The stated aim of the legislation which brought the Boundary Review into being was to even out the number of registered electors in each constituency, yet the review ignored the fact that areas like Lambeth contain a disproportionate number of people who are not on the register.

The truth is that the review was politically motivated and designed to advantage the Conservative Party as many independent commentators have made clear. The result is that just when our communities need more representation than ever, in this age of austerity and when our constituents are having to cope with too far too fast government cuts, we will see less representation in the future for one of the most deprived boroughs in the country.

We will be voting against these proposals when they are put before the House of Commons in late 2013 not because of any personal interest but because they are the wrong thing for this borough which we love so much.

We want to assure all of our constituents in Lambeth that we were elected to serve the people in each constituency for this parliament and that is what we will do right up until the next General Election regardless of what comes after.

Kate Hoey MP
Member of Parliament for Vauxhall

Chuka Umunna MP
Member of Parliament for Streatham

Redefine International confirmed to Mr Umunna that discussions are currently underway with a number of major retailers to secure the development’s anchor store, with confirmation of which store has reached a final agreement due by the end of March.

Mr Umunna was informed that work is set to begin early next year on the development, with the initial retail offering opening in 2013. The entire complex, including new homes, is due for completion in 2015.

Wentworth House on Sternhold Avenue, which was formerly occupied by a JobCentre office and has lain dormant for a number of years, is due to be demolished as part of the scheme. Mr Umunna has learned from Redefine International that Lambeth has now signed off permission for the building’s demolition, which will proceed shortly.

The developer hopes to convert the Wentworth House site into a temporary short-stay car park providing much-needed parking spaces for those using local shops, pending completion of the overall scheme. The change of use to a temporary short-stay car park is subject to council approval.

The entire development, with a site encompassing the former Caesar’s nightclub, Megabowl and adjacent properties, represents £75 million of inward investment in Streatham.

Commenting, Mr Umunna said:

“I am pleased that this redevelopment is moving forward and am pushing for it to be delivered as quickly as possible with the minimum of disruption to local residents.

“Everyone is agreed on the importance of regenerating this stretch of Streatham Hill and our High Road and the need to attract businesses to the area. I believe this project has the potential to deliver on both of these counts and improve our main shopping street.”

In this video, Chuka discusses the government’s New Deal for Communities programme and the difference it is making to the Clapham Park Estate.

Having been designated as one of the government’s New Deal for Communities (NDC) zones, Clapham Park has benefitted from £56 million of regeneration funding. The programme is focussed on neighbourhoods suffering from multiple social deprivation, taking a holistic approach by improving housing, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, improving transport links and opportunities in education and training.

The project is controlled by local residents, empowering the community to make choices on how to make the area a better place to live.

Residents have been provided with entry phones to reduce anti-social behaviour, the area has benefitted from a new bus route to Brixton and Balham and new and improved housing is currently being built.

Mentoring and skills training is also being provided to help people into work. Neighbourhood wardens have been introduced to improve safety and security for local residents.

In December 2009, it was announced that Clapham Park had been shortlisted for £9.5 million of additional funding through the government’s Kickstart Programme to support the building of new homes.

Commenting, Chuka said:

“I share residents impatience for the rebuild and renovation of homes in the area. But, unlike opposition parities, we have not sat back and moaned but worked hard to get more government investment into the area so these essential works can continue.

“Clapham Park Homes has got £27 million in extra money into the estate – to make sure that they can continue to fund their programme of refurbishment and rebuild. Locally Labour worked hard to convince the Housing Minister that CPH could turn this money into new homes without delay.

“We will share residents’ delight when, in a few weeks’ time they are able to move into the new building on Clarence Crescent and the refurbished Picton and Rigg Houses in Clapham Park West.

“I am clear that Clapham Park Homes still has more to do to improve the service to tenants and leaseholders. That is why myself and local Labour councillors meet regularly with the CPH Chief Executive, to voice our concern over some of the service standards and to raise individual problems that people have brought to us.

“It is also why we continue to support the many community initiatives that have developed since 2001 such as the Over 50′s club and the youth work done by Clapham Park Project (CPP).”

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a major consultation on the future of London transport, which includes the potential scheme to bring the London Underground to Streatham.

Following the publication of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy, Londoners are being asked to register their views.

This is an important opportunity to let the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL) know what a difference a tube extension to Streatham, currently under consideration, would make.

The Mayor’s Transport Strategy recognised the lack of transport connections in South London, describing the “paucity of the Underground network” in the area and the need for “better public transport connectivity between inner north and inner south London”.

It also confirms that TfL is looking into a number of options to extend the Bakerloo line southwards with the route currently being under development. The report pledges that the Bakerloo extension will serve “areas with poor transport accessibility”.

Despite these positive developments, we need to keep up pressure if we want a Streatham tube extension to become a reality.

The decision on where to build the tube extension will take into account the views of residents and you can take part in the consultation at http://www.london.gov.uk/shaping-london/ before it closes on January 12th 2010.

Registering views online only takes around 5 minutes and could help determine whether the Tube comes to Streatham or elsewhere.

If you haven’t yet signed the petition to bring the tube to Streatham, do so here.

Parents understandably want their children to attend a good local school – I know because I am a governor of one. Increasing demand for school places is an issue across London, with population shifts, increases in the birth rate and pressure on sites for school buildings.

With reference to your article, “Lambeth school space crisis” (9 July 2009), the government is taking action to create more primary and secondary school places by expanding existing schools and building new ones. Nationally, Labour is investing £21.9 billion on school buildings between now and 2011. Locally we have already seen the fruits of this with the establishment of new secondary schools such as Lambeth Academy and new primaries such as the Jubilee School since 1997.

However, though all those who applied on time for a primary school place received an offer in a Lambeth school this year, it is true that the ability to meet parental preferences in each case is still a challenge and more places are needed in the future.

That is why Keith Hill MP and I are meeting with ministers and working hard to ensure central government provides further investment so we can provide more places for our children, for example by converting the Woodfield Centre in Streatham, an old Special School, to provide a new primary school in the area. We will keep residents posted on our progress.

Chuka Umunna
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham

In February, Mayor Johnson stated that it is his ambition to extend the Bakerloo line southwards to Lewisham and beyond. Last week we obtained confirmation that TfL is working on these plans, looking into the feasibility of such a scheme.

Chuka is demanding to know why Streatham is not being considered for any possible southwards extension of the tube when Lewisham, for example, is already well-served by the Docklands Light Railway extension which opened in 1999.

The Bakerloo line could instead be extended southwards from Elephant & Castle via Camberwell and Brixton to Streatham. This would have the added benefit of relieving congestion on Streatham High Road.

However, The Bakerloo line is only one of the options available for bringing the tube to Streatham. The planned Crossrail 2 scheme, running from Chelsea to Hackney, would considerably relieve congestion on the Victoria line, creating the potential for an extension of the Victoria line to Streatham from Brixton.

Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Chuka said:

“I have lived here for most of my life and people have been talking about the desirability of having the tube in Streatham for as long as I can remember.

“This campaign is a long term project. Public finances are going to be tight for the next few years but we need to build up a head of steam behind this now so that when there is more money about, we are in a good position to demand it is used to finally bring the tube here.

Streatham residents’ hopes of getting a tube extension have a long history of false starts and disappointment. In the original plans for the Victoria line included in the 1946 London Plan, it was intended that the line would run to Streatham and on to Croydon. This scheme even received approval in Parliament, but was never built because of a lack of finance.

Chuka said,

“Streatham has been ignored for far too long while other areas have benefited from better transport provision. It is bad enough that our direct Thameslink connections are under threat, but the fact that TfL is looking at extending the Bakerloo line without even considering our area as a station destination, is not on. We deserve better.”

“This area would benefit hugely from a tube station. As well as obvious
benefits for local residents, it would give a massive boost to the regeneration of Streatham and the local economy.

“We are going to work together to put pressure on TfL to consider Streatham a top priority for tube improvements in South London.”

You can sign up to the petition to bring the tube to Streatham here: Bring the tube to Streatham petition

The event, which Chuka will be attending and is part of the Streatham Festival, will take place at ASC studios in Streatham Hill, opening on Friday evening and 11am-5pm on Saturday and Sunday. For more details and a list of artists taking part, check out the Streatham Artists website. The Open Studios weekend will be accompanied by a number of local events over the coming weeks, including a seminar on art in Iraq and a collograph print demonstration.

On the 18th and 19th of July, Josephine Avenue in Brixton will be transformed into a free outdoor art fair, Urban Art 2009. In October, artists across the borough will open their doors as part of Lambeth Open.

The sports hall, which took only three months to construct, was built under the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme. Dunraven has benefitted from £20 million of investment under the programme, and a large-scale redevelopment and rebuilding programme at the school will begin next year.

Because of the structure of trade between the developing world and the west, the number of sea containers being shipped to Europe is significantly more than the return traffic and it is not worthwhile shipping back empties. Re-using them as building materials is an environmentally-friendly way of solving this problem, and is extremely cost effective: Dunraven’s sports hall would have cost an additional £0.75m using conventional materials.

Many environmentally-friendly features were incorporated into the building. These include a rainwater harvesting system, weather-controlled heating and motion-sensor lighting controls.

Last year, Chuka was honoured to be invited to speak and present prizes at Dunraven’s annual student awards ceremony.

The collective reputation of MPs has been burned to ash and the clean-up begins not a moment too soon. MPs of all parties have been shamed, but it has been most galling when associated with people on the left, who were first elected by telling voters they would change the rules – in politics and beyond – to make Britain better and fairer. Labour activists who go door to door for them have been on the receiving end of public anger and are themselves furious.

The mantra often repeated is “my claims were within the rules”, but this is a complete irrelevance when the claims do not stand up to moral scrutiny. How can they not see this?

It appears they have been deafened to political reality by the siren songs of vested interest, manifested in the deference of Commons police and staff, the patronage of the whips, the Speaker’s offices and the indulgence of the fees office. To the public, it seems they have been rewarded with TVs, kitchens, massage chairs and imaginary mortgages for doing so. If politics in Britain is to have a future, all this must change.

Another future is possible. We are two Labour politicians but there are many more of us – parliamentary candidates, councillors and activists – who still believe in what Harold Wilson called the “moral crusade” of our party. We are all putting our hearts and souls into it and a better future for our communities.

Most of our politicians are idealistic and well-intentioned. The corrupt are few, and now is the time for them to be driven from office by the many who want to rebuild trust in what should be an honest and open vocation.

As the Commons considers what to do, Labour’s next generation has a duty to make a contribution if it does not wish to inherit the public’s contempt.

We must start by recognising that if we want to dismantle the “gentlemen’s club”, we must tackle the machine ¬politics out of which it was born. Root and branch constitutional reform is a prerequisite. We must elect the Lords, make the voting system more ¬proportional and end the degraded adversarial culture of Westminster, as exemplified by the so-called theatre of prime minister’s questions.

The Labour party must change too. MPs who have acted within the rules but outside the bounds of public acceptability should be deselected. There is a moral and political imperative to do so – we will not retain seats where we are offering damaged goods. The higher education minister David Lammy has mooted introducing primaries as a way of making parliamentary selection more open, and to involve the public. The clamour for this is growing.

But first, changes to MPs’ expenses and the election of the Speaker are imminent. Gordon Brown’s proposal of an independent parliamentary standards regulator, responsible for pay and allowances, is welcome. Expenses should now be fully published online and investigated without further delay, with absolute application of the law towards MPs found to have broken it.

Whatever shape the new expenses system takes, one principle should win out: there must be an end to any privileges that set MPs apart from the people they represent – no first class travel, no London congestion charge reclaim, and no claims for anything that is not directly related to the work of being an MP.

In 1994, the then Labour leader, John Smith, said: “The opportunity to serve our country – that is all we ask.” Service. That is what our parliamentarians need to remember as they consider reform. The time has come to serve the people, not politicians.