Dismore backs alternative City Hall budget for extra 1,000 police officers in London

Andrew Dismore, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Hendon and  London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden today backed Labour’s alternative budget proposals for the Greater London Authority ( summary below), incuding1,000 extra police officers, a reversal and freezing of this year’s transport fares increase, and a housing  investment company to commission directly the construction of new homes.

Mr Dismore said:

‘ I am sure Hendon  residents will welcome Labour’s fully funded proposals for 1,000 extra police, a TfL fares cut , and action to tackle the affordable homes shortage. 

‘Instead of the Mayor’s  1p per day council tax cut , the extra police  officers would mean at least an extra 30 officers for Barnet who could beef up our neighbourhood policing which has  suffered as result of the Conservatives’’ police cuts.

‘Under the Conservatives, Barnet has seen its police officers cut by 60 officers – 10% of the number we had in 2010, and  PCSOs down by 111, a cut of 65%. So much for the Conservative MP for Hendon ‘s broken promise at the last election to increase the number of police offers.

‘It is  no wonder people complain they don’t see police about and public confidence is way below the police’s own target. We have seen violent crime rise by a third, Barnet with  the highest number of burglaries in the capital, and  just 3% of burglaries resulting in a prosecution.

‘These extra officers, while not fully plugging the front line gap left by the Conservatives would make a big difference , so I hope the Mayor will accept our proposals to increase police officer strength  in London- though I somehow doubt it .

‘The Mayor also had no need to implement  a fares rise of 2.5% this year. Hard pressed Londoners would get £98 million pounds left in their pockets- and our transport plans include extra money for step free access, which could benefit places   like Mil Hill East.

‘A housing investment company  would help tackle our chronic shortage of affordable homes , that are desperately  needed.’

 

summary of Labour’s alternative City Hall budget :

 

As we approach the final year of Boris Johnson’s tenure as London Mayor, it is a good time to review his record, and reflect on the legacy he is leaving for the next Mayor and the people of London.

 

While the Mayor has been quick to trumpet the “amazing success”[1] of his Mayoralty, he has undermined the ability of his successor to ensure London has a sufficient number of police officers, spent considerable sums of taxpayer’s and farepayer’s money on ‘white elephants’ and vanity projects, and leaves behind a significant number of unmet challenges for the next Mayor to address. These challenges include the affordability of housing, the absence of key transport infrastructure projects, the sustainable maintenance of Londoners’ safety, and the capacity of London’s economy, and its people, to meet the challenges of population growth.

 

The Mayor also has responsibility to comply with the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) to ensure that Londoners live and work without discrimination and unfair treatment. Since May 2010, however, cuts to the public purse[2] – and the indirect impact this has had on the third sector – have meant that vulnerable people and those with protected characteristics under the PSED have been unfairly treated.

 

Research shows that in terms of housing, employment and health, overall opportunities for ethnic minorities have worsened[3]; the gender pay has increased with women in London being paid 87p for every pound a man earns[4]; and, by his own admission in the Annual Equality Report 2013/14, the Mayor states that rates of homelessness and rough sleeping in London have increased during his time in office[5].

 

This budget report outlines ways in which we can make London a fairer and more equal place to live for all – something that we should all strive towards, and something that the Mayor has proved himself unable to do.

 

Small tax cuts, big fare rises…

 

Despite using his penultimate budget to emphasise his ‘determination to cut the cost of living for Londoners’[6] by implementing a precept cut worth 7.7 pence per week to average Band D household[7], the Mayor has been responsible for a 47% increase in bus fares and a 37% increase in Tube fares since 2008[8]. While reducing the GLA share of council by £4 in 2015-16, a couple living in Uxbridge using Zone 1-6 annual Travelcards will have seen their annual fare rise by £1,120[9] since Boris Johnson came to power.

Very soon Londoners will be able to choose a new Mayor and this year’s budget discussions form one of the building blocks towards that. In this budget proposal, we give indications of an alternative direction for London’s leadership. To this end, London Assembly Labour proposes the following headline programmes:

 

  • Transport – Labour Members would reverse the 2.5% increase in transport fares[10] that Boris Johnson has already announced for 2015-16. Instead, Labour Members would freeze fares at their current level – putting £98m[11] back in to pockets of hard-pressed Londoners – and restore the off-peak PAYG caps for zones 4-6[12]. In order to benefit all Londoners, Labour members would create a fund for more step free stations and put a further £20m into the cycling budget. To increase bus services for London’s poorest communities Labour members propose to add 30 more hybrid buses to the fleet this year. Labour members are keenly aware of the high levels of pollution in London and would therefore begin research into cleaning up the capital’s bus fleet. Labour Members are clear that this re-balancing of costs between travellers and the corporate vaults of City Hall is both affordable and timely.

 

  • Policing – Labour Members would freeze the GLA’s share of the council tax at the 2014/15 level and use the £10.54m it generates to help free-up resources across the GLA Group. These resources would enable us to provide London with over 1000 much-needed additional police officers. An average over 30 new police officers per borough.

 

  • Housing – Labour Members would tackle London’s chronic housing shortage by establishing a GLA-backed Housing Investment Company to directly commission the construction of new homes in addition to those currently built by Housing Associations using GLA affordable housing grants. We would also drive up standards for private tenants by investing in new programmes to tackle sub-standard properties. Furthermore, because no tenant should fear the consequences of a rogue landlord, we would empower tenants – the consumer – by giving them more information on rogue landlords, better access to legal representation, and by driving London’s worst landlords out of the market.

 

  • Economy – Labour Members would take genuine action to increase job opportunities in London through introducing a young person’s jobs guarantee, providing help for older Londoners to retrain and by reducing the excessive cost of childcare, which prevents many parents from re-entering the labour market. Labour Members would also introduce universal free school meals for all primary school age pupils in London, which would increase educational attainment, address food poverty, and help parents who are struggling with the cost of living.

 

  • Environment – Recognising the imminent threat of climate change, London’s air quality crisis, and the increasing difficulty that many Londoners face heating their homes – particularly those on fixed incomes, such as pensioners, Labour Members propose a research project in to the development of community energy cooperatives in London; a London air quality study aimed at creating a bigger, stronger, ULEZ; the Clean Air Routes to School programme, which recognises and seeks to mitigate the effects of poor air quality on school children; the establishment of a GLA London ‘noise team’ to focus on the aviation noise that blights the lives of many in the capital; and funding the H.E.A.T (Home Energy Advice Team) to help those in fuel poverty improve insulation in their homes and obtain the best energy tariffs.

 

  • Education – We would provide grants to schools whose students face socio-economic barriers to academic attainment through the Supplementary Programmes for Schools (Leadership clubs) and out of hours tuition fund; replace the Mayor’s elitist ‘Gold Club of Schools’ programme with the GLA Education Kitemark scheme for schools that require and demonstrate improvement in a short space of time as part of the family of local authority schools; and introduce a schools matching unit to assist in matching new schools with the closest existing outstanding academy, rather than allow private companies to take over new schools in Mayoral approved developments.

 

  • Health – Labour Members would invest further in reducing health inequalities and bridging the divide between physical and mental health services. We would form a London Health Inequalities Unit to monitor and address health inequalities across London. We would commission a Mental Health Strategy for London to determine what is and what is not working for Londoners. The results of which would be used to establish a pan-London approach to mental health issues and connect the currently fragmented and dysfunctional system.
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