Agenda item

The leader of the council to present the theme for the meeting.

Councillor Sarah King, leader of the council, presented the motion in the themed debate.

 

Councillor David Watson, the opposition spokesperson, responded to the motion and proposed Amendment A.

 

Following debate (Councillors Maggie Browning, Naima Ali, Maria Linforth-Hall, Leo Pollak, Evelyn Akoto, Cassandra Brown, Nick Johnson, Reginald Popoola, Stephanie Cryan, Margy Newens, Adam Hood, Youcef Hassaine, Mohamed Deen), Councillor Sarah King responded to the debate.

 

Amendment A was put to the vote and declared to be ­Lost.

 

The motion was put to the vote and declared to be Carried.

 

A borough where everyone can succeed

 

1.  Council Assembly celebrates:

 

a.  The diversity and vibrancy of our borough, from Peckham’s food scene to Dulwich’s parks and sports grounds, Bermondsey’s estates to Walworth’s street markets and Bankside’s heritage.

 

b.  Our amazing, energised local communities.

 

c.  The small businesses and entrepreneurs that make our town centres thrive.

 

d.  The teachers, nurses, doctors, firefighters and other key workers who keep our borough running.

 

e.  Our tireless and hard-working network of voluntary and community organisations.

 

2.  Council Assembly thanks:

 

a.  The vast network of voluntary and community organisations that help make our borough succeed, including but not limited to:

 

i)  Community Southwark – who bring our VCS partners together with help and guidance for charities and community groups.

 

ii)  Spring – the organisation behind Spring Community Hub and The Blue Youth Centre that provide so much for residents in need.

 

iii)  MyEnds – who work with families of young people affected by and involved in violent crime, alongside Southwark’s Violence Reduction Unit, to prevent and stop knife and other violent crime.

 

iv)  Bede House – who support our entire community with specialist services including assisting people with learning disabilities and our new Women’s Safety Alliance.

 

v)  Our network of Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations – who work tirelessly to champion our estates and improve people’s homes right across our borough.

 

vi)  The council’s Repairs Improvement Board – representing tenants and leaseholders.

 

vii)  Teachers, school governors and parents – who have helped Southwark Labour get 99% of our schools to be rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.

 

viii)Members of the Policing Oversight Board – who are helping to improve local people’s trust in the police by increasing accountability.

 

ix)  ‘Friends of’ park groups – who nurture and champion our local parks and green spaces, helping maintain them as some of the best parks in the country.

 

x)  The Southwark Pensioners Action Group – who champion the rights of older people right across our borough.

 

xi)  Southwark Law Centre – whose efforts help protect our residents, including asylum seekers and refugees.

 

xii)  Millwall Community Trust – who work with thousands of people in Southwark delivering projects that support initiatives for young people, community engagement, charitable causes, education and life skills, and more.

 

3.  Council Assembly welcomes this Labour administration’s:

 

a.  Investment in making Southwark more affordable, including:

 

i)  £99.1 million-worth of council tax cuts for residents struggling to pay their bills, via the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

 

ii)  The £53 million Cost of Living Fund, helping over 100,000 people with cash payments and targeted support.

 

iii)  Working with the Living Wage Foundation to help over 7,000 people onto a London Living Wage, including Southwark’s first ‘living wage building’ in North Bermondsey.

 

iv)  Campaigning to support eligible older people to claim the Pension Credit they are entitled to.

 

v)  Free Swim and Gym, that helps residents lead healthy, active lives by expanding access to our brilliant leisure centres.

 

vi)  Investing £28.5 million in 2024/25 in more than 400 local organisations that deliver vital services and support, making the council the borough’s largest investor in the voluntary and community sector.

 

b.  Work to tackle the housing crisis, including:

 

i)  Building or starting over 3,000 new council homes, with more council homes built in Southwark last year than anywhere else in the country, according to Inside Housing.

 

ii)  Building more social rent homes in the last 5 years than any other London borough, with more social rent homes built in one year than the three Liberal Democrat-run councils in London built together over the previous decade.

 

iii)  Plans to start Southwark’s first rent-controlled homes for key workers in London Bridge & West Bermondsey and our first Community Land Trust homes in Peckham – where prices will be tied to local incomes forever.

 

iv)  Expansion of our ‘Housing First’ programme to support rough sleepers into secure accommodation, with modular housing schemes at Leroy Street and coming forward on the Rochester Estate.

 

v)  A new Temporary Accommodation (TA) Working Group and action to support families in TA with free Wifi and laundry, ensuring no families with children are placed in B&Bs.

 

vi)  £250 million investment in our council homes over three years to make them safer and healthier, improving fire, electrical, gas, lift and water safety, tackling damp and upgrading old and unreliable heating systems.

 

vii)  The new Better Repairs Plan, which establishing neighbourhood repairs teams and making sure repairs are done right the first time, building on successes such as regular Repairs Action Days on estates.

 

viii)The national-leading Securing the Future of Council Housing campaign, with Southwark leading a coalition of over 100 councils on behalf of our residents to fix the broken system and save council housing for future generations.

 

c.  Work to keep our communities safe, including:

 

i)  Setting up the Women’s Safety Alliance, our groundbreaking service to help women experiencing domestic abuse and sexual violence, providing safe and accessible spaces at the point of crisis and subsequent integrated support.

 

ii)  Investing £5 million in rolling out new and improved CCTV and an antisocial behaviour taskforce.

 

iii)  Introducing nighttime uniformed wardens to patrol hotspot areas and make our town centres and estates safer, extending the work of our community wardens.

 

iv)  Ramping up fly-tipping enforcement, with new £1,000 fines, to clean up our streets and hold perpetrators to account.

 

d.  Investment in public spaces and services, leading the way when it comes to:

 

i)  Protecting and improving our council-owned libraries and opening two libraries including Una Marson in Faraday.

 

ii)  Bringing our leisure centres back in house so they are owned by our residents, upgrading our leisure centres, opening a brand new leisure centre at Canada Water in Rotherhithe, and new open water swimming in Greenland Dock.

 

iii)  Investing £18 million our parks, making them some of the best in London and retaining all 30 of our Green Flag awards.

 

iv)  Planting nearly 40,000 trees in the last 5 years – including planting the 100,000th tree on council land in St George’s.

 

v)  Investing in new playgrounds, with almost £18 million invested in revamping playgrounds including Ellen Brown Adventure Playground, Frederick’s Playground, Peckham Rye Adventure Playground and many more, and a further £7.1 million of investment to upgrade 15 parks over the next three years.

 

vi)  Creating cleaner, greener, safer streets that prioritise pedestrians, with over 100 crossings installed since 2022, including Evelina Road in Nunhead & Queen’s Road and Lordship Lane in Dulwich Wood.

 

vii)  The Southwark Pioneers Fund, which has provided £2.6m to help new and established local businesses to expand and thrive, including over 900 local entrepreneurs and businesses since launching in 2022 with two-thirds being female-led.

 

viii) Making affordable and more sustainable travel more accessible: installing over 2.5km of segregated cycle lanes, hundreds more cycle hangars, 1,000 new EV charging points, and investing £10 million with TfL to improve bus journeys.

 

ix)   Clearing up and deterring graffiti in our town centres, by rolling out ‘graffiti blitz’ teams in problem areas, such as Camberwell Church Street, and expanding to known hotspots such as Rye Lane.

 

e.  Investment in families:

 

i)  Expanding free healthy school meals into secondary schools, providing free school meals in the holidays and rolling out new breakfast clubs, as no child can learn while they’re hungry.

 

ii)   Working with our teachers, school governors, parents and communities to improve our schools so now 99% of Southwark schools are rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.

 

iii)  Investing in Children & Family Hubs, so every family is within 15 minutes of the support they need.

 

iv)  Opening a brand-new nursing home at Camberwell in May 2022, with state of the art facilities and high-quality care.

 

v)  With the award-winning Appleby Blue almshouse in Bermondsey, with 57 of the best affordable homes for older people in the country.

 

vi)  Rolling out the Residential Care Charter, which has resulted in better quality of care for residential care homes in the borough, and improved working conditions for staff.

 

vii)  Making our streets safer for children, rolling out 32 school streets across the borough to keep kids safe outside schools.

 

f.  Commitment to defending our communities:

 

i)  Achieving Borough of Sanctuary status, rubber-stamping our commitment to welcoming refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.

 

ii)  Establishing Southwark Stands Together to combat racism, discrimination and inequality in our borough, and ensuring that our services and public spaces reflect and respect the diversity that makes Southwark great.

 

iii)  Becoming an Age Friendly Borough, bringing to life our commitment to older residents by embedding age-friendly principles into planning, housing, public realm, health and community services, so that people can age well, stay connected and live independently for longer.

 

iv)  Becoming the first council to incorporate the UN Genocide Convention into the council’s investments framework, divesting pension funds away from companies linked to the occupation of Palestine and other conflicts.

 

4.  Council Assembly believes:

 

a.  The next four years will be pivotal for the continued success of our borough.

 

b.  The prospect of the Green Party or Liberal Democrats running the council puts at risk the support for and investment in our diverse communities, whether through a return to Liberal Democrat austerity or the Green’s financial incompetence.

 

c.  Only Labour has the experience in protecting and expanding vital services while prudently managing the council’s finances.

 

d.  Amidst a housing crisis, only Labour has the track record of building genuinely affordable homes.

 

e.  Liberal Democrat and Green proposals on affordable housing would result in zero social rent homes being built in Southwark.

 

f.  That their plans to block the building of new homes would cut income from taxes on developers, leading to less investment in our local communities.

 

g.  The Liberal Democrats’ plans to tackle crime with ‘Community Safety Gazebos’ and Greens’ plans to decriminalise drug abuse on our streets and estates are not serious and will reverse progress made by this Labour administration on tackling crime and antisocial behaviour.

 

5.  Council Assembly resolves to:

 

a.  Call upon cabinet to bring forward a substantial policy programme including a refreshed Borough Plan for the next four years that will include Southwark Labour’s plan to create a borough where everyone can succeed:

 

i)  Building genuinely affordable homes

-  with 1,500 new social rent homes, one third of which will be council-owned.

 

ii)  Keeping neighbourhoods safe

-  by doubling the number of community wardens, meaning tougher enforcement on streets and estates, night and day.

 

iii)  A new youth guarantee

-  with opportunities for all young people leaving school while helping residents find a good, well-paid job.

 

iv)  A free culture pass

-  breaking down barriers so everyone can enjoy our amazing, diverse nightlife, art, theatre and all the borough has to offer.

 

v)  A council you can trust

-  to cherish the things you love most about Southwark, like our parks and libraries, to take your issues seriously and to get it right first time, whether it’s housing repairs or fly-tipping.