Chair’s Blog — April 2018
The launch, on 8th April, of Haringey Labour’s progressive manifesto for the May local government elections signalled a decisive start to the campaign for who will run our Borough after 3 May.
Labour’s manifesto represents a decisive commitment to a council that will work in the interests of the many, not the few.
During its term of office, its commits the next Labour Council to:
- Establish a Fairness Commission to ensure that decisions are taken with the community, not for them, and that policies are driven by the aspiration to tackle inequality and deliver social justice;
- Deliver at least a thousand new homes at council rents by 2022;
- Extend council tax relief to 100% for our least well-off residents and make council tax and other charges fairer;
- Redesign adult social care and pay all council-contracted homecare staff for their travel time and pay them the London Living wage; and
- Provide a free school meal for every primary school child.
And there is more. Haringey Labour Council will campaign for a reversal of the cuts to council and school budgets that have stripped away over 40% of the council’s budget since 2010 and forced Haringey schools to send begging letters home to parents.
It will build a zero-tolerance culture in relation to violence against women and girls; and promote community cohesion, in particular defending the Borough’s minority and community groups — particularly important in the context of the rise of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic attacks.
Our manifesto pledges to financially support neighbourhood policing across the Borough, particularly crucial at a time of escalating gun and knife crime. Our young people must feel safe and they must feel valued, and the manifesto commits to providing a Borough-wide youth service delivered in local neighbourhoods.
The manifesto also contains a commitment to maintain all nine of our Borough’s libraries — no small feat when over 450 libraries in England have closed since 2010.
There is so much more in the manifesto which you can read in full here.
But a manifesto we can all be proud of is only the beginning. Now we have to get out and campaign to win every seat in the Borough. I urge you to play your part in ensuring that on 3 May we deliver the Labour Council that our residents need and deserve. We must all play our part for that to become a reality.
You can find out more about our manifesto and what’s going on in Hornsey and Wood Green on our new website.
