Hello Everyone, I hope you’ve had a lovely
Christmas with family and friends! It’s now the countdown to midnight and ushering
in 2024, on behalf of everyone at the Council I wanted to wish you and your
loved ones a very Happy New Year ahead of your celebrations tonight! Last week, I wrote about
how our borough is a really special place; we are dynamic, diverse and
determined. Why? It’s because of our people – that’s why Newham stands apart. With passion, purpose and
heart, I am determined to seize the opportunities before us because it is our
duty at the Council to help transform the lives and livelihoods of all our
residents. We want everyone in our borough to thrive and have healthy, happy,
and fulfilled lives; and we will be making this happen by working closely with
residents and businesses, the voluntary sector and community partners in 2024. I know that together we
can positively deal with the challenges we face; ensuring that through working
with the Council officer team, in collaboration with residents, we can deliver
on the improvements we all want to see across all our neighbourhoods. For instance, tackling the
scourge of fly-tipping through our A Clean Borough plans; holding the police to
account to make our streets safe for women and our young people; investing to
deliver more homes our people can afford; tackling toxic air pollution that is
harming our children and ensure we advance on our Climate Action Just
Transition agenda to get to our Net Zero commitments in 2045. There are also
those all-important investments we need to bring into the borough to support
our inclusive growth agenda locally; where people are being paid the London Living
Wage, have more opportunities to acquire skills and access jobs, and small
businesses are supported to grow. These past 12 months have
been dominated by the cost of living crisis and a housing emergency, but we
have been working hard to try to support our residents in these hard times. On housing delivery, we
approved £51.8 million to accelerate our Carpenters Estate regeneration plans,
including a new building for Carpenters Primary School; and in this year alone
we’ve built 74 new genuinely affordable homes; adding to the 1000 we started
previously; with another 275 more homes ready for people to move into in 2024.
That includes 75 new homes specially designed for over 55s, a first in Newham. We made some great strides
as part of our other two estate regeneration programmes in Canning Town and
Custom House as well. The masterplan planning
approval for Custom House provides outline consent to deliver 629 mixed-tenure
genuinely affordable homes along with new community facilities, including a new
health hub, nursery, bus stand and cycling links which will make Custom House a
better place to live. At Canning Town, we are co-designing a new estate with local residents, to deliver
a large number of family homes along with open spaces, play spaces and
energy-efficient buildings which will transform the neighbourhood. As well as progressing our plans for the big
regeneration projects like Carpenters Estate, Canning Town and Custom House,
Green Street and Stratford we have taken immediate action to increase the
property available to those in temporary accommodation. In April we announced the purchase of 203 properties
across the borough, and just last month Cabinet gave the green light for the
£56 million redevelopment of Victoria Street which will deliver 122 new homes including 90 two and three-bedroom homes. Also last month, Cabinet agreed to the £10 million total
refurbishment of the 124 flats in the Hamara Ghar sheltered housing complex in
Queen’s Market. Much more needs to be done by Central Government to tackle the
crisis – with analysis from City Hall and Savills showing that London needs
£4.9 billion invested to deliver the 130,000 affordable homes urgently needed
between now and 2027-8. I will continue to campaign alongside Mayor of London,
Sadiq Khan, to make sure the Government gets the message. One of the biggest
challenges facing Newham is the age and historic underinvestment in our housing
stock, both in the social and the private sectors. To tackle this head-on, in
November we launched the Damp
and Mould Strategy which
will improve conditions in rented homes across the borough – from Council to
the private rented sector and temporary accommodation. In
March, Newham Council
launched the third chapter in its journey to become a leading destination for
data and digital innovation with the unveiling of plans for London’s first Data
Campus at East Ham Town Hall. Part of our £1.2 million investment in Newham
Sparks, the Data Campus with a focus on digital and data innovation,
entrepreneurship and learning, creating opportunities for young people to
develop skills and careers while providing an incubator for start-ups and businesses
in high-growth data industries. You’ll hear more about Newham Sparks and the
Data Campus in the coming year. We will also continue to
support our most vulnerable residents with help dealing with the worst excesses
of the cost of living crisis. Since April last year, Our Newham Money has used
the £6,678,390 grant funding from the Household Support Fund to help over
30,000 Newham households who are most in financial need. The fund has also
supported over 19,000 school children every school holiday with holiday food
vouchers. To tackle the
environmental crisis facing us as a result of the climate emergency we have
continued to improve our borough to allow more sustainable transport. In May we
agreed to a programme to spend £51 million on a programme which will deliver
improvements to roads, pavements and street lighting. We have also committed
this borough to fight the climate emergency. Last month Cabinet and Full
Council backed our Just Transition Plan. I am incredibly proud that Newham
Council has become the first local authority in the country to launch a Climate
Action Just Transition Plan. It provides a blueprint to address the unequal
impacts of climate change on Newham’s residents who are disproportionality
impacted by the climate emergency, but pay the highest costs for climate
adaptation. While Newham residents
have the lowest carbon footprint per person in London, they are also impacted
by some of the highest climate risks in the country. Climate change is already
disproportionately impacting those most vulnerable and exacerbating existing
economic and health challenges experienced by communities of colour. Newham’s
Climate Action Just Transition Plan will accelerate the borough’s journey to
net zero by 2045 while broadening the focus on adaptation and resilience
measures around extreme heat, flooding and air quality. Integrating education,
skills and job opportunities, will benefit all residents. To help residents engage
with the environmental work we are doing, we have just introduced weekly
recycling collections. We have much to look
forward to in 2024 – our bid to become the London Borough of Culture was
launched in style at Queens Market in November where we showcased the amazing
talent that we have in Newham. I am excited about all the
possibilities that being the London Borough of Culture 2025 will bring through
our programme - we will be fair, fearless and first in pioneering innovative
cultural and creative approaches to widen participation and support our home-grown
talent to thrive. Our London Borough of Culture 2025 programme will reflect our
purpose in Newham, which is all about positive change, social value and lifting
our people and our communities, because we are passionate about their health,
wellbeing and happiness and enriching their lives. This year will also see
work start on the Canning
Town Old Library transforming the
magnificent Grade II listed building into an innovative cultural and creative
space dedicated to protecting and conserving Newham’s heritage through a new
archive and digital skills development centre. The final building will be
multifunctional, hosting archive and educational uses together with a café,
event hire, exhibitions, and community functions. The new building will deliver
enormous Community Wealth Building benefits to Canning Town and become a key
focal point of the Regeneration of Barking Road. And last but by no means
least I can’t wait to see our 119 successful People Powered Placed Projects –
voted for by over 10,000 of you – hit the ground running in 2024! While there’s so much to
do and much to get on with; there’s also much to look forward to over the next
12 months! I can’t wait to celebrate these achievements together with you all
in 2024! Happy New Year, once again
to you and your loved ones! Best wishes, Rokhsana Fiaz OBE Mayor of Newham Follow what I am up to via
X / Twitter: @rokhsanafiaz | 
