The Council launches a refreshed Council Plan, shaped by you, our residents

Mr Mayor

Thank you for leading the office you represent for another year. The work you have done to support your chosen charity - Glasshouse - has been incredible.

We all wish you another successful year, hopefully even more out on the road. Meeting people, dropping into events, and representing us in the borough and further afield.

I want to pay tribute to how you, and your predecessor, have really modernised the role of the Mayor in the last four years.

In fact, the role of the Mayor and the Mayor’s office is a good touch stone for where this whole Council is.

We have made sweeping changes, and modernised – officers and councillors are more accessible and active in communities, we listen, we act on concerns and bring in new ideas.

We are more connected to our communities, to organisations, to local businesses, than ever before.

Over the past few months, some of the connections have had to be digital, but like you Mr Mayor we have been out, meeting people, helping people – whenever the rules allowed.

I can remember Kim and Catherine riding around on scooters last summer to help community groups deliver food to those shielding and members opposite – like Ian – helping to secure food and funding for food banks.

Staff have worked hard to access funding from Government, to aid economic survival in lockdown, and economic recovery, now the country is moving in the right direction.

We’ve supported the NHS more than any other Council in London in making sure testing and vaccines are front and centre for residents, with some of the highest testing figures in the country, and our over 60s getting double jabbed in double time.

We have sat with GPs and called people for them. We stepped up to fund school meals before any other borough in London. We supported community groups and organisations who have supported others, tirelessly. We were first to bring planning meetings online, first to get library services online, and first to get them open again.

We were first to help businesses with the necessary funding and paperwork, so they could compete with the rest of London and offer food and drink on our streets. An Al Fresco revolution.

We aren’t perfect, no Council is, but we are on the road to improving our services further and further, at pace, and with continued drive and vigour. We have changed, and now we need to continually improve, day after day, month after month, year after year.

Mr Mayor

It looks like the end of the pandemic might be in sight, but, with that, comes fresh challenges.

Nobody could have foreseen the way the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the nation nor what was left in its wake.

We endured isolation, lockdowns, job losses, and we lost loved ones. The impact will now be felt for many years to come.

So, we have revised our Council Plan – our core set of objectives that tells us what is most important to our residents, and what our priorities should be.

Within this plan we have allocated funding, and outlined how we can further support communities to recover…

In total, £8m has been put to one side.

We want communities to bounce back from the pandemic, and we are determined to build back better in our borough.

We want to lay strong foundations over the coming months, build on the amazing community work that is already underway, and enable the people who live and work in this borough to have the very best opportunities in life.

Together we can create a greener, safer, and more equal borough.

But, Mr Mayor, this is in a challenging context. We are trying to build homes, in partnership with the Mayor of London.

In fact, we are trying to build social housing and affordable homes at a faster rate than this council has ever tried before.

We have met challenges along the way, but some sites are now on the verge of becoming a reality.

We also want to make the homes we manage safer, but we are often at the mercy of a construction and health and safety industry that is in turmoil. What can and can’t be trusted, in terms of products, companies, design, and construction has never been more confused than it is right now.

At the same time, we have targets to meet, and more importantly people waiting for a home. And we are having to find ways to save £28m over the next four years, to keep our books balanced.

We are positive we can do this, and we hope we can take the majority of residents with us. But the challenges over the next few years should not be underestimated.

We have difficult decisions to make.

Mr Mayor

We have seen how events around the world, and around the UK, have shifted attention gradually away from the Grenfell Tragedy, but not here. We remain steadfast in making sure Grenfell Recovery is our first priority. I want families to know that we are still here for you.

We know the inquiry is slow, and often painful in its detail. We wish it would be swifter, remove any unnecessary breaks. Over summer, for example, or Fridays – and give recommendations that makes sure Grenfell never happens again. It needs more urgency.

Council staff and councillors, past and present, have given evidence in recent months, and I have impressed on the organisation again – we must be open, honest, and abide by our commitments to the Hillsborough Charter.

Families want justice, and the way we conduct ourselves can either help or hinder that endeavour.

Mr Mayor

After months of being apart, it was emotional to see families reunited again on the fourth anniversary last week, and I watched the powerful video by Grenfell United.

There are clearly big decisions… community-led decisions… on the future of the tower and a fitting memorial.

But the issues that the Grenfell tragedy raised, cladding, fire safety, the way we build homes, social housing.

All of these are now national issues, and on a huge scale.  The families, who maintain such dignity, can be proud that their efforts, their fight, their actions continue to make sure construction companies and Government continue to listen and hear them.

Mr Mayor

Ever since the Grenfell Tragedy, you have heard me talk about change. Change at RBKC, change in the way we do things, the way we engage, the way we deliver services. Change at this Council has progressed, hugely. In most areas, this organisation is barely recognisable from the one that existed before June 2017

This is marked by the way we have handled the pandemic. As one borough, with partners, with communities, with residents, with businesses.

On the side of the people who live, work and visit here.

We are now a Council that moves quickly. A Council that doesn’t always assume it is right. An organisation that is more humble. We listen, we learn, and we take action. Or, we explain, honestly, why we cannot.

The evidence for this is in the decision we have taken. Homes for key workers, £10m for green initiatives, building new homes for social rent, the dedicated service, investing in schools for special education, investing in our High Streets, and what we are planning to do next.

Improve our customer services, make homes safer, help our most vulnerable after the pandemic, create job opportunities, more school streets and reducing speed limits, invest in CCTV and tackle anti-social behaviour, and be carbon neutral by 2030.

Mr Mayor

Our refreshed Council Plan builds on what we have done already. Importantly, it outlines exactly what our residents want from us.

A borough that is a great place to live, work, and learn, a Council that helps and supports the most vulnerable a borough that is healthy, clean, and safe, a unique place in London that people want to visit and explore.

When reflecting ahead of tonight, I thought about what I am most proud of.

A new school for children who have incredibly challenging disabilities and a state of the art primary school next door.

Our parks and open spaces and our commitment to them, in staffing, in investment, and in maintaining them. They played an absolutely crucial role in the pandemic and as we came in and out of lockdowns.

And our focus on the economy. A renewed sense of what we can achieve by working with businesses, big and small, for the good of our High Streets, our culture and our hospitality sectors, all of which are key routes to employment.

We are a Council that is changed, and a Council that is focused on improving.

Mr Mayor

We are a council led by its communities.