We've achieved a lot for the ward since we were first elected for the new Rose Hill & Iffley ward on 2 May 2002. As well as that, the Labour administration has achieved a lot for the city. You can see what we've achieved below: to see what we're currently campaigning on, click on the 'Ward News' link to the left.

In Rose Hill & Iffley ward *** In Oxford *** In Britain



In Rose Hill & Iffley ward

Since 2002, Bill and Ed, with Oxford Labour, have:

Turning the city round

In May 2002 the voters of Oxford elected a Labour administration to run the City Council after two years of a Lib Dem/Green coalition. Labour's manifesto was called 'Taking Pride in Oxford' and was oriented around a number of key priorities, which are now the basis of the City Council's Vision: Building Pride in Our City. Click on the headings below to find out what we have achieved in the last 2 years and where we have more work to do.




Restoring stability to the Council's finances

Despite inheriting a budget that did not add up to the tune of £2 million, we have balanced the books in each year since we took over and the Council's balances are now healthy once again. To ensure this is sustained in the future we have introduced a three year budget setting process so that council departments can plan their spending in a more sustainable way. Through prudent management we generated a surplus of money this year and consulted residents on how to spend it, resulting in increased budgets for street cleaning and reducing anti-social behaviour.

We have also done this while keeping council tax rises to a minimum - at 4% in the last 2 years. This contrasts to 14.5% implemented by the Lib Dems and the Greens in May 2000. It also contrasts to the punitive double digit increases introduced by the Tories and the LibDems who run the County Council, which makes up most of the household bill.

Turning around poorly performing services

In 2002 the City Council ran a number of services which were performing extremely badly by national standards. We set the target of bringing these up to the standards of the best councils over the next few years. We have made a good start, but there is still much to do.

Very many people in this expensive city rely on the Council's Housing Benefit service, which was performing badly by national standards when we took over. It has made significant improvements over the last two years, although there is still a long way to go. In 2000/01 under the Lib Dem/Green coalition it took 75.5 days to process new HB claims, which rose to 80 days in their last year in power 2001/02. Under Labour, this has come down to 77 days in 2002/03 and to 55 days in 2003/04. This is still too long, but extra staff, investment in technology and improved training is making a real difference in this essential area.

Revenue collection rates were also very poor in 2002 and have also improved, with council tax collection rates rising from 93% in 2001/02 to 95.4% in 2003/04, which is the best ever. Business rate collection is also at the best ever level, rising from 97.7% in 2001/02 to 98.74% in 2003/04.

Our council house repairs service was also under-performing in 2002. Working with staff, we have now overhauled this service, resulting in significant improvements in terms of responsiveness. Over the next few years we will both bring the service up to the standard of the best performing authorities and save money for our tenants.

Already the improvement is dramatic. The percentage of jobs being completed on time has risen from just over 60% in November 2002, when Kendrick Ash were brought in, to 86% now, there has been a fall in average waiting time at the call centre from 95 to 34 seconds now, and we have introduced the appointments system.

Providing more affordable housing

The shortage of affordable housing has meant Oxford has one of the worst homelessness crises outside London. The only real long term solution to this crisis is to build significant amounts of key worker and social housing over the next few years. For this we need much more government funding and more land, and we are currently lobbying the government and the regional authorities to secure this.

In the mean time we are trying to do everything we can by:

In addition we are continuing to work with council tenants to improve the quality of council homes.

Improving the environments where we live and work

The cleanliness of the places where we live and work has been repeatedly shown in polls to be one of people's major concerns in Oxford. We believe that if the Council cannot keep the streets clean, it is failing in one of its most basic responsibilities. We have:

Make Oxford a safer city

Since May 2002 we have introduced a number of measures to help to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in the City. We have:

Providing better leisure facilities

When we took over our sports and leisure facilities were crying out for investment and modernization. Yet the Greens and the Lib Dems spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on consultants, trying to privatize the service. We stopped this as soon as we took over and have invested the money in improving our facilities.



A future fair for all: the achievements of Labour in government

Here are some of the most important achievements of the Labour government elected in 1997.

Reducing child poverty

Child poverty is a scar on the nation's soul and an affront to our sense of decency as a society. The impact of poverty on young children does not just damage their quality of life at the time but can continue to do so well into adulthood and can be passed on to the next generation.

Under the Tories one in three children lived in poverty, the number of children living in low income households more than doubled and Britain had the highest rate of relative child poverty in the European Union.

When the Labour government came to power in 1997 it set a target of halving child poverty by 2010 and abolishing it by 2020. Has it lived up to that pledge?

The government has established a comprehensive strategy for reducing poverty based on raising the incomes of the poorest families and providing the high quality public services on which the poorest rely most of all.

In 2004, local Oxford East MP and Work and Pensions Secretary Andrew Smith announced that 700,000 children had been lifted out of relative poverty (those living below half of average incomes) over the last six years. This means that child poverty has fallen by a quarter since 1997 and the government is on target to halve it by 2010. In addition 2.1 million children have been lifted out of acute financial hardship.

This has been done through:

Abolishing pensioner poverty

In addition the government is committed to abolishing the indignity of poverty in old age. It is shameful that elderly people who have worked all their lives are left in poverty in retirement. The government has reduced pensioner poverty by two thirds in the last six years, helping 1.8 million pensioners.

This has been done through:

In this year's budget the Chancellor announced that pensioners will also get additional help to ease council tax increases.

Investing in the National Health Service

Since 1997 Labour has invested more in the NHS than any other government in British history and the NHS is the fastest growing health service of any major European country. By 2008 health spending will have more than doubled since 1997.

It was Labour that in 1948 created the National Health Service and the party's starting point is its belief in a publicly funded NHS, free at the point of need and accessible to all, irrespective of their ability to pay

The NHS Labour inherited in 1997 was on its knees. It lacked sufficient hospital beds, staff, buildings and equipment. IT systems were out of date and too few people were being treated. Years of chronic Tory underinvestment in the NHS had taken their toll.

There is still much to do but record levels of investment is bringing about real improvements.

Challenges ahead

There is still a lot to do. Here are some of the government's targets:

Investing in Education

Education is central to Labour's mission to deliver social justice and equality of opportunity. Learning delivers self-fulfilment, social mobility and greater employment opportunities.

Record levels of investment has led to remarkable progress so far with standards up across the board including the best ever primary school results. There are more teachers in schools than at any point in last twenty years.

There is still a lot to be done, but here are some of the achievements so far:

Ensuring full employment and a successful economy

Labour's objective is to build a stronger economy and a fairer society, with opportunity and security for all. Labour's long term goal is to deliver world-class public services through investment and reform and high and stable levels of growth and employment.

Challenges ahead

Long term economic stability with rising living standards for all. By 2010, Labour's goal is to have the fastest growing productivity and thus prosperity of our main competitors.


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Last updated 2004-09-30
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