Havering Must Drop Victim Mentality

One of the most depressing things I have witnessed, in my short time as a councillor, is the lack of vision that many of our councillors have. They seem to lack hope for our borough, a dream of what they want it to be, and many seem to fail to grasp that we are partly responsible for what happens where we live.

I don’t reserve this criticism for a particular political group or individuals, but for the mentality of councillors in general. Everything seems to ‘happen to us’ rather than us ‘making stuff happens’. This attitude of a hard-done-by borough has infected thinking and policy at all levels, and it leads to apathy or a lack of effort.

“If only we could leave London and join Essex”, seems to be the latest bit of posturing designed to deflect attention away from what Havering’s leaders are or are not doing. It’s the ultimate excuse, as if we would be living in a utopia where it not for the evil Mayor of London, sat in his lair scheming 24/7 about how to do over this part of the city.

Overdevelopment of Havering is where we see this victim mentality infect thinking the most. We’re a poor ol’ borough which would consist purely of chocolate box cottages, every lawn hosting a flag pole, and everyone borrowing cups of sugar from their neighbours. But, we’ve been forced to build skyscapers all over Romford and none of them are given to anyone local.

Except that isn’t the case, it’s largely nonsense.

Havering must deliver on housing targets, that is true. Yes, these are set by government and the GLA. But how we meet those targets is largely up to us. I would also argue that it’s somewhat good that we have targets to meet.

The homelessness data should shame us all. Hundreds of families are housed in temporary accommodation, meaning they will have spent Christmas in places where a mother and children may huddle around a microwave for their dinner in a room in an HMO. Not far up the road from these families will be councillors and MPs, in their warm homes, complaining about they now have too many neighbours. With many local politicians acting as landlords, and some even managing to claim taxpayer funding for a second home, it’s “no home for you, two for me”. Scrooge would be embarrassed by the attitudes of some of those running the place.

This homelessness costs us millions every year, and we spend millions more in paying private landlords to accommodate people for us. I’d be conservative in saying that we are spending over £13m a year on just those two items.

Yet, woe are we, for our financial mess is purely the fault of those naughty boys and girls in Westminster.

Except, again, that isn’t the case. It’s far more nuanced.

You see, Havering owns a property developer which has the sole aim of building homes for private rent, to help prop up the private rental market. That’s right, we’ve decided that it is our job to prop up a failing part of the economy. Some say that is a good use of your taxes, because one day in the future this company may turn a profit (it hasn’t in the last decade) and one day local families may choose to rent those homes. This, we are told, will relieve the pressure on our homelessness.

Of course, there is another way. We could say “gosh, 400 families in temporary accommodation and a £15m a year bill is horrific”. We could then ditch this private rent developer and build social homes, we could work towards cutting down that £15m a year bill, whilst then having a new income stream from the social rent. Cut costs, new income… all done on land we already own, making things much much cheaper.

We could, or we could just keep doing what we’ve always done.

This hard-done-by attitude is holding us back and suffocating any vision our politicians may have.

Whilst we moan about a dying high-street, we moan about transforming empty nightclubs into homes for young professionals.

We’re just a few months out from local elections and it’s high time we begin to speak some hope and some vision over our borough. These distraction campaigns and blaming of others won’t fix anything.

Think of Romford over the last 20 years or so. Do you think it has got better or worse? Maybe that is a sign that we need a change in thinking, we need something fresh and it’s high time for hope.

When I moved to Romford, I initially thought the town was a little lacking. Then I got out and about and I met people. I met amazing groups people who get together and pray for our town every week, I met charity workers who give their all to help those in need, I met fantastic local businesses giving it a go, I met residents opening their homes to one another, I discovered a community. And it wasn’t a thing of the past, we have a living, breathing, vibrant community, which is alive and well.

We have shopping malls investing to grow and improve our town centre, we have young families moving here due to the quality of our parks and our schools, we have wild deer, a miniature railway, fantastic places to eat, pubs galore, and if you get bored then the West End is a short train ride away (free for those benefitting from the FreedomPass).

Romford, Havering, is a great place to live. We’ve got a chance to make a difference to it, to shape it as we see fit. We are not an oppressed and marginalised borough, with no power to make any change, close to glory if only we could cross the M25. No, we have a range of tools available to improve people’s lives, cut costs, and keep our town a brilliant place to live.

I’m bored of our politicians walking about like a combination of Oliver and Scrooge, so hard done-by and devoid of joy and vision. I hope that our politicians encountered the real spirit of Christmas, perhaps coming out the other side ready to make a change!