Agenda item

(1)          Harrow united in the face of Terrorist atrocities Motion

To be moved by Councillors David Perry and Susan Hall and seconded by Councillors Keith Ferry and Barry Macleod-Cullinane:

“This Council Notes:

• The shocking events in Paris on Friday 13^th November, where 132 innocent people were killed in terrorist atrocities.

• The recent terrorist attacks across the world; with 224 people losing their lives in the bombing of a Russian passenger plane, 40 people killed in bombings in Beirut, 5 people shot to death at a Jerusalem synagogue and 20 people killed at a hotel in Bamako. Terrorism knows no borders, and these horrific incidents are just some examples of the lives lost to terrorist atrocities over the past few weeks.

• The outpouring of condolences from across our many communities in Harrow, with declarations of support and solidarity with the families who have lost loved ones in terrorist atrocities across the world.

This Council Believes:

• Harrow’s diversity is our strength; we are proud to be a Borough where people of different backgrounds and faiths respect each other.

• Elected representatives of all parties should work together to keep our residents safe and to condemn acts of terror that threaten our shared values of democracy and freedom of expression.

The Council resolves:

• To hold a minute’s silence at Full Council to mark with respect and sorrow all of the victims of terrorist atrocities across the world.

·         To condemn anyone who would try to promote fear or hatred in our Borough.

·         To show strong local leadership in promoting tolerance, respect and cohesiveness amongst our many communities; events like the Paris shootings should not divide us.”

(2)       Harrow £159 Campaign Motion

To be moved by Councillor David Perry and seconded by Councillor Sachin Shah:

“Council notes:

·         That previous administrations, both Labour and Conservative, have both campaigned to get Harrow a fairer grant deal from Central Government.

·         The report by LG Futures (Analysis of Funding Drivers, October 2014) was commissioned to understand Harrow’s funding context in comparison with other London boroughs, and the rest of the UK. The report made a number of findings that have raised concerns about Harrow’s spending power and how our Government grants are calculated.

·         In respect of spending power, the analysis found that in Harrow our residents have £39.8m less spent on them than the London average – that is £159 less per person than the average Londoner.

·         The formulas used by Government date back to 1978 and do not reflect Harrow’s current needs, particularly given the pressures from homelessness and welfare changes.

·         Harrow receives less funding than the London average on account of a range of factors including its lower population density, having less residents on welfare, amongst other technical points.

·         Harrow also receives less funding than the national average on account of it being in London and “Damping”, a process by which boroughs take additional reductions to buffer other boroughs, reallocates a lot of Harrow’s funding elsewhere.

·         Harrow is also short-changed by the “freezing” of funding formulas (which may not be “unfrozen” until 2020/21) – which means Outer London’s unprecedented demographic changes and population growth goes unacknowledged.

·         This unfair funding from Central Government is on top of the £83m of cuts imposed on Harrow Council and our residents by central Government.

·         The Council’s commitment to being an efficient and well run organisation, including it’s ambitious commercialisation programme that will create £5m of income by 2018/19, to help make up the shortfall caused by central Government cuts.

Council believes:

·         The funding formulas need to be updated so that Harrow gets the money necessary to continue Building a Better Harrow, protecting frontline services and ‘Making a Difference’ to our community.

·         An adjustment to the Settlement Funding Assessment so that the growing populations of Harrow is reflected now would be a fairer way to allocate funding out to local Council’s, rather than waiting until when it is next up for assessment in 2020/21.

·         Greater fairness in the funding system, so that:

o   “Damping” is reduced, and Harrow’s resources are not pulled into an endless cycle of re-allocation to other boroughs.

·         The weighting of resources is changed to reflect the changing nature of London. The future settlement needs to acknowledge the role of outer London authorities in maintaining the progress and status of the capital.

·         A request that the Government provide an advantage to Harrow when making funding decisions for other grants in light of our shortfall.

Council resolves:

·         To Support the Harrow ‘£159’ campaign to get Harrow its missing millions.

·         For the Chief Executive to write to local MPs and Assembly Members to ask them to support the Harrow ‘£159’ campaign and lobby central government for a fairer grant.

·         For the Leader of the Council to write to the Prime Minister explaining the Council’s funding shortfall.”

(3)

Government cuts making Harrow’ residents poorer Motion

To be moved by Councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick and seconded by Councillor Adam Swersky:

“This Council Notes:

·         On 7 July the Chancellor announced £12 billion of cuts to the welfare budget by 2019/20. This package included a proposal to freeze all working-age benefits for the duration of the current parliament.

·         This would include a freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates, at a time when rents are rapidly increasing.

·         There is a full blown Housing crisis in London; currently in Harrow 600 families are in temporary accommodation, including B & B’s, many of which are out of the Borough.

·         Due to a mixture of low wages and unsustainable increases to House prices and rents there have been exponential increases of residents being forced to use the Private Rental Sector for Housing. These costs are often met by Housing Benefit, through the Local Housing Allowance scheme. Even families in work have to rely on Local Housing Allowance rates; in all, 57.6 per cent of London’s households in receipt of LHA have a member who is in employment

·         These cuts to welfare also include plans to cut the Tax credit budget by £4.4bn. The proposed changes reduce the incentives to work, by reducing the income thresholds or work allowance for working tax credit, child tax credit and universal credit while increasing the taper rate.

·         There are over 15000 families in Harrow receiving Tax Credits, which help the lowest paid families in Harrow with the cost of essential items such as food, child care and heating.

·         It is estimated that the marginal reductions rate could be as high as 93%, meaning that as families on tax credits earn more money, the increased taper rate mean that they will only keep 7p of every extra pound they earn.

·         Analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies have shown that even after taking into account the new minimum wage and increase to tax free personal allowance these cuts to Tax Credits will leave millions of families across the Country and in Harrow worse off by thousands of pounds.

·         A Government report into the changes reported,

o   These changes from April 2016 will affect almost all in-work recipients of tax credits.  At April 2015, 3.3 million in-work families received tax credits, of whom 2.7 million had children.  The average impact across all affected families can be roughly estimated as a reduction in the tax credit award of around £1,300 in 2016-17.  The actual impact will vary from family to family however; some will lose more than this amount, others less.  Some families will lose entitlement to tax credits completely.

·         On Monday 26^th October the House of Lords voted to delay the introduction of the proposed cuts to Tax credits by three years.

This Council Believes:

·         In a Borough where 40% of residents earn below the London Living Wage, these cuts will have a disproportionate affect in Harrow, where thousands of families rely on Tax Credits to top up their wages and the Local Housing Allowance so they can afford to live.

·         A four year freeze to Local Housing Allowance rates will make a dire situation even worse for many of our residents who are unable to find affordable homes.

·         This freeze will make it increasingly difficult for key workers such as nurses and shop assistants to live in London - all our residents will suffer if these workers are forced to move away from London.

·         This Government’s housing and welfare policies are hitting in work families, and are making the housing crisis even worse in Harrow.

The Council resolves to:

·         That the Chief Executive writes to the three local MPs in Harrow to raise our concerns directly with Government about the impact of the cuts to Tax Credits and freezing Local Housing Allowances to families in our Borough.

·         The Council monitors the impact of cuts to Tax Credits and freezes to Local Housing Allowances in Harrow via the welfare reform board.

·         Formally state our objection to cuts to Tax Credits and freezing Local Housing Allowances that will leave our residents poorer by thousands of pounds.”