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"Miserable" Labour Party disrespects Islington with wellbeing claims
October 1, 2009 3:06 PM
Lib Dem council leader Terry Stacy celebrates Islington's record GSCE results at a local school.
Islington's Labour Party have been called "miserable" after they jumped on a new report from the Government that purports to prove that Britain's cities are a bad place to bring up children. The report demonstrates that inequality is sharp in Britain under Labour, but also misses out the things that make so many people love living in London. The flawed, unscientific Government report used statistics up to a decade old and showed a snapshot of Islington as it was after generations of neglect by a Labour council - not the aspirational place it has since become.
The report, called "Local Indexes of Child Well-Being" concludes that wealthy, semi-rural places - like Ribble Valley, Hampshire, Mid Sussex, and Rutland - are better places for children to grow up than urban areas. Manchester, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Islington, and Birmingham are among the worst-ranked places. This demonstrates that under a Labour government, children born in deprived urban areas still have fewer life chances than those born to wealthy parents.
However, many of the statistics used to rank Islington are up to a decade out of date. Housing data is from 2001, crime and education from 2004. It therefore misses out on the progress that Islington has made under the Liberal Democrats in the last ten years - in both absolute terms and relative to other places.
The Wellbeing Index uses housing data from 2001, right after Islington voters kicked out the Labour council that had mismanaged Islington for a generation.
But since then, the Liberal Democrats have secured more affordable housing than any neighbouring boroughs, and have started a major project to build new council housing. Estates like the Packington and the Market Estate have been rebuilt and renewed. Thousands of homes have been refurbished and improved.
The report uses education data from five years ago. Labour were kicked out of office in Islington having left the borough with the very worst schools in the country. Since the Lib Dems took over, our schools have improved beyond recognition. Every year, Islington pupils improve their exam results, and have almost closed the gap with the national average. GSCE results are now twice as good as they were only a few years ago.
The Government was also looking at old data on crime, but according to the Metropolitan Police, crime in Islington fell this year for the fifth year running. The Youth Engagement Team set up by the Council and Police has helped cut youth crime by 9% in the last year alone. The Council funds a special team of PCSOs to work in schools to keep children safe.
And when it comes to the environment, densely-populated Islington may have the smallest proportion of open space in the country, but the Liberal Democrat council has added over 12,000 square meters of brand new green space since 2005, with £6.6 invested in improving and expanding the borough's parks. And Islington may not be as leafy as Ribble Valley, but the Lib Dems have carried out the biggest tree-planting programme in Islington in generations, with thousands of new trees in our streets and parks.
Paula Belford, Islington's Liberal Democrat councillor responsible for the welfare of young people, said:
"Of course wealthy suburbs have more woodland and less crime than the centre of London. But I believe that despite the many issues in urban areas, our kids get so many more opportunities here. I love London and Islington, and was happy and proud to raise my own children here. For miserable Labour politicians to moan about how much worse off we are than people in Berkshire isn't helpful. You have to really love a place to make it better- that's been the key to Lib Dem success locally.
"On housing, the environment, policing, and education, kids in Islington today are better off than they used to be. This Government report, with its decade-old old data, only reminds us how completely the Labour council had failed."
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