§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Vernon Coaker.]
2.34 pm§ Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)I thank Mr. Speaker for granting me an Adjournment debate on Leyton's neighbourhood renewal. Leyton appears to be on the up—that is what local people say. The local people are great but Leyton overall is a relatively poor area, which was included in the recently published index of multiple deprivation, in which its position was unfavourably high for housing, income, education, skills and training, and general deprivation. Many residents rely on benefits and suffer debt. A large number receive incapacity benefit, which suggests a high level of chronic ill health. Crime has been high, with bad street crime and vehicle theft.
Leyton is located in a traditionally poor belt of the east end of London, which includes neighbouring Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets. However, whereas those three areas are easily recognised as needing action to tackle their deep-seated urban problems, Leyton's inclusion in Waltham Forest borough, which runs south to north, means that middle-class Chingford raises the overall income figures, resulting in Leyton's regularly missing out on special grant support to help it.
I shall not give a partisan, party political account of the impact of national policies on the area, so I take as my starting point the Housing Action Trust, which the Conservative Government set up. It succeeded in replacing several poor-quality, 1960s-style tower blocks with low-rise family housing in a better, albeit high-density, environment. The history of the HAT is interesting. The Labour council had well worked-out plans for housing redevelopment but no money or Government approval to proceed with them. Prince Charles visited one of the local tower blocks and apparently sent one of his famous letters, urging the Government to improve people's living conditions.
The Government wanted to promote their HAT policy, which many councils had utterly rejected because it came with an automatic sell-off condition at the end of any improvement. The councillors, with my support, shrewdly said that they would go for a HAT but not on those terms. They specified that there would have to be tenants on the board and involved in decision making. Tenants' votes would be the ones that mattered, and the Government's proposal for dead and absent tenants to count as votes in favour of a sell-off had to go. That happened, and the HAT excellently built the new, low-rise homes.
The Conservatives therefore helped to create the new homes but still failed overall to regenerate Leyton. Other inadequate housing, including the Beaumont, another big estate, which was not part of the HAT, was left to deteriorate as the Conservative Government told the borough that it had already had more than its share for the HAT. They made no attempt to co-ordinate the range of services and provision, most of which was public, to make a positive impact on the deprived neighbourhood and low-income families. Indeed, the cuts in public spending and an increase in unemployment had the opposite effect.
1725 Enter the Deputy Prime Minister as Labour's environment supremo. He chose Leytonstone to announce neighbourhood renewal proposals and allocated Leyton £5 million as its share. However, that was only the start of an array of funding sources that allocated money to upgrade the area and improved the quality of life of its inhabitants. When I asked the Minister for Housing and Planning earlier in the year whether he or the Government office for London could collate all the sources and amounts that went to Leyton, he said it was not possible, but suggested a global figure of £700 million on investment. I suspect that that is based on a broad definition that covers some existing allocations. However, a lot of money is going to Leyton.
It is worth explaining that several different groups promote regeneration, not simply the local authority, as would have happened in the past. The council's role appears to be to advise, provide expertise and facilitate rather than be the main doer. Although many senior council officers are on the boards of the new regeneration bodies, there is almost certainly less accountability to elected councillors. However, local residents are more involved, to a limited extent.
The health administration is another big player. Waltham Forest primary care trust has been active in providing improved GP provision and public health programmes, and it has linked well with the other teams to try to incorporate an effective health role in the plans. The main local hospital is Whipps Cross in Leytonstone, which has a high turnover of patients. A lot of money has been invested in new wards—for children, for example—better accident and emergency provision with shorter waiting times, and greatly improved treatment for conditions such as kidney disease and cardiac illness.
The incidence of heart disease is high in Leyton, with ethnic minority residents of Asian origin among the most vulnerable. The Coronary Artery Disease in South Asian Prevention—CADISAP—project aims to improve their prospects, and the rapid access chest pain clinic, with its associated exercise programmes in the community, can provide a swift life-saving response at the first signs of that potentially fatal ailment. Whipps Cross is an old Victorian hospital with very long corridors and an unsatisfactory layout, and a rebuild is planned. The £303 million project approved by the Government is the second biggest in the country, and its impact on local people's health will be enormous.
At present, however, the shortage of GPs and consultants in London is an obstacle to health improvement. Due to a backlog of retirements, which the Government tried to stem with "golden stay-ons", there has been no improvement in the number of these crucial medics. The Government have, however, pumped a lot of money into doctor training. Many more are now studying and, in time, the situation will improve. Mental health services are being reorganised and, although targets have been set, significant improvement remains a way off. The council's social services department is also emerging from a low position.
Sport has been a big contributor to Leyton's regeneration. The SCORE project has received £8 million, with the principal contribution coming from Sport England. The project is bringing new sport and community facilities directly into Leyton. It is a great project, and the highest accolades must go to those who 1726 manage it, but lessons need to be learned for future urban regeneration projects. Co-ordination is complex but vital, and the withdrawal of a donor or a missed deadline for financing could have brought the whole plan down like a pack of cards. Even with success now virtually assured, the neighbouring waste disposal business, Bywaters, has obtained planning approval for expansion. The council, with inadequate money to require relocation, obviously felt that it had no alternative. We hope that these planning restraints and decisions will not spoil the sports facilities, but it is clear that they could. I suppose that that is the price of engaging in such activity in a high-density urban area, but it would not be tolerated in other locations.
Across the road from SCORE is Leyton Orient, and the privately owned football club is undertaking its own investment. Stands have recently been improved with grant help from the excellent Football Foundation, which promotes grass-roots soccer. There remains a strong case for the football authorities to redistribute some of the vast income at the top to the lower leagues. Leyton Orient's plans include housing at the four corners of the ground, one of which will have housing at affordable rents. The new stand will accommodate business uses and a health centre, and the outside of the ground will look much better. Importantly, the development will place the club on a sustainable financial basis.
The housing association, London and Quadrant, via its local subsidiary, Forest Homes, has taken over a large chunk of the council's housing stock and has well-advanced improvement plans, including for the rundown Beaumont estate which missed out under HAT. It is to spend £41 million on 2,600 homes, which will take seven years to upgrade. Another £10.5 million is to be spent on the Leyton Grange estate, refurbishing 259 homes and building 44 new ones. That will take 18 months to complete. Forest Homes' representatives play a leading role in what is now called Team Leyton and in progressing the Pathfinder project, for which the neighbourhood has won £2.5 million over the next seven years to tailor services closer to the needs of local residents.
The management of the remaining former council housing, via the arms-length company, Ascham Homes, has been disappointing, its important grant bid to upgrade its homes having been unsuccessful. In those circumstances, the wholesale transfer of housing from the council has not worked. It would be better if the councils and tenants, rather than being forced down that route and then being unsuccessful, could be enabled by the Government to manage an income stream of their own for investment. That would help to meet the Government's decent homes target.
There is much more. The new town centre has been developed and is up and running. Community linkage to it from the older parts of Leyton will, over time, improve. Sure Start is boosting child care provision enormously in an area where it has been needed but largely absent. Government policy will result in children's centres in Leyton and in other wards in my constituency, and 10 new street wardens, along with their police colleagues, are impacting on crime and disorder—down 20 per cent. at the last count.
1727 Financial allocations to local schools, along with the excellence in cities initiative, have achieved a truly massive increase in spend per local schoolchild, and the recently approved allocation for building schools for the future will enhance that. Leyton sixth form college is improving its provision of education. Money is being invested in learning and skills centres and a much upgraded Jobcentre Plus, which, although not directly located in Leyton as I would have liked, will help more people to find jobs. Unemployment throughout my constituency is down 46 per cent. overall since 1997, with youth unemployment down even more.
On top of that, £10 million could well be invested in the velodrome and BMX facility for the Olympics. Eurostar investment in the railway lands and a possible rail line to Stratford could also be in the offing, so things have been and are happening for Leyton. I am proud that they are happening on my watch and that of the Labour Government that I support.
There remain some deep-seated problems, however, and some so far unsuccessful elements. Perhaps the most important is the inadequacy of accountability and transparency. I recently tabled a parliamentary question asking how an individual can obtain the detail of what is going on and how he can influence it. That needs to be improved. If not corrected, it could harm the whole project.
There are other gaps. The council's housing benefit system must be upgraded. We could do with more teachers in our schools. The regeneration is not covering all Leyton, and neighbouring Leytonstone must not be left to decline. The system needs to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved and value for money obtained, but a lot of money is coming in. It is being used to address needs and important things are happening for the area and its people. They would not be happening under a politically different Government with different priorities and less commitment to public services and regeneration.
Leyton is on the up, and I pay tribute to the Government and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for that.
§ Paul Clark (Gillingham) (Lab)I begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Harry Cohen) on securing this debate on what obviously is an important issue for all those who live in Leyton and in the wider borough of Waltham Forest. Before the debate, and bearing in mind my Whip's post, I took the opportunity to speak to ministerial colleagues, and I am well aware that my hon. Friend takes an active interest in this area and that he has served his constituents well by raising the profile of neighbourhood renewal in today's debate.
In January 2001, the Government launched a national strategy action plan for neighbourhood renewal, which set out the Government's vision to narrow exactly the gap to which my hon. Friend referred—that between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest, so that within a time scale of some 10 to 20 years no one should be seriously disadvantaged by the area where they live.
1728 The key aim is to deliver economic prosperity, safe communities, high-quality schools, decent housing, a decent physical environment, and better health in the poorest parts of the country. I note that my hon. Friend referred to the levels of crime, particularly in his area of Leyton, and the need to tackle issues such as the number of people on benefits and the level of heart disease. Through that holistic approach in relation to neighbourhood renewal, we hope to address exactly those issues in our worst areas.
Leyton ward is one of the five most deprived wards in the borough of Waltham Forest, identified under the indices of multiple deprivation 2000. As such, it is a priority for Government and the local strategic partnership. My hon. Friend will be aware that the local strategic partnership brings together key stakeholders in the borough including, importantly, community and voluntary groups. That body sets the strategic priorities for the borough and considers ways of changing the delivery of mainstream services to ensure that no one is disadvantaged by the area in which they live. What we hope and believe is that that approach places the communities at the heart of the decision-making agenda.
Eighty-eight local strategic partnerships—those with the highest level of multiple deprivation—receive funding through a number of streams, but principally through the neighbourhood renewal fund, to pump-prime those new ways of working and delivering services. As I am sure that my hon. Friend would agree, we are delighted to note that, following the recent comprehensive spending review, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced that that valuable fund will he extended.
Specifically, as my hon. Friend has said, the London borough of Waltham Forest has been awarded a total of some £10.85 million from the neighbourhood renewal fund over a period of five years to March 2006. Almost £6 million has beer allocated up to March this year. As my hon. Friend points out, it is impossible to define precisely how much of that neighbourhood renewal fund has been spent in Leyton. A number of the crosscutting interventions that have been commissioned apply across ward boundaries and will benefit residents not only in Leyton but throughout the borough. I know that he tabled a written question last month to the Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper).
Last year £200,000 was allocated specifically to Leyton to be distributed by agreement through the neighbourhood forum. I assure the House that Leyton has an active neighbourhood forum, set up last year, and through that forum, which closely involves residents of Leyton, local priorities are identified and money allocated to tackle those local issues. The forum has further set those priorities against ward statistics, and used that to produce a locally focused action plan identifying interventions that are specifically tailored to tackle those local problems. While the local strategic partnership has agreed to spend the majority of future funds from the neighbourhood renewal fund on a 1729 cross-cutting agenda focusing specifically on 14 to 19-year-olds, I am pleased to say that it has agreed to provide extra support in the sum of £400,000 to each of the five priority areas, of which Leyton is one.
All Members of Parliament, and particularly those who represent constituencies that face the issues faced by my hon. Friend, will know that many people living in those areas are too often passed from one organisation to another because it is unclear who has responsibility for a particular problem. Those issues were investigated by the Government's policy action team on neighbourhood management. Following that, a neighbourhood management programme was set up to test out new ways of delivering services and of trying to join up the range of agencies, including housing agencies, working in hard-pressed neighbourhoods.
Neighbourhood managers offer a single point of contact for residents and businesses and will have the ability to negotiate with service providers about how services are delivered. I am delighted to say that, in December last year, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister extended the neighbourhood management pathfinder programme and awarded a second round pathfinder to Waltham Forest based in Leyton.
My hon. Friend has raised the issue of housing. One of the key underlying thrusts of the whole neighbourhood renewal project is about decent housing and decent homes. He will be well aware that we have a decent homes standard.
We know that housing organisations are often the largest stakeholders in deprived neighbourhoods in terms of their assets, local management arrangements and consultation structures with local communities. Leyton's neighbourhood management structure will be developed in the context of a secured £41 million housing improvement programme in Leyton, and will be delivered to the London and Quadrant Housing Trust, with the local authority acting as an enabler rather than a driver. The aim is to maximise service provision for local people. The Government are making up to £350,000 per annum available for the pathfinder over the next seven years.
I note what my hon. Friend s Aid about Ascham Homes, and I am aware of the disappointment that will have been caused. I think my hon. Friend would agree, though, that it would be wrong to rush ahead with a programme that may not meet the aspirations of local people. It is important to get it right at the outset, so that we do not offer what we cannot deliver. It is better to have a sound basis on which to proceed in the long term. The shadow board wants to recruit a neighbourhood manager and is consulting on the production of the delivery plan to ensure that this pathfinder brings real change for the people of Leyton.
Neighbourhood wardens are becoming an effective part of the community, uniting residents and communities and having a visible effect on crime and the environment. The wardens in Leyton are no exception to that success, and I am delighted to say that the ODPM has just awarded them the quality standard for their scheme. The objectives that they have set themselves for the next 12 months are demanding. They 1730 include reducing the fear of crime by 10 per cent. in Leyton, reducing reported street crime by 15 per cent., and reducing the number of people saying that antisocial behaviour is a big problem by 20 per cent. Those are stretching objectives, but according to early indications there has been a marked effect on crime and antisocial behaviour in Leyton. That effect is likely to increase when the neighbourhood management programme starts in earnest.
It is right for us to address housing, employability and job prospects, so in addition the ODPM has provided an £150,000 area growth fund to help the London borough of Waltham Forest pilot the area action plan in five of its main regeneration areas, of which Leyton is one. The plans explore options for increasing residential density in the delivery of housing targets, while at the same time exploring options for intensification and mixed use of industrial land with employment growth. That holistic approach to planning—my hon. Friend said that in the past such an approach had not been taken—will benefit Leyton when it considers issues of sustainable communities and liveability. My hon. Friend will be well aware that sustainable communities are at the heart of all the work and policies of the ODPM.
My hon. Friend rightly mentioned the work being done by Leyton Orient football club. That is extremely welcome. Work done in areas of deprivation throughout the country has made us aware of the impact that sport and recreation can have on communities, and their importance to communities. There is a £14.5 million plan to redevelop the football club, which has embraced the need for community sports programmes. As my hon. Friend said, that needs to be financed through the creation and leasing of residential blocks sited on each corner of the ground. The proposed redeveloped stadium will include both community and business facilities. The club aims to attract tenants who will be beneficial to the local neighbourhood, such as doctors and dentists. My hon. Friend referred to the lack of doctors. Given that we have trained more doctors nationally, this initiative will, hopefully, help to attract them into my hon. Friend's constituency.
The Leyton Orient community sports programme—the club's social inclusion initiative—will be housed within the proposed new stadium facility. It aims to access and engage with young people living across north-east London who are traditionally excluded from mainstream sporting, leisure and educational opportunities. The programme runs a range of innovative and creative sports and educational projects in Waltham Forest and the neighbouring boroughs. This involves a partnership with a broad range of agencies, local authority funders, regeneration agencies, youth offending teams, schools and the Home Office—another example of bringing key stakeholders and good partnership working to the table.
My hon. Friend referred to the SCORE project, which is a beacon for us all. We need to consider how it can be taken forward and the lessons that undoubtedly can be learned from it. It is at last bringing to life the social exclusion unit's policy action team report, which examined how sports and arts can contribute to a range of cross-cutting issues, such as crime reduction, health awareness, educational attainment and employability. We look forward to seeing how the project progresses.
1731 Neighbourhood renewal is at the heart of this Government's intention to create sustainable communities in some of the most deprived areas of the country, and Leyton is no exception. This commitment is channelled through the council and its partners and—importantly—through the local residents and communities. For these initiatives to work there must be sufficiently strong local leadership, and I genuinely believe that Leyton has that. I am advised that there is a "can do" mentality in the area. That, together with Government support, will drive through the necessary measures to ensure lasting change that narrows the gap for the people of Leyton.
1732 My hon. Friend began this debate by saying that Leyton is on the up, and I have no doubt that that is true. Such change is possible only if there is genuine partnership working. The delivery of lasting change relies not just on the participation of national and local government, but of all the partners whom he and we in the Department have met. In securing this important debate, he has hopefully enabled us to highlight some of the forward-thinking approaches that are being taken in Leyton. For that, I am extremely grateful to him.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at three minutes past Three o'clock.