A petition has been received this week at City Hall from tenants calling on their housing association Peabody to stop escalating their rents, which have risen by 36% in just four years. Peabody bought four estates housing keyworkers across London in 2011 from the Crown Estate. The estates in Victoria Park in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, Cumberland Market in Camden, Milbank in Westminster and Lee Green in Lewisham contain 1,200 homes. 

Despite assurances at the time of the sale that rents would be kept affordable, since 2011 rents have increased so someone who paid £650 per month now has to pay £884 a month. At a time of stagnant wage rises and increases in the cost of living residents simply cannot afford this. The petition signed by over 1,000 people calls for a meeting with senior staff at Peabody, a 12 month freeze on further increases and a review of their rent policy.

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member said: 

“It is unacceptable for Peabody to raise rents resulting in yet more key workers in London being priced out of the city while at the same time their accounts show a surplus of £291m for the year 2013/14.  This is more than 10 times the amount of surplus they recorded last year.  The term affordable bears little relation to reality.

“Residents have been expected to find an extra £234 a month over four years. How are people supposed to be able to find this money and be left with enough to afford essentials like heating, food and transport costs? Both Peabody and the Mayor of London speak about ‘affordable’ housing, but residents are being really squeezed by ever rising rents. These increases are simply not sustainable’’.

ENDS 

Notes 

Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.

Tom Copley AM received the petition at City Hall yesterday.  Tom Copley is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.

Labour London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi last week voted to call on the Mayor of London Boris Johnson to rethink his approach to tall buildings on London’s skyline after it was revealed that Westminster has 3 new skyscrapers in the development pipeline and a total of 236 London wide.

Research highlighted by the London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi found that over 230 buildings of 20 stories or more are in the pipeline for development, radically altering the shape of the capital’s skyline without meeting London’s housing need. Of the 230, 189 are residential, but primarily luxury flats with relatively small numbers of affordable housing meaning they will make little contribution to solving the housing crisis.

Whilst recognising there is a place for skyscrapers in the capital Murad argues that further luxury penthouses do little to address the needs of ordinary Londoners and threatens the historic London skyline. Murad was joined by Assembly Members from all parties in unanimously supporting a motion calling on the Mayor to adopt new policies to protect London’s skyline. The motion also called for the Mayor to establish a Skyline Commission made up of design experts from a variety of fields to offer advice on commissioning and carry out design reviews.

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“The Mayor is making a mockery of his planning policies when he continues to wave through proposals for skyscrapers which do little to help people looking for an affordable place to live. Under Boris Johnson, London is fast becoming a high-rise playground for the super-rich leaving more and more Londoners priced out of the market.

“Tall buildings have their place, but they must respect the existing character of the local area and meet a genuine need. That’s why I am calling on the Mayor to rethink his gung-ho approach to skyscrapers in the capital.”

ENDS

Notes

–       Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.

–       Research released earlier this year on behalf of New London Architecture found 236 buildings 20 storeys or taller had been proposed, received planning permission, or were being built. The report is available here: http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/dls/TB_B1.pdf.

–       The Skyline Campaign has been fronted jointly by the Observer and the Architects Journal. More information is available here: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/skyline/.

–       The motion, introduced by Labour Member Navin Shah and seconded by Labour Member Nicky Gavron, was agreed unanimously at the London Assembly Plenary on 05 November 2014. The full text of the motion is:

“This Assembly notes with concern the revelation earlier this year by New London Architecture that over 230 tall buildings are in the pipeline for development. The cumulative impact of these developments on London’s skyline is not being thoroughly considered, with the resultant often bland design and irreversible negative impact posing a threat to London’s heritage, character and architectural distinctiveness. 80% of these buildings are residential, mostly luxury flats which will do little to alleviate the housing crisis.

Tall buildings can make a positive contribution to city life and the skyline, but only if they’re in the right places, meet the right needs, and respect the character and identity of the surrounding area. However, the flaws of ill-considered tall buildings have been well demonstrated by the skyline campaign.

The London Plan includes policies on tall buildings, but these are not being properly implemented in planning decisions. There are also examples where height limits established by Opportunity Area Planning Frameworks have been ignored.

This Assembly therefore calls on the Mayor to rethink his approach to tall buildings in London. To protect London’s skyline and arrive at well considered appropriate high rise buildings the Mayor should establish a ‘skyline commission’ made up of design experts from a variety of fields to offer advice on commissioning, have an enabling role and carry out design reviews.

The Mayor should also develop more detailed and rigorous masterplanning processes, including engagement of local residents and stakeholders, especially within Opportunity Areas, and implement a clusters policy. There should be a review of existing protected views with the intention of adding new viewing corridors, as well as a recognition that views from all angles – even if not within a protected corridor – should be a planning consideration. The GLA should support the development of a fully interactive 3D computer model of London’s emerging skyline in order to allow development proposals to be visualised within the context of their contribution to the London skyline. Finally, the Mayor should require all developers with proposals for tall buildings to consider other building configurations.”

– Mayor Boris Johnson set to miss apprenticeships target
– London has second lowest apprenticeship start rate of all England’s regions

Analysis of the latest figures from the Skills Funding Agency by London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM, has shown that the number of people in Westminster starting apprenticeships has fallen for the second year running/since last year. The figures have cast major doubt on Boris Johnson’s ability to fulfil his election pledge to deliver 250,000 apprenticeships by 2016.

The provisional figures show that only 38,550 apprenticeships were started Londonwide in the 2013/14 academic year, down 6,520 on last year’s numbers. In Westminster the overall number of apprenticeships started dropped by 80 last year from 700 in 2012/13 to 620. This is the second year in a row in which the number of apprenticeship starts has fallen.

In June this year the Londonwide Local Enterprise Partnership stated that the capital would need to increase the number of apprentices by 19% each year if it is to hit the Mayor’s target. Despite that warning, London now has the second lowest apprenticeship start rate in the UK with only the North East lagging behind it. By contrast the North West saw almost double London’s number of apprenticeship starts.

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“It is deeply worrying that for the second year running the number of apprenticeships started in Westminster is falling, making it clearer than ever that Boris Johnson’s target is not going to be met.

“Good quality apprenticeships are vital to getting our young people the skills, training and expertise they need to succeed in the jobs market; particularly in a city as competitive as London.

“Last year’s fall in apprenticeships was a clear signal that the Mayor needed to do more to encourage companies to take on apprentices and work closely with local councils, yet little appears to have been done. Boris Johnson’s inability to get more businesses signed up for apprenticeships is not only leaving London falling behind the rest of the country, but letting down the young Londoners who are desperately seeking these kind of opportunities”

ENDS

Notes

– The number of apprenticeships started by region:

Region 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Full Year Full Year
Full Year
(provisional)
North East 38,340 35,870 30,020
North West 89,310 84,180 70,640
Yorkshire and The Humber 64,200 59,900
East Midlands 46,790 49,010 39,290
West Midlands 60,470 62,430 51,400
East of England 45,820 46,220 39,870
London 47,230 45,070 38,550
South East 66,850 68,960 58,690
South West 55,950 52,540 45,200
England Total 515,000 504,200 426,200

Other 5,600 6,040 6,220

Grand Total 520,600 510,200 432,400

Source: Breakdown by geography, equality & diversity and sector subject area: starts 2013/14

– The London Enterprise Panel Skills and Employment Working Group, Apprenticeships Update can be found here.
– Murad Qureshi is a Labour London wide Assembly Member.

At last week’s plenary, after the motion on the Mayor’s toxic environmental legacy was passed it was established the London Assembly wanted London to be a fracking free zone.

The motion states this quite clearly in its fifth paragraph;

” The Mayor’s attacks on renewable and support for tracking are symbolic of his regressive approach to London’s environment challenges. Given this, the London Assembly does not support any fracking activities with the boundaries of Greater London”

This is in shape contrast to the Mayor’s view that “….. that no stone shall be left unturned to find shale gas in London…” and the Tory Group at the London Assembly lead by Tony “JR Ewing” Arbour AM of South-West London who want to turn the GLA into a centre for oil speculating like Dallas.

London is and should always be a no-fracking zone.

At last weeks plenary l put a motion up about the toxic environmental legacy the present Mayor is leaving the next Mayor of London.

We have heard plenty of charm, bluster & hot air from the Mayor on his environmental policies for the past 6 years. This when many of the biggest challenges facing London as a city relate to environmental concerns like poor air quality in Central London; scandal of cold homes; aircraft noise spreading across London and reducing our climate change impact. This while the Mayor's green credentials are in tatters as he keeps an "open mind" on whether climate change exists or not.

With air pollution, it is a case of too little too law as he has killed the issue into the the long grass. Time is running out on this silent killer for the Mayor to act for those 4,300 Londoners who die prematurely every year due to toxic air. When the Mayor leaves office his legacy is likely to be £300 m a year fine from the European Commission which could easily pass from Whitehall to the GLA. The Mayor himself has hinted that he has been too slow to tackle London's air pollution crisis. The Mayor should have taken his own advice and have tackled this problem when he was first elected. As for his ULEZ proposal, he can't be trusted to deliver on it if his track record with delivering London as "electric car capital of Europe" is anything to go which he promised in Copenhagen in 2009.

The scandal of cold homes is clear to all as 68 per cent of Londoners cut back on heating their homes as energy bills soar yet the Mayor continues to do little on this cold front. The Mayor should have backed the 20 month energy price freeze which would have saved the average London family £120 annually, as many energy companies themselves like SSE have backed as well.

When is comes to cutting carbon, the Assembly's Environment Committee only gave him a 4/10 rating with scope to do a lot better on this critical energy security and black-out issue.

This while he has failed to back renewables whilst supporting tracking. Only recently at the last MQT, we had the Mayor re-instating his backing for fracking to find shale bass when egged on by Tony "JR Ewing" Arbour AM for South-West London, who wants to turn the GLA into Dallas. This when we know all too well that Shale Gass doesn't exist in Greater London, making it a fracking free zone.

Only last week, the UN IPCC suggested we needed to kick the fossil fuel habit by the end of the century. Replacing petrol with shale gas isn't going to do this at all!

We need to rely more on renewables like solar & wind; decentralised energy and replacing demand for energy consumption in the first place with home and work energy efficiency programmes.

If the Mayor doesn't deal with these issues in his remaining time at the GLA, he will levee a toxic environmental legacy for the next Mayor.

They say politics can be a rough old game and nowhere is perhaps that more true than in the debate over air pollution in London. For the Mayor, air pollution is a sensitive issue. He recently hinted that he regretted not having got to grips with the issue when he first became Mayor. Addressing MPs at Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee he said his advice to the next Mayor was “take the tough decisions early, take the heat, and it will all pay off.”

It is perhaps this sense of guilt, of opportunities missed, which has led to such a strong reaction from the Mayor’s Environment advisor to reports that Oxford Street has the world’s highest level of nitrogen dioxide pollution. The statement was not some throwaway remark. It was made by one of the country’s leading experts, Dr David Carslaw at the renowned King’s College Environmental Research Group at a conference in June. The Mayor’s reaction was rapid and unequivocal. “B*llocks” the Mayor tweeted in disgust.

What we didn’t know was what was going on behind the scenes in the Mayor’s name. Last week it was confirmed that the Mayor’s Environment Advisor quickly wrote to Dr Carslaw’s bosses at King’s, stating that “I look forward to continuing to work with King’s ERG and trust that in future more rigour will be applied to public statements made by members of the Group’s staff.” This was a reminder to the senior management at King’s that the funding they receive for air quality research, controlled by the Mayor, could be withdrawn. This was, according to scientists at King’s, a veiled threat.

This latest episode in the air pollution debate signifies how politically toxic accusations against the Mayor’s air pollution policies have become. Clearly, if you dare to question the Mayor’s commitment to the issue you might find yourself on the receiving end of an angry letter and veiled threats. I was very pleased however to read that this will not change Kings’ stance on the issue. A source close to King’s told the Times, “The threat was very clear, but it cannot alter the facts”.

Today the Mayor is launching his consultation on a new Ultra Low Emission Zone. A scheme that will not be rolled out until 2020 amid the total failure of the Mayor to retro-fit London’s polluting bus fleet. By 2020 Boris Johnson must hope he will never face questions on air pollution again. With European fines and further legal action just around the corner the Mayor may regret not “taking the heat” as he put it, for some time yet.

Murad Qureshi AM, London Assembly Labour Group Environment Spokesperson

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/murad-qureshi/london-environment_b_6060090.html

 

Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM has warned of a further round of impending police cuts after the Mayor of London refused to rule out closing police contact points. The contact points were introduced after Boris Johnson closed 3 police stations (Harrow Road, Marylebone and St John’s Wood) in Westminster last year and cut neighbourhood policing teams from six dedicated officers per ward to just two.

When asked recently by Joanne McCartney AM whether the Mayor was planning on cutting the new contact points, Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to answer stating only that “I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer”. The Mayor did however add that “some contact points work better than others” and he was reviewing their use.

The Mayor’s comments follow recent indications from the Deputy Mayor for Policing Stephen Greenhalgh that local neighbourhood policing teams may also face further cuts. When asked at the latest Police and Crime Committee about the cuts to police teams Greenhalgh questioned whether “the absolute commitment of one police constable and one police community support officer for all wards appropriate?” 

Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“When the Mayor closed 3 London police stations in Westminster last year there was real concern that there were further cuts to come. Boris Johnson’s comments make that look significantly more likely.

“According to the latest figures, since the current Government came to power in 2010 Westminster has lost 737 police officers and PCSOs. Now Boris Johnson looks set to make further cuts to the police contact points people rely on to report crime. The Mayor’s policing cuts are already having a real impact with fewer officers on our streets and fewer police stations to report crimes at. Further cuts and closures would push the police service to breaking point.”

Notes 

• The exchange between Joanne McCartney AM and Boris Johnson at Mayor’s Question Time can be viewed in full here. The key exchange:

JM: “but Mr Mayor I’m holding you to account for your promise to put a better or equivalent service into a closed police station. These contact points, are you planning on cutting some of them? Can I get that straight answer from you?

BJ: “We’re reviewing them; some of them work better than others. I’m afraid I can’t give you the answer.”

• London Datastore figures show that since the current Government came to power in May 2010 Westminster has lost 440 police officers and 297 PCSOs.
• Murad Qureshi AM is a Labour London wide Assembly Member

During the last week’s MQT, Tony “JR Ewing” Arbour tells us London needs to tap into £94bn oil and gas industry to create 46k jobs! In many ways it is not surprising that the GLA Tories want to turn the GLA into oil prospectors, as its much like their party nationally particularly when Greater London is de-facto fracking free zone!

Saying this the Party whilst saying the regulation for fracking for shale oil should be regulated much more tightly, must realise what a gold mine of opposition its coming across in the whole of the South East, South of London. In this respect, please see the diagram below. It should help are prospects of getting seats in the South East if we locally and regionally came out against fracking as a process altogether!

 

 

 

The following article was published in this week’s West End Extra:

With mansion tax proposals & fiscal devolution in the air since the Scottish referendum, both the left & the right should acknowledge the merits of land valuation taxation (LVT) as the best way forward.  The case in Central London shows LVT would work better than any mansion tax proposal in particular with empty sites and landlords like the Duke of Westminster & his Grosvenor Estate earning him ground rents which date back to a very feudal system of land ownership.

Don’t get me wrong, l am fully signed up to additional funding for the NHS; that’s the additional 20,000 nurses and 8,000 GPs, by 2020, but the mansion tax proposal with its exemptions (asset rich but cash poor residents won’t have to pay if they are not within the higher tax band) & administrative costs may become the most convoluted way of raising the additional monies required for this investment.

A much better mechanism would be an annual levy on the underlying value of land otherwise known as LVT. For example at the GLA it was revealed recently that 170,000 homes with planning permission have been left unbuilt in London on stalled developments since 2012. Such developments can be seen in empty sites all over Central London like Chelsea Barracks, and along the Edgware Rd next to Paddington Green Police Station to name but a few. Other sites like the old Middlesex hospital have till recently laid empty for decades even when land is so scarce. An annual levy on these sites would incentivise building and discourage land banking underlining its revenue raising potential and efficiency and its reputation as the most economically efficient of property taxes available. It is also estimated that the revenue it is likely to generate could easily match that of other property taxes.

Arguably, it’s also more equitable because it hits landlords like the Duke of Westminster & his Estate. Take for example Victoria Coach Station where the Duke owns a third share and netting his Estate about £230,000 annually until 2020 while TfL manage and run it and we use it and add value to it. The value is derived and borne out by the community use and public effort rather than personal effort on the part of the landlord, and therefore its return should properly be redistributed back to the community.

With a reputation for being efficient, equitable and with good revenue potential, it’s not surprising therefore that the likes of the Institute of Economic Affairs, FT & The Economist magazine have recently reiterated their commitment to LVT. It is so efficient even Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nation acclaimed it as such, as the following quote illustrates;

“Ground rents are a still more proper subject of taxation than the rent of the houses. A tax upon ground rents would not raise the rent of the houses. It would fall altogether upon the owners of the ground rent, who acts always as a monopolist, and exacts the greatest rent which can be got for the use of his ground” Book V, Chapter 2, Article 1

On the left, we still have some unfinished business on this front as we have made a number of attempts in the past to bring in a LVT. Both the Attlee government and the administration of the County of London under the leadership of Herbert Morrison attempted to install LVT in the 1930’s and 1940’s through legislation. In London it was attempted during 1938/39 under the London Rating (site values) Bill, and nationally in 1945 one of the provisions of the Town & County Planning Act 1947 attempted to collect the development value of the increase in land prices arising from planning consent. The latter was repealed in 1951 and in the former, the attempt failed but set out detailed legislation for the implementation using annual value assessment. The very first attempt though was in 1931 when a Labour government included it in their budget.

So this is not new idea but is a tax imposed on land lying empty for years, even decades, aimed at landlords benefiting from exorbitant ground rents. Past governments have been keen proponents of a LVT, the Government of today should implement it.

 

London wide Assembly Member Murad Qureshi AM has raised serious concerns about London Mayor Boris Johnson’s affordable housing scheme after the Mayor accepted that he may not hit his target to build 55,000 new affordable homes by March 2015.

Under questioning from Labour Assembly Member Tom Copley AM, at Mayor’s Question Time this week the Mayor refused confirm that the target date remained March 2015 even though his Deputy Mayor for Housing stated categorically less than a year ago that the target still stood. As of September this year the Mayor had only delivered 38,412 affordable homes leaving more than 16,000 to be built in order to meet March’s target.

After numerous attempts to dodge the question the Mayor accepted that he may not hit the target but refused to take action to prevent the failure stating: “If it slips by a few hundred in March or whatever deadline you arbitrarily choose to set then we’ll look at it then.”

When asked simply when the 55,000 would be completed the Mayor simply said “well I don’t know, whenever we’ve done them.”

Responding to the Mayor’s admission that he may miss his affordable house building target Murad Qureshi AM, Labour London wide Assembly Member, said:

“This is yet another pledge which Boris is going to fail to keep to Londoners. The Mayor’s attitude towards affordable is utterly outrageous given the scale of the housing crisis facing Westminster and the rest of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of people in Westminster are being priced out of buying by the eye-watering house prices in the capital. The fact Boris Johnson is on course to miss even this relatively modest target shows he just doesn’t seem to care about the impact that has on Londoners.

“It is now clear that Boris is set to miss his affordable housing pledge by March 2015. Yet instead of owning up to his failure, the Mayor is trying to pretend that the deadline was always December 2015. We urgently need to see action to put the scheme back on track to deliver the affordable housing Westminster and the rest of London so desperately needs.”

ENDS

Notes

• A copy of the MQT webcast is available here. The exchange on affordable housing begins at 2:52.30.
• In November 2013, during a meeting of the London Assembly Housing Committee, Richard Blakeway (Deputy Mayor for Housing) confirmed on multiple occasions that the deadline for completing the 55,000 affordable homes was definitively 31 March 2015. He told the committee:
• “Ultimately, the completions will run until March 2015”,
• “It is a four-year programme which has had a very clear deadline of March 2015. “
• “Clearly, if the Committee wants to say, “You should move the deadline”, that is a matter for the Committee, but we will remain focused on March 2015.”
• The most stark exchange was:

Darren Johnson (Chair):  Thank you and welcome, David [Lunts], for this next item on the Mayor’s affordable housing commitments.  I am going to start off with the first question.  Is the Mayor still on target to deliver 55,000 affordable homes by March 2015?

Richard Blakeway (Deputy Mayor for Housing, Land and Property):  Yes.

• The transcript of the Housing Committee meeting is available here.
  • Tom Copley is a Labour Londonwide Assembly Member.