Housing, Refugees and Knife Crime: Motions ahead of the Lambeth Full Council Meeting this evening

It is safe to say the Motions at the Lambeth Full Council meeting taking place at the Assembly Hall this evening are varied.

The Green Party has pitched a Motion to improve temporary accommodation for Lambeth residents, and Cllr Briggs for Clapham Common has called for a new committee to address and reduce youth knife crime in Lambeth.

Labour has not responded to either Motion. Its key Motion for the meeting is about supporting refugees to make Lambeth their home.

Motion 1: The Opposition Green Party Motion

Improving Temporary Accommodation for Lambeth Residents

The Motion reports that by the end of March 2021, Lambeth Council was housing 2,837 families in Temporary Accommodation (TA). This figure includes 4,183 children.

The Greens note that despite the fact this is over 2 per cent of the population in Lambeth, there is still no published housing strategy with a plan for improvements. It also points out that 73 per cent of TA households are Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic households, compared to 43 per cent in 2011.

Conservative Councillor for Clapham Common, Cllr Tim Briggs, has amended the Motion:

"The Labour councillors' failure to manage housing stock is perhaps the greatest barrier to improving entrenched low social mobility in Lambeth, and to reaching the higher standards of social mobility for children from lower income families that has been achieved in Conservative Wandsworth."

Lambeth Labour have stayed silent on the Motion.

Its key Motion for the Lambeth Full Council Meeting this evening is about refugees.

Motion 2: Labour

Supporting refugees to make Lambeth their home

It notes that Refugee Week, World Refugee Day and Windrush Day took place in June, saying:

"We celebrate the role that refugees and migrants have played in making Lambeth the successful, tolerant and exciting place it is."

"Council condemns the 'Hostile Environment' put in place by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government.

"We will continue to seek justice for the Windrush generation and support Lambeth's EU Citizens whose life in this country has been put at risk by this Brexit-backing government's mismanagement of the Settled Status process."

Cllr Briggs made a relevant amendment to the Motion needing to "move onto actually helping people rather than just celebrating them."

In addition, Cllr Briggs amends Lambeth Labour's 'Hostile Environment' accusation.

"Council condemns the 'Hostile Environment' put in place by the Labour government in its Home Office in 2010, for which to their great shame Labour councillors have never apologised to our Windrush generation residents, and continued by the Home Office until recently, for which the current Conservative administration (and Cllr Tim Briggs on its behalf) have sincerely apologised, that has seen Caribbean refugees and migrants stigmatised.

"We continue to seek justice for the Windrush generation, and support Lambeth's EU Citizens who are required to fill out a form to get Settled Status, and condemn the past failure of Lambeth Labour councillors to provide free help and advice for EU citizens until shamed into doing so by Conservative-run Wandsworth, and for having had the most expensive European Passport Return Service in the whole of London for the EU citizens that Labour councillors claim to want to help.

The Motion submitted by Cllr Briggs addresses knife crime in Lambeth.

Motion 3: Conservative

Establishing an independent committee to reduce youth knife crime in Lambeth

It notes:

"The Lambeth Made Safer Strategy presented in November 2020 has not yet made Lambeth any safer. The previous strategy, announced by Labour councillors months before the local elections in 2018, did not make Lambeth safer either.

"The Lambeth Made Safer Strategy is aspirational but vague, full of confused and racist identity politics.

"Labour councillors need to stop failing to take responsibility for their strategy, pretending that criticism is political, and blaming everyone and anyone but themselves.

"Labour councillors that pretend that the Council does not have enough money to effect change should resign in favour of those who can effect change with the financial resources available, as happens in other more progressive boroughs."

The Motion says:

"Council therefore proposes to set up an independent Committee chaired by an opposition Conservative councillor, or former Conservative councillor, to hear evidence on measures to reduce youth knife crime, and to produce a report to go to the Cabinet Member for Community Safety, for her to implement as she sees fit."