Do you think Nottingham is on the up or the down? Why?
She’s optimistic about Nottingham, a fantastic city to live,study and work. Lots of positives, central library open. New businesses opening, people enjoying spending time in the city centre, world-leading research at Nottingham universities. Enormous challenges, wages are very low, levels of deprivation in the city very high. NHS under incredible strain, as well as local public services. Lots of positives but, don’t have support needed from central government, need a change in government, hopefully a labour government, hopefully a labour government that would back Nottingham and help it to survive.
What are the main concerns constituents are raising with you about life in the city?
Most important issue for everyone is the cost of living crisis, people are really struggling to get by. Rising cost of doing the weekly shop, increased energy bills. People living in cold homes, rising costs of rent, mortgages and housing crisis, Liz trust. Difficulties of accessing healthcare, 8 million people across the UK waiting for NHS treatment. Emergency department at Queens medical centre regularly says that they are operating at the limit of their capacity. Pics of people lined up in corridors as there are no beds. Can't get gp and dentist appointments, things aren’t caught at the right time, puts more stress on the cycle. People not feeling safe on the streets, not enough being done to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour. People worry about the future, what life's gonna be like for their kids, education, the planet, tackling the climate crisis. Three main issues:
1 Cost of living crisis
2 Difficulties of accessing
3 People not feeling safe on the streets
According to the Trussell Trust, last year saw a 24% rise in the use of foodbanks in the city. What's causing this, and what should we be doing to help?
‘Thank goodness for food banks, absolute lifeline’. Cost of living crisis driving that, 13 years of decline under conservative government, wages falling, prices rising. Government should have made a windfall tax on energy companies, and insulate homes. Need to change government, labour instead of conservative, need 10 year process of renewal after decline.
The council recently cited a rise in homeless shelter use as part of the reason it has declared bankruptcy. Why is homelessness rising in the city, and what can be done about it?
Two reasons, first there just aren’t enough homes being built, particularly social homes, like council houses. The government is too restrictive; they make the council sell council homes at a discount and don’t allow councils to keep enough money to build more homes to replace them. Not enough homes pushes up rent. People getting evicted, either because people can't meet the rent or landlords decide they can rent it for more money, section 21 notice, very easy for landlords to evict tenants. Mp has seen many people come to them after being wrongly evicted. Providing better protection for renters is needed. The government have promised a renters reform bill but they have only just introduced it and it isn’t strong enough. Build more homes is the most important thing, Labour committed to building 1.5 million homes. In the meantime help people who are facing homelessness, which presents a huge challenge to the city council.
With the council now declared bankrupt, Nottingham's future looks uncertain. What are your hopes for the future?
Issued action 114 notice, gap in expected finances, not bankrupt, as they can pay staff and provide statutory services. Enormous cuts from central government created gaps. ‘£100 million every year taken away from Nottingham city council over the last 10 years’. Council is facing a huge increase in demand for services with an ageing population, more social care needed to care for older people and disabled people. Big increase in cost of child protection, increase in homelessness. An impossible problem, not just for Nottingham, ‘Nottingham is not the first council to issue a 114 and certainly won’t be the last’. 1 in 5 councils in the country potentially may have to issue a 114 this year, goes up to half next year. Government need to provide more money, didn’t provide any money in the autumn statement when they issued a financial statement for the local government. They need to stop local services from going into decline. Nottingham city council needs to find a way to save £23 million, so could lead to cuts in services, not statutory but vital, libraries, parks and youth services, that have already been cut. Blame lies at the door of the Tory government. Need a labour gov, that gets the economy growing and gets people in good jobs with good wages, increase tax receipts, better invest in public services and reform them to make sure we get better value for the money we are investing.
Example paragraph:
When talking with Lilian Greenwood MP on the phone, I asked her the main question ‘Is Nottingham on the up or on the down?’ to which she says she tries to stay optimistic and that there are alot of positives, from the newly opened Central Library to ‘world-leading research’ in the universities of Nottingham. However the main problem she made clear was that the central conservative government doesn’t sufficiently support Nottingham, which is why the city council declared effective bankruptcy, issuing a section 114 notice on 29th November 2023. Greenwood relayed that ‘£100 million every year taken away from Nottingham city council over the last 10 years’, referring to the government adopting the austerity policy in 2010. She also made a startling note that ‘Nottingham is not the first council to issue a 114 (section) and certainly won’t be the last’, adding that 1 in 5 councils may have to issue section 114 as well this year, which rises significantly to half of councils close to declaring effective bankruptcy next year.
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