Review of 2023

A challenging year

As we approach 2024, I wanted to say a few words about how things have gone during 2023.

Fair to say 2023 has been another year replete with challenges, not least the ongoing war in the Ukraine and the appalling events in Israel in October, which has led to a terrible war against Hamas in Gaza. Although things in Government have calmed down considerably under Rishi Sunak, after we burned through no less than three prime ministers last year, our friends in Westminster continue to preside over something of a basketcase. We have had about seven by-elections (I honestly lost count), a Cabinet reshuffle and an ongoing back-and-forth with the courts over the Rwanda Bill. 

Westminster

Perhaps most notable for a political anorak like me was the return of David Cameron to frontbench politics, albeit as a member of the House of Lords. The now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (a title rather 'on the nose', in my opinion) joined the Sunak Ministry as Foreign Secretary, becoming the first former PM to serve under a successor since Lord Home (PM, 1963-64) accepted the same job under Edward Heath in 1970 - over half a century ago! He also becomes the first Secretary of State to serve from the Upper House since Lord Mandelson left office in 2010 and the first to hold one of the Great Offices of State since the late Lord Carrington resigned as Foreign Secretary under Margaret Thatcher back in 1982.

 

While there is, appreciably and undeniably, a feeling of a government on its last legs, given all the relentlessly negative press coverage, there is much the Government has accomplished this year of which I am proud. We invested £94 billion in cost-of-living support that has helped millions up and down the country, including extra support for the most vulnerable, low income households, pensioners and the disabled. We had the extension of the Energy Price Guarantee, helping every household by keeping typical household bills to £2.5K. There was the cut to National Insurance contributions, putting more money in our pockets and saving over 27 million people an average of £330. The National Living Wage went up by £7.6K (the largest increase in history, benefiting more than 2 million low paid workers). 

Some 20,000 new police officers have been recruited nationally. Here in Essex, the force is now the largest it has been in its history. The Government put £17bn into policing, including over £1bn for Counter Terrorism and £1.4bn to combat child sexual abuse, modern slavery and county lines drug crime (a big problem in this area). The Government has introduced mandatory life sentences for killers and increased maximum sentences for those who commit assaults against emergency workers. They have also introduced Violence Reduction Units and 'hotspot policing' (with one area identified in Pitsea). These initiatives have seen a marked reduction in violent crime.  

 

The NHS has seen £6.6bn in extra funding, as well as £7.5bn for adult social care over the next three years - taking total health spending to £192bn p.a. The Government aims to build thirty new hospitals by 2030 and 160 new Community Diagnostic Centres by 2025, including the one opening right here in our borough. This is all whilst presiding over the biggest catch-up programme in NHS history, as we clear the Covid backlogs, having recruited 4,000 more doctors and over 9,000 more nurses.

 

Education funding is up £14.4bn - the biggest boost to school funding in years. Every primary school will receive at least £4.4K per pupil and every secondary £5.7K - an uplift of over £1.5K per pupil. The Government have tripled investment in SEN infrastructure and introduced a £5bn Education Recovery Plan to help pupils recover from lost learning during the pandemic, including tutoring for around 6 million kids and £200m for summer schools. There was also £400m to boost remote education by providing students most in need with electronic devices.   

 

So, whilst I appreciate it is mostly doom and gloom in the news, I remain an optimist. I continue to believe a Conservative Government is the best vehicle to deliver the priorities of the British people. It seems abundantly clear to me that Sir Flipflop and the Labour Party have not really changed and will never produce the policies this country needs to tackle the challenges we face. I will also add that the legislation the Government passed in 2022 has meant that, this year, we have not seen a single Traveller incursion. Unauthorised encampments on Sun Corner or at Queens Park were becoming an almost annual event but the new powers granted under the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act (2022) seem to have all but eliminated the problem!

 

Closer to home

Locally, as always, your Conservative councillors have been plodding away. When our local surgeries resumed in the New Year, it was good to be able to use the new hard-standing paths through Mill Meadows to get to the Library. It has certainly made my own walks into town more pleasant and now means Mill Meadows is more accessible for everyone and it has been good to see residents of all ages and abilities, including those in wheelchairs or mobility scooters or pushing buggies, now able to walk through the meadows too.

Long-awaited works to improve the play area at Lake Meadows were unveiled in January following public consultation and the new play area opened a few months ago and now includes a number of items of inclusive play equipment. We could not get the iconic old rocking horse insured but she has been preserved and re-sited in the park, within view of the play area, so that the old girl can continue to watch over the youth of Billericay as she has for decades. Works are also starting on the new Skate Park behind the swimming pool and the Changing Places facility near the cafe. We have also planted around 400 new trees at Lake Meadows this year and installed brand new fencing.

There have also been improvements in Billericay High Street, including new heritage-design LED street lighting and the new 'robo-bins' designed to prevent over-spilling litter.

I know it does not always feel like it but there have been great strides with highways issues and we have been seeing a lot more repairs, such as the full resurfacing undertaken on Jacksons Lane (following much lobbying), Hillway, Valley Road, Meadow Rise, Greens Farm Lane and Sun Street. In February, Essex County Council put £9m into the Highways budget, followed by another £3m in May. This is on top of the nearly £7m in additional support from Central Government. Working with my ECC counterpart, Cllr. Anthony Hedley (Con, Billericay & Burstead), we have been relentlessly lobbying Essex Highways on issues in Billericay East, including the kerbs at Morris Avenue and the urgent need to resurface Hillside Road. We also worked together on the illegal tree-felling on highways land at Hatfield Drive.

I continue to try to make time for local community groups where I can. I am a trustee of the Billericay Educational Trust and we interviewed another batch of extremely worthy candidates, all from underprivileged backgrounds, to provide financial support to access further education. I was very pleased to meet Sarah Hawkes of Human Kind at the Reading Rooms to discuss their plans to open a new 'kindness cafe' in the High Street, where the old Lloyd Pharmacy used to be. I think it is a hugely exciting initiative. I have also really enjoyed getting more involved with the Outwood Common Tenants & Residents' Group (affectionately known as the 'Outwood Commoners'). The TRG are a lovely little group, working to improve the lives of all the people who live on the Outwood Common Estate. I have attended a number of their events and they are brilliant. My stepdaughter Poppy and I particularly enjoyed judging the Dog Show and a recent Pirate Fancy Dress Competition in the summer. The latter was on Poppy's birthday and a member of the TRG baked her a birthday cake, which was incredibly kind! I was extremely pleased and proud to nominate their chair, Lorna Mumford, for the Alf Dove Award in recognition of all her hard work and that of the entire TRG.

One group I have not been able to support as much as I would like is the Billericay Community Cinema. My frontbench duties at Basildon Council mean I no longer have as much availability to give my 'film nerd' talks at the cinema and I only managed one this year - Sir Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) in October - but it is gratifying to see the cinema going from strength to strength and I relish the opportunities to go and help out where they arise.

It is the little things at the end of the day and one of the highlights of my year was a handwritten note I received from a 5-year-old constituent named Hanna about dog-fouling outside her school. I raised this on Hanna's behalf directly with the Head of Environmental Services and sent Hanna a hand-written reply. We got some red dog waste bins installed outside her school.

Housing & Estate Renewal

I have been extremely busy as Cabinet Member for Housing & Estate Renewal. This year, I developed the Housing Strategy (2023-28), starting with a very well-attended stakeholder event held at the Holiday Inn in February. We also opened ourselves up for an LGA Peer Review of our Housing Services, which was exceptionally useful.

I also attended a Joint Cabinet Meeting that month between Cabinet Members from both Essex County Council and Basildon Borough Council, which included an estate visit with my opposite number, Cllr. Louise McKinlay (Con, Brentwood Hutton), Deputy Leader of Essex County Council and Cabinet Member for Levelling-Up, Communities & Business Engagement, to show her what we have been doing though our flagship Safe & Sound Programme. Whilst I will be the first to admit Safe & Sound has not progressed as quickly as I personally would have liked, I remain extremely proud of the work that is being done. This year we produced a comprehensive Estate Improvement Plan for the Felmores Estate in Pitsea - the first of its kind - and works are now underway on the Lee Chapel North Estate and the Five Links Estate in Laindon.

I have been progressing a new HRA Asset Management Strategy and put in a successful bid for £4.5m in Social Housing Decarbonisation funding and £1.5m in Housing Upgrade Grant funding, meaning we now have more than £10 million to upgrade our council housing stock. I am hoping this will dovetail nicely with the work that has been going on through the Safe & Sound Damp and Mould Taskforce I established late the previous year to put a focus on how we can reduce damp and mould in council properties. 

I have also been building more council houses, like the ten units unveiled in Valerie House in Vange, and there are more to come. Nevendon Place, my homeless accommodation facility in Pitsea, welcomed its first residents. I am exceptionally proud of it and it won an award at the Inside Housing Awards earlier in the year (our second win). 

Local Plan

Following the Conservatives' decision to withdraw the Local Plan last year, in the teeth of fierce opposition from Labour and the Independents, the Council has continued to face challenges from developers and threats of intervention from the Government. We knew withdrawing the Local Plan was not without risk, as a Local Plan is a legal requirement, but having consistently challenged the numbers and resisted pressure to sacrifice Green Belt, we were not content for the plan to proceed. Early in the New Year, we established a Resident Forum Group to begin looking at the next iteration Draft Local Plan and launched our Issues & Options Consultation.

In the meantime, we continue to fight off speculative development, such as the planning application for 150 homes and a 50-bed care home on Green Belt land near Potash Road, which I have vigorously opposed, having voted against it at the Planning Committee. The developer has lodged an appeal and I reiterated my opposition to the proposals when the appeal was heard by the Planning Inspector just before Christmas. We await the outcome of the appeal in the New Year. 

Election success

May saw a challenging set of elections, which I already blogged about. This followed probably the most difficult budget-setting I have experienced in 10 years as a councillor. The scale of the challenge led to, amongst other things, the introduction of the subscription service for garden waste and significant changes to our waste and recycling collections. Ultimately, the Conservatives retained control of the Council. In fact, we gained a seat in Wickford. Cllr. Andrew Baggott (Con, Burstead) was re-elected Leader of the Council and my old friend Mayor Mackenzie (Con, Pitsea South-East) was re-elected for another term as Mayor of Basildon. Meanwhile, yours truly was re-appointed Cabinet Member for Housing. So very much a case of 'no rest for the wicked'. The challenges ahead remain enormous.   

 

Nowhere is this more true than in my Housing brief. The demand for housing assistance has risen exponentially as cost-of-living pressures bite and the cost to the Council of temporary accommodation (TA) has driven a coach and horses through our budget. Indeed, I was a keynote speaker at a recent summit organised by the District Councils' Network with representatives from numerous Local Housing Authorities, all of whom are experiencing similar budget pressures arising from increased cost of TA.

 

To try and relieve some of these pressures, I started to look at a Sheltered Housing Review to see if our current glut of sheltered accommodation is really fit for purpose and, given the preponderance of it in our borough, whether some could be released for General Needs housing. I also introduced a modest contribution charge for TA (where previously we charged nothing). I am also looking at the Council's Allocation Scheme and continue to progress an extensive Housing Repairs and Planned Works Service Review.   

Looking forward

The challenges next year will be no less acute. Budgetary pressures facing the Council remain considerable - though fortunately the excellent financial stewardship of my ward colleague Cllr. Stuart Sullivan (Con, Billericay East) as Cabinet Member for Resources, means Basildon Council is on a relatively stable footing and certainly not in the dire straits of some local councils, who have had to submit Section 114 notices (effectively declaring bankruptcy). Nevertheless, the next budget-setting will mean more difficult decisions. 

Just to add to the potency of these matters, next year Basildon will hold its first 'All-In/All-Out' election in over 20 years. The Council is normally elected by thirds but, following a Boundary Review, on which I have blogged many times, next year's elections will see all 42 seats up for grabs at once. We now have 14 wards, each with three seats (the old 2-members wards have been abolished). This will be in addition to electing the Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner and, in all likelihood, a General Election at some point. So it could be 'all-change' in Basildon. 

Our local MP, John Baron, C.B.E., had been re-selected earlier in the year but subsequently decided not to stand for re-election after all. He steps down having been our local MP for over two decades. Likewise, my ward colleague Councillor Sullivan is also standing down in May. My other ward colleague, David Dadds, was re-elected in May of this year with 60% of the popular vote. This was his sixth re-election victory in Billericay East but, sadly, his last. David decided to stand down from the Council a few weeks ago and is no longer a councillor. Stuart and David were both elected at the last All-In/All-Out in 2002, so, between them, had 42 years experience. I celebrated 10 years as your councillor in June but still feel very much the 'new kid on the block'. I shall very much miss their wisdom and support.

 

Looking ahead, there are a number of issues I am already grappling with. In addition to other matters under my Housing portfolio, to which I have already referred, I am currently dealing with the thorny issue of Brooke House - the iconic Grade II listed building in Basildon Town Centre. It has 84 households living in it and I had been progressing a £5m refurbishment but the pre-construction surveys threw up a number of issues that made it clear the allocated budget is woefully insufficient. More recently, in consultation with the Fire Service, we have determined that some works will unavoidably necessitate decanting the building. This will be a mammoth undertaking and, given I shall have to find properties to decant them into, looking at current void rates for 1 and 2-bed properties, I estimate it will take about 2 years to complete. This will not be an undertaking for the faint-hearted, so I am girding my loins for the task, which will begin in earnest in 2024. 

 

Having successfully fought off the closure of Billericay Rail Station's ticket office, Essex Police are now finally looking to dispose of Billericay Police Station (which has been on the cards for years). I have written to the District Commander, underscoring my support in principle for disposing of the current 1950s building, which I know is costly for Essex Police to maintain, but reiterating my strong view there should be some kind of permanent base or policing 'hub' located in Billericay. I am also fighting to save Billericay Post Office, following the decision of One Stop to close their High Street store. More positively, we are progressing the creation of a Billericay Business Improvement District, which is looking promising. 

 

So, all told, there will be a lot to do between now and May and that is before I even start worrying about re-election. 

God save the King!

Following my chairing of the Platinum Jubilee Working Group, I was appointed to the Coronation Working Group, making preparations to mark the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III in May, shortly after the Local Elections. This was the first such event in a little over 70 years and was, as one would expect, a very different coronation to that of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Very much a new coronation for a new monarch in a new age. As I predicted in my speech the previous year, it was an event of "era-defining importance" and a marvelous spectacle. I blogged about it here.

Finally, in personal news...

 

In April, I became an uncle to Dylan Edward Schrader, the first child of my youngest brother, Chris. He celebrated his first Christmas this year and is a very bonny little boy and beloved by the whole family, including both his Uncle Andrew and his Uncle Ben. In June, my beautiful wife Rosie and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary and a few months later discovered that Rosie is expecting our first child, a cousin for Dylan and a younger sibling for my awesome stepdaughter Poppy, who is going to be simply the best big sister ever. My wife and I are tremendously grateful for all the many kind messages I received from constituents following the announcement that we are expecting, as well as from council officers and other councillors. It has been very touching and the whole family are very happy and excited.

I wish all of you in Billericay East, or wheresoever you may be, all the best for a very Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.