safer than Alcohol	1669	4291	5960
Sadiq Khan	Labour Party	75260	28821	104081	1
Ankit Love	One Love Party	777	3034	3811
Caroline Pidgeon	Liberal Democrat	6552	20492	27044	4
Sophie Walker	Women's Equality Party	2923	11419	14342
Peter Whittle	UKIP	3742	11498	15240
Prince Zylinski	Independent*	1185	1690	2875
	Total of good votes	173777	143680
	Rejected votes			2565
	Total Ballot Papers counted 177207

STAND UP FOR GOOD IDEAS: Vote Sian Berry & Green on orange today

And another good reason to vote Green from Barnet Greens in yesterday's Evening Standard

NUT call on the next Mayor of London to defend education and help teachers create a just society for all.

The NUT will be holding a London Mayoral Hustings on Monday March 7th 6pm at the union's headquarters at Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, WC1H 9BD, near Kings Cross,  off  the south side of Euston Road.

The meeting will be introduced by Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary.

The flyer advertsing the event lists the issues that matter to London teachers:

London's schools are under threat
London is a city full of creativity, talent and potential. Our schools and teachers are amongst the best in the world. Yet this sucess is under real threat.

Spending cuts
School budgets across London face 12% cuts under Government spending plans. In some boroughs, the losses could be over 20%. That would mean understaffed schools, bigger class sizes, more children's needs unmet and a narrower curriculum.

Teacher shortages
Talented, hardworking teachers are being driven out of London's schools by excessive workload, the lack of affordable housing and an exam factory culture which demoralises both staff ansd children.

Poverty and unaffordable housing
Almost 4 in 10 children in the capital grow up in poverty. Unaffordable rents force too many families into unsuitable housing. These conditions impact heavily on children's education and their schools.

Lack of school places
London needs 113,000 more school places to meet demand. Yet our Councils have neither the funds nor the legal powers to open new schools.

Stand Up for London's Education
The NUT belives that every child deserves the best. We have produced a Manifesto for London's schools calling on the next Mayor of London to defend education and help teachers create a just society for all.

Help stand up for education
Come along to our hustings and other local campaign activities across London. Distribute our manifestpoand talk with friends, colleagues and candidates about our demands.

Mail manifesto@nut.org.uk for the NUT's Manifesto for London's schools and colleges

Natalie Bennett puts the Green Mayoral and Assembly Campaign in Context

One minute pitches from each of the Green London Mayor candidates

At the end of Saturday;s Hustings at Birkbeck College, each of the contenders for the Green Party's nomination for the London Mayor Election 2016 were able to sum up their pitch in one minute.

Green Party Mayoral candidates on Communication and Credibility

At yesterday's hustings Green Party candidates for the party's London Mayor nomination were asked how they would improve the Green Party's credibility and communication. They had just one minute to answer.

'The MDC is okay with me' says Pavey but others disagree

Brent's Cabinet met at Roundwood Youth Centre this afternoon, as part of a programme to move the meeting around the borough. It was followed by a walk-about in the area.  There was more discussion than usual with backbenchers and residents contributing but once again a Brent Council meeting was marred by the failure of councillors to project their voices and the lack of microphones.

Democracy must be HEARD to be done!

The Cabinet approved the action plan arising from the Brent Education Commission which includes partnership work between schools and support for the Brent Schools Partnership which has recently appointed a Strategic Director who will work a three day week.

One of the more controversial issues was  planning school places:

Objective: Ensure that the local authority is proactive in encouraging the best schools in Brent and free school providers  to set up new schools in areas where extra places are need.

Activities:

Work wuth the Education Funding Agency, DfE Free Schools team, the Regional Schools Commissioner and other partners to attract the best quality providers to Brent.

Promote the establishment of effective local chains/federations/partnerships to promote new schools and offer a local solution for schools at risk of failure.

A Labour Council supporting free schools and chains will stick  in the throats of many, particularly on the day the Michaela Free school opened in a building that remains a building site and when Gateway and Gladstone Free Schools failed to open on time.

Deputy Leader and former lead member for Children and Families, Cllr Michael Pavey, raised the possibility of the strategy changing if there is a change of government policy after the General Election.

Cabinet approved plans to make school expansion contracts more attractive to building companies by putting several into a package.

The London Mayor's plans for a Mayoral development Corporation in the Old Oak/Park Royal area provoked most discussion. As explained in an earlier blog Brent Council has not opposed the MDC in principle. Backbencher Cllr Dan Filson thought that was a mistake and said that Brent should start from the position that the MDC is undemocratic and limits the input of Brent council into the plans. He though that having the three council leaders (Brent, Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing) sitting on the MDC would not solve the problem as they would not have time to get down to the nitty gritty. The focus of the MDC was on Old Oak rather than the important task of reinvigorating the Park Royal Industrial Estate and rescueing it from being mainly devoted to warehousing.

Resident John Cox said that in the Harlesden incinerator campaign there were 180 councillors they could lobby. With the MDC it would be just three.  He said much of the land was publicly-owned, which we purchased in 1948 when nationalising the railways. Instead of flogging off public assets for the maximum value to developers, and then being supplicants to try and get some (so-called) affordable housing, we should value some of the land as zero, in perpetuity, and the state should build social housing. We could even call it council housing if we wanted to. He said the area was more like the Docklands development rather than the Olympic site.

Cox said that there was no chance of Crossrail coming to Wembley Central station  but Cllr Butt said that the Council had not given up the battle to make Wembley Central a destination: 'We can't afford to not having trains stopping there'. It was essential for the housing planned for Wembley.

Cllr Claudia Hector, another Labour backbencher, said that housing in the new development must be 'genuinely affordable' not the London Mayor's 80% of affordable rent. Director of Regeneration and Major Projects, Andy Donald, said the council was aware of that and that there would be a mixture of housing.

Cllr Pavey said that he thought the MDC was the right structure, with the wrong Mayor.  He could not see a combination of the three local authorities (Ed: Ealing's suggestion) as working for such a large development.

Muhammed Butt said that the three councils were continuing to talk but he stressed that they must come up with a 'credible alternative': 'We will have to work with the MDC if we don't come up with anything else'.

The Cabinet approved a bid to the GLA to make Alperton and Wembley Housing Zones. 20 will be created across London at a cost of £400m to create 50,000 new homes and 100,000 associated homes over the next 10 years.

Margaret McLennan said that the Zones were essential, especially in Alperton, to provide much needed infrastructure including new schools, health centres, transport etc to kickstart the areas. Cllr Perrin, lead member for the environment was concerned that this was at the  cost of moving businesses out of the area and there were also issues over contaminated land near the canal at Alperton.

I was pleased to see that £6m has been set aside for the provision of school nurses but this is going to external procurement, rather than in-house and only one bidder has emerged. it was confirmed that the provision would be free to local authority, academies and free schools but not to private schools. There was no detail about how many hours per school would be involved.

There was a rushed discussion of the Borough Plan where the Council hope to engage young people in schools in discussions about the future of the borough and no discussion at all on the Quarter 1 Performance Report where council services are given a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating. Support to enable families to be independent, take up of 3 year olds nursery education grant and the number of in-year applications for primary places getting a place withion four weeks of applying were all given a red rating.

London Assembly backs Generation Rent manifesto

The world is their Oyster - publicity for  MIPIM

From Generation Rent LINK

London Assembly members voted this afternoon to back Generation Rent's Manifesto. This is a fantastic endorsement of the work we are doing from politicians in the heart of the country's housing crisis.

Two million people - a quarter of the London population - rents from a private landlord, and the unaffordability, poor conditions and insecurity of tenure are all high on the agenda. A poll from the Association of Residential Letting Agents today said that 43% of London's renters have had reservations about their landlord or letting agent on day one of their tenancy.

Darren Johnson AM, Green Party chairman of the housing committee, proposed the motion, which was seconded by Labour's Tom Copley AM, and passed after a debate in City Hall (available on this link).

“This Assembly welcomes the 'Renters manifesto' published by Generation Rent, which would bring considerable improvements to the lives of one in four households in London living in the private rented sector.

“The Assembly reaffirms its support for a number of Generation Rent's recommendations, which the Assembly put forward in its 'Rent reform' report in June 2013, including policies to stabilise rents, introduce longer tenancies and end retaliatory evictions.

“This Assembly supports further measures proposed by Generation Rent, including:

• longer notice periods for tenants who have lived in a home for a number of years
• banning letting agent fees
• closing loopholes on deposit protection schemes
• increasing the Rent a Room tax allowance
• scaling up the Community Land Trust model to create a large, secondary housing market affordable to Londoners

This Assembly also notes with regret the Mayor’s continued involvement with international property fairs such as MIPIM. His support for rich investors to build expensive flats for rich owners and landlords, who in turn let homes on insecure contracts in a dysfunctional rental market, is not providing for the needs of ordinary Londoners.

This Assembly therefore calls on the Mayor to set out his response to the 'Renters manifesto', to consider piloting some of the recommendations in his Housing Zones, and to require its implementation in any deals made at MIPIM.”

We'll be looking forward to Boris Johnson's response. 

Comment from Wembley Matters.  The  next four day MIPIM will be held in Cannes in March and costs 1490 Euros for each delegate plus accommodation. Brent's Director of Regeneration and Major Projects, Andy Donald, has been an attender in the past. LINK

Brent scrutiny proposals elaborated

I have received further details of the way Scrutiny is intended to operate under the new Brent Council arrangements from a reliable source. They seem to go beyond what is actually in the papers going to Full Council on Wednesday.

There will be 8 members of the Scrutiny Committee withs its work programme co-ordinated by a single Chair. The Chair will be empowered to form sub-committees and task groups to examine particular policy areas and developments.

The Chair will be able to invite any member of the Council, apart from the Mayor and Deputy Mayor, and who are not in the Cabinet,  and 'notable citizens' outside the Council to sit on the sub-committees and task groups.

The seven other members of the Scrutiny Committee will serve as chairs of the sub-committees and task groups as well as contributing to the main Scrutiny Committee.

The claim is that this will give more members of the Council and the public an opportunity to get involved in scrutiny.

The Scrutiny committees will take place on a monthly basis rather than the present quarterly  meetings and the full committee will meet the week after Cabinet meetings.

I also understand that there are proposals for the creation of deputy cabinet positions so as to involve more of the large Labour group in policy making.

On the face of it this clarification (or is it a revision?), seems to go some way to addressing concerns about the lack of scrutiny in an 'almost one party' Council but  the proposals still look rather vague and the method of choosing committee members unclear. It will be the detail, and the people on the committee/s, that will have to convince the sceptics.

London Green Party calls for action to end London’s housing crisis

 Green Party leader Natalie Bennett will tomorrow highlight the desperate shortage of affordable housing in London in a protest outside Mount Pleasant development in Islington

 

The party says this new development of 700 private flats is symbolic of Mayor Boris Johnson’s strategy of prioritising homes for the super-rich whilst ordinary Londoners are priced out of their homes.

 

Natalie Bennett commented:

Boris Johnson is once again riding roughshod over the people of London by privileging the profit of a developer over the need to provide ordinary Londoners with affordable homes. By providing only 12 per cent affordable housing in the new development, he's failing to allow for the development of a balanced community. He's not providing homes for the teachers, police officers, cleaners, and many other people who serve our communities, but setting up big profits for property speculators and private landlords. This public land should be put to community use with genuinely affordable council housing. That is why I ask all those who feel that it is time for change to join us Islington on Saturday 15th February from 10am.

Research from the Mayor’s office shows that, despite the rise in homelessness and overcrowded housing in London, two-thirds of all newly built properties are being sold to investors – pushing up prices even further. The party argues that the Mayor’s strategy of marketing new properties to rich investors is completely inappropriate for a city where the median house price is now three times the affordable limit for the average household.

Hey Mr Boris - Brent Elders rap the Mayor over road crossing times

4 OUT OF 5 OLDER PEOPLE CAN'T CROSS THE ROAD AT THE LIGHTS? IT'S TRUE!

"'Most Older Pedestrians are unable to cross the road in time: a cross-sectional study', has compared the walking speed of the older population in the UK (aged 65 and over) with the speed required to use a pedestrian crossing. Currently, to use a pedestrian crossing a person must cross at a speed above 1.2 metres per second. 76% of men and 85% of women age 65 and over have a walking speed that is well below the required speed of 1.2 metres per second. "

From Science Daily 14 June 2012, (study originally published in Age and Ageing June 2012). Research led by Dr Laura Asher of the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at UCL (University College London)

HEY MR BORIS is one of the many projects run by Elders Voice. We believe that using music and humour has been an excellent way of highlighting society's neglect of this life-or-death issue for older people. We run projects in Brent and beyond with and for older people. eldersvoice.org.uk.

Lyrics and music Clair Chapwell

Crumbs for Londoners - Darren Johnson on the Mayor's housing policy

The Mayor expects 80% of new housing to be in these 33 regeneration areas

 Darren Johnson, the Green Assembly Member,  has published a thoroughly researched report on the London Mayor's approach to the housing crisis and the construction of  luxury blocks, such as those at Willesden Green Library, which Boris Johnson  supports as part of the solution.  The full report is available HERE

The Willesden Green apartments are being advertised in Singapore with the selling point that they have no affordable housing or key workers on site. Yesterday it was revealed that flats in Stratford are being adverised in a similar way.

Darren Johnson writes:

It is much easier for the big developers behind these projects to get the finance from banks if they can sell lots of housing off-plan (before it is built). Investor landlords are quite happy to buy off-plan and have little difficulty in securing the cash or mortgage.By putting the money in up front they have, in the Mayor’s words,“helped bring forward housing development”. The Mayor estimates that one third of all buyers of new homes are from overseas, and that two thirds of all new homes are sold to investors

.

Whether it is a Londoner looking for a buy-to-let investment,a pension fund investing in new private rented housing,or an overseas investor exploiting the exchange rates, the Mayor is a champion of anything that gets housing built.

After looking at a series of case studies and examination of the evidence Johnson concludes:

National government policy has put local councillors, planning officers and residents in a difficult spot. They are constrained by a free market dogma that says we just need developers to build more homes, and that ignores the potential for other approaches.


The law of supply and demand works with things we consume. If the price of TVs is high, produce more TVs to meet demand and prices will fall. But private developers are very unlikely to meet the demand for housing. If the supply of TVs doesn’t increase and prices stay high then demand should fall off.


But when house prices rise people see an opportunity to make money so demand can keep rising, especially if investors from around the world join the feast.


The Government is encouraging buy-to-let mortgages with tax breaks; helping people take out unaffordable mortgages with Help to Buy; encouraging overseas investors to buy new homes off plan.


The Mayor supports these policies because he says they increase supply, but of course they are also increasing demand.In fact, they are probably more successful at increasing demand than they are at increasing supply, so they are actually making the problem worse.


Councils and residents can’t do very much about this.


But the Mayor of London is in a unique position to advocate bold changes to housing policy. He has recently argued that stamp duty revenue in London should be devolved to City Hall, giving him a large budget for affordable housing.


He could go further and call for a housing policy that:


1. constrains demand by putting controls or extra taxes on overseas investors and second home owners, or by putting a tax on all land values to dampen speculation and stop developers sitting on large, unused land banks
2. gives councils, housing associations and co-operatives the money and powers to build affordable homes that stay affordable forever whatever the market is doing, instead of expecting the private market to build them
3. puts ordinary people in a better position to weather the crisis while it is tackled, for example with continental-style stabilising rent controls and protections for private tenants, ideas backed by the majority of the Assembly in its own reviews of housing and its majority support for the Let Down campaign

Comments can be sent to: darren.johnson@london.gov.uk or the researcher tom.chance@london.gov.uk

New Committee Chairs and members for 2013-14 approved at Council AGM

Brent Council's Annual Meeting this evening was enlivened by some well-deserved Community Champion Awards which went to a very representative range of Brent's diverse community. Lincoln Beswick,  in an often emotional speech, nominated Bobby Thomas as Brent's first Mayor of Jamaican origin. The significance of the occasion was marked by the presence of the Jamaican High Commissioner and even more by the crowd which came forward to record the moment on cameras and mobile phones.

Otherwise the evening was marked by a considerable amount of mutual political grooming on the last occasion in which the meeting will take place at Brent (formerly Wembley) Town Hall. The move to the Civic Centre will take place in mid-June.

The Executive and Committee positions were confirmed and the members of each of the main  committees is recorded below. The political balance is shown in brackets (Labour/Lib Dem/Conservative). In addition there are first and second alternates. Full details will be on the Council's website.

GENERAL PURPOSE (6/3/1)
Butt (Chair), Hirani, Mashari, J Moher, R Moher (VC), Pavey, Brown, Hopkins, Lorber, Kansagra

SENIOR STAFF APPOINTMENTS SUB-COMMITTEE (3/1/1) Important in light of senior officer restructuring)
Butt (Chair), Denselow, R Moher (VC), Lorber, Kansagra

PLANNING (7/3/1)
Aden, John (VC), Kabir, Kataria, Powney, Ketan Sheth (Chair), Singh, Cummins, Hashmi, CJ Patel, Baker

ONE COUNCIL OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (5/2/1)
Chohan, Harrison, Long, Mitchell Murray, Powney, Ashraf (Chair), Lorber, Colwill (VC)

BUDGET AND FINANCE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (5/2/1)
S Choudhary, Kataria (VC), RS Patel, Ketan Sheth, Van Kalwala, Brown, Hopkins (Chair), HB Patel

CALL-IN OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (5/2/1)
Daly, Jones (VC), Kabir, RS Patel, Krupa Sheth, Ashraf (Chair), Lorber, HB Patel

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY (5/2/1)
Aden, Al-Ebadi, Arnold, Gladbaum, Mitchell-Murray (Chair), Matthews (VC), CJ Patel, Kansagara
(There are also co-optees and observers on this comittee)

HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (5/2/1)
Daly (Chair), Harrison, Hector, Hossain, Ketan Sheth, Hunter (Vice Chair), Leaman, Colwill

BRENT CONNECTS FORUMS - Chairs
HARLESDEN: Hector
KILBURN AND KENSAL: Oladapo
KINGSBURY  AND KENTON: RS Patel
WEMBLEY: Krupa Sheth
WILLESDEN: Jones