The Leader will present his statement.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council presented a verbal statement updating the Assembly on a range of matters since the last meeting as follows:
· Domestic Violence – The Council’s campaign to tackle the growing problem in the Borough of domestic violence and promote greater gender equality took another step forward last month with the joint launch of the DV Partnership by the Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration and the Chief Executive of Refuge. This was intended to send a strong message to the local community that giving your partner “a slap” is not right and will not be tolerated.
In response to comments the Leader confirmed that he was writing a letter to Government disapproving and seeking the revoking of the Knighthood to Geoffrey Boycott, given his previous DV conviction in 1998 against a former partner. Members added that this was an indictment of the whole honours system.
· Housing – According to the latest report in Evening Standard, Barking & Dagenham is the only London Borough to buck the trend in falling house prices since the EU Referendum in 2016 which in part is due to the work of the Council in attracting new investment to the Borough. It is also a reflection on how the borough is responding to the Brexit uncertainty. Aside of home ownership this Borough now have over 800 affordable properties for rent.
It was noted that Council officials have recently contacted the producers of the recent C4 TV series by George Clarke calling on the government to build 100,000 new Council homes with a view to highlighting the work in this Borough.
· Government Spending Review – The 1-year spending review announced by the Chancellor last week reflects this Government’s continuing mismanagement of the public finances which is making a hard situation even tougher for local government, which has had an unprecedented loss of funding with this Council’s budget reduced by two-thirds since 2010. This is at the same time as a growing demand for social care and homelessness services, adding pressure to already stretched services.
· Samuel Garside fire – Since reporting to the last meeting work has been underway to repair the block and the residents’ insurers have agreed to continue to underwrite their stay in temporary accommodation until their homes are put right. The Leader announced that he had called for the Council to instigate an independent review of what had happened since the fire in June so as to campaign for the Government to ensure that the right powers were in place so that all buildings below 18 metres in height were deemed safe, be they residential, hospitals, schools etc.
· GCSE and A level results – Noted another successful set of GCSE exam results, with three in five pupils achieving the national standard and continued success at A levels with the number of young people being accepted to top universities and employers on the rise.
· Real funding for Police Officers – Following the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of 20,000 new Police Officers and given the need for improved police visibility, the Leader has written to the Assistant Met Police Commissioner calling for more officers for the Borough.