Where is Richmondshire?
In the opening salvo for 6th May, Labour Council leader Julian Bell is quoted as comparing Ealing to Richmondshire when claiming the Borough is deprived of cash by 'Tory cronyism', the mantra of Mayor Sadiq Khan for the last 6 years. “Two homes” is one of 11 London boroughs Labour leaders demanding the Chancellor Rishi Sunak give them more taxpayers money from the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Funding allocated according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation, the Government measure of poverty.Khan and his cronies are claiming just 3 London boroughs got the highest ranking to receive government cash along with Mr Sunak’s own constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire, taking a perverse pride in the social deprivation. “Two Homes” is quoted as saying that after a decade of Tory inflicted austerity the government is refusing refund councils the huge costs of responding to Covid-19 both demonstrably false statements. He also lied about the Chancellor throwing money at better off Tory constituencies and downgrading the help for the most deprived areas in the country.Khan’s bid to stay in office is based on lies about what he calls the “blatant unfairness” of those responsible for the failures in London not being rewarded for failure. For 5 years too many Londoners have lived in the most deprived communities in the country, with stark inequalities in health and life expectancy which Covid 19 has served to exasperate yet Khan and Bell refuse to accept their part in this to falsely claim London has been ignored from Government funding dedicated to tackling inequality. Khan insists it is all Rishi Sunak’s fault. Mayor Sadiq Khan is running a smear campaign, claiming Government Ministers have committed fraud in the distribution of funds to their own constituencies and making his trade mark Critical Race remarks about “pork barrel politics” to attack the Government’s Levelling Up Prospectus which decides a constituency’s priority on “its need for economic recovery, regeneration and improved connectivity”. Khan and the 11 other Labour run London boroughs seem proud to have become poorer and wants those responsible to get more money.The Mayor of London accuses the Government of displaying “constant anti-London rhetoric” and has said that “levelling down London will only make us all poorer”. The Mayor is funded by direct government grant and, as a precepting authority, collects money from business rates and local Council Tax. The GLA is unique with its presidential government system that gave Sadiq Khan immense powers he has used very badly. As Mayor of London for increasing the spending on City Hall Staff by 82%. Staff costs in Boris Johnson's final budget for 2016-17 were £36m, while the 2020-21 budget under Mr Khan show them to be at £65.5m. It is clear that while thousands of Londoners have lost jobs, local authority bureaucrats are prospering. False flags about Tory corruption will not stop Londoners worrying about how dangerous the city has become with rising crime and increasing violent deaths Sadiq Khan has proven himself incapable of stopping. Each breath Londoners take prove Khan’s environmental failures but it his failure to build much needed homes while giving Labour Party members and donners millions for their advice and websites now all promoting the Marxist BLM that has been Sadiq Khan’s legacy. The Government provided £4.82 billion grant for the provision of more affordable housing in London. Mayor Khan selected Catalyst Housing Group as his development partner for the redevelopment of the St Ann’s Hospital site in Tottenham despite their numerous Planning Contraventions Notices and Judgements by the Homes and Communities Agency. The Mayor of London has designated 50 of 934 small flats “affordable” and claims this will enable local people to own homes so St Ann’s qualifies for Central Government funding as one of the largest community-led housing schemes in London. Ealing based Catalyst rapacious business practice looks set to increase homeless throughout London. Catalyst Shared Ownership Equity Loans retain 75% of the property while charging £345 per week for loan repayments with each household having to paid additional thousands on maintenance fees each year. Of the 132 South Acton flats purchased through a £70 million Loan arranged by Ealing Labour Councillors including Yvonne Johnston in 2011, over 80% of the original 132 buyers have left by March 2020 with Brentford County Court recording 347 Possession Cases brought by Catalyst over Equity Loan defaults between 2012 and 2020, some flats being sold 3 or 4 times over. Catalyst tells purchasers they will get Housing Benefit to cover loans repayments and when the money they do get falls short Ealing Council moves the evicted families into containers. And blame the Tories.Catalyst Housing Group is building another 900+ flats for shared ownership near the unfinished Acton Mainline train station, another victim of Khan’s disastrous management of Transport for London. This hugely profitable development is the result of 2016 Cannes meetings and payments from Tom Titherington, Catalyst Housing Group’s Executive Director of Property and Growth to Julian Bell and Lucy Taylor, Ealing’s Director of Regeneration. “Two Homes” actually expects people to believe he and his staff, whose salaries have increased in line with those at City Hall, cycled all the way from Ealing to the South of France for charity.
Martin Cain ● 1614d1 Comments