Chuka Umunna MP

Chuka Umunna MP is joining constituents in Clapham to voice concerns about a planned supermarket development in Clapham South.

Sainsbury’s is planning to open a minimart with an alcohol license at the site on Abbeville Road, which is a mixed residential and shopping parade known as ‘Abbeville Village’.

There is a large Tesco store, a Sainsbury’s Local and a Marks and Spencer supermarket located nearby at Clapham South station, as well as a Sainsbury’s superstore only minutes away on Clapham Park Road. On Clapham High Road are located another Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local.

Local residents and shopkeepers fear that the new store could harm local businesses and alter the character of the popular shopping parade. A petition against the planned development has already collected more than 1,000 signatures.

A public meeting is being planned, due to be Chaired by Mr Umunna and held at Church of the Holy Spirit on Narbonne Avenue, close to the planned store.

Mr Umunna is raising the issue with both Sainsbury’s and Lambeth Council to make sure local people’s concerns are heard and will be meeting with Sainsbury’s representatives shortly.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said:

“Abbeville Road is not an appropriate location for a supermarket and I am fully behind the campaign to stop this development.

“There are already many supermarkets nearby, so this development would not offer anything new to the area and the local community. In the current economic climate, it is crucial that we support our small businesses.”

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has hosted a reception at the Palace of Westminster to celebrate the fifteenth birthday of local children’s charity KidsCity.

The evening event was organised to thank parents, volunteers, friends and contributors to the charity, all of whom were in attendance alongside representatives of Lambeth Council, school governors, headteachers and KidsCity staff.

KidsCity, which is based in Brixton, provides afterschool activities for children aged 3-11 years and creates training and employment opportunities for adults in areas of high unemployment. It has provided jobs to 28 local young people through the Future Jobs Fund, set up under the previous government.

Mr Umunna made a speech at the event, alongside former Woodmansterne Primary School head teacher Anita Wright, Andy Marks, head of Eardley School and Angela Spatharou, KidsCity chair of trustees.

The speakers discussed KidsCity’s long standing relationship with local schools, striking a positive note about the importance of KidsCity’s work, its contribution to the community and its dedication to children’s wellbeing.

KidsCity began operation at Eardley School in 1995 and has grown since then and now works at dozens of South London schools.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna said: “I was delighted to host KidsCity’s fifteenth birthday celebrations in Parliament.

“The charity does great work in our area, providing activities for children as well as opportunities for adults. I am proud to represent an area which has such a vibrant and diverse range of charities and social enterprises.”

Jackie Nunns, Chief Executive of KidsCity, said:

“It was a privilege to share this milestone in Kids’ City’s history with so many dedicated people, in such an impressive venue. Looking back over the last 15 years it seems to have passed in a flash but equally for it to be taking far too long for children to be able to take things like Kids’ City for granted.

“I am very grateful to Chuka Umunna MP, Anita Wright, Andy Marks and Angela Spatharou, for their insight and continued support for the charity’s work as well as the many hundreds of others that make sure that the right people are in the right place at the right time for play.”

Below is an update from Lambeth on the Streatham Hub project:

As you may know, Tesco’s planning application for a mezzanine floor as part of their proposed new store was approved by Lambeth’s Planning Application Committee on 12 October 2010, subject to conditions, a S106 agreement.

For more information visit www.lambeth.gov.uk/futurestreatham
Tel: 0800 052 6336
Email: futurestreatham {at} lambeth.gov(.)uk

Chancellor George Osborne’s lack of a Plan B could prove his undoing. But it is the British people who will pay the price argues Chuka in this article he wrote for the New Statesman with economist, Duncan Weldon, this week.

George Osborne grandly set out his economic vision in his Mais lecture to City luminaries earlier this year. A smaller state coupled with higher exports and increased investment were his stated objectives. As Chancellor he is now pursing these goals and keeping his fingers crossed that after he has hacked off chunks of the public sector, the private sector will step in to fill the gap.

If the unprecedented boom in exports and business investment needed to realise Osborne’s plan doesn’t show up, to coin a phrase from Lady Thatcher, his approach can be described thus: “you turn if you want to, the man’s not for turning”. Urged on by Tory backbenchers, the Chancellor refuses to countenance a Plan B, whilst his Liberal Democrat coalition partners wonder what brake, if any, Chief Secretary Danny Alexander is applying to this ideological adventure.

Alistair Darling, Osborne’s predecessor, set out a plan to halve the deficit in four years starting in March 2011. This was controversial with many within Labour: the balance of tax rises to spending cuts was questioned, as was the need for such rapid fiscal consolidation. Notwithstanding this, the judgment of the new Office of Budget Responsibility was clear: the deficit would have been reduced from over 10 per cent of GDP in 2010/11 to 3.9 per cent by 2014/15 under Labour’s plans.

Crucially Darling had a Plan B. If the economy worsened and the prospects of high unemployment or a double dip recession increased, the tempo of deficit reduction could be changed accordingly – the pace of fiscal tightening would be set by the pace of economic recovery (Vince Cable argued for this too during the election campaign).

Conversely Osborne has decided to go further and faster. He is planning on tightening by an additional £40bn over Darling’s plans by 2014/15, as set out in his June Budget and this month’s Comprehensive Spending Review. He has rhetorically lashed himself to the mast of eliminating the structural deficit in one Parliament, allowing very little flexibility if the outlook changes. He is also relying more on spending cuts, and less on tax rises, not only putting him at odds with Labour but also with Ken Clarke.

The Justice Secretary, whilst Chancellor under John Major in the 1990s, achieved a similar rebalancing of the economy and relied much more upon tax rises and less upon spending cuts to repair the public finances in the wake of the last recession than Osborne proposes now. Then exports and business investment grew strongly, although not as strongly as Osborne needs them to at present. And conditions then were very different to those in 2010: exports were helped by a booming world economy and investment increased by the need for business to respond to the revolution in information technology and communications – neither seems likely over the next few years.

We should also remember the 1930s and the 1980s. In both cases state spending was cut back whilst Tory governments, clinging to approaches variously referred to as “the Treasury View”, “Sound Money” and “Monetarism”, waited for the private sector recovery to take hold. Yet, when the problem is too little demand, who seriously advocates cutting back demand further? This is economics driven by ideology and lacking commonsense.

Today the Chancellor’s rhetoric has made dealing with the deficit the sole aim of macroeconomic policy but, as the axe falls and jobs are lost from the public sector, there is a real danger that the private sector is not strong enough to absorb the newly unemployed workers. If this is the case unemployment will rise and, with it, the welfare bill as tax income falls. The deficit will worsen, forcing Osborne, who has left himself with no option, to cut spending further. It is self defeating austerity that could well create an economic death spiral.

Moreover, in the 1930s and the 1980s the recovery did eventually come but years later than it had to and with a high social cost in terms on unemployment, poverty and crime. In both cases the lack of an active regional policy, as now, left pockets of higher deprivation blighted by structural joblessness. And in both cases there was an alternative that could have been taken if the government had not been so blinkered.

Hopefully the private sector will be strong enough to counteract the effects of Osborne’s measures, Britain will enjoy an exporting and investment renaissance and workers will move near seamlessly from the public payroll to newly created jobs in industry. However, history suggests that the odds of this occurring, especially at a time of continued global economic turmoil, are not high. Osborne’s lack of a Plan B could prove his undoing – unfortunately it is the British people and not the likes of Osborne who will ultimately pay the price.

Chuka Umunna is the Labour MP for Streatham and a member of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee. Duncan Weldon is an economist and former adviser to the Opposition Treasury team.

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has slammed the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review for slashing funding for policing, axing Educational Maintenance Allowance and raising social housing rents.

Police and community safety

In the statement, delivered on Wednesday by Chancellor George Osborne, it was announced that central government police funding will reduce by 20 per cent in real terms by 2014-15, impacting directly on policing on local streets.  A July 2010 report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary stated that a “cut beyond 12% would almost certainly reduce police availability”.

In answer to a recent Parliamentary Question tabled by Mr Umunna, the Home Office revealed that government funding for Metropolitan Police neighbourhood policing has risen every year from 2004 to 2010, but this is now under threat.

Last month, Mr Umunna held an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on youth crime in London, highlighting the importance of neighbourhood policing, rehabilitation work and funding for youth activities.  With the cut to the police budget, the demise of the Youth Justice Board announced last week and 28% real terms cuts in local authority budgets, the future of these programmes has been thrown into doubt.

The Crown Prosecution service faces cuts, and the government is pursuing plans to close 157 local courts, while central government grants for local fire and rescue spending will fall by 25%.

Housing and welfare

The Comprehensive Spending Review promised to continue funding the Decent Homes Programme, under which local housing management bodies Lambeth Living and United Residents’ Housing are set to benefit if the achieve a two-star rating. However, the Communities Department which is responsible for social housing faces cuts of 68% while the budget for building affordable homes has been slashed by 60%.

Social housing rents will increase for new tenants to 80% of the market rate, which could mean increases of hundreds of pounds a week for tenants. It is feared that this change could lead to an overall higher housing benefit bill which would cost the public purse more in the long term.

The Chancellor also announced further cuts to housing benefit, with new rules stipulating that couples claiming housing benefit would only be able to claim a room in shared accommodation, rather than a flat.

Working Tax Credits will be frozen, and the level of help with childcare costs which parents can claim through the credits will be slashed. In Lambeth, there are 28,300 claimants of Child or Working Tax Credits and 39,400 housing benefit claimants.

Unemployment

Nationally, there will be public sector job cuts of 490,000 and a report released last week by auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) predicted job losses in both public and private sectors totalling 1 million.

Because public sector employment is disproportionately high locally, our area will suffer more heavily than others from the public sector pay freeze announced in the Budget. In Lambeth, public sector employment accounts for 36% compared to 23% in London as a whole.

The Working Neighbourhoods Fund, which was set up by the previous government to fund small-scale, local projects to tackle worklessness and unemployment, from which our local area has benefitted, will be abolished.

Education and health

Chancellor George Osborne also announced that the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), which helps thousands of local young people stay in education and get the qualifications they need, will be axed.  According to figures recently obtained by Chuka Umunna MP from the Young People’s Learning Agency (YPLA), 3,836 young people in Lambeth benefitted from EMA in 2009-10.

The planned guarantee which the last government initiated for cancer patients to have access to diagnostic assessments within one week has also been axed.

Transport

The Comprehensive Spending Review also promised further misery for local commuters and train users, with fare rises of as much as 20 per cent or more expected over the next four years following the removal of caps on fares.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna MP said: “The deep and immediate cuts announced this week will hit areas like ours hardest and I am deeply concerned about their impact.

“Thousands of my constituents will be affected by the axing of Educational Maintenance Allowance, higher social housing rents and hikes in rail fares. Local services like policing have taken a huge hit, particularly when the level of savings our police service has already made is taken into account.

“The government’s actions will increase unemployment and risk holding down growth, which would lead to a higher dole bill and lower tax receipts, possibly increasing the deficit in the long run. What we desperately need is a plan for jobs and growth, which the Liberal Democrat – Conservative government has failed to provide.”

Tesco has launched a new website on the Streatham Hub development, designed to keep the public informed and enabling people to submit queries about the project.

To visit the website, please follow this link

Chuka Umunna MP has called for an urgent debate in Parliament on stop and search after it emerged that black people are 26 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Umunna raised the issue with Leader of the House Sir George Young.

In reply, the Leader of the House promised to raise the issue with Home Secretary Theresa May and ask her to respond on the issue.

Recent research by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the London School of Economics, analysing Ministry of Justice statistics, found that there are 41.6 searches carried out by police under Section 60 for every 1000 black people and 1.6 for every 1000 white people. This was the widest ‘race gap’ which the research found internationally.

Mr Umunna became one of the first ever Members of Parliament of Nigerian descent when elected in May and is the first ethnic minority MP for one of the three constituencies covering the Brixton area, which is considered to be the Black capital of the UK.

In Parliament, Mr Umunna said:

“International research has been cited in The Observer showing that black people are 26 times more likely to be stopped and searched in England and Wales. The researchers said that that was the most glaring example of racial profiling that they had seen. That figure is shocking.

“May we have an urgent debate on the matter, to discern whether the police in England and Wales are using their powers of stop and search appropriately?”

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has commented on Lambeth Council’s decision to cancel this year’s fireworks display at Streatham Common.

The display, which has taken place in Streatham annually for many years, would have taken place shortly on Bonfire Night, Friday 5 November.

Mr Umunna said:

“Given the scale of cuts the government has made this week to local authority budgets, I understand the need for savings, but I am disappointed that Streatham’s fireworks display has been cancelled.

“I am encouraged by the fact that the council is looking into rotating the annual fireworks display around the borough, which I think would be the fairest solution, and that options are being explored with local businesses to fund displays in the future.”

Chuka Umunna MP, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, has slammed the government, which today announced its plans for a bank levy, for going soft on the banks only a day after hitting the public hard with deep and immediate spending cuts in yesterday’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

The Comprehensive Spending Review said that “it is only right that during difficult times, steps are taken to ensure that the banks make a full and fair contribution,” although the government’s draft proposals announced today fall far short of this aim.

The government has opted to apply the levy over and above a £20 billion allowance rather than using a threshold. Under a threshold, any bank with total liabilities of more than £20 billion would have been taxed on all their profits, while under the plans announced today all banks regardless of their size will not be subject to the levy on their first £20 billion of taxable liabilities.

A stipulation was included in today’s plans that the levy will not apply to firms where 50% or more of activity is defined as ‘non-financial’. Because investment banks often have extensive and varied operations, this could allow firms to dodge the tax.

In the June Budget, the government announced a banking levy at a rate between 0.04 and 0.07 per cent. Following this, charities such as Oxfam called for a higher rate and the IMF suggested that the government’s suggested level was not sufficient to curb reckless behaviour in the City.

With today’s plans again allowing for a levy of less than 0.1%, the government has failed to respond to these criticisms. The government was expected to announce the proposed rate today but instead it is to be announced closer to when the levy begins to apply from 1 January 2011.

Figures obtained by Mr Umunna through a Parliamentary question in July show that the government only hopes to raise £1.15bn from the levy in 2011-12 and £8.37 billion in total between 2011-12 and 2014-15 (less than half the government’s total cuts to welfare spending of £18 billion announced in the CSR yesterday). Meanwhile another answer to a Parliamentary question by Mr Umunna in July stated that the financial services sector would receive £1 billion as a result of the corporation tax reductions outlined in the June Budget.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said: “The actions of banks triggered the financial crisis, meaning the government had to borrow billions of pounds in order to protect people’s savings, keep high street banks open and prevent the economy from seizing up.

“In the Comprehensive Spending Review, there were no new measures to ensure that those who caused the crisis pay their fair share towards paying down the deficit and the draft bank levy legislation published today falls far short of the decisive action we need and is an insult to those losing benefits and local services.

“Not only is the rate at which the bank levy applies too low but we learn now that the tax will not be levied on the first £20 billion of these banks’ liabilities, gifting them somewhat of a reprieve.”

Chuka has asked the Secretary of State for International Development for his latest assessment of the humanitarian situation in Pakistan, and what the UK is doing to assist with recovery work.

Below is the Secretary of State’s statement, made last week, which he received in response:

“I would like to update the House on the humanitarian situation in Pakistan following the floods and on the UK Government’s response.

“The floods require an exceptional response from the Government of Pakistan as well as from the international community. At the forthcoming Pakistan Development Forum the Government of Pakistan should set out plans for growth and economic reform as well as reconstruction. The credibility of these plans will determine how donors respond to future reconstruction and development needs.”