Minutes:
Councillor Charles Fairbrass, the Leader of the Council, addressed the Assembly as follows:
“The reason for the existence of any Council is very simple, to provide local services for local residents, to encourage local business to grow and encourage new business to locate in the Borough and to work with our many partners such as the Metropolitan Police and Health Authorities in achieving these aims. We also liaise with Central Government to achieve these aims. Our work with the Metropolitan Police and the Health Authority, in particular, has resulted in improved health facilities and a lowered crime rate.
We have been doing this for many years and during the last four to five years have seen the practical results coming through.
The budget Councillor Bramley will be presenting tonight will continue this process of steady improvements by financing our services for the next year and providing an ambitious but achievable capital programme that will help in providing an even better future for all our residents, be they long term or recently arrived. This Borough is used to growth, both in terms of its infrastructure and population.
Many of our current population are descendants of those who came here after World War 1 and some of us, such as Councillor Kallar and me, came here after World War 2. There are, of course, much more recent arrivals such as three members of the opposition party.
We will be helping to boost the local economy by building two small business centres, one in the east and one in the west of the Borough; these will enable small firms to get a good start.
We will continue to work with our partners in Barking College and the University of East London, to give our residents further opportunities to develop new, or improve their existing skills.
This Borough will continue to grow, the momentum is there, and we are making sure that this will be of benefit to our long term residents, as well as those more recently arrived.
I refer now to housing, and at this point I wish to place on record my thanks to the Deputy Leader of the Council and one of our local MPs, Jon Cruddas, for their persistent pressure, over many years, on Central Government with respect to the supply of social housing for local residents. No reasonable person can doubt that their work has led to the selection of this Council to form a Local Housing Company, working in partnership with others, that will provide a steady stream of homes for renting and homes for sale, that are affordable by local people who wish to be owner occupiers.
We are not waiting for this to happen but are moving on with our current home building programme which includes 530 new homes on the Linton’s site… During the last four years we, with our partners, have provided 1,301 new homes. 966 for rent and 335 for shared ownership, 70% of the shared ownership homes can be obtained by local residents who have an income of £26,000. Real homes, not just numbers on a party political leaflet issued by the opposition.
When planning housing we always must consider our current tenants and over the next four years we will be investing £96m on our existing housing stock. Some residents are already seeing the benefit of this programme.
We will continue to improve our infrastructure, spending £20m on road and pavement repairs over the next four years. A new library and auxiliary services at the Church Elm site in Dagenham. A new leisure centre at Becontree Heath, to include an eight lane swimming pool and a fully equipped gym with a four court sports hall, and just alongside this Town Hall, a children’s health centre is currently under construction. I would refer Members to the capital programme for all other schemes.
We are also planning to further improve the opportunities for this Borough’s biggest asset, our young people. I have already mentioned the health centre but, with the help of Central Government funding of about £200m, we will be improving our schools for our current and future generations.
This further provision is the direct result of many years of sustained effort to improve the educational achievements of all our students, culminating in the provision of the Jo Richardson Community School, which set a new standard in the design of educational buildings in this Borough, not least being built on time and within budget.
We have had visitors to Jo Richardson School from many parts of the world, who have come to see and appreciate the standards we have set, that are becoming the norm in all our schools and I congratulate the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services, Jean Alexander, together with Roger Luxton, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, for their leadership of this service. All this has been achieved with low Council Tax rise, ensuring services provide good value for money, and we still remain as having the third lowest Council Tax of all the 20 outer London Boroughs and we have been short listed by the Local Government Chronicle for the Most Improved Council of the Year award.
I have doubtless left out much that I could have mentioned but what I do not forget is my thanks to my colleagues on the Majority Party and also to our employees, from the Chief Executive and right across the board to the man who picks up the litter in my local park.
Your hard work has raised us from a one star to a three star Council delivering good services to local residents, irrespective of their background.
In conclusion I quote from the Audit Commission:
“Barking and Dagenham is an ambitious Council with a desire to improve the area for all residents. It has come a long way in the last two years, despite having to operate in a challenging and complex environment. This has been achieved by having a well founded ambition based on a sound understanding of need”.
The budget prepared by the Executive is indeed based on that sound understanding.”