Weekly email bulletin from Newham Council 9 July 2020

You can read the latest message from Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz below:

I hope you’ve been keeping well and safe and thank you to everyone who was sensible over the weekend as more lockdown restrictions were loosened. If you had your hair cut, ate your first meal out since March, or had a drink in your local pub, I hope you enjoyed it.

Marriages also started on Saturday at the Town Hall Register Office in East Ham and on Monday libraries are re-opening in a gradual way with an order online and collect service at first. If you are attending a wedding or collecting books, please follow all the guidelines in place and be considerate of others who remain fearful of catching Covid-19 by maintaining social distancing and regular hand washing.

Yesterday, we heard from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak on his plans to promote an economic recovery as we emerge from the first phase of the Covid-19 crisis. The totality of the ‘rescue’ package is around £30 billion. This sounds like a lot of money until you consider that Germany is investing 130 billion Euros in its people, its industry and its environment.

Far from promoting jobs, jobs, jobs as promised, Mr Sunak has chosen to support home owners, cutting Stamp Duty on house sales below £500,000 (from £125,000 previously). That’s support worth £3.8 billion for people who can afford to buy their own home. There was also a reduction on VAT to support the hospitality and tourism sectors from 20 per cent to five per cent for a limited period. In addition, those that can afford to eat in restaurants will be given a discount voucher worth up to £10.

These measures assume a population who can afford to consider buying a home, or dine out in restaurants. In Newham, we have a population where nearly half of our residents are living in poverty after housing costs are taken into consideration (49%). This is almost double the national level reported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2018 (22 per cent). Cuts in Stamp Duty, and discounts for eating out in restaurants, will do nothing to support them, keep a roof over their head or tackle debt.

Crucially, on supporting employment, the Chancellor unveiled a Kick Start scheme, which is designed to encourage employers to take on unemployed young people on a six-month work placement at minimum wage. While this is welcome news, especially for our young people in the borough, we all know that the cost of living in Newham is far beyond the minimum wage. How will they survive?

For the 50,000 Newham residents on furlough, there was bad news with the Chancellor sticking to his guns in winding up the job retention scheme by October. In its place will be a £1,000 one-off ‘bonus’ to employers to take back furloughed staff during January, February and March next year.

I am not convinced that the Government’s optimism about an economic recovery by the early months of next year, will be sufficiently boosted by his announcements yesterday. Already, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said that the UK’s unemployment rate could reach 14.8 per cent, with global job losses taking unemployment rates to levels more comparable to the 1930s.

This week saw an important milestone in my promise to create a new relationship between the Council and all of you, with the publication on Monday of the independent Democracy and Civic Participation Commission report.

For too long the way this Council worked damaged your trust in its politicians and in the way decisions were made about services and the future of the borough. My manifesto commitment was a bold vision to change that and become a beacon of participatory democracy. You can read about the Commission’s report in this bulletin.

We are discussing the Commission’s recommendations next week at our meetings of Cabinet and Full Council, and then we can really begin to make you feel that you are genuinely able to influence the things that matter to you. We’ve made a good start in rebuilding the relationship between the Council and you the people of Newham, but I really want you to join us on this journey and help build and shape the kind of Newham we all want.

Also being considered variously at those meetings are important reports about the financial impact on the Council of dealing with coronavirus in Newham and our recovery from the pandemic; a proposed Climate Emergency Action Plan for the borough; and an update on the Internal Controls Commission.

When I was elected I promised that the Council would be more transparent and accountable. I began with bringing in independent experts for a financial health check to help me clean up the books. The Cabinet paper shows how we’ve progressed in improving the governance of the Council in the interests of all Newham residents and resolving financial mismanagement evident at the time.

You can see in the Cabinet reports that currently the financial impact on the Council of dealing with coronavirus in Newham is estimated at almost £61m.

So far, Newham has received two allocations of £10.6m and £9.7m from Government from national funding tranches. Another tranche was announced by the Government last week, but it hasn’t been explained how this will be shared between local authorities. In our case it probably won’t amount to much. That is why I continue to ask the Government for extra support in the form of a Covid-19 Deprivation Premium for those areas who have borne the brunt of the pain the pandemic has unleashed.

We have already heard that some councils fear they face running out of money and while Newham is not one of those, we cannot be complacent. Thanks to the good work we did in March to agree for the first time in many years, a three-year Budget which offered stability and a clear framework to help make residents’ lives better, we have an important baseline for the hard work that has to begin on realigning and redefining our financial planning in line with our Covid-19 recovery plan.

Whatever decisions we make we will continue to look to address poverty and inequality through community wealth building and inclusive economy strategies, keep young people safe, build much needed homes and tackle the climate emergency and the worst levels of air pollution in the country. Our Climate Emergency Action Plan contains a vast range of proposed measures to ensure as we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis our plans are rooted in the commitment to make this a green recovery.

I urge you all to read the Cabinet reports here and join the meeting on a Newham Facebook live broadcast on July 14 at 5pm to hear our conversations in full.

We have heard from the Government that it will be mandatory for pupils to return to school from September, and that it will take ‘specific action’ if schools do not comply with the new guidelines. We plan to work with our parents and schools on a way forward. At the moment we don’t know what the Covid-19 situation will be in two months’ time, or for that matter for the foreseeable future as we’ll be living with the virus for a long time. We take our public health responsibility very seriously and want Newham's children, their families, and the teachers and support staff, to be safe. Keep an eye out for more details in the coming weeks.

This week has allowed us some opportunities for reflection. On Sunday we lit up blue the town halls in East Ham and Stratford to mark the 72nd anniversary of the National Health Service. It was a chance to praise the fantastic work of dedicated NHS staff and key workers, while also remembering those who sadly have lost their lives to Covid-19.

On Tuesday I offered sympathy and condolences to the family and friends of the 52 people who lost their lives in the bombings that took place in central London on the morning of 7 July 2005.

The victims were from 18 different nationalities. As a community of many faiths, beliefs and cultures, we remain united in not allowing the actions of a very few to divide us now and in the future. We celebrate our diversity and a common sense of belonging and shared identity where people can turn to each other for support. The perpetrators of such horrific acts as the one in 2005 and others that have happened since, must not be allowed to win.

This week we have also been flying Remember Srebrenica flags at our town halls to remember the 25th anniversary on 11 July of what the United Nations said is the single greatest atrocity on European soil since the Second World War

In July 1995 in that small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina, more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were systematically murdered because of their religion and a hatred because of who they were. Thousands of women, children and the elderly were forcibly deported.

The international community failed to protect them then. It’s our duty not to fail them again. We do that by remembering them and that’s why the flags are raised in to renew a pledge to create a better, stronger and more cohesive society. The lesson learned from Srebrenica is that hatred, racism and intolerance can never be left unchallenged. That is the legacy they deserve. Only by doing so can we create a safer community for all where all are equal and hate has no place to hide.

Please continue to play your part in preventing the further spread of coronavirus. Stay safe and act responsibly.

Best wishes.
Rokhsana Fiaz OBE
Mayor of Newham

Read more Covid-19 updates from Mayor Fiaz or follow her on Twitter @rokhsanafiaz