THE OPPORTUNITY AGENDA: 18 NEW ONE CITY INITIATIVES
Text of a speech by Sir Simon Milton, Leader of Westminster City
Council, to the City Council’s annual budget setting meeting,
Wednesday 7th March 2007, Marylebone Council House.
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Lord Mayor,
“This is my seventh Leader’s Speech, and I can again report strong
performance in the judgment of both the regulators and the public.
“Last month’s CPA judgements gave us a maximum four stars for
performance and value for money. One of only ten councils in the country to
do so. The most recent MORI City Survey results confirm that Westminster
remains amongst the best-rated councils in the country for satisfaction with
council services. And over 70% of stakeholders see us as strong leaders
locally and in London and three-quarters believe we work well with other
organisations.
“So we are meeting the standards set by inspectors and the expectations of
our residents and partners.
“And tonight we deliver on our pledge to the electors to keep council tax
increases at no more than 2%. And do so comfortably.
One City
“Before I set out the specific measures this council tax will deliver, I want to
restate the purpose of the One City programme.
We aim to make Westminster the best-governed city in the world.
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“A model for city management, because we have social responsibility, strong
communities and excellent council services.
“A city where people are active in supporting their neighbourhoods.
“Where people enjoy public order provided by the police and city guardians.
“Where we offer increased housing provision and the opportunity to learn in
the best city schools.
“Where we are still the economic centre of the country but where our renewal
policies make this a beautiful as well as dynamic city.
“So tonight I want to set out how we are going to make the next step change
in delivering our agenda, turning vision into reality.
“For despite these undoubted strengths, we must never be complacent. I
accept that there are several areas of council performance where we can and
must improve. I understand that even in the best-run services you can never
eliminate risk altogether as we saw in the recent Child B abuse case.
“And recognise that the public’s expectations are constantly increasing. So
we have to keep pushing forward: constantly seeking new solutions; restless
for improvement and intolerant of the average.
As I have said before,
Excellence in Absolute Terms.
Opportunity
“Lord Mayor, this year’s Leader’s Speech is all about opportunity.
“Secondary school attainment is one of those services where we find
ourselves at the wrong end of the league tables, which is unacceptable to me
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and I believe all members. I want all of our schools to be good schools and all
parents to have confidence in a Westminster education for their children.
“We’ve not been idle. In the last three years we have made a significant
investment in restructuring our secondary sector which saw the closure of our
largest school, North Westminster to be replaced by two new City Academies
with a third now approved.
“We are also on track to let BSF contracts for the major works to all our
remaining schools by Christmas. This will include, critically, new buildings for
Pimlico School that will be fit for purpose and designed to support first rate
teaching. But I believe we will need to do more to regain the confidence of
parents that Pimlico is making a truly fresh start. And my personal belief is
that that can best be achieved by making Pimlico our fourth City Academy
and I hope this option will be fully explored by the Interim board running the
school.
“Then almost all schools in Westminster will enjoy extensive autonomy and
independence from the council. But we will still retain a critical role on behalf
of parents in challenging and supporting school performance. That is one of
the crucial roles of our O&S Task Group on secondary achievement chaired
by Cllr Aiken.
“For good buildings alone do not deliver good education. That depends on
the quality of teaching and leadership and discipline in the school. So to
support schools further I wish tonight to announce a new Learning and
Achievement Strategy for Westminster supported by a growth bid of funding
to the Children’s Services budget of £6.5m over the next three years.
“A significant switch in council resources that signals that young people and
secondary schools are a major priority and the money will be invested in a
number of areas, which you will hear about from Cllr Richardson. And in
return for this investment, I expect the commitment of every headteacher and
governor to delivering the improved results.
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“From children, we also set out new proposals for older people. Our One
City approach, called ‘Every Older Person Matters’ goes beyond the
traditional realms of health and social care and looks at the whole experience
of living in Westminster as an older person. The quality of our social care
services which regained the maximum three stars in its inspection last year is
only one, albeit important part of that experience.
“A new Every Older Person Matters board, chaired by Cllr Adams, has looked
across the council at the contribution that each department can make and has
agreed to set specific targets for individual departments. These include:

working with the voluntary sector to ameliorate some of the funding cuts in
adult education provision by the Learning & Skills Council;

bringing older residents together for healthy social activities including tea
dances and more dedicated sessions at our leisure centres;

extending the Senior Passport service to cover security grants for older
people’s homes; and

increasing the number of Taxicard journeys for all current recipients and
maintaining the Freedom Pass.
“Together with CityWest Homes, the council will next year be investing an
extra £1.8m in sheltered and supported housing for older people in addition to
the £1.2m already planned.
By next March we will have delivered two
community hubs for older people delivering a range of services in the north
and south of the city. And finally we are ensuring that we actively seek the
views of older people in a special Older Residents City Survey consultation
we are doing with the voluntary sector.
“Lord Mayor, I am delighted that our officers and leading councillors have
been able to put together such a comprehensive and inclusive package of
proposals that taken together mark an ambitious step forward in turning our
vision of Every Older Person Matters into reality. And I look forward to our
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plan being reviewed by O&S in due course with the help of older people’s
organisations.
“The third leg of our opportunity agenda is housing. This year we will start to
implement our new housing strategy. Cllr Harvey is consulting on the details.
But one of the exciting initiatives will be a new temporary to permanent
scheme whereby families in temporary accommodation will get new
opportunities to convert to permanent tenancies, with incentives for working
households to benefit from the growth in value of the homes, by moving to be
part or whole owners of their properties over time. Once again extending the
opportunity of home ownership to those who could not afford it otherwise. In
the first year of this scheme - one of the first of its type in London - we aim to
deliver an additional 75 new units of housing for families in housing need,
rising to over 200 within two years.
“Next I turn to Worklessness.
“Getting people into work is one of the best anti-poverty strategies there is
and yet there are sections of our community who are far from work-ready
regardless of the opportunities available to them.
“Taking that first step into work after you have been workless for a long period
is a daunting prospect for many. Even part-time employment can seem too
difficult for those with responsibilities as carers, parents, students or who
suffer from depression.
“Yet the DWP takes the view that the only two options are for people to be in
full-time work or seeking full-time work. We need to find other alternatives
and I have been greatly impressed by the work of a social enterprise called
Slivers of Time which has had real success in East London. It works by
allowing people to offer themselves up for work for reputable employers in
packages as small as one hour. It targets precisely those groups of people
for whom holding down a full or part-time job is impossible but who
nevertheless want to do some work. And for many of those it is the first step
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they need on a journey to becoming more independent. I have therefore
asked officers to investigate incorporating the Slivers of Time concept in
Westminster when we re-let our temporary staff contracts in May.
“Allied to this, we will launch a Local Employment Initiative in Westminster.
We will shortly be celebrating the 5000th person into work through Paddington
First and we aim to attract a further ten employers to our local employment
initiative in the coming year. We will also see the Westminster Small and
Minority Business Council increase the number of businesses engaged with it.
“Finally, I can announce that we are working with our colleges and local
partners to bid for a new flagship Construction Training Centre to be based
at Paddington Green. London already has a shortage of apprentices for key
building trades – and it will only get worse when work starts on Olympic sites.
A Construction Training Centre would provide excellent employment
prospects for Westminster’s young people.
Renewal
“Lord Mayor, this is the year we Go Green. The first phase of our Go Green
strategy was approved by Cabinet a week ago together with a new Go Green
Fund. Under Cllr Bradley’s leadership, it’ll make Westminster an exemplar
green authority with programmes of action covering climate change and
energy, air quality, transport, water, waste and biodiversity. We are not only
signing up to the Nottingham Convention on Climate Change but will set
specific targets for carbon reduction in our own operations. We will do more
to encourage people to switch to cleaner fuel technologies and will now
exempt all green vehicles – not just electric - from Respark charges. Again I
look forward to O&S building on the programme, drawing on expert external
advice.
“We will continue to deliver physical renewal through our Civic Streets
programme with Praed Street the next in line for renewal.
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“Last week we launched the public consultation on our ORBS action plan for
London’s West End shopping district, underlining our role as the key catalyst
for change and improvement.
And this autumn, we will implement the
Shaftesbury Avenue phase of our Theatreland improvement project.
“We also look forward to dealing with the largest-ever planning application
received by Westminster City Council for the new Victoria Interchange. This
major piece of regeneration promises an exciting future for Victoria.
Consultation is underway with many stakeholders and whilst there are some
major planning issues to resolve, I believe that with some flexibility from the
applicant over building heights and community facilities, we should be able to
see this vital project move forward.
Order
“Lord Mayor, we should celebrate the major improvements we have seen over
the past year on the Order agenda.
It is four years since I created the
Department for Community Protection, bringing together the enforcement and
public protection services into a single department.
It’s made us a more
effective partner to the police in tackling crime and disorder through the
CivicWatch process and the proof of our success has been falling crime levels
and a reduced fear of crime.
But there is still more we can achieve. In
particular, 2007 must be the year when we crack the problem of the Prince of
Wales Junction on Harrow Road which local residents tell us is the main
crime and disorder hotspot in the north of the borough.
“We also need to recognise that residents believe we are losing the battle
against noise pollution. I have therefore asked officers to develop our firstever comprehensive noise strategy for Westminster with short, medium and
long-term actions to reduce noise levels to specific targets.
“Thirdly on the order agenda, we wish to do more to tackle the appalling
impact of drugs on young people.
So we’ll be launching a project with
voluntary sector partners to deliver a Family Drug and Alcohol Court which
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will focus on early intervention with kids in order to prevent future behavioural
problems.
“Lord Mayor, 2007 will be a year in which we make steady progress in
implementing the far-reaching neighbourhoods agenda set out in One City.
We are strengthening ward councillors’ community leadership role through the
members’ intranet and area integration meetings. And we will devolve where
we can to the neighbourhood level starting this year with the management of
the Church Street market to the neighbourhood office and the development of
a holistic neighbourhood approach to our housing estates.
“In customer first, we will be putting more parking services online including
suspensions and tradesman’s permits, rolling out pay by phone parking,
improve parking facilities for motorcyclists and disabled blue badge holders
and invest more money to improve signs and lines.
“With the roll-out of the wireless city, we will also launch a Wireless
Innovation Competition backed by a £100,000 fund sponsored by BT and
Vertex. This will invite ideas from members of the public to use wireless to
improve city life.
“For an open and tolerant city we will be taking greater steps to make
Westminster an inclusive and integrated city reaching out to groups that we
need to make more progress with including the LGBT community and black
churches.
“And under Active Citizenship we will work with the voluntary sector to
recruit 4,700 additional volunteers by March 2009 including 800 from hard to
reach communities. And in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics, we will
launch a new volunteer City Guides scheme in 2007, the first of its kind in
London, offering opportunity for 50 disadvantaged residents to provide
support for visitors.
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“Lord Mayor, a very full agenda for 2007-08.
Eighteen new One City
initiatives that together represent the biggest single programme to improve
quality of life for people who do not enjoy the full benefits of living in the
world’s greatest city.
“A learning and achievement strategy to help our secondary schools deliver
for our children.
“An older people’s programme to keep them involved in the life of the city.
“A new employment initiative to get people into work, and improve self
respect.
“Drug and Alcohol courts to prevent, deter and make good.
“A community volunteers scheme to strengthen our neighbourhoods.
“Many talk about community cohesion and integration. We deliver because we
understand that order, opportunity and enterprise are essential to a flourishing
city life.
“We understand that spending every pound of council tax wisely is essential
to creating the value that delivers excellent services.
“And we believe that through social responsibility the prize of creating a One
City of strong communities will be an enduring legacy that will benefit the
people of Westminster for years to come.”
ENDS
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