My E-Newsletter

Contents

1. Neighbourhood policing - how many cuts can it take?

2. NHS still under pressure

3. Westminster presses ahead with cuts to Children’s and Youth service budgets

4. One community - great to see strong interfaith partnership working at a difficult time

5. Planning for a decent life

- Protecting pubs

- No to an 8th betting shop in Harrow Road

- Holiday letting gets the go-ahead despite strong opposition

- Homes for people - not just for investors

6. Air pollution - time for tough action

7. Bedroom Tax hits 48,000 Londoners and rising

8. Tenant (dis)satisfaction with Genesis Housing

9. Modern slavery - Bill passes into law 10. An end to the badger cull

11. Twenty is plenty - time to protect road users

12. Constituency round-up

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Neighbourhood policing - can it survive deeper policing cuts?

Crime has been falling - and that’s good news. But that doesn’t mean we can afford further, deeper cuts to po-licing on top of those we have already seen - especially if we want to keep the model of neighbourhood based police teams, connected with the communities they serve. Here’s my article from the ‘Wood and Vale’ on this issue.

NHS still under pressure

I had the latest of my regular meetings with senior executives from Imperial last week - the Trust responsible for St Mary’s Hospital. Thankfully the extreme winter pressures have eased since Jan/Feb although at the time of meeting they had still been unable to reach an agreement on next year’s budget. They continue to face the challenge of high A&E demand from across North West London. And still have, at any one time, a ward of pa-tients unable to leave hospital for home despite being clinically able to return home.

In their most recent briefing, Imperial state:

There is a trend for much larger and more varied peaks in day-to-day attendance levels, as well as for pa-tients who are attending to be more seriously ill.

We are also seeing challenges across our hospitals in being able to get patients home or into more local care when they are medically fit and no longer need to be in an acute hospital.

At the same time as facing these challenges, London NHS Trusts have a £300million budget shortfall. The need to invest more into the NHS and into improving the relationship between health and social care is ever more ur-gent.

One community

These are difficult times with hideous sectarian violence in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Nigeria (amongst others), the Charlie Hebdo murders in France and a rise in reported incidents of Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We have a strong tradition of tolerance and diversity in this city, and we want to keep it that way.

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-03-08/an-attack-on-one-community-is-an-attack-on-the-whole-community-event-promotes-solidarity/

Westminster Council goes ahead with cuts to Children’s and Youth service budgets

Despite a parent’s petition and strong opposition to the plans, Westminster Council went ahead with plans to cut play, children’s and youth services at their full council meeting at the beginning of the month.

The planned cuts to front line services are:

• £500,000 from the Children’s Centres • £150,000 from the Play Service • £125,000 from Youth Services

The total to be taken from Children’s services is £2.9m, which includes £793k of savings from “reducing de-mand and unit costs and in particular with respect to Looked After Children placements and Early Help staffing”. The youth service is set to halve over this year and next, so that by 2016 Westminster we will be investing just £2 per young person per month.

Planning for a decent quality of life

Most of us don’t think about planning decisions being that relevant to our lives. They are. Here are some recent, local examples:

Defending pubs

We can’t protect all pubs, but they can be an important part of community life. The pressure to convert them into luxury residential accommodation is getting ever stronger all over North Westminster - and steps have to be tak-en to keep a decent mix in the local ‘high street’.

Despite two St John’s Wood pubs - The Clifton and The Star- being apparently put forward as ‘Assets of Com-munity value’ (which should have given them some protection), one - The Star - seems to have closed and be under conversion even before the new protected status comes into force. I am in regular touch with the Coun-cil’s Planning and Enforcement T eam to see if anything can be done to stop what is an apparent exploitation of a loophole in the rules.

No to more betting shops

There are already 7 betting shops in and near this short stretch of the Harrow Road. We don’t want an eighth.

Given the level of opposition, attention is now turning to whether a licence will be given to a betting shop on the ground floor of the former Prince of Wales pub. Please continue to sign the petitions and encourage others to do so.

Holiday lets - a battle lost (but we won’t give up)

I spoke in last week’s Parliamentary debate in a last-ditch attempt to stop the planned de-regulation of short/holiday lets. Sadly, the Government pressed ahead with changing the law - leaving fears even amongst their own councils - such as Westminster - that this will reduce the supply of homes, push up rents and damage the quality of life for permanent residents in the apartment and mansion blocks that are being most affected.

You can read my speech here.

Homes for people - not just for investors

A new report showed that a staggering 11,000 Westminster properties are held in offshore tax havens, while the housing crisis for most Londoners deepens.

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/crime-court/11_000_westminster_properties_held_in_offshore_havens_1_3979492

Between 2010-2013 Westminster built only 38% of its affordable homes target. Yet now new government rules allow developers to avoid building affordable homes to buy and to rent as part of their planning permission re-quirements, despite all the problems of high rents, over-crowding and homelessness. We need to give priority to more affordable homes - to rent and to buy - inner London can't just be left to luxury housing and investment po-tential.

Air pollution - the invisible killer we have to stop

London was hit by a dangerous smog last week - only the most dramatic recent episode in a worrying story about poor air quality.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-pollution-shame-laid-bare-the-uks-50-worst-spots-for-air-filth-are-all-in-the-capital-10087611.html

I have been pressing Westminster on the need to protect local schools from the impact of poor air quality. Given what we now know about the risks to human health and development, the need for action is urgent.

Bedroom Tax

The Bedroom Tax doesn’t hit London as hard as some other areas- we already have too severe a shortage of council and housing association housing, with more over-crowding than in other regions. Even so, new figures show 48,000 Londoners have been affected. Fewer than 5 in every 100 have been able to move to avoid it- and tens of thousands MORE people face being dragged in if their circumstances change.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/bedroom-tax-costing-londons-poor-50m-a-year--labour-10127730.html?origin=internalSearch

It is time to scrap this policy - it has caused huge hardship.

Genesis housing tenants - the results of my survey

My survey of the experience of Genesis tenants - not happy reading:

Aware of the number of complaints I have been receiving from Genesis HA tenants, I carried out a survey to find out whether others were suffering in silence. They were. The results of the survey demonstrated serious problems with communication, repairs and maintenance and service charges.

You can see the full report here.

I have sent this to the Chief Executive of the HA, and to Westminster Council, asking for their commitment to turn the situation around on behalf of the many thousands of people living in these properties, all of whom de-serve a better deal.

Modern slavery

Lots of you wrote to me about the weakening of protection for exploited overseas domestic workers in the Mod-ern Slavery Bill. I was pleased to vote for the amendments to toughen this protection up, but we were defeated by the Government. You can read my position here.

An end to the badger cull

Lots of people have written to me about the badger cull. I am happy to say that a Labour Government would cancel this - here is my letter to constituents.

Constituency round-up

Fly tipping

Fly tipping has increased sharply in the last couple of years. It is unsightly, unhealthy and it costs money to clear up.

I always have my camera ready when I am out and about in the constituency (see above) and I report fly-tipping to Westminster Council (tel 020 7641 2000). Please do what you can - and remember also that CityWest Homes offers a free collection service.

Meeting residents

We are fortunate in having several strong residents' and amenity associations in North Westminster. In the last two weeks I have been along to the Maida Vale and Paddington Waterways Association AGM and the Lisson Green Tenants' and Resident’s Association AGM. Policing issues featured strongly, with many people express-ing their concerns that police were no longer visible on the streets.

Thames Water issues

Following on from the water issues at Wandle House, NW8 a few months ago, I have had reports of several oth-er blocks in the area being affected by low water pressure, especially at peak times. I understand that the Toll-gate Gardens estate as well as several blocks on the Church Street estate have been affected and possibly many others.

Similarly as with Wandle House, there has been some disagreement as to what exactly is causing the issue and what needs to be done in order to move the issue forward. However, both CityWest Homes and Thames Water have assured me that they are committed to finding a solution and I understand that an urgent meeting is being held between CityWest Homes, Westminster Council and Thames Water to find a solution to this pressing is-sue. I will keep you updated when I know more.

Dibdin House

Private tenants at Dibdin House have been complaining to me about inflation-busting rent increases for several years. I have found evidence to suggest that not only are Grainger’s 7% annual increases for Assured Tenants way out of line with increases in prices or wages, but are also in breach of their own rents policy. I have put a formal complaint to their Directors and plan to ask the Housing Ombudsman to intervene if Grainger don’t end this rip-off.

Superfast Broadband

I am putting pressure on BT to speed up the local rollout of Infinity. It does not seem sensible that neither BT Openreach’s fibre network nor Virgin Media’s hybrid fibre coaxial system are available in large parts of West-minster, leaving a Central London borough without access to superfast internet – fast becoming an essential utility.

Chris Bryant, Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport outlined his views on this important subject in Par-liament recently. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2015-02-03e.237.0 I very much agree with his comments and I hope that the Government is still open to persuasion on this important issue. If not, the next Government must act

Helping the Harrow Road traders with their parking problems

Harrow Road traders have a long standing concern about the shortage of pay-and-display and delivery bays, which affects their businesses. A delegation has been to see me and I am taking this up with the Council to see if we can find a solution.

Christchurch Bentinck International evening

Some schools complain that it is hard to get parents involved. Christ-church Bentinck certainly isn’t one of them. Parents and children poured in to their annual ‘International evening’ two weeks ago, to share food and watch dances and performances from around the world.

Thank you for reading and I welcome your comments

Karen Buck MP

Website: www.karenbuck.org.uk

Twitter: KarenPBuckMP

Facebook: KarenBuckMP

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Ross Lydall @RossLydall · Mar 20

How London's NHS has changed since 2010: more patients stuck on trolleys, more cancelled operations,

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/london-hospitals-plunge-300m-into-red-10122497.html