Krupesh Hirani

Message from the Leader of Brent Council Cllr Muhammed Butt

Today I need to share some bad news with you. Confirmed cases of coronavirus in Brent are rising quickly again. This is serious and the human cost is real and truly devastating. We see in the news every day that people are dying from coronavirus, including here in Brent at Northwick Park Hospital. Older people and particularly Asian men seem to be most affected. If you want to protect your loved ones – your parents, aunties, uncles and grandparents – you cannot afford to ignore the rules.

The current national restrictions mean that we all must stay at home, avoid seeing relatives or friends who we do not live with and follow the Public Health Rules. The rules are slightly different to the lockdown earlier this year. Schools and other types of education have stayed open. But the only way to lower the rate of infection in Brent, and protect our freedoms, is to stick to the rules. This is life and death.

This weekend Hindus, Sikhs and Jains will be celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights. Religious festivals and celebrations are such a big part of what makes Brent so special. I know how incredibly difficult the pandemic has been for people of all faiths. Earlier this year, Eid was very different. It’s likely that Hanukkah and Christmas won’t be the same either.

As a person of faith, I feel for you. These celebrations are normally a time when families, friends and neighbours come together. None of us wants to stop seeing our loved ones – particularly at such important times of the year. I know how disappointed many of you who were looking forward to celebrating Diwali with your loved ones, at a time when we need hope and light more than ever, will be. But the terrible reality is that we have got to make hard sacrifices together.

Temples in Brent have decided to remain closed this weekend. I want to thank everyone involved for making this responsible choice. I also want to personally thank everyone who will be celebrating at home and online instead, and wish you a Diwali that brings happiness and joy to you and your family. By staying at home you’ll be helping to protect those closest to you – especially older relatives who may be extremely clinically vulnerable, and are at risk of becoming very seriously ill if they pick up the virus. Although the celebrations will be different, there are still plenty of ways to mark Diwali safely. There is also a virtual Diwali event online

The current restrictions are essential to keep Brent safe, and we must all play our part together. There is no single outbreak in the borough. Instead, we believe COVID-19 is being passed on through community transmission. Most likely, this means people are transferring the virus to family and friends by visiting them in their homes.

So please, stay at home and follow the important Hands, Face, Space guidance. If you do develop symptoms of the virus, stay at home and book a free test straight away by calling 020 8937 4440.

If we all follow the rules and stop the virus spreading among our communities, we will be able to look to better times ahead.

Krupesh Hirani

PRESS RELEASE: Diwali pain was avoidable

Pain experienced by the Hindu community in the UK could have been avoided if the Government had listened to its own scientific advice according to Brent Councillor Krupesh Hirani.

Earlier last month, documents revealed that the Government’s Sage committee of scientific experts urged ministers to impose a circuit breaker lockdown on 21 September. These calls were not followed by the Government and instead they have had to impose a longer lockdown this month. If the original advice had been followed, Covid-19 would not have spread as much and we would be out of the ‘circuit break’ period by now. If timed with half-term holidays, the impact on children and schools would have also been less severe.

Diwali is the largest celebration in the Hindu, Sikh and Jain calendars and over the festive period and the Hindu New Year, Temples celebrate the festival of lights and families meet and greet each other to welcome the New Year. This year Diwali will be on Saturday 14th November with the New Year commencing on Sunday 15th November. It would have already been impacted by Coronavirus restrictions but the later lockdown has impacted plans further.

The later lockdown has meant that Diwali celebrations have been severely impacted and that families will not be able to see each other on this auspicious day. All of this was avoidable if more shorter-term restrictions had been brought in earlier.

Cllr Hirani said,

“It is a shame that we will not be able to celebrate key festivals in the same way but I applaud local Temples and organisations for making sure that people can still celebrate in a Covid secure way using technology. I urge people to follow the law and guidance.”

Cllr Hirani has been working with organisations across Brent to help coordinate and support their plans for festivities and also work with them to promote public health guidance on Covid-19.

Krupesh Hirani

Response to the Government’s lockdown announcement

The Government's scientific advisors recommended the implementation of a short term Circuit breaker lockdown on 21st September.
Taking action then would've meant short term restrictions but would have made the need for a harsher lockdown like we will see now avoidable.
Today's announcement by the Government was avoidable if they had listened to their own scientists. Instead they wanted to 'keep the country moving.' Now their failure to act means they are doing the exact opposite.
Serial incompetence.
Krupesh Hirani

Mayor sees off Government plans to extend Congestion Charge to Brent

The Mayor of London has today reached an eleventh-hour agreement with the Government on a funding deal to keep tube, bus and other TfL services in the capital running until March 2021.

Sadiq Khan said the deal was "not ideal” but added: "We fought hard against this Government which is so determined to punish our city for doing the right thing to tackle Covid-19. The only reason TfL needs government support is because its fares income has almost dried up since March.”

The Mayor has succeeded in killing off the very worst Government proposals, which were confirmed in writing by the Transport Secretary during the negotiations. The Mayor had rejected the extension of the £15 daily Congestion Charge to the North and South circular roads as ministers had wanted – in a proposal which would have hit four million more Londoners hard. The Government has now backed down from this condition.

The Government also wanted to scrap free travel for under-18s and over-60s. These proposals have also been successfully defeated. The Government also wanted TfL fares to rise by more than the previously agreed RPI+1 per cent This has also been successfully fought off.

The deal makes around £1.8 billion of Government grant and borrowing available on current projections to TfL in the second half of this financial year. Transport for London will itself make up through cost savings the £160million gap the deal leaves from the nearly £2 billion the organisation projects it will need to run the tube, bus & other TfL services for the remainder of this financial year.

As part of the deal, London will also have to raise extra money in future years. Decisions about how this additional funding will be raised are yet to be made by the Mayor, but some of the options that he and the government have agreed to be looked at include a modest increase in council tax, pending the appropriate consultation, as well as keeping in place the temporary changes to the central London Congestion Charge that were introduced in June 2020, subject to consultation.

Despite providing the private rail operating companies with 18 months of funding with no conditions attached, the Government has refused to give TfL more than a six-month deal and even this has come with conditions. This means another financial agreement will have to be negotiated just before next year’s mayoral election, a far from ideal time to negotiate a fair long-term deal for London.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said:

“These negotiations with Government have been an appalling and totally unnecessary distraction at a time when every ounce of attention should have been focused on trying to slow the spread of Covid-19 and protecting jobs.

“The pandemic has had the same impact on the finances of the privatised rail companies as it has had on TfL and the Government immediately bailed them out for 18 months with no strings attached. There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London, which would have allowed us all to focus on the issues that matter most to Londoners, which are tackling the virus and protecting jobs.

“I am pleased that we have succeeded in killing off the very worst Government proposals.

"These proposals from the Government would have hammered Londoners by massively expanding the congestion charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners and increasing TfL fares by more than RPI+1. I am determined that none of this will now happen.

"This is not a perfect deal, but we fought hard to get to the best possible place. The only reason TfL needs Government support is because almost all our fares income has dried up since March as Londoners have done the right thing.”

Krupesh Hirani

The context behind the Government’s London transport interferences

To say that recent negotiations between the Government and London have been tense over the finances of Transport for London would be putting it mildly.

Transport for London’s main source of income is fares. It is the least subsidised major transport system in the world. 72% of it’s funding comes from Passenger fares. Before the Coronavirus period, TfL’s finances were in a good condition as verified by independent auditors. With failed projects such as the Garden Bridge which was never built and the phasing out of a Government Grant to TfL, Boris Johnson left TfL with a £1.5bn deficit when he left the Mayoral office in 2016. In addition, a legacy of his deal with the David Cameron Government means that from 2021, the £500m raised every year from Londoners paying Vehicle Excise Duty (more commonly known as the Road Tax) will be collected by central Government and not given back to London – thereby only invested in roads outside the Capital.

Under Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty, TfL’s operating deficit before the Covid 19 period hit was reduced by 71%.

The Coronavirus lockdown and the continued message to stay at home and work from home as much as possible has led to a drastic reduction in people using London’s public transport system. At the peak of the pandemic, TfL's passenger income was reduced by more than 90 per cent compared to last year. TfL kept running trains and buses throughout the pandemic period to ensure that essential workers such as NHS staff could get to work. This has had a devastating financial impact on the essential public service.

Transport for London is not alone. Transport networks in other cities such as Manchester, Tyne and Wear, Nottingham, the West Midlands and Sheffield for example have also been impacted. However these transport networks have all been given debt free bailouts.

London has been treated differently. In order to receive a bail out, the Government has set conditions on receiving bailout funding. Within the first round of bail out negotiations, those conditions included;

  • Stopping free travel for under-18s
  • Stopping freedom pass holders from traveling at peak hours
  • Increasing the congestion charge
  • This was part of a short-term deal to keep TfL going to October.

As part of fresh negotiations, the Government is proposing further conditions as part of a bailout deal. These include;

  • Extending the Congestion Charge Zone to the North and South Circular Roads and increasing its charge further
  • Increasing Council Tax for all Londoners
  • Increase public transport fares

This approach from Government is very political and quite clear they are more interested in political elections rather than dealing with urgent and emergency issues. However in trying to hurt or attack the Mayor of London, they are in fact hurting people and businesses in London.