State of the Borough presentation by Council Leader Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh

"A borough of opportunity"

Following the State of the Borough presentation on 26 September 2007 at the BBC Media Centre in White City, Council Leader Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh outlines his vision for the borough overall. 

It is my great privilege to be the Leader of a borough that is transforming into one of the most exciting places in the country in which to live and work.

Hammersmith & Fulham is already a borough of opportunity. Its economy is growing, its town centres are being rejuvenated, and new businesses are setting up here at a high rate.

However, it is also a borough facing real challenges. Today too many people are being left behind. Too many local people still live in relative poverty. Too many local people have great aspirations but believe that the ladder of opportunity has well and truly slipped away. 

I would like to set out how Hammersmith & Fulham Council will promote new policies that provide our residents with the opportunities to get on in life and make our borough a leader in social, economic and physical regeneration.

Hammersmith & Fulham is a dynamic, enterprising borough at the heart of West London. 

It’s a great place to live and do business, and the council is already showing the way forward. We have demonstrated that it’s possible to cut tax and improve services. In the new administration’s first budget we cut council tax by 3%, the largest cut in the country. This despite having a below average grant settlement for inner London.

We are able to cut tax and improve services by eliminating waste and becoming more efficient. This year we are delivering more than £14 million in savings and we have reduced the staffing headcount by over 400. In addition the council’s spend on agency staff reduced by over £1 million over the same period. We are also tendering £90million of Council services over the next three years using competition to deliver value for money.

Putting residents first is the council’s overriding priority and our Residents First vision is to provide a faster, more reliable service to ALL residents.

This means improving access to council services so that residents can contact us in ways that suit them best. This year we will be one of the first councils in the country to introduce the ability to renew parking permits on-line.  We are extending opening hours to the borough’s libraries and introducing more public access computer facilities. We are currently designing a new library in Shepherds Bush, the borough's first new library in over 40 years. Residents First means listening to what people want. 

Our efforts are focused on the services that matter. Getting the bins emptied, the pavements fixed, the streetlights working and the libraries open at the times people want them. We are getting rid of dumped cars, mindless graffiti and anti-social tenants. We are investing £4million in a 24-7 neighbourhood beat policing initiative in two of our town centres. 

We are creating a cleaner, greener borough by delivering street cleaning all year round. We have a zero tolerance policy for fly-tipping, graffiti and littering. Our innovative grot spot crews are targeting those areas of the borough worst affected by dumping and graffiti for intensive cleaning. Local residents are being invited to pinpoint any grot spots they would like added to the council’s hit list.

And we are now piloting compulsory recycling as part of a range of measures to increase our recycling rates to reduce the environmental and financial costs of sending waste to landfill.

We are also investing in our parks to make them safer, cleaner and more welcoming for all. Our aim is to build on our successes and build on our strengths. 

Our borough is fortunate to be located at the edge of Central London, with a sporting, cultural and business heritage to be proud of.  We are proud to be home of the BBC, we are proud to be home to a large number of international businesses and we are proud to be home to three major football clubs – Chelsea, Fulham and QPR. 

Despite all the positives, too many people believe they aren’t being given a real chance to improve their circumstances. Too many people believe that the place where they live, the school they attend or their educational background hinders their chances to succeed.

Sometimes there is a gap between perception and reality. But we need to tackle both if all of our citizens are to prosper. Yes, this IS a good place to live and a good time to live in this unique area of London, the world’s most dynamic capital city. 

However, it’s also true that some areas are plagued by high crime and low aspirations. We have much to do before we are able to call ourselves a borough of opportunity for all.

Over the years our borough has become more polarised, and is now in the top 30 boroughs nationally in terms of socio-economic and educational polarisation.

This can be illustrated by the facts:

• Hammersmith & Fulham parliamentary constituency is the 15th most affluent borough in the country;
• ...but only Tower Hamlets has more children who qualify for free school dinners;
• A fifth of households have incomes over £50,000;
• ...yet at the same time 51% of households have incomes below £20,000;
• The borough ranks fourth highest in London for average house prices (over £450,000);
• ...yet 18% of the working age population is on some form of benefit;
• We are a major office hub which employs thousands of people;
• ...yet the fact is we’re in danger of becoming a borough that is out of reach to the majority of hard-working families who want to gain a foothold on the property ladder.               

These then are the bare facts, but perceptions are also important, because they can affect the way people view themselves. If someone believes they can never get a good education, or own their own home, then they probably won’t grab the opportunities available. 

We have to ensure that opportunities ARE available – and that people know they are available. Everyone – no matter what their background, race, religion, and economic background – must be given the opportunities they need to get on in life.

Increasing social mobility is the inner city challenge. Therefore we must combine opportunity and social justice by:

• Helping the vast majority to help themselves;
• Helping those who need help;
• Helping those who help others.              

As the elected leader of the borough, today I will introduce a series of radical measure that will change the lives of local residents for the better.

In particular, today I’d like to set out exactly how the launch of the borough of opportunity will:

• Improve our schools so that they become schools of choice for local parents;
• Help more people onto the housing ladder;
• AND regenerate the most deprived parts of the borough.              

SCHOOLS OF CHOICE 

Getting a good education has always been important, but never more so than today. With technologies moving so fast, industries require a workforce with more skills than ever before.

If you leave school without qualifications your chances of succeeding in the modern workplace are hindered. It’s also a fact of life that children of parents without higher qualifications are less likely to succeed academically themselves. “Social mobility” means giving every child from every background the opportunities and tools they need to succeed.

It’s the job of schools to ensure all pupils are given every opportunity to learn the right skills for the workplace.

Here in Hammersmith & Fulham, we know that our schools are improving, thanks to the hard work of pupils and staff alike. 

Some of the highest performing secondary schools in Britain are in the borough, and GCSE results are comparatively good for inner London.  Yet the fact is that far too many parents send their children out of the borough or make great personal sacrifices to send them into private education. As a borough we must provide educational opportunities for all. 

In becoming a borough of opportunity for all, we need to give our children the best start in life and that means offering the very best state education.

The question is: how do we bring about these changes? 

We set up an independent Fulham Schools Commission to help us find the answers. The Commission spent two months meeting parents, heads, governors, teachers and others involved in schools, and their results have just been published.  

The report makes fascinating reading, and it lists a number of excellent, practical recommendations. But if I might be allowed to summarise such an in-depth report in three words, the answers are: investment; partnership; adaptability.

First, investment. We aim to drive up educational standards by providing state-of-the-art facilities and equipment.  Second, partnership. Radical new projects like the proposed link between Hurlingham & Chelsea and a Lycee Francais will bring enormous benefits for students. Third, adaptability. Schools will be offered more help to specialise at particular skills – by offering an enhanced curriculum in art, design, languages and technology, for instance. Some of the proposals of the report are controversial. Chief among these is the suggestion that Fulham Cross Girls’ and Henry Compton be brought together to form a new school.

Parents send their children to single-sex schools for a variety of reasons, and girls in particular seem to achieve better grades in a girls-only environment. However, boys tend to do best in mixed classes – so how do we square this circle? 

The brand new, state of the art school will retain a large number of single-sex classes, while also gaining shared resources and expertise.  A completely new building would be built, and the hope is that many more local parents would send their children to the school.

Children in this borough are generally well-behaved, hard-working and want to do well. It’s vital that we offer them and their parents the opportunities they need to become educated, skilled adults: well-rounded and well grounded. 
It’s our responsibility to give young people the chances, and parents and guardians the choices, they need. 
We must create a ladder of opportunity that everyone can climb. Education is the best way to climb the ladder.

A HOUSING LADDER OF OPPORTUNITY

Owning your own home gives you a greater stake in your community, a greater stake in your own future prosperity and more choice. Building assets (particularly through home ownership) is central to advancing social mobility and an important foundation for personal security. Yet in Hammersmith & Fulham too many people are unable to get on the housing ladder; the first rung is way overhead.

Average prices in the borough are over £450,000, well out of the reach of many working families. It is a fact that only 1% of the housing stock in the borough, out of 79,000, is low-cost ownership housing. It is also a fact that all low-cost homeownership built is 1 or 2 bedroom housing. We are in danger of failing to meet the demands and aspirations of hard working families on low and middle incomes who naturally want a foothold on the property ladder. 

Here in Hammersmith & Fulham we are developing new ideas as to what the housing offer should be for residents. We will not repeat the mistakes of the past by developing large concentrations of social rented housing in our most deprived areas. Working with developers and housing associations our aim is to build high quality mixed tenure developments. 

Developments that provide opportunities for social renters to buy through equity stake initiatives. Developments that provide opportunities for hard working families to own their own home through a variety of low cost homeownership schemes. Developments that at each turn build in a sense of community and a sense of belonging and breaks down the “them and us” culture that can develop when communities are segregated by tenure.
  
And we should not forget that we need to deliver a public realm in and around new developments that is designed to feel safe and secure, with plenty of shops and community facilities. Good transport links should be included in the design as a matter of course. 

In addition, we need to think about the quality of accommodation and environment being offered to our own council tenants and leaseholders.  Our housing plans also recognise that if we deliver more mixed development housing this will encourage developers to bring sites forward that were previously land banked. Therefore we are aiming to develop not 450 units of accommodation per annum as is currently planned but to deliver 650 units of housing over the next 10 years. “Social mobility” means giving everyone the chance to step onto the housing ladder of opportunity.

Now increasing the amount of housing built is all well and good, but what if ordinary people can’t afford to live there? 

Hammersmith & Fulham already has a variety of schemes that help get people on the housing ladder. These included tenant incentive schemes and right-to-buy. Both are successfully helping low-income families.

Now we have introduced H&F Homebuy. Under the scheme, ordinary council tenants earning as little as £19,000 can purchase a permanent stake in their council home. This share can be increased as circumstances change, until potentially the whole property is owned outright. And all of the revenue from H&F Home Buy goes back into the housing pot, helping ease the housing crisis.

Every working family deserves the opportunity to get on the housing ladder. In the borough of opportunity, more families will get that chance.

However we know we need to do more to make homeownership affordable to a greater number of households. That is why we are:

• Committing to increase the number of low cost homeownership units in the borough by 1,000 by 2010.
• We are aiming to increase the total number of low-cost homeownership units in the borough to 5,000 by 2014.
• We will work with housing associations to offer to social tenants on new developments equity stake schemes as we have done successfully on the Prestolite development in the north of the borough.
• We will back this up by ensuring that there are targeted and tailored employment and training advice services provided and where possible savings schemes offered such as the “rent plus” scheme offered by Notting Hill Housing Group.              

REGENERATION OF OUR MOST DEPRIVED AREAS

Like all London boroughs, Hammersmith & Fulham has a wide mix of neighbourhoods. Some of the most exclusive areas in the city are found here; as are some areas with reputations for high crime and pockets of severe deprivation.

Hammersmith & Fulham has some of the highest land values in the UK, with excellent transport links, situated in the hub of London. The highly successful developers’ summit I attended yesterday (25 September) was aimed at generating new ideas, new thinking on urban renewal. 

The main focus for regeneration is in White City and Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith centre and North Fulham, where there is scope to maximise the benefits in terms of new homes, economic development, estate renewal and environmental improvement. Major regeneration opportunities exist, particularly in an expanded White City Opportunity Area and North Fulham, where a different approach could deliver greatly increased numbers of housing units of a broad range of tenures and affordability.  

WHITE CITY AND SHEPHERDS BUSH

In this area, centred on the White City Opportunity Area and Shepherds Bush town centre, the catalyst for regeneration is very clearly the Westfield scheme which will become London’s largest shopping centre.  

To the north of Westfield is 18 hectares where the BBC, Helical Bar & Marks and Spencer have funded preparation of a master plan for what will be the most significant housing led regeneration in the borough in the next 10 years.  We could see 3,500 or more new homes with substantial opportunities for employment and the ability to attract major commercial activities particulary in the media sector.  

In partnership with key landowners like the BBC and Westfield, we aim to create London's largest creative community.   This development should carve out a wholly new part of the city from underused backland sites, offer a housing ladder of opportunity for a whole range of incomes, and become a new London hub for media activities around the BBC.  

The challenge is to see how regeneration in this area can unlock the potential for renewal in the White City estate and help achieve a much more mixed and balanced community across the W12 area.

CENTRAL HAMMERSMITH 

Hammersmith town centre will undoubtedly experience competition from the Westfield scheme but its strengths are that it is already home to many national and international companies, with a strong leisure offer.

The potential is considerable.

• The local residential and working population with 30,000 people employed in the area;
• Its accessibility to central London and Heathrow airport;
• And its cost advantages for office occupants over the West End and City.                

Lyric Square anchors the east end of King Street and Development Securities are proposing  47,000 sq.m. of offices, restaurants and an Everyman Cinema development next to the Hammersmith & City line station on the site of the NCP car park site in Beadon Road.  

We are at an advanced stage in selection of a development partner to provide a new civic centre with housing and retail that will anchor the west end of King Street, radically increase footfall and helping to stimulate trade, whilst releasing some other council leased sites for redevelopment.

NORTH FULHAM AND THE TOWN CENTRE

Fulham Broadway, in the south of the town centre, is now a vibrant shopping and entertainment hub.  However, the run down North End Road has been a major regeneration challenge for at least 25 years.  It is well known for the popular but shabby street market. The mix of shops is not what would be expected in a core town centre frontage.  

We have invested in street scene improvements and we are spending £2.75m on the complete renovation of Normand Park.

However, there remain signs of a lack of investment in the frontage properties and a clear need to turn North End Road around.

The case for private and public sector intervention in parts of North Fulham is very strong and we know there is private sector interest. This is an area where the council has small but key land holdings; and there is scope to look at how regeneration could benefit the existing housing estates and establish their place in a mixed and balanced community.

A significant development of new shopping and housing could anchor the northern end of the town centre and stimulate interest and investment in the rest of the North End Road frontage and the surrounding area.  

Over the longer term there is also the opportunity to develop 40 acres of land which lies to the north of the conference, hotel and leisure hub of Earls Court and Olympia.

CONCLUSION

There’s never been a better time to live, work or invest in Hammersmith & Fulham. The new policies we are setting out, the plans we have for our schools, residents and businesses, can make our borough the epicentre of opportunity in London.

“Borough of Opportunity” is more than a phrase: it’s the council’s vision. This is an ambitious council... An ambitious council that will not rest until Hammersmith & Fulham becomes a borough of opportunity for all.