Southwark voters should choose Labour again at the ballot box next week because of the party’s track record on the environment, housing and jobs, leader Kieron Williams has said – while admitting Covid-19 has slowed progress on some objectives.
Labour has controlled Southwark Council since 2010, but this is Cllr Williams’ first election since taking over from longstanding former leader Peter John in 2020.
Labour has promised to tackle Southwark’s housing crisis – with over 16,000 households currently on the borough’s council homes waiting list and thousands more stuck in temporary accommodation.
But the council has come under fire from two sides – being criticised for planning new ‘infill’ developments on open spaces within existing estates, and for not building enough new homes: a recent freedom of information request revealed that Southwark has built just 166 new council homes between 2018 and 2022 – a rate of 42 per year.
Cllr Williams countered that he was “delighted” that Southwark had reached its target of having started 2,500 new council homes by this year. The council plans to build another 1,000 by 2026 and a further 500 homes for key workers, part of the long-term goal of 11,000 new council homes by 2043.
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Much of the criticism around the infill programme has centred around the perception that under Labour, the council has not consulted enough with local residents about the new schemes. Cllr Williams said that “engaging with residents is at the heart of everything we do,” pointing to the ballot schemes on the Tustin Estate in south Bermondsey and the Ledbury Estate in Peckham that allowed residents to decide on whether to demolish their homes as part of the regeneration process.
Southwark’s climate action plan, which aims to get to carbon neutral by 2030, has been named the second-best in London by Climate Emergency UK, an independent group. But the council has been criticised by Southwark Extinction Rebellion for not providing a clear roadmap on the concrete steps it will take to get there.
Asked if he thought that was fair, Cllr Williams pointed to the improvements Labour had in the works, including halving emissions by 2026, adding insulation in council homes and using renewable heating sources – and said the council was going to publish an update to the climate action plan this summer which would provide more details.
Labour says it has created 5,500 new jobs since 2018 and 4,000 apprenticeships, which is the most in London. If it stays in power, the party also plans to create another 2,000 ‘green’ jobs. Cllr Williams said he was “proud” of this achievement. “We’re serious about tackling the climate emergency and supporting our residents at the same time,” he added.
Southwark Labour has been rocked by several recent controversies in Cllr Williams’ tenure as head of the council, including former council candidate in Rotherhithe Sharon Noonan-Gunning being deselected in mysterious circumstances despite being voted in by local members, former council homes boss Leo Pollak breaking the code of conduct by running an anonymous Twitter troll account – and then-Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Neil Coyle having the whip suspended for an alleged racist outburst in a parliamentary bar.
But Cllr Williams denied that Coyle’s alleged behaviour – for which he has apologised – and the ongoing investigation had come up at all in conversations with local residents when he had been out campaigning.
On the contrary, the council boss was sure that residents he had been speaking to as part of the campaign were up in arms over Conservative Party misbehaviour at a national level, such as prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak being among those fined by the police for lockdown-breaking parties. “People are sick and tired of being told it’s one rule for them, and one for the Tories,” he said.
A number of campaign pledges from the last elections have not come to fruition by 2022, including Labour promising to create the council’s own dedicated construction company. Although this has not happened fully, in part because of Covid-19, Cllr Williams said that parts of the council house building process had now been taken in-house, as part of Labour’s wider programme to cut down on outsourcing services to private companies.
Labour’s key pledges:
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- ECONOMY: 2,000 green jobs, 2,000 apprenticeships and investment in local town centres through a new Thriving High Streets Fund
- ENVIRONMENT: More parks and nature sites, doubling the number of cycle hangars, 1,000 more electric car charging points and halving the council’s carbon emissions again by 2026
- SAFETY: £2 million taskforce to tackle crime hotspots, upgraded street lighting across the whole borough and more CCTV
- HOMES: Building another 1,000 new council homes in addition to the 2,500 Labour are already building, plus 500 new homes at low rents for key workers
- SUPPORT: A new Cost of Living Fund to help local people in a crisis, plus a guarantee of mental wellbeing support and support for all unpaid carers.
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- WATCH: We did a special Gogglebox-style coverage in the in the run-up to the election – click below to view what residents have to say
Southwark Elections 2022: What do the ordinary people of Southwark think?
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- The Conservatives are hoping to get back seat on the council – how are they planning to do that? – Click here
- Outside the mainstream three other parties are standing in some areas of Southwark – who are they? – Read below