Agenda item

To consider motions referred from council assembly 22 January 2014:

 

·  No recourse to public funds

·  Housing for older residents

·  Active communities and older people

·  Cost of child care

·  London Housing Strategy

·  Urgent review of cycle safety

·  Safer crossings on Borough High Street

·  East Dulwich Police Station

·  Billboard advertisement at Elephant and Castle Roundabout

·  Tribute to Grace Jones

RESOLVED:

 

No Recourse to Public Funds

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted and that the chief executive be requested to undertake some work in respect of recommendation 2.

 

1.  That council assembly notes the increasing budgetary pressures caused by recourse to council funds by persons who, by virtue of their immigration status, have "no recourse to public funds", and in particular the advice in respect of adult services provided to cabinet on 19 November 2013 as follows:

 

"Clients with no recourse to public funds are 25% higher than the previous year"

 

2.  That council assembly recognises that this is an important issue which does not stop at the borders of the borough. Council assembly therefore calls on cabinet to review Southwark’s position and to look into what more government could do to address this on a London-wide basis.

 

Housing for Older Residents

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted. It was agreed that Councillor Ian Wingfield would send a letter in respect of recommendation 10.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Notes that suitable housing for older people in London remains in serious short supply and that demand is only likely to increase as our borough’s population ages.

 

2.  Recognises that there is a growing need for housing for older people to offer a range of different tenures and support options, including mainstream, specialist and residential care housing.

 

3.  Welcomes this administration’s commitment to supporting older people to stay independent in their own homes for as long as possible, in line with what people tell us they want.

 

4.  Recognises that there has been a collapse in house building of all types nationally due to Liberal Democrat/Tory government policies and welcomes the steps that Southwark Council is taking to combat the London housing crisis.

 

5.  Notes that 61% of the older population in Southwark are tenants of social landlords and welcomes the commitment by this administration to build 11,000 new council homes in Southwark – representing the biggest home building programme of its kind in the country.

 

6.  Welcomes the cabinet’s commitment through the housing strategy vision to building lifetime homes, delivering extra care housing, exploring other specialist housing options for older people, and adapting properties to enable older and disabled residents to live independently as long as possible in their communities.

 

7.  Welcomes this administration’s commitment to ensuring new homes are built to ‘Lifetime Standards’, making it easier to adapt homes to meet future changing needs.

 

8.  Further welcomes the cabinet’s allocation of £4.712 million for energy efficient measures in district heating, making the systems more energy efficient, reliable and contributing to a reduction in fuel bills for approximately 17,000 properties in the borough.

 

9.  Welcomes the development of new ‘extra care’ homes at the site of the new Centre of Excellence, which will include specialist nurses on site, helping to keep people out of hospital or residential care unless necessary and giving residents access to first class services at the new dementia day centre.

 

10.  Calls on the cabinet to continue to support older people who wish to downsize to smaller homes on the same estate. Council assembly welcomes the fact that older people are currently exempt from the government’s bedroom tax and congratulates the Chartered Institute of Housing for pointing out the flaw in the government’s policy, which would have meant pensioners living with someone of working age would be hit by the tax. Council assembly calls on the cabinet to press the government to continue to ensure older people are not hit by the bedroom tax in an attempt to force them to downsize.

 

11.  Notes that whatever campaign they run, the Liberal Democrats consistently propose building something on the Dulwich Hospital site. The proposed retirement village set out in this motion adds to the growing list the Liberal Democrats have suggested for the site, which includes a medical centre, a primary school, a secondary school, private homes, a nursery, a police base, sports facilities, gardening facilities, indoor community space, council offices and space for voluntary organisations. Council assembly believes that people in East Dulwich deserve better than an uncosted and ill considered shopping list from the Liberal Democrats.

 

Active Communities and Older People

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted.

 

1.  That council assembly welcomes this administration’s commitment to supporting people to live long, healthy lives, and to helping older people stay independent in their own homes and integrated in our communities for as long as possible – in line with what people tell us they want.

 

2.  That council assembly recognises that the 22,000 older people in Southwark form a very diverse group, including people who are: in their sixties through to people over 100; retired or in employment; carers (for example, for elderly parents, a partner or grandchildren); in full health, ill or frail; or disabled - as well as being diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and faith and belief.

 

3.  That council assembly also recognises that almost all of the council’s strategies and policies affect older people – including on the economy, environment, transport, regeneration, culture and leisure, community safety, housing, health and social care.

 

Helping older people have healthy, active lives in our community

 

4.  That council assembly notes the good work that the administration, across all departments, does with older people to help them stay healthy, active and integrated in our communities, including, for example:

 

(1)  Providing employment support through Southwark Works and the independent living service.

 

(2)  Enabling volunteering opportunities through our volunteering strategy. We applaud the valuable Olympics and Paralympics contribution that Southwark volunteers of all ages made, including older people.

 

(3)  Offering reduced price or free access to physical activity for older people - including 60 pence swimming; free exercise classes; free group walks; and the ‘Silver’ programme in leisure centres.

 

(4)  Working with GPs and hospitals to provide community exercise referrals and supporting older people identified through the health check programme to access physical activity as a preventative measure.

 

5.  That ensuring new homes are built to ‘Lifetime Standards’, making it easier to adapt homes to meet future changing needs.

 

6.  That tacking health inequalities and the addressing the causes of the borough’s health challenges – including cardio-vascular disease, stroke, lung diseases, liver diseases cancers, diabetes, and sexually transmitted diseases – to help people live longer, healthier lives.

 

7.  That council assembly recognises the excellent work done by voluntary and community organisations across the borough to help older people stay active and integrated in our community.

 

Caring for vulnerable and frail older people in our community

 

8.  That council assembly notes that government cuts since 2010 have taken over £1.2 billion out of social care for older people in the UK.  Despite these cuts, this administration has prioritised looking after vulnerable and frail people in our community, aiming to treat every person as we would wish a member of our family to be treated.

 

9.  That council assembly welcomes the steps this administration has taken to help older people stay living independently in their own homes and communities for as long as possible and delaying or avoiding the need for hospital or residential care - in line with what people say they want, including:

 

(1)  Halving the price people pay for meals on wheels to £1.71, the lowest price in London – after the price was hiked under the previous administration.

 

(2)  Agreeing plans to create a ‘Centre of Excellence’ day centre for older people with dementia and other complex needs – due to open in 2015 with enhanced, specialist facilities and guaranteed places for everyone using the council’s existing day centres.

 

(3)  Working with partners - including Lambeth Council, hospitals, GPs and others – to integrate health and social care provision through the Southwark and Lambeth integrated care programme; helping people to avoid preventable hospital admissions.

 

(4)  Providing personal budgets to people who need social care, giving them choice and control over the support they have, to best fit their needs and aspirations. Southwark Council is in the top quartile of performance nationally for personal budgets.

 

(5)  Creating an ‘Innovation Fund’ to provide funding to voluntary sector providers, creating new services which give people real choice over how they allocate their personal budgets.

 

(6)  Creating a single care phone line for people to get on-the-spot advice for themselves or their loved ones from social care experts.

 

(7)  Helping people stay living healthily and independently in their own homes and communities for longer, through home care; reablement; sheltered housing (where we recently reintroduced wardens); and an expansion of extra care housing – as well as our handyperson service.

 

(8)  Signing up to Unison’s Ethical Homecare Charter and ensuring that workers providing care services are paid the London Living Wage and that care visits are not as short as 15 minutes.

 

(9)  Creating a new cares’ strategy, to provide carers – many of them who are older people themselves - with support in their caring responsibilities and also support for themselves to stay healthy and pursue their other aspirations alongside caring

 

Cost of Child Care

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Recognises the significant cost of good quality childcare for families across the borough.

 

2.  Therefore condemns the Liberal Democrat/Tory cuts to financial support available for working parents for childcare costs. Notes that in 2011 the government cut support within the tax credit system from 80% to 70% of eligible childcare costs, with a cap of fees at £175, meaning low income families faced a reduction in help towards childcare bills. Council assembly also condemns the Liberal Democrat/Tory government for failing to raise the £175 ceiling despite the rise in childcare costs.

 

3.  Further condemns the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s closure of over 500 Sure Start centres since the general election in 2010, resulting in 35,000 fewer childcare places, following government cuts of £430 from English local authority Sure Start budgets between 2010-11 and 2012-13.

 

4.  Welcomes the previous Labour government’s decision to extend childcare to 15 hours per week for 3 and 4 year olds and notes that in Southwark, 3,300 3 year olds and 3,670 4 year olds are benefitting from these funded early education places. Notes that the government has now extended this provision to 20% of two year olds in families on the lowest incomes. Council assembly welcomes this additional provision, but notes that this is against a backdrop of punishing families through the tax credit system and making it harder for parents who want to work and need support with childcare. 

 

5.  Calls on cabinet to help local parents by funding additional childcare hours on top of those already offered by the government.

 

6.  Welcomes the commitment that a Labour government would increase this provision and provide 25 hours of free childcare a week for working parents with three and four-year-olds, worth £15,000, using a levy on banks.

 

7.  Further welcomes Labour’s commitment to offer “wraparound” provision between 8am and 6pm – from breakfast to after-school clubs – in primary schools.

 

London Housing Strategy

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted. Councillor Fiona Colley confirmed that a response had been agreed by an individual cabinet member decision in line with the motion.

 

1.  That London is facing a housing crisis, as housing supply fails to match the city’s growing population. Home ownership in London has fallen below 50 per cent for the first time since records began and the rise in house prices has outstripped the increase in household incomes. In 2013, the average rent for a three bedroom flat typically consumed 59 per cent of a London family’s income. Londoners now experience the highest levels of overcrowding in the country and the capital has record levels of homeless households in temporary accommodation.

 

2.  That council assembly notes the Mayor of London’s draft Housing Strategy and welcomes the commitment to increase housing building in London. Council assembly notes the ambition to build at least 42,000 new homes in London per annum for the next ten years, approximately twice as many as are currently built per year, but expresses concern that this number may not be sufficient to solve London’s current housing crisis, with recent research suggesting that more than 60,000 new homes a year are needed to meet growing demand in the capital.

 

3.  That council assembly welcomes the fact that the Mayor of London has accepted Labour’s argument about the importance of genuinely affordable housing and welcomes the move in the Mayor’s Housing Strategy to recognise the continued need for new homes at social rent.

 

4.  That, however, council assembly expresses concern about the balance between “discounted rents”, which are set well above target rent levels for social housing but below market rents, and “capped rents” which are equivalent to the current social rent.

 

5.  That of the 15,000 new affordable homes that the Mayor will seek to deliver each year:

 

·  Approximately 4,000 will be flexible low cost home ownership and 9,000 will be affordable rent.

·  Of the 9,000 affordable rent houses, only half of these homes will be “capped” at low affordable rents, with the remaining half set at “discounted” rents of up to 80% of market rent.

 

6.  That this means that social rented housing makes up only 11% of the Mayor’s annual housing target.

 

7.  That council assembly expresses concern that the Mayor’s decision to allow “affordable” rents to be set at up to 80% of market prices will make renting unaffordable for many residents in the borough. Southwark Council, along with other London boroughs, has initiated a judicial review of this decision, the implication of which would be that councils will have little power to make sure new affordable housing is genuinely affordable for local people.

 

8.  That council assembly welcomes the commitment of Southwark Council to building more homes in the borough, having built 2,300 new homes over the last two years, including 1,230 affordable homes.

 

9.  That it notes that Southwark is the fifth highest London borough in terms of house building over the last two years and also the fifth highest in building affordable housing.

 

10.  That council assembly congratulates other Labour boroughs for their commitment to house building, making up seven of the top 10 London boroughs in terms of house building over the last two years, and nine out of the top 10 boroughs for building additional affordable housing in London.

 

11.  That council assembly welcomes this administration’s commitment to build 11,000 new council homes. Council assembly notes that since 2010 the council has already approved over 10,000 new homes in the borough, including almost 3,000 new affordable homes.

 

12.  That council assembly notes the acknowledgement in the Mayor’s draft London Housing Strategy that boroughs, the government, the Mayor and the public and private sectors must work together to achieve the 42,000 target for house building. However, council assembly also expresses concern that many London boroughs, particularly Conservative and Liberal Democrat boroughs, are likely to have significantly lower housing targets than Southwark.

 

13.  That Southwark is playing its part in solving London’s housing crisis; council assembly calls on other councils to do the same.

 

Urgent Review of Cycle Safety

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted. The Leader confirmed that in respect of recommendation 5 that he had recently attended a summit at the Greater London Assembly in support of this continued work.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Notes with sadness the loss of cyclists’ lives on London’s roads in recent months and years, including the tragic death in November of Walworth resident and community volunteer Richard Muzira.

 

2.  Welcomes the steps Southwark Council has taken to improve cycling safety in the borough, including running a campaign to promote cycling and cycle safety, free cyclist training, Safer Urban Driver courses for drivers of HGVs, a programme of cycle parking on the highway and the 'Park to Park' mass cycle ride for children.

 

3.  Applauds the commitment of the leader of the council in championing the issue of cycling safety, working on a cross-party basis with leaders across London. Council assembly welcomes the Mayor of London’s agreement to hold a London-wide cycle summit following the proposal from the leader of the council.

 

4.  Welcomes the cabinet’s commitment to utilise the expertise of a cycling consultant to review cycling safety in the borough and to identify steps which can be taken to improve cycling safety and take up in Southwark.

 

5.  Welcomes the work of the leader of the council in pressing for a comprehensive route of cycleways across Southwark and London, providing cyclists with effectively dedicated routes to minimize any interaction with motorised traffic. Council assembly calls on the cabinet to continue working with TfL to deliver dedicated cycle routes on Blackfriars Road.

 

Safer Crossings on Borough High Street

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Applauds the work of local campaigners, including Southwark Living Streets and Borough Babies, in organising the ‘Safe Crossings on Borough High St Campaign’.

 

2.  Notes that high numbers of people cross Borough High Street every day at its junctions at:

 

·  Great Dover Street and Marshalsea Road

·  Trinity Street and Great Suffolk Street.

 

3.  Notes that many of the people who use these junctions are families who live to the east of Borough High Street and whose children go to schools on the west side of Borough High Street, including Charles Dickens Primary School, the Cathedral School and St Joseph’s Primary School, Friars Primary School, the London Christian School, St Saviour’s and St Olave's school, the Bright Horizons Nursery and The Arc Nursery.

 

4.  Calls on cabinet to work with Transport for London to:

 

·  Review crossing safety on Borough High Street

·  Create pedestrian crossings at the junction with Great Dover Street and Marshalsea Road, and at the junction with Trinity Street and Great Suffolk Street.

 

East Dulwich Police Station

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted.

 

1.  That council assembly condemns the closure of East Dulwich and Sydenham police stations and the reduction in opening hours at Gipsy Hill police station, leaving Dulwich residents without adequate access to police front counter facilities.

 

2.  That council assembly calls upon the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to ensure that as the East Dulwich police station site is developed for a new use, a police front counter facility is incorporated on the ground floor of the building, with a commitment to staff this facility throughout the week, and that MOPAC works with the council to assess the feasibility of the rest of the site being used for school provision.

 

3.  That council assembly recognises the need for additional community services and facilities in Dulwich, particularly including school places and calls upon the Lambeth and Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS Property Co to expedite the decision-making process in relation to the development of new health facilities on the Dulwich Hospital site, so that the remainder of the site can be used to develop new community facilities, including new school provision.

 

4.  That council assembly also calls on any free school providers to work closely and cooperatively with the council on school place planning in the Dulwich area.

 

Billboard Advertisement at Elephant and Castle Roundabout

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be noted.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Applauds work of local community activists Vijay Luthra, Claire Maugham and Karl Eastham, who succeeded in getting an offensive billboard advert removed from the Elephant & Castle roundabout following public complaints.

 

2.  Recognises the negative effect of inappropriate adverts anywhere in the borough and notes the council’s guidelines to contractors about the types of adverts they display on council sites.

 

3.  Congratulates the council for acting immediately to have the offensive advert removed and notes that the advert was taken down by council officers the same day they were alerted to the issue.

 

4.  Welcomes the swift action of Primesight, the billboard operator, in responding quickly to the council’s request.

 

Tribute to Grace Jones

 

That the motion referred from council assembly as a recommendation to cabinet, set out below be agreed.

 

That council assembly:

 

1.  Notes with sadness the passing of the UK’s oldest resident, Grace Jones from Bermondsey, who died in November aged 113.

 

2.  Acknowledges her remarkable life which spanned the whole of the 20^th century and her contribution to the local community.

 

3.  Calls on the cabinet to pay a lasting tribute to the life of Grace Jones by naming a new public building after her at the earliest opportunity.