Andy Slaughter MP says government response to petition on recalling dangerous tumble dryers is inadequate and misleading

Guest blog by Andy Slaughter, Labour MP for Hammersmith 

On 28 February, the Government published its response to my petition calling for a recall of the several million tumble dryers manufactured by Whirlpool companies, including Hotpoint and Indesit, which are liable to catch fire. It is wholly inadequate and makes it more urgent that the petition gains another 40,000 signatures to take it to the 100,000 that ensures a full Parliamentary debate.

In August last year a fire ripped through a flat in Shepherds Bush. Following an investigation by the London Fire Brigade it was confirmed that the fire was caused by a faulty Whirlpool tumble dryer.

Since then I have been campaigning for the Government to force Whirlpool to recall all faulty tumble dryers.

As part of this campaign I was in correspondence with the Minister for Consumer Protection, Margot James MP, and I launched the petition to force the Government to debate the issue.

I wrote my most recent letter to Margot James in December, asking her to implement a full product recall. I received her response yesterday, over two months after I wrote.

Yesterday the Government responded in similar terms to the petition, detailing the action taken by both them and Whirlpool to deal with this issue.

From their response, you would think the Government has been actively pushing Whirlpool in this issue, resulting in the company’s recent change in their advice to owners of faulty appliances. This finally changed from saying the machines could be used under supervision, to an admission that they should be put out of use entirely, as recommended by the London Fire Brigade.

However, what they fail to mention is that Whirlpool only changed their advice after the consumer group Which? began a judicial review of Peterborough Trading Standards, who then issued a warning notice.

The Government also states that a Working Group that has been set up to investigate the issue. However, this Working Group is a continuation of the previously established Steering Group, which took no action for over a year because it received no Government support.

While the new Group is better organised, it has failed to publish the interim report it promised would be available in December. In any event the Working Group already knows what needs to be done, as this was set out in the independent report by Lynn Faulds Wood published in February 2016.

Once again, the Government has not told the full story on this issue, and has failed to take serious action against Whirlpool. What action has been taken has been the result of campaigning by consumer groups and individuals like Lynn Faulds Wood.

This issue needs to be debated in Parliament, and it is more vital than ever that people sign my petition to force the Government to have a proper, public debate so that real action can be taken.

Largan's tall tax tales

When Labour stood for election in Hammersmith & Fulham in 2014, it made a clear manifesto promise: "We guarantee to cut taxes and root out waste".

And that's what it's done. It cut council tax in its first year and froze council tax last year and again this year. It also found £3.4m extra a year this year for adult social care.

This is something no other council in the country has managed.

Sadly, not everyone is pleased. Take Robert Largan, the shrill Conservative councillor for Sands End, who's just emailed his constituents with the fib that Labour have "abandoned their tax guarantee".

A forensic examination of the small print of Largan's email shows he's actually complaining about the fact that the Mayor of London's "precept" has increased by 1.5%. This is the Mayor's part of the council tax, collected by London's boroughs, which helps pay for GLA services and City Hall.

It's nothing to do with H&F Labour council. They said they'd cut taxes and they have.

Even with the precept, H&F residents' total council tax bills are are likely to remain the third lowest in the country.

What a contrast with when H&F Conservatives ran the council. The Tories paid for council tax cuts by levying over 600 sneaky stealth taxes.

What a shame Cllr Largan has nothing to offer residents except an "alternative truth" that would make Trump proud.

Why won't H&F Conservatives fight to save local schools' funding?

From today's Evening Standard:

"Thousands of parents were today urged to join a revolt against school funding cuts in London. 

"Hammersmith & Fulham [Labour] council leader Stephen Cowan issued the appeal for parents to pile pressure on the Government to reconsider a controversial school financing shake-up.

"A meeting to discuss the reforms at Hammersmith Town Hall [at 7pm] tomorrow evening is expected to be attended by hundreds of parents, governors and teachers."

We don't know if we'll see any Conservative opposition councillors at tomorrow's town hall meeting but on past evidence it's unlikely.

After all, as far back as January last year, the Tories turned their back on local schools by steadfastly refusing to lend their support to this full council motion calling on the government to reverse its plans:

“This Council welcomes the excellent work done by Hammersmith and Fulham’s schools in providing a first class education for our children and young people.

"The Council notes with concern that recent announcements by both the Chancellor, George Osborne, and the Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, have confirmed the Government’s intention to shift funding away from ‘overfunded’ authorities in London to ‘underfunded’ authorities elsewhere.

"The Council further notes that if the proposed approach were adopted, it could mean a reduction of £10.9m (10.6%) in funding for Hammersmith and Fulham’s Schools and that Hammersmith and Fulham could be one of the worst affected local authorities in the Country.

"This Council therefore calls on the Conservative Government to reverse these plans and ensure that Hammersmith and Fulham’s Schools are fully funded so that they can continue to provide an excellent education for the Borough’s children and young people.”

When will Conservative councillors put local residents above their government and start fighting to save our schools?

Why has Greg Smith ditched SW6?

An eagle-eyed HFConwatch reader has brought to our attention that Cllr Greg Smith, the intemperate H&F Conservative opposition leader who made such a hash of his budget response recently, has changed his twitter handle from gregsmithsw6 to gregsmith_uk.

Is he preparing to paint on a wider canvas? Has he let his fellow Town councillors know?

How voters in SW6 will take Cllr Smith's rejection of them has yet to be seen.

Four more things we learnt about Greg Smith from his response to H&F's budget

It's never an easy job responding to a budget, particularly one that freezes council tax and parking charges, increases funding for adult social care, builds more homes and funds the largest number of police in the borough's history, as Hammersmith & Fulham Labour council’s 2017 budget does.

Perhaps that’s why Conservative opposition leader Greg Smith failed to offer any challenge to the budget when it was in committee.

Or perhaps, going by his responses to the budget in full council each year, it’s all, well, just a bit too hard for him.

This would-be council leader has already demonstrated he doesn’t get basic accounting by failing to understand the difference between one-off capital receipts and an annual revenue budget.

This year, here are four more things we learnt about Cllr Smith from his budget response on 22 February.

1.    He’s a hypocrite. He cheekily claimed the council was leaving garages empty and not building social housing, even though he knew that his own Tory colleagues voted recently – and unsuccessfully – against Labour’s plan to build 33 homes for social rent on unused garages in Sands End (see para. 7.2).

2.    He’s too lazy to do his homework. He called the proposed new Integrated Family Support Service a “£500,000 cut” to services, whereas it is a brand new service that doesn't yet exist and which will improve outcomes for residents and save £500,000 by breaking down artificial walls between council and public health officials.

3.    He’s a right-wing ideologue. He criticised the council for "nationalising" Lyric Square farmers market, whereas now that the council is running the market, traders are paying less to rent the stalls and the market is full.

4.    He’s not businesslike. He claimed the Labour administration wanted to "privatise our libraries by trying to make nearly £400,000 out of them", whereas the council is actually protecting all libraries and their opening hours by raising outside income from unused rooms and after-hours events, including weddings and civil partnerships. 

What does Greg Smith’s budget silence really mean?

Despite his £16,086 salary, Greg Smith, Hammersmith & Fulham council’s Conservative opposition leader, has missed more meetings than most councillors of the Policy and Accountability Committee on which he sits.

These are the committees which hold the administration to account.

So when Cllr Smith took the trouble to toddle along to the Finance Committee on 1 February, which was undertaking the important task of scrutinising the Labour administration's budget, expectations were high.

But we gather that Cllr Smith surprised everyone present by not asking a single question or raising any concerns about the budget. 

Not one. Apparently, he remained silent throughout.

We can only presume from this that Cllr Smith was content with all he saw, heard and read.

And that this evening at the annual Budget Council, when he hears from council leader Stephen Cowan that Labour H&F will be the only council in the country both to

• freeze council tax for the second year running and 
• put £3.4m extra a year into adult social care,

Cllr Smith will be offering his full support.

And then again….

Godzilla returns to King Street

As we warned would happen if Boris were re-elected, Hammersmith & Fulham Tory council has confirmed it intends to go ahead with its widely opposed scheme to build stonking blocks of luxury flats on King Street. Their one concession to public feeling has been to cap the height of these at eight stories.

This would still mean:

• Knocking down the art deco cinema
• Knocking down the home for the blind 
• Eating up a third of the small Furnivall Gardens park for a footbridge
• Not including any new social housing in the development at a time of crying need for more affordable homes, with the "planning gain" money spent on doing up the town hall instead.

New Tory council leaer Nick Botterill has said, "We got it wrong with the previous King Street proposals and we have learned from it." So far, the evidence of that is thin indeed.

Yet all is not lost. The council also says "KSD [King Street Developments] will be reviewing the scheme over the coming months and a further consultation with residents’ and amenity groups will follow later in the year."

You can let them know now what you think here.

West London Tories are letting Hammersmith hospital swing in the wind

In a shock move, the NHS in London is threatening health services for local people by proposing  to shut the Accident and Emergency departments and other facilities at Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals. This is happening because Tory-led cuts mean the NHS in North-West London is facing a £332 million funding gap by 2014/15.

Hammersmith and Fulham Tories have taken a view that they have to be seen to oppose the cuts at Charing Cross hospital but they are letting Hammersmith hospital swing in the wind. All their statements - from the Tory council's anti-closure petition to Tory Fulham MP Greg Hands's website to every peep from Tory H&F councillors - mention only Charing Cross.

NHS bosses said at a meeting last Thursday that they had consulted local councils. What did H&F Tories tell them behind closed doors?

Please join in the campaign against BOTH A&E closures by coming to a public meeting organised by Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith, at 6pm this Thursday, 28 June at Rivercourt Methodist Church, King Street W6 9JT. 

Hammersmith Tories admit their housing policies are based on numbers plucked out of thin air

A truly shocking council meeting last week confirmed that, when it comes to housing, Tory Hammersmith & Fulham council is doing nothing for local people and is justifying this with figures plucked out of thin air.

Labour leader Steve Cowan asked what analysis had led Cllr Johnson, H&F’s Cabinet Member for Housing, and his cabinet colleagues to pick £40,000 as a household income limit for families to get onto the social housing waiting list. Cllr Johnson said he didn’t know and joked about plucking the figure out of thin air before admitting that no such analysis had been undertaken.

Steve says on his blog: "There is a housing crisis in London at the moment.... In Hammersmith and Fulham, virtually no genuinely affordable homes to buy or rent are being built.... There are no serious measures to improve conditions in the private rented sector. Instead, H&F Conservatives' housing strategy prioritises building new luxury flats for international investors often in new, ugly tower blocks detested by local residents. That's hardly the right approach, which is why my Labour colleagues and I will change that if the public vote us into office in 2014"

His full piece is well worth reading here.

Stop Press: Hammersmith council acted illegally over market, rules High Court

The High Court has today ruled that Tory Hammersmith & Fulham Council have been acting illegally in pushing through unpopular plans which allow developers to make profits from the destruction of local communities.

This is a landmark judgement and marvellous news for local people who have been working hard to save their shops and businesses and neighbourhoods.

Andy Slaughter MP explains:

"Today’s decision by the High Court to uphold the Goldhawk Road shopkeepers’ judicial review of the Council’s planning policies should prove fatal to the Tory Council’s controversial planning strategy.  Under these plans, first announced in 2007, much of the borough would be redeveloped as high-rise luxury investment flats, with existing homes and small businesses destroyed.

Mr Justice Wilkie handed down his judgment in the Goldhawk Road case today.  He had heard evidence that the Council had broken the rules repeatedly in trying to help developer Orion build 212 luxury flats on the site of existing local businesses and affordable homes.

This has been a difficult fight, with traders, shopkeepers and local residents all pulling together to tell the council that they have simply got these plans wrong. The councillors for Shepherds Bush and I are all delighted that we could play a part in what has been a  real community effort.

On a personal level, I am delighted for the Goldhawk Road traders, and their thousands of supporters. The Council should protect long-established and well-loved businesses such as Cooke’s Pie and Mash Shop from rapacious developers, not collude  in their destruction. Cooke’s and the world-famous fabric shops in the same row have already suffered years of stress and uncertainly.  It is always difficult to take on the Town Hall and win, but they have done so by their courage and determination – and the assistance of some very able lawyers.

This case has been made necessary by the arrogance of the Council, which is out of touch with its residents and always acts  always in the interests of big developers and for political gain.

They have wasted so far over £200,000 in lawyers’ fees alone – many times this in officer time and propaganda.  This is our money, which as usual they feel free to waste.  Now they are talking about appealing the decision and pressing on with the demolition in spite of the Court’s verdict.

Next week the Council elects a new leader.  This should be a chance for it to pause and review some of the more controversial planning projects, including Shepherds Bush Market.  To spend more taxpayers’ money trying to overturn this decision or to continue to support the developer would be obscene.

All of the Council’s dodgy planning and housing policies will now be under legal scrutiny and if they do not fundamentally rethink their approach they will be back in court again and again."

Andy

The press release issued by the solicitor who acted for the traders can be viewed here.

More information can be found on the Shepherd's Bush blog here.