Politics in East London - Research Paper Example

?Politics in East London Introduction There are a total of 32 London Boroughs in the “Greater London” that include the boroughs of Hackney, Croydon, Tower Hamlets, and Lewisham in East London (politics.co.uk, 2013). Most of the functions of the local government are performed by the councils of the London boroughs. They assume the responsibility of a whole range of services that include but are not limited to housing, education, planning, social services, libraries, leisure and recreation, waste collection and disposal, collection of tax, and maintenance of environmental health and safety. This paper discusses the current political system and main challenges encountered by Hackney, Croydon, Tower Hamlets, and Lewisham. Response of the boroughs to the Alternative Vote (AV) The residents of Hackney responded differently to the Alternative Vote (AV) than the common response of the residents of the rest of the three boroughs of East London. While the residents of Lewisham, Croydon, and Tower Hamlets voted against the AV, only Hackney supported the Westminster Electoral system’s reform in the referendum of 2011. According to the statistics noted by Brown (2011), in the electorate’s 34.23 per cent turnout, electoral reforms endorsement in Hackney happened with a majority of 10,905. 39.32 per cent of the people voted against whereas 60.68 per cent of them voted in favor. A turnout of 35.9 per cent was observed in Croydon and most of the residents i.e. 67.01 per cent voted against whereas only 32.99 per cent voted in favor. The response from the residents of Lewisham was much similar to that of Croydon as 50.65 per cent of the residents of Lewisham voted against any alteration in the First Past the Post system. In Tower Hamlets, 54.17 per cent of the residents voted against and the rest voted in favor of choosing a new way to elect Webminster’s MPs. According to the opinion polls, the No Campaign had received a victory across the country. This served as a blow to the Liberal Democrats who had been heavily defeated in the local elections and others who wanted a preferential system of voting. Comparison of severity of main issues in the boroughs London Poverty Profile (2010) drew a comparison between the level of severity in the issues of low income and benefits, low pay, low education attainment, ill health, and inadequate housing among London’s boroughs. According to London’s Poverty Profile (2010), of the four boroughs in the East London, two with the comparatively greatest problems of “low income and benefits” include Hackney and Tower Hamlets, Lewisham has comparatively lesser issues of low income and benefits whereas these issues are the least in Croydon. The issue of “low pay” is the most severe in Hackney, its severity is almost the same in Croydon and Lewisham, whereas low pay as the issue is the least severe in Tower Hamlets. The issue of “low education attainment” is the most severe in Hackney, its level of severity is lesser in Lewisham, whereas its level of severity in Croydon and Tower Hamlets is the lowest. The severity of the issue “ill health” is maximal in Hackney, lesser and almost the same in Lewisham and Tower Hamelts, and is the least in Croydon. The issue of “inadequate housing” is the most severe in Tower Hamlets, its level of severity is lesser in Hackney, it is even lesser in Lewisham, whereas the level of severity is the lowest in Croydon. Government-imposed cuts in public spending and its effects in the boroughs The Coalition Government in the UK is attempting to reduce the deficit in budget by bringing immediate and deep cuts in the public spending. The government claims of implementing progressive and fair cuts and of protecting the most vulnerable. Nevertheless, it is hard to make such reductions in public spending without having any negative implications for the most vulnerable communities. Hackney is the second most deprived borough in the UK after Brent and is likely to experience loss of money by as many as 6790 poor households as a result of the reductions whereas Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived borough and is likely to experience loss of money by 3580 poor households. In response to the cuts of local housing allowance imposed by the government, households in Tower Hamlets might incur a loss of ?118 a month (tuc.org.uk, n.d.). In Lewisham, reductions in funding are being made in the ABG worth ?36.37 million and the specific grants of ?36.43 million. Nearly all specific grants to Lewisham are related to the services for children and their schooling. Total reduction in funding of Lewisham from 2010 to 2011 was equal to ?3.295 million (tuc.org.uk, n.d.). Reductions in funding for Croydon equal ?2.1 million that are to be made from the budget allocated to the learners, children, and the young people. The Croydon Council has stated that children’s fund would account for ?162,000 of the reductions in funding. Total cuts in the funding of Hackney, Croydon, Tower Hamlets, and Lewisham are equal to ?8.618 million, ?8.164 million, ?6.999 million, and ?3.297 million respectively. Other current and prospective political issues in the four boroughs of East London The level of unemployment in Tower Hamlets currently is one of the highest in the UK, with the unemployment having reached 13.2 per cent (East London Lines, 2012). With this percentage, Tower Hamlets has become the borough where the level of unemployment is the third highest among all boroughs in London. While Hackney is listen amongst the top 10 per cent of the local authorities in the UK that are jobless, Lewisham is just out of that percentile. Lewisham currently has the worst job density in the whole UK which essentially means that the number of jobs per resident in Lewisham is the least among all areas in the UK. All of the four boroughs i.e. Hackney, Croydon, Tower Hamlets, and Lewisham have noted a slight rise in the level of unemployment in the year 2011. Tower Hamlets’s ranking in the list of highest unemployment among all boroughs in London is 3rd, that of Hackney is 5th, Lewisham’s is 9th, whereas the ranking of Croydon is 20th (East London Lines, 2012). So unemployment is amongst the main challenges for all the four boroughs currently. The Building Trust in Hackney proposed the transformation of sheds into prefabricated homes in London for the homeless people as a solution for the current housing crisis (Wainwright, 2012). Another issue that has recently surfaced in Hackney is condemn of the health and social services by a coroner because of failures in the months before a paranoid schizophrenic mother murdered her children (Taylor, 2012). Croydon rebuilt itself in many ways in the year 2012. “The riots of August 2011 left plenty to put back together and, as most of Mayor Boris Johnson’s pledge of ?23m is yet to materialise, residents and business owners are focusing on what they can do as a community to move forward in 2013” (Robinson-Tillett, 2013a). The pub scene in Lewisham has gone through a tough time in the last decade. A report released in September 2012 by the council revealed that as many as 29 pubs have been lost in Lewisham in just a decade (Robinson-Tillett, 2013b). However, 2013 is likely to buck the trend with the help of the residents as well as the local authority. In Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rehman has started parting company with many non-Muslim senior officials (Gilligan, 2012). It is hard for the council to operate with such a large number of holes in the team of professional management in the long run. Although Lutfur Rehman currently assumes absolute power over a vast majority of matters related to Towers Hamlet, yet a new chief executive’s appointment happens to be a matter for the councilors. Summary In most of the political matters, the residents of Hackney usually have a different standpoint whereas the residents of Croydon, Lewisham, and Tower Hamlets generally keep similar approaches towards the matters. In addition to this, among the four boroughs of East London, the one with the highest level of severity of most of the issues is Hackney whereas the one with the lowest level of severity of the same issues is Croydon while the boroughs of Lewisham and Tower Hamlets have comparable levels of severity of the issues. The main reason why Hackney stands out in most of the matters is that it is currently the second most deprived borough in the UK after Brent. Tower Hamlets is currently the second best among all boroughs of Inner East and South after Islington. As a result of the attempt of the Coalition Government to reduce the deficit in budget by bringing immediate and deep cuts in the public spending, poor households in all of the four boroughs of East London are likely to be adversely impacted. The borough in which maximum reduction in funding has been made is Hackney, followed by Croydon, then Tower Hamlets, and the least reduction has been made in Lewisham. Inadequate housing is likely to be one of the most significant political issues in all of the four boroughs in the near future. References: Brown, P 2011, Croydon, Lewisham and Tower Hamlets vote No to AV. But Hackney says Yes, East London Lines, [Online] Available at http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2011/05/lewisham-votes-no-to-av/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. East London Lines 2012, Unemployment levels in Tower Hamlets and Hackney among the worst in the country, East London Lines, [Online] Available at http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2012/01/unemployment-level-in-tower-hamlets-among-the-worst-in-the-country/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Gilligan, A 2012, Lutfur Rahman council in chaos as Government mulls intervention, The Telegraph, [Online] Available at http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100195197/lutfur-rahman-council-in-chaos-as-government-mulls-intervention/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. London’s Poverty Profile 2010, An overview of London's boroughs, [Online] Available at http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/about/an-overview-of-londons-borough/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. politics.co.uk 2013, London government, [Online] Available at http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/london-government [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Robinson-Tillett, S 2013a, Croydon 2013: The Year of the Start-Up, East London Lines, [Online] Available at http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2013/01/croydon-2013-the-year-of-the-start-up/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Robinson-Tillett, S 2013b, Lewisham 2013: The Year of the Pub, East London Lines, [Online] Available at http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2013/01/lewisham-2013-the-year-of-the-pub/ [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Taylor, D 2012, Hackney social services condemned over failures after mother kills children, The Guardian, [Online] Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/10/mother-kills-children-social-services-failure [accessed: 3 January 2013]. tuc.org.uk n.d., Impact of cuts in London, [Online] Available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/ImpactOfCutsInLondon.pdf [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Wainwright, O 2012, Garages to provide 'pop-up' housing for homeless people, The Guardian, [Online] Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2012/nov/12/garages-housing-homeless-people [accessed: 3 January 2013]. Read More