Download pdf - Brent Labour Manifesto 2014

Most people think political manifestos should be a contract.

This contract is our manifesto.

Brent LabourTogether we’re better

Better backing to get through tough times.

Better job opportunities for local people.

Better homes.

Better starts in life for our kids.

Better care for vulnerable residents.

Better, cleaner, greener, healthier spaces.

Better, safer streets.

Better connected communities.

Brent Labour Leadership Team

You probably don’t need us to tell you that money’s tight.

Rising food and energy bills, rents and rates mean everyone’s having to watch the pennies.

The same can be said for your local council.

Because of big cuts from the Coalition Government, Brent’s Labour-run council has £700 less to spend on every single home in our borough than we did four years ago.

With less money to go around, we have to think differently.

By changing the way the council works, we believe we can keep on making life a bit easier for you and the other 311,999 people who call our borough home.

Brent Labour has a plan to renew our borough’s sense of community.

We want to help build a Brent where people come together to change things for the better.

We’ll help by joining with charities and community groups to make council services work better for you. Whether that means giving local families more say over how their local children’s center is run, or making sure your elderly relatives or neighbours’ meals on wheels is delivered by a familiar face.


We’ll help by making it easier for you and your neighbours to club together and make your money go further. Supporting you to get cheaper electricity and gas, and building up local credit unions so that everyone in Brent can get a loan at a good rate if they need one.

And we’ll help by creating good quality jobs and training programmes for local people. Making sure companies that want council contracts do their bit for our borough, and carrying on the fight for the London Living Wage throughout Brent.

We want to make sure local people can afford to stay local, so we’ll build 3,000 affordable homes over the next four years, and set up a not-for-profit lettings agency to bring down rents.

We believe there’s strength in numbers.

We know that, by unleashing the power of our community, together we can turn the challenges we face into opportunities and emerge from tough times as a fairer and better borough.

We are on your side.

This is our vision for Brent. We hope it will be yours too.

Brent Labour. Together we’re better.


Muhammed Butt, Brent Labour Leader

Local people deserve a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work. Brent Labour will work to make sure everyone who works with Brent Council pays their employees no less than the London Living Wage, and set up a special task force to encourage as many local businesses as possible to become LLW employers.

We believe there’s strength in numbers. We’ll help neighbours to club together and get cheaper gas and electricity.

Payday lenders grind down people in need into spirals of debt, dependence and depression. We’ll ban these legal loan sharks from advertising on council-owned billboards and bus stops.

By keeping our money local (and well away from the paws of big banks,) we can make it go a lot further. We’ll build up local credit unions to make sure everyone in Brent can get a loan at a good rate if they need one.

We’ll work with the Citizens Advice Bureau and other community groups to offer local people help to develop budgeting skills and debt advice at the first sign that they’re falling behind on their bills.

Labour will continue to make sure pensioners and disabled people don’t have to pay much Council Tax, and reduce the amount paid by other disadvantaged groups.

Better backing to get through tough times.


Brent Labour will work closely with local businesses, job centres, charities and the College of North West London to help 1,000 Brent residents, including a lot of long-term unemployed and working aged disabled people, find work.

We’ll will make sure companies that want council contracts do their bit for our borough by investing in jobs for local people, training programmes for unemployment residents, local charities or community projects.

Brent’s young people deserve better than having to choose between a low-paid job with little or no security or the dole. Labour will create 100 new apprenticeships in the council workforce by 2017.

And we’ll grow our borough’s economy to better serve its people- pushing on with the transformation of Wembley and South Kilburn and investing in growth areas including Alperton, Queensbury and Church End.

Better job opportunities for local people.


We want to make sure local people can afford to make a home for themselves in our borough once they feel ready. That’s why we’ll kick off an ambitious council house building programme and work with housing associations to build 3,000 new affordable homes throughout Brent by 2018.

We’ll spend £110 million over the next four years to radically improve the quality of existing council houses.

We’ll set up a not-for-profit lettings agency to bring down the cost of renting and help people get longer term lets.

No one should have to live in just a dank shed with barely enough room for a bed. Labour will weed out unscrupulous rogue landlords by requiring everyone looking to rent out a private property in our borough to license it with the council and go through basic safety checks.

We believe local people have a right to know who’s really benefiting from our benefits system, so we’ll publish an annual register of all companies and individuals in Brent getting over £250,000 in housing benefit payments.

Better homes.


Brent Labour understand that nothing sets a kid up better in life than a good education. That’s why we’ll make sure that, by 2017, every single school in our borough is rated good or outstanding.

A school place is the most basic building block of a good education, but Brent primaries are chock-full. We’ll spend £100 million to create 3,500 new school places for our borough’s children.

We reckon that the best way to make sure our kids manage money well in later life is to teach them the value of saving while they’re still at school. Labour will open a savings account at a credit union with a starter deposit of £10 for all Year 7 children living in Brent.

We know that we won’t be able set our kids up for life unless we’re able to set them up for the school day. We’ll work with local schools to create more Breakfast Clubs and make sure pupils in our

borough get the right fuel they need to learn.

We’ve seen first-hand that children’s centres can transform kids’ chances in life. We’ll carry on fighting to keep your local children’s centre open, and give community groups and young people more say over how it’s run.

We’ll work with charities and community groups to reform the council’s youth services so that they better support your son, daughter, niece or nephew to learn the skills they’ll need to find a job and succeed.

We realise that the best way to support young people in our borough is often to lend a hand to mums and dads. A lot of parents in our borough are working two or three jobs, and nights, just to get by at the minute. If you have to work unusual hours, we’ll connect you with a qualified and affordable childminder so you can sleep better at night too.


Better starts in life for our kids.

We don’t think people who are sick or in need of care should have to worry about whether a service is provided by the council or the NHS. We’ll join up Brent’s health and social care services to meet each patient’s unique needs.

We’ll help older and disabled people to live at home for longer by giving them more say over their own care, installing more grab rails and stair-lifts in their homes and providing more Extra Care (or very sheltered) housing.

We’ll invest in new and improved facilities at local day centres, and launch new community programmes to give older and vulnerable residents a chance to get to know new people.

Caring is a tough job and carers deserve our support. We’ll work with local support groups to find and offer help to more unpaid carers through our new Carers’ Hub. And we’ll reach out to teenage carers, who are less likely to know what help is available.

Better care for vulnerable residents.


Local people deserve clean streets. We’ll continue the crackdown on fly tipping which saw Brent’s Labour-run council prosecute 668 people last year.

We’ll carry on collecting your old kitchen appliances, furniture and other bulky items for free.

To forge a greener future for Brent kids, Labour will plant 1,200 trees and reduce our borough’s carbon emissions by 15% by 2018.

We believe vibrant and varied high streets are the heart of local communities. We’ll limit the number of betting shops, payday loan lenders, pawnbrokers and takeaways in our town centres and on our high streets.

We’ll spend £1 million over the next four years to improve cycling routes and provide more training courses for adults and children.

Brent Labour will open more outdoor gyms throughout our borough.

Better, cleaner, greener, healthier spaces.


Brent Labour will work with the police, neighbourhood watch groups and local people to make sure violent crime, robbery and residential burglary continue to fall in our borough, and tackle the disproportionate fear of crime which can trap vulnerable residents in their own homes.

We’ll press for the prosecution of perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence, and work with charities and community groups to improve support services for people forced to flee their home or partner.

And we’ll invest in mentoring programmes and community programmes to prevent young people from joining gangs and create routes out of gang culture for teenagers.

Better, safer streets.


In this day and age people need to be able to access the internet. Brent Labour will offer everyone in our borough 30 minutes of free Wi-fi daily.

By continuing to invest in digital advances and new books, we’ll make sure Brent’s state of the art libraries remain fit for future generations. We’ll also offer training and support to community groups who want to set up and run new libraries.

We’ll create a single card for borrowing library books, using leisure centres and sports facilities and getting discounts at a range of local businesses.

We believe that many local people are champing at the bit to play a bigger part in the

life of their community. That’s why Labour will set up a Volunteering Hub to help you find a scheme to match your skill set and ambitions and to spread the word about volunteering opportunities to local schools, businesses and community groups.

We’ll run a listening council and respond to what you tell us. Take parking restrictions at Wembley- a number of Brent residents have been in touch recently to let us know they think these could stand to be loosened a bit. We’ve thought about it and we agree, so we’ll try out significantly reducing the time during which the council gives out parking tickets and tows cars on days on which concerts and football matches are held at the stadium.

Better connected communities.



Our commitments to you.We’ll help you save up to £200 on your gas and electricity bills by helping you to club together with your neighbours.

You want clean streets.

Last year we prosecuted 668 people for fly tipping.

We’ll continue the crackdown.

Local people need homes.

We’ll build 3,000 new affordable houses by 2018.

We’ll help 1,000 Brent residents get jobs and require companies that want council contracts to take on and train up local people.

Your children need school places.

By investing £100 million we’ll create 3,500 new places at local schools.

Promoted by Lee Skevington on behalf of Brent Labour Party, both at Pavitt Hall, Union Road, Wembley, HA0 4AU. Printed by Quick Print & Design Ltd, Unit 4/8 Wembley Commercial Centre/East Lane, Wembley HA9 7XX.