Chuka Umunna MP

Below is Chuka’s video interview with the Guardian on trust in politics and representation.

Chuka Umunna, Member of Parliament for Streatham, has been appointed a patron of local charity St Michael’s Fellowship.

The Streatham-based charity, which was recently featured in an edition of BBC documentary programme Panorama, does outreach work with young parents, helps them develop parenting skills and offering them free advice and support.

Local young parents aged 24 and under are given help and one-to-one support by St Michael’s Fellowship with sexual health, finding work and housing and addressing domestic abuse. The charity, which was set up in 1903, also runs support groups for young parents and activities for marginalized young fathers to take part in with their children.

Its work with young men focuses on the multiple problems which often face young fathers and which impact on their parenting. In the past two years, St Michael’s has reconnected more than 100 fathers with their children locally.

The Panorama programme ‘Britain’s Missing Dads’ which was broadcast last month, focussed on the charity’s young fathers’ programme and looked into the stereotyping of young fathers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

However, St Michael’s Young Parents Outreach Programme is currently under threat from government funding cuts and is seeking to expand its fundraising.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna MP said: “St Michael’s Fellowship does fantastic work in my constituency and beyond, and I am proud to have been appointed a Patron of the charity.”

“The outreach support which St Michael’s Fellowship provides for young parents makes a real difference to the lives of both parent and child and has a positive impact on society at large.”

Chuka recently had the opportunity to meet with some of the members of Love Streatham, a group made up of local churches who are involved in projects to provide practical assistance and a sense of community to local people in need.

Commenting on the meeting, Chuka said:
“I was very interested to hear about the great work which Love Streatham do and their plans for the future. Local groups carrying out social action projects are well placed to make a big difference in the community, so I am very grateful for the hard work and dedication of the church members involved in Love Streatham”.

More information on Love Streatham is available here

Cuts made by the Conservative-led government to council budgets will mean that per resident, Lambeth’s budget will fall by £104.10 per person in 2011/12 and £55 in 2012/13.

The research, undertaken by the House of Commons Library, shows that Lambeth’s revenue spending power will fall by £29.88m in financial year 2011/12 £15.9m in financial year 2012/13.

Across England, councils face a 12 per cent cut in their core central government funding next year, and as a result councils face a total funding shortfall of £6.5bn over the next two years.

Lambeth is the eighth most deprived single-tier local authority in England and the fifth most deprived borough of the 32 in London.

As a result of the way in which the government is cutting local government funding, the most deprived 10% of single-tier authorities will see their total spending power reduced by nearly four times as much as the least deprived 10% of single-tier local authorities. The most deprived lose 8.4% next year, compared to 2.2% for the least deprived.

Commenting, Chuka Umunna MP said: “The most deprived local authorities, like Lambeth, are being hit hardest by cuts to local government budgets. For all Ministers’ talk of fairness, localism and devolving power, they have dumped cuts on local councils and left them facing the toughest financial settlement in living memory.”

“The government has chosen to front-load the heaviest cuts and to impose the worst cuts on deprived communities rather than distributing them fairly. I am deeply concerned at the impact this will have on our area, particularly our community and voluntary sector.”

Streatham Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is set to lose the services of a personal finance and debt advice caseworker following the government’s decision to axe the Financial Inclusion Fund. Local MP Chuka Umunna has spoken in a debate on debt advice to highlight the cut facing the local centre and the impact it will have.

Streatham CAB currently benefits from a debt advice and personal finance caseworker funded through the Financial Inclusion Fund who visits regularly to help local people who need advice in these areas. Because of the government’s decision to scrap the Financial Inclusion Fund, the centre will lose the services of the caseworker entirely.

This will mean that unless individuals qualify for legal aid, they will not be able to receive assistance with debt and personal finance issues. The caseworker has assisted more than 400 debt advice queries.

Chuka Umunna has also made a speech in a debate on consumer credit, and voted to protect the most vulnerable consumers by supporting the introduction of caps on the extraordinary amounts that payday and doorstop lenders can charge for credit.

In the Streatham constituency there exist high street lenders charging rates as high as 400% APR despite the Bank of England base rate having remained at just 0.5% since March 2009. Mr Umunna, who has championed the campaign to bring an end to legal loan sharking from the outset, in his speech during the House of Commons debate on the issue recently drew attention to high street banks’ poor provision of credit to low income individuals and the substandard quality of financial advice given to customers.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said: “This represents a huge loss to our local Citizens Advice Bureau which will mean that many people seeking help will not have anywhere else to go.

“Our local Citizens Advice Bureau does a great job in providing advice and assistance but the government’s decision will limit the help they are able to offer. I am deeply concerned at the impact of this loss on those with debt and financial problems locally.”

Earlier this week, Chuka appeared on Channel 4 News with Mark Field MP discussing the bank levy, the need for banks to lend more to small businesses and the future of financial services.

To watch, follow this link.

Chuka has contributed an article to the Guardian’s Comment is Free pages making the case for the remutualisation of Northern Rock.

To read Chuka’s article, follow this link.

Chuka has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling for the remutualisation of Northern Rock. The cross-party motion, which is backed by Liberal Democrat and Conservatives as well as Labour MPs, calls for the government to undertake a feasibility study and seek advice into remutualising the state-owned bank.

Northern Rock operated as a building society, owned by its members, until it demutualised in 1997. After its collapse in 2007, it was nationalised in February 2008 – three years ago this month.

Chuka was interviewed on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 last week on the remutualisation campaign – listen here.

To read the text of Chuka’s EDM and a list of MPs who have signed it, please follow this link.