Krupesh Hirani

New Lifts installed at Harrow-on-the-Hill tube station

Harrow-on-the-Hill Underground station on the Metropolitan line has become step-free, helping customers with reduced mobility to access the station and the wider Transport for London (TfL) network.

Four new lifts have been installed at Harrow-on-the-Hill station, providing a step-free route between the street and Metropolitan line trains. In addition, station signage has been enhanced to assist with wayfinding. Boarding ramps will continue to support customers boarding or alighting Chiltern trains, and with TfL’s Turn-up-and-go service, staff will be on hand to assist customers if required.

With the completion of step-free access schemes on the wider TfL network, the average additional journey time required for step-free journeys has now been reduced to around 6.7 minutes. This compares to 9.5 minutes in 2016, meaning significant progress has been taken towards the Mayor of London’s aim of halving 2015’s additional journey time of 11 minutes by 2041. Without long-term capital funding from Government, TfL will not be able to make further progress on delivering step-free stations across its network, which will mean disabled people will continue to have to take longer journeys to travel in an accessible way.

The completion of the step-free scheme at Harrow-on-the-Hill increases the total number of step-free London Underground stations to 91, meaning that one third of the 272 stations on the Tube network are now step-free – a 33 per cent increase since 2016, when Sadiq Khan was first elected as Mayor of London.

In 2021, step-free access schemes were completed at Sudbury Hill (in December), Osterley (in October), Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms on the Northern Line Extension (in September), Wimbledon Park (in August), Ickenham (in June), Debden (in April) and Amersham (in February). In addition, Ealing Broadway was made step-free in May 2021 in preparation for the Elizabeth line, and Whitechapel became step-free when the original station entrance on Whitechapel Road re-opened in August 2021. 

This year, TfL will complete a range of step-free projects that are currently under construction and began prior to the pandemic. These include step-free access to the Northern line at Moorgate, which became step-free to the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines last year. TfL is also progressing step-free access work that will make busy Zone 1 stations partially step-free in 2022. These are at Bank (Northern line and DLR Interchange only) and Paddington (Bakerloo line only). The current proposed designs for the redeveloped Euston station as part of High Speed 2 will also deliver step-free improvements to Euston and Euston Square station.

TfL is currently reviewing the results of its recent public consultation to help shape future step-free access priorities, with final outcomes of the consultation communicated in the summer. However, a ‘managed decline’ scenario would mean that without sufficient long-term capital funding from Government, further improvements to step-free access at stations across London – outside of those already underway or funded by third parties – would be impacted. Such investment is essential to future accessibility improvements and to ensuring an efficient and reliable public transport service for all Londoners.

This was a long fought campaign by previous London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow Navin Shah and was one of the schemes cancelled by the previous Mayor of London Boris Johnson. 

Krupesh Hirani

Time running out to sign up to money saving solar panel scheme amid energy bill crisis

More than 100 Brent and Harrow households have already had solar panels installed to help tackle soaring energy bill costs. So far 110 houses in Brent and 28 in Harrow have joined the Mayor of London-backed Solar Together initiative, latest City Hall figures show. Local London Assembly Member, Krupesh Hirani AM, is urging residents to sign up to the “exciting and innovative” scheme before registration closes on 3rd April to save cash and help London towards a “greener, cleaner future”.

Responding to a written question from Mr Hirani, the Mayor for London, Sadiq Khan, revealed more than 1,500 homes across London, including 138 in Brent and Harrow, were now part of the affordable renewable energy project. The deadline for the latest phase of installations is April 3rd. 

Solar panel installation could reduce household electricity bills by 30-50%. With energy prices increasing to record levels, now is a better time than ever to invest in solar to get cleaner energy and save money on bills. With rising petrol and diesel prices, the option is also available for people to use the scheme to install a car charging point powered by solar energy.

An installation through the Mayor’s Solar Together initiative is a third cheaper than the typical market price. For an eight-panel system – the most common system installed – customers have saved an average of £3,504. 

Mr Khan said that hundreds more installations are booked in over the coming months which are “critical for both tackling the climate emergency and helping to reduce household energy bills”. 

Energy bills in the UK are set to climb by £693 to an average £1,971 in April, after regulator Ofgem announced in February it was lifting the price cap putting more pressure on those struggling with the rising cost of living. 

Recent increases in energy bills have pushed an estimated 75,000 Londoners into fuel poverty. The latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that in 2019, 20,322 households in Brent and 13,014 in Harrow were living in fuel poverty. 

Last month the Mayor announced he is committing a record £90 million through green bonds to unlock more than £500m in private investment to support low carbon projects, create green jobs and move closer to his target of a zero-carbon capital by 2030. 

Krupesh Hirani

New analysis shows Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners more likely to be affected by the impact of the climate emergency

  • New analysis from City Hall shows Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Londoners are more likely to be affected by the impact of the climate crisis  
  • Recent research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also shows the poorest around the world – predominantly black and Asian people, who tend to have the smallest carbon footprints – will suffer the most severe consequences
  • Sadiq is committed to taking bold action to reduce climate risk in London and to use his leadership of the C40 network to help cities across the Global South

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has highlighted data which shows that areas of London with Black, Asian and minority ethnic populations of more than 50 per cent are more likely to face the highest climate risk in London including flooding, exposure to toxic air, heat risk and limited access to green space.

Last year, London saw the impact of the climate emergency first-hand with soaring temperatures and flash floods in the capital. City Hall analysis has shown that if the necessary action is not taken and extreme temperatures and flooding continues to get worse, a quarter of London’s rail stations, 1 in 5 schools, nearly half of London’s hospitals and hundreds of thousands of homes and workplaces will be at risk of flooding in the future. 

The climate crisis is already having a significant impact on countries with strong links to London’s diaspora communities, including Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. 

Taking action to tackle the climate emergency will not only benefit London, but other countries around the globe too. While everyone will experience the damaging consequences of the climate crisis, the greatest impacts will be felt disproportionately by those with the fewest resources to cope. The poorest, the elderly, children and women are typically the most exposed.

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report that warned there is only a brief and rapidly closing window to tackle the climate crisis, with a warning of the dire consequences of inaction.

In London, the Mayor has already taken action through the introduction of the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone, which has helped reduce pollution in central London by nearly half at the same time as cutting carbon emissions.  On 25 October, the zone expanded up to the north and south circular roads, ensuring that almost four million Londoners can breathe cleaner air. The expanded ULEZ is expected to reduce road transport NOx emissions by around 30 per cent.

Sadiq also recently asked TfL to consult on expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone London-wide in 2023. This follows the publication of a report last month which revealed that in order to meet the target of getting to net-zero in London by 2030, car traffic must reduce by at least 27 per cent in the capital by the end of the decade. 

The ULEZ is highly targeted at getting the most polluting vehicles off our streets, and early assessments indicate that making it London-wide would: 

  • reduce NOx emissions from cars and vans by between 285 and 330 tonnes
  • lead to an additional reduction of around 10 per cent NOx in emissions from cars and vans
  • reduce CO2 emissions in outer London by between 135,000 to 150,000 tonnes
  • And reduce the number of the most polluting cars on London’s roads by between an additional 20,000 and 40,000 a day.

Since 2016, the Mayor has also: planted over 340,000 trees, including two woodlands; introduced over 700 zero-emission buses; committed to making London a zero-carbon city by 2030, faster than any comparable city; developed a climate action plan that is compatible with the highest ambition of the Paris Agreement; provided funding for around £15 million for greening projects; and secured tens of millions of pounds to make homes across London more energy efficient, which will help reduce energy costs and tackle fuel poverty. Through his London Plan, the Mayor has also achieved carbon emission reductions of almost 50 per cent more than set by national building regulations.

As the new chair of C40, an organisation of 97 cities across the globe that represent over 700 million people and a quarter of the global economy, Sadiq has committed to supporting cities around the world to roll out similar bold action to address emissions and air pollution. He has made clear that a just transition, with support for cities in the Global South, is vital – and has already delivered on his key pledge to direct a record two-thirds of the C40 budget towards Global South cities.

Krupesh Hirani

Mayor unites London’s sports clubs behind new campaign calling on men and boys to help end violence against women and girls

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is uniting football and rugby clubs across the capital in support of a landmark new campaign speaking directly to men and boys about how their actions can help end violence against women and girls. Every London football club in the Premier League has pledged their support for the campaign. 

 

Launching today (Monday 14th March), the Mayoral initiative aims to challenge the sexist attitudes and inappropriate behaviours exhibited by some men in order to tackle the epidemic of misogyny and violence against women and girls. Research by UN Women UK indicated that 71 per cent of all women have experienced some form of sexual harassment in a public space with this number rising sharply to 86 per cent among 18-24 year olds.

 

Determined to lead the way in ensuring men take greater responsibility for ending violence against women and girls, the Mayor joined Patrick Vieira, the manager of Premier League club Crystal Palace,  Byron Webster, captain of Bromley Football club, and Marcus Gayle, former footballer and now Brentford coach and ambassador, at Selhurst Park to reveal details of the new initiative. The hard-hitting campaign – backed by the clubs – carries the message: “Male violence against women and girls starts with words. If you see it happening, have a word with yourself, then your mates.”

 

The campaign message will be screened on public billboards and online, with football and rugby clubs showing their support by installing  graphics in their stadiums across the city. 

 

A campaign video will premiere at half time of the Crystal Palace vs Manchester City game at Selhurst Park tonight. It depicts a scenario all too familiar to women and girls across the country by focusing on an interaction between a group of men and a lone woman waiting for a taxi home. The video demonstrates how men’s words and actions can make women feel unsafe and calls on men not to be bystanders, but to call out their friends, whenever they see harassment happening. 

 

Top London football clubs, from Chelsea to Crystal Palace, Arsenal to West Ham as well as rugby giants from Harlequins to Saracens, will install the campaign message on mirrors in the men’s bathrooms in their stadiums, directing men to reflect on their own behaviour and to challenge the harmful behaviour of those around them. Nineteen football and rugby clubs will also feature an open letter from the Mayor to their fans in match day programmes, which will ask men to reflect on the way they personally view, treat and talk about women.

 

City Hall’s website will provide more information on the practical steps men can take to become allies and play a more active role in ending violence against women and girls. It will also provide guidance on how to safely challenge the potentially harmful attitudes and behaviours of other men around them.  

 

This ambitious campaign is part of the Mayor’s refreshed strategy for tackling all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) The newly updated strategy is due to be published in the coming weeks.

 

Millions of women and girls are subjected to violence and abuse every year, and data shows that the vast majority of the perpetrators are men. Between 2009 and 2019, on average, one woman was killed by a man every three days in the UK. In 2020, 99 per cent of adult offenders sentenced or cautioned for sexual offences in London were men. Nearly all perpetrators of domestic abuse during the pandemic were men.

Krupesh Hirani

Struggling Brent and Harrow households encouraged to reach out to City Hall-backed debt helpline

Struggling Brent and Harrow households encouraged to reach out to City Hall-backed debt helpline

Brent and Harrow residents struggling with the rising costs of living are being encouraged to contact Debt Free London’s helpline by local London Assembly Member, Krupesh Hirani AM. The number of Londoners contacting the service has more than tripled over the last year and the Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has now pledged £200,000 in support to ensure it can meet rising demand. Mr Hirani is expressing concerns that with rising energy bills, food costs and rents that Harrow’s 65,187 Universal Credit claimants “will be placed at the sharp end” of a growing debt crisis in the capital.

Recent YouGov polling has revealed that over a third of Londoners have found it difficult to keep on top of their household bills in the last six months.

City Hall expects that the Government’s changes to taxes and benefits could plunge another 130,000 Londoners below the breadline, bringing the total number living in poverty in the capital to 3.7 million.

Mr Hirani has also criticised the Government for forcing council tax rises after it has failed to adequately fund the police, fire brigade, adult social care, transport and other public services in the capital.

Recent increases in energy bills have also pushed an estimated 75,000 Londoners into fuel poverty.

The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that in 2019, 33,336 households in Harrow  were living in fuel poverty.

This week, The Trussell Trust revealed that nearly half of people referred to food banks in their networks are in debt to the Department of Work and Pensions due to the benefits system.

At the latest Plenary meeting at City Hall, the London Assembly passed motions calling for the weekly £20 Universal Credit uplift to be reinstated, the removal of the benefit cap, an increase in the National Living Wage and for the Government to reconsider its planned hike to National Insurance.

Local London Assembly Member, Krupesh Hirani AM, said:

“So many in our community are facing a perfect storm of a surge in the costs of essentials, rents and household bills, stagnating wages, the upcoming increase in National Insurance and a welfare system that is not fit for purpose.

“On a national level, we just haven’t seen the leadership needed to help households and families on the lowest incomes navigate this cost of living crisis. Thousands in our borough, especially those on Universal Credit, will be at the sharp end of this.

“The Government’s failure to fund vital public services, our police, firefighters and our transport network means that the costs of these are being passed onto hard-pressed Londoners through council tax rises.

“The cold, hard reality is that without urgent and robust Government action, thousands more in our borough are going to be plunged into debt.

“For those struggling, there is help and advice at hand and I would encourage them to reach out to Debt Free London’s helpline which is being supported by the Mayor”.

 

Call 0800 808 5700 for support 

Krupesh Hirani

StreetSafe Pilot Scheme

Operation Verona is a Metropolitan police initiative to make women and girls feel safer in open places. The initiative uses Streetsafe data to prevent offences against women and girls, design out crime and target responsible for such offences.

StreetSafe is an online application created to allow members of the public to identify where, in the communities they live, work and socialise, they feel most unsafe. This data is then used to inform the Police’s response to Violence against Women and Girls matters.

As a result of the data female officers from Dudden Hill, Welsh Harp and Willesden safer neighbourhood teams conducted patrols on the 15th, 16th and 17th Feb in Gladstone park, Willesden, Church Road and Neasden. To highlight an area where you feel unsafe please report it via StreetSafe.

https://www.met.police.uk/notices/street-safe/street-safe/

Krupesh Hirani

St Patrick’s Day celebrations set to return to London

Event: London’s St Patrick’s Day Festival

Dates: 12 to 13 March

Location: Across London, including a parade through central London and festivities in Trafalgar Square. 

Parade Route: The parade will set off from Hyde Park Corner at 12pm, travelling down Piccadilly, to Piccadilly Circus where it turns right down Regent Street.  From there it will turn left onto Pall Mall, pass the St Patrick’s Day Festival in Trafalgar Square and is due to end in Whitehall by 2pm.

Details of the full programme will be updated at: www.london.gov.uk/st-patricks

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today unveiled the celebrations planned for St Patrick’s Day in the capital, which will showcase the very best of Irish arts, performance, culture, food and dance.

 

This year’s theme is one of celebration and bringing the community back together, and Londoners and visitors can look forward to an exciting programme of events happening across the city on March 12th and 13th to mark the festival’s return. Events including busking on the Underground, the iconic parade and vibrant celebrations in Trafalgar Square were postponed for the past two years due to the pandemic but will return to the capital this year.

 

On Sunday 13th March London will see the return of the spectacular annual parade of Irish marching bands, dancers and pageantry, which will start at 12pm and wind its way from Green Park to Trafalgar Square. This year, to pay tribute to the Irish Londoners who have supported the city throughout the pandemic, 11 key workers will be honoured as Grand Marshals of the famous parade.

 

Also on Sunday, from 12pm to 6pm, Trafalgar Square will play host to a world-class line up of Irish talent with family-friendly concerts, storytelling, children’s films and youth performances, as well community choirs, schools, dance troupes and more. There will be children’s workshops featuring camogie games, medal making and face painting, and a great selection of food and drinks stalls including world-renowned chef and owner of the Myrtle restaurant in London, Anna Haugh. The main stage is curated by the London Irish Centre, and hosted by Gemma Bradly, will see acts such as Soulé, Xona, Altan and more perform.

Krupesh Hirani

Mayor announces £90 million towards new green bonds to accelerate the push to net-zero with record investment

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today outlined bold proposals to secure more than £500 million for investing in climate action by issuing green bonds. Sadiq would become the first Mayor of London to issue green bonds in this way and at this level – raising funds for new and existing projects which deliver environmental benefits, and a more sustainable economy.

Sadiq’s plans will accelerate London’s push to net-zero by helping to tackle rising energy bills and the climate emergency. The Mayor is committing a record £90 million of GLA funds to support the ambition, with £4 million to develop high-impact green investment opportunities for the public and private sector; and £86 million to support a substantial GLA Green Bond programme, financing direct decarbonisation investment by the GLA Group and its strategic partners as part of the Mayor’s Green Financing Facility.

This investment will support projects making social housing and public buildings energy efficient, as well as clean, local energy projects providing solar PV, heat pumps and district heating across London. By leading the way and committing an initial £90 million the Mayor will help unlock over £500 million to finance such low-carbon projects.

Improvements to social housing will help tackle inequalities exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis. London has some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country with one in nine* London households unable to meet the cost of heating their homes. Low-carbon heat projects help reduce energy bills and improve living conditions for thousands of Londoners. They will also support Londoners with the skills they need for jobs in the green economy, rebuilding the capital post-COVID so that it’s cleaner, greener and fairer.

The Mayor’s proposals are estimated to support more than one million tonnes of carbon savings over the lifetime of the projects and lower energy use by 328,638 MWh a year, the equivalent to the energy used by nearly 85,000 homes in a year, while supporting jobs in London.

London continues to be a world leader in green finance, this new funding builds on the £30 million he committed to the Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund at COP26 in Glasgow which is expected to leverage up to £150 million of investment into London projects. This latest announcement shows a clear acceleration of efforts to achieve his net-zero ambitions, building on his Net Zero pathway report launched in January.

The Mayor has announced this record new funding ahead of publishing his final Budget for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group for 2022-23 on Wednesday. The final Budget takes into account that council tax and business rates returns from local authorities are higher than were forecast in the Mayor’s consultation Budget proposals last year. 

Krupesh Hirani

Absolutely shocking from the Conservative Party Group at the London Assembly

At the London Assembly Plenary meeting last week, the Conservative Group rejected Labour motions condemning the Cost of Living crisis and failed to support our calls to implement the Living Wage Foundation’s recommended wage level, stop the National Insurance tax rise, provide universal free school meals and stop the cuts to Universal Credit.

Even more bizarrely, they justified low and middle income earners being unfairly impacted by the Government’s policies by saying the wealthy are paying more tax than ever before.

If taxes are to rise is it right to have those with the most means protected and make the lowest paid suffer?

Krupesh Hirani

Mayoral statement on Met Commissioner

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Last week, I made clear to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner the scale of the change I believe is urgently required to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that still exists.

“I am not satisfied with the Commissioner’s response.

“On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside. It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police.

“I would like to thank Dame Cressida Dick for her 40 years of dedicated public service, with the vast majority spent at the Met where she was the first woman to become Commissioner. In particular, I commend her for the recent work in helping us to bring down violent crime in London – although of course there is more to do.

“I want to put on the record again that there are thousands of incredibly brave and decent police officers at the Met who go above and beyond every day to help keep us safe, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

“I will now work closely with the Home Secretary on the appointment of a new Commissioner so that we can move quickly to restore trust in the capital’s police service while keeping London safe.”