The Leader of the Council's online diary- June 2007
Monday 25 June
Monday was one of those days when I had a series of meetings about very different issues. After catching up with my emails I met our new Executive Director of Adult and Community Services, Jo Cleary. Jo and I discussed what Lambeth can do to help provide more support to older and disabled people. I also asked for her views on how we could give more help to carers – those extraordinary people who care for disabled or elderly family or friends at home. Jo has come to Lambeth from Luton and she’s full of new ideas and enthusiasm for improving local services.
After Jo, I met with three people helping to organise the annual Streatham Festival, including the chair Patricia Suarez. This is a fantastic community-led event focused on arts and culture. The Festival includes film, music, art, drama, poetry – you name it, and it’s happening in Streatham between 7-15 July! You can check out their website at www.streathamfestival.com . I offered help to publicise this year’s festival, and also to help make next year’s festival even bigger and better than this year’s promises to be.
After grabbing a sandwich for lunch, I met Stephen Govier from Lambeth Business Against Crime (LBAC). I wanted to talk with Stephen about anti-social behaviour and crime and how we can tackle some of our local crime hotspots. Next, I caught half an hour with our new Director of Campaigns and Communications, Julian Ellerby, who brought me up to date with plans for our new customer service centres. The first one opens in Brixton next month – you can see the work going on in the ground floor of Olive Morris House as you come down Brixton Hill.
Next, I had a meeting with our Acting Borough Police Commander, Stuart Lowe. I wanted to ask Stuart what we could do to ensure 24-hour safety in our town centres, where we need to do more to tackle drug dealing. Stuart’s leaving Lambeth next week to become Borough Commander in Wandsworth – I wished him all the best and thanked him for his work in our Borough.
My next meeting was with leaders of the Council’s opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. They asked for more information about how services are improving, which the Chief Executive will provide. My last event of the day was a presentation from a group of teenagers who have been carrying out a consultation on the kind of services young people need from the council. They want to see the Council do more to encourage talent, and made some very sensible suggestions. I promised to give them a report back later in the summer about how we can follow their ideas through. Their energy, enthusiasm and hard work deserves a positive response from the Council.
Saturday 16 June
On Saturday I welcomed Gordon Brown, Britain’s next Prime Minister, to Lambeth. He was here to speak and answer questions in front of an audience of 500 people at the Oval cricket ground. I used the opportunity to talk with him about some of the issues facing our area and he agreed that the Government needs to make sure there is more affordable and social housing available in places like Lambeth – comments he later repeated on stage. We’ll see what he’s able to do when he becomes Prime Minister shortly.
After Gordon had finished his fascinating question and answer session, I was invited to chair a debate among the six candidates vying to become the next Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. On the stage we had the Secretaries of State for Education, Northern Ireland, International Development, as well as the Minister for Constitutional Affairs and the Chairman of the Labour Party – quite a group to welcome to our Borough. Local residents asked a wide range of questions and raised some really important issues.
In turn the candidates responded with some interesting and positive views about the future of Lambeth: Alan Johnson talked about getting more of our young people into university and Hilary Benn said we need to expand opportunity to every section of society.
After the debate finished, I went with three of the candidates, Harriet Harman, Jon Cruddas and Hilary Benn to a pub near the Oval tube station, where they chatted to local people over a drink. I think it is important that they listen to the issues we’re dealing with and it is my challenge to make sure that whoever wins does really support us in our work to make Lambeth a better place for everyone to live and work.
Sunday 10 June
Thousands of people gathered in Kennington Park on Sunday to celebrate Portugal’s national day. The Portuguese now form a major part of Lambeth’s diverse community. Estimates put the population as high as 50,000 – which is not far off one in every five people living in Lambeth.
Sunday brought the kind of weather you’d associate with Portugal – a beautiful, sunny day that only added to the high spirits in the park. Many Portuguese businesses had set up stalls and there was a delicious smell of grilled sardines and barbecued chicken wafting above hubbub of large crowds of people enjoying themselves.
During the afternoon, I was invited to join the Mayor of Lambeth, the Portuguese Ambassador and other representatives of the Portuguese community on stage. To show my respect for the community, I wanted to attempt my short speech in Portuguese. That was going to be difficult, because my knowledge of Portuguese is quite sketchy. But with a little help from some Portuguese speakers, and after a few practice runs, I gave it a go. The audience was very generous and applauded my attempts. I ended my speech saying "nos estamos orgulhosos que assim muitos portugueses fizeram seu morada aqui em Lambeth". That translates as: we’re proud that so many Portuguese people have chosen to make their home here in Lambeth.
Lambeth is one of the most diverse places in the world, and that’s what makes our Borough so unique and special. It was great to celebrate Portugal’s national day with so many friendly people, and I got a big cheer when I finished my speech with a shout: "Viva Inglaterra e Viva Portugal!"
Saturday 9 June
I was invited to speak at the Compass Conference in central London on Saturday. At an event organised by the New Local Government Network, I talked about how local councils and the communities they represent deal with global issues at a local level.
Here in Lambeth, global issues like migration and climate change have an immediate impact. Many times I’ve noticed that when there’s a conflict in another part of the world, it’s not long before you start hearing voices from that place here on our streets. It’s the extraordinary diversity of Lambeth that makes it unique, and it’s what people who live here most like about it.
So immigration, which is usually presented as a problem, is actually a real opportunity here. It’s given us a young, dynamic and vibrant population. And with so many different cultures rubbing up against each other here, there’s a buzz that creates new forms of music, art and culture that helps to define Lambeth as a place.
With climate change, too, Lambeth is trying to seize the opportunities rather than see only the problem. Our council leads London on acting to reduce carbon emissions and encouraging sustainable forms of transport.
But more important than that is how we can support community-led initiatives to promote sustainability and tackle climate change. Residents and local businesses are starting to make suggestions about how the community and individuals can make a difference. We’re looking at how the Council can act to support them in changing people’s behaviour.
Big issues like climate change can make people feel powerless. But here in Lambeth we know that many little ripples can add up to a tidal wave of change. The power we have as a council is the power to create a framework for our community to find and deliver solutions on the ground.
Monday 5 June
I spent some time over the weekend talking to people on Lambeth's council estates. The Council wants to set up a new management organisation to run our housing service.
The organisation - called an "arms-length management organisation" or ALMO for short - would be wholly owned by the Council. Rents would still be set by the Council and there would be no privatisation. Many other councils have already set up ALMOs and they have a proven track record of delivering better housing services such as repairs and estate cleaning.
Even better, if we set up an ALMO, the Government will consider a bid from us for £240 million for house improvements - that’s enough money to make sure every council home in Lambeth has central heating, weather-proof windows, a decent kitchen and bathroom, and is free from damp. Our part of the bargain is to make sure we deliver an improved housing service that achieves at least a 2 star rating, which we are confident of delivering. Remember that without setting up an ALMO, we can’t get the money and nearly 10,000 homes would be left sub-standard as a result.
I believe strongly that the people who live on our estates should have the final say in whether we set up an ALMO or not. That’s why we’ve decided to hold a ballot of tenants and leaseholders to ask them if this is something they’d like the Council to do. On Saturday and Sunday morning, I spent a few hours talking to residents on the Palace Road Estate in Streatham Hill and the Saxby Road Estate in Brixton Hill.
People were really very positive about the proposals. They can see the need for the extra money, and they think it’s time for a fresh start to improve the way we manage our council homes.
Local people will have the final say, but we owe it to our tenants and leaseholders to make sure they get a high-performing council housing service, and we owe it to every family to make sure their council home is safe, warm and dry.