Agenda item

Councillor Watts thanked the Mayor and added his congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn MP; his election was good news for the borough; we will all be working foursquare to get elected in 2020 and when the public get to know Jeremy as we do, they will like what they see and he will be a great Prime Minister.

Councillor Watts advised that councillors had been contacted by a number of residents regarding the consultation on changes to the Controlled Parking Zones and he was therefore reporting back in advance of the Executive papers being published.  It was high time we asked residents about the zones; they hadn’t been consulted for eight years and a number of problems had been raised by residents themselves.  The consultation was always going to be a genuine one and it is clear by the responses that residents support two of the five changes proposed, but not all of them.  The Executive paper will follow the lead set by residents, as is only right and proper.  I noted that we have been criticised for undertaking the consultation by the party which spent £850K on parking consultation, ten times more than we have spent.

I am sure that we were all shocked by the images of Aylan Kurdi, the three year old Syrian refugee whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey. We have worked really hard since then, as have many other councillors.  The Prime Minister has now bowed to public pressure, but it is important that we do what we can in Islington. We have been involved in a range of meetings, with the Mayor of London, Councils and the Home Office and are working with the National Refugees Welcome Board, trying to get agreement on a scheme which works.   We are also working with Citizens UK and the Islington Refugee Forum to try to offer practical support.   My colleague Councillor Ngongo has led on collecting donations from around the borough; we have opened the Town Hall as a donation centre for tents and clothing and have been overwhelmed by the response from residents.  I’d like to thank the people of Islington for their generosity. 

I know we are having a motion on this subject later on, but the government’s proposals in the Housing Bill are appalling and will change the nature of the borough.  I am disappointed and angry that the national and local housing associations did a deal for themselves and that it is the residents of Islington that will suffer.  They have seen themselves alright at the expense of the council.

Finally, I wanted to mention the changes to business rates; the most important change in the financing of local government for 30 years.  It is very difficult to know what this means for Islington; we have already lost half our funding.  The devil will be in the detail, but we are not anticipating that it will make a positive difference in the short or medium term; it is ridiculous for such a change to be announced a month before we have to finalise the budget and it may cause unnecessary damage to public services.