• THIS week I gave my first annual town hall report as cabinet member for improving Camden’s environment.

I was pleased to show how the council is raising its ambitions in response to the threat of pollution affecting London and the threat of environmental degradation threatening the planet.

We are now assessing ourselves against tougher, more honest, air quality measures. We have made strong progress on carbon emissions. We are seeing recycling rates rising again.

And we are playing our part in preparing London for its more populous future, persuading people to travel differently around and through our borough, to relieve congestion, clean up the air, and improve people’s health.

I also took the opportunity to remind the council chamber and the webcast about the new – yes, new – cuts hurtling down the line from the government.

There will come a point soon when the Conservative government will face a reality check about what it is doing to local authorities.

Many councils have changed how they operate in order to provide the dented shield our communities need against prolonged years of austerity. But imposing another £20million of cuts, with likely more to come on top, will not be without its consequences.

At the very least there will be opportunities forgone, things we might have done to make improvements in the areas I outline above, and right across the council. But at worst there may be more of what we are seeing already.

Residents in my ward are rightly distressed at the sharp rise in rough sleepers in Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury. It is like nothing since I joined the council in 2010, let alone during the Labour years before that.

In the past, properly funded public services, especially the health service, drug and alcohol services, and advice services, may have been able to step in and catch people before they fall.

The issue goes wider than the housing crisis alone and comes from the deep cuts in local government and National Health Service funding both services have sustained. The latter have received some form of relief.

It must soon – urgently – become the case too that local government receives relief from central government too. Otherwise it is not just that we won’t be able to get the good things happening, we won’t be able to stop the bad things happening.

CLLR ADAM HARRISON
Cabinet Member for Improving Camden’s Environment